Look at the state of that diva division. The last few years have not been pretty. And yet, the WWE will not give up on it. What can possibly be their motivation for wanting it to continue? There definitely is motivation. The WWE diva division has definitely been successful. They have had successful centerpieces. Sable and Trish were successful centerpieces.
The diva division started with Sable. She was definitely over back then. I don't usually watch old segments or matches on Youtube, but I did pass by a segment involving Sable from just before I started watching wrestling regularly. They were giving her (and Sunny) an award for helping an issue of Raw magazine be the highest-selling issue ever. That's an indicator right there that sex sells. That image sells. And they ran with this woman as the first centerpiece when the diva division started. That success they had with Sable, seeing her work out as the centerpiece, is what you can say started to spoil the women's division.
If the WWE got spoiled with Sable, they got spoiled rotten with Trish Stratus. She lasted longer than Sable and was able to develop her in-ring ability even further. How many times was she Babe of the Year? Once again, shows that the image sells. The WWE was once again having success running that same diva division that started with Sable. Trish even got inducted into the Hall of Fame before Sable. After seeing how much success they were having, it is not hard to imagine why they tried to make a new centerpiece after Trish and Lita retired, not even bothering to develop a new periphery diva with a female wrestler.
And all those attempts to create a new eye-candy centerpiece failed. That raises the question, if Sable or Trish had flopped, would the WWE women's division be better today? Without that success that continues to motivate the WWE to push this same diva division and try to make it still work, would you see a better women's wrestling division right now? If the image had not sold, I think it is easy to believe the WWE would not be motivated to try to push it. To be a little more specific than that, what if the women themselves did not connect with the fans and failed in the same way as those women the WWE has attempted to develop as the new centerpiece. I am talking about getting injured too much, deteriorating wrestling ability, not being committed, and never getting the overness to match how you are being pushed. Obviously, this is just speculation. You can't know for sure what the WWE would have done. If Sable had flopped as centerpiece, I believe you would have had a good chance of the WWE not bothering to continue to push the diva division. They might have went back to pushing female wrestlers to be the top stars of the actual women's wrestling division. They liked what they had with Sable and continued it with Trish. If she had not worked out? I can't answer that one. No opinion there. I think it could really go either way. They had a number of female wrestlers on the roster at the time to still continue running a respectable women's division and make a star out of one of them, possibly Lita. On the other side of that, they started doing Diva Searches during Trish's run as centerpiece. Had Trish started to not work out, they could just wait for one of those eye-candy divas to get solid in the ring and develop her to be the centerpiece. No matter what, having more failed centerpieces than successful ones has not motivated the WWE to give up the diva division.
Let me throw a wild card into the discussion. What if a female wrestler accomplished what Mickie James did back when Sable or Trish started out? What fans don't realize, Mickie James was a credible jobber who got over on her own at the time when centerpieces were failing. They never stopped pushing her as a jobber to the centerpiece and interim centerpiece. Would things have been different for a female wrestler who accomplished this at a time the WWE was less spoiled with their diva division desires? If a woman accomplished this when Sable was the centerpiece, I think the WWE would have been more open to giving her the better career that she was earning. I would like to believe the WWE would have a more open mind back then. Moreover, the company was hotter back then. They had a better midcard, which would lead to periphery divas featured better. Things being so much better back then is what made the first dark age not as painful as the current one. And if this happened when Trish was centerpiece? I am talking about earlier in her centerpiece run. Mickie James obviously debuted during Trish's end of her centerpiece run. Once again, I have no real answer there. If the WWE was really eager to build a new eye-candy centerpiece after what they had with Sable, a female wrestler they are using to put over Trish may become a nuisance if she started getting over. All these years of failure sure are not making it easier for credible jobbers to succeed.
I am not trying to say that Trish and Sable should not have succeeded or did not deserve their success. The whole point of this post was just to talk about what can be the WWE's motivation for keeping the diva division going like this. And they definitely have had success with the diva division to be motivated. It is not really so much these two women that have spoiled the WWE, but the success of these two women. It is the success the WWE have had with these women. I don't blame these women. It is up to the WWE to see what the problem is and try to fix it. They are to blame for not moving on from that success they had in the past. It is not leading to success now. They are spoiled.
Speaking of Mickie James, I came across an article from Bleacher Report last week that said Mickie James has flopped in TNA. Really? The writer talks about how poorly Mickie James has been used. Fans were eager to see her join TNA, then no one cared a couple weeks later. She has been overlooked for Velvet Sky, Gail Kim, and Tara. I'm not even going to post the link to the article. Search the subterranean depths of Google, if you care to read it. I don't recommend telling a teacher something like that when she asks you to cite your source.
First of all, Mickie's TNA career isn't even over yet. Second, about a year and a half ago, there was a report that Mickie James was the most searched female wrestler on Google in 2011. She accomplished that while in TNA. That is an indicator right there that Mickie James has drawn interest in TNA. How can anyone read that report and make the general conclusion that no one cared about Mickie James a few weeks after she joined TNA. She joined in 2010, people stopped caring by the end of the year, and she still had enough people interested in her in 2011 to look her up and see what's happening with her? If you can get fans to be interested in you like that, despite the mediocre treatment, you are not a flop. She has delivered for TNA. Third, even though I would be the first to say that booking accomplishments are not what it is about in pro wrestling, Mickie James accomplished things in TNA that the WWE would never allow her to have. They would never have booked a credible jobber to win as many title reigns as Trish Stratus. Mickie James has now held 9 major women's titles. Yeah, in case you missed it, she won the TNA Knockouts title again. She has also held the WWE Women's Championship, Diva's Championship, and TNA Knockouts Championship. The only woman to do that. That is going to be her legacy. That is something for her and her fans to be proud of. If she had not come to TNA and done that, what would her legacy have ended up being? Lastly, why should you criticize Mickie James as a flop in TNA when rotating women like this is just how TNA does things? They rotate everything in and out. What looks like a huge success one moment will look like a flop in a short time. I don't remember Gail Kim having any angles while Brooke Tessmacher was feuding with Madison Rayne and Tara. Recently, Gail has just been used to put over other women, who will most likely be rotated out themselves in a while. Where is Brooke Tessmacher right now? Mickie James is a flop because she is being treated like pretty much all the other women in that KO division? I don't think so.
I always say that a wrestler's job isn't to get me to like him or live up to my standards. Their job is to connect with their audience as best as they can. That is the best way to become an asset to the company. If they can't do that, they should try to make other talent look good that can get the job done and support the company in other ways. That writer who wrote that article obviously has standards I don't agree with. Yes, if you look at how TNA is using Mickie James, it would be easy to say Mickie James has flopped. The fact is, this woman was not supposed to succeed in the WWE in the first place. After that, she had a career where she should have flopped. And she still maintained the overness. In TNA, she has succeeded in drawing interest for the company and has created a title legacy for herself. I will not deny that this woman deserves better, but she has made use of her opportunities to still accomplish things. In the end, I once said that TNA appreciates Mickie James more than the WWE. I still stand by that. The problem is, TNA also cares about several other women in the same way. Unlike the WWE, you can say TNA won't get "spoiled" on anyone.
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