First, compare this time of year to the same time last year. January 2013 was when the WWE's last attempt to create a centerpiece did not work out. Eve left them prior to getting as over as a centerpiece should be. The WWE then pushed Kaitlyn as interim centerpiece. But the reason one year ago was not as bad as right now is that they had AJ Lee getting an interesting angle in the periphery. You had more than one thing going on. You had AJ Lee working with Dolph Ziggler, title matters, even though they were poorly developed, and The Bellas soon returned to at least start something to talk about. Right now, AJ Lee is the Diva's Champion. No diva is really getting any interesting periphery angles. Title matters are getting stale. Is the WWE planning to debut someone or have a diva return in the coming weeks? Because you have even less interesting angles going on right now than you did last year, I would say right now is worse than last year.
Let me talk about AJ Lee with the title. There is a good chance that she may beat Maryse's record for longest run with the Diva's Championship. Does it really matter? Is it helping the overall division? Is it really even helping AJ to stay looking interesting. AJ fans may love it, but I don't think this is that great. I may not be a fan of AJ Lee, but that does not mean I don't want to see her used right. If you are an AJ fan, let me ask you a question. Would you rather she get a long title reign and be treated boringly or be pushed in an entertaining manner, regardless of title reign? If you asked me that same question about Mickie James, I would definitely have chosen the latter. I remember feeling since all the way back to my diva blog prior to this one that I would like the WWE to push Mickie James a little more like Lita. Give her some great storylines alongside main-eventers. She never got one angle alongside the men that even ended properly. Now that I am more of an analyst of the diva division than I was back then, I realize it was because they were too focused on recreating an eye-candy centerpiece. That is why they didn't do that for Mickie, or any other female wrestler at that time. Moving back to AJ, she is not doing anything too interesting right now. Even her recent title feud with Natalya was not too interesting. The last thing the WWE did with her that was really interesting was that promo on Raw against the divas on Total Divas. What have they really done with her since then that is great? Is this a sign that AJ Lee is going down the path of Mickie James? I wouldn't say that. This is more of a sign that the WWE is just out of gas.
This is what you get for putting all your eggs in one basket, especially in a situation as precarious as this. Things are very bad now. They have been for years. The one woman you were pushing interestingly a year ago is being pushed mediocrely now, and you can still argue that she is getting pushed better than anyone else in the diva division right now. I think it would be best if AJ Lee lost the title. I am not against her having a long title reign. I don't care whether she loses it before or after breaking the record. But once she loses the title, because this is someone the WWE actually wants to feature, there is a good chance of her getting another angle in the periphery. While that is going on, you have someone else with the title going through opponents. It would be basically like turning back the clock to a year ago. You will still have issues in the diva division, but at least AJ Lee would be utilized better and other women might be more relevant.
And as I am writing this blog entry, I happen to stop by the message board I frequent the most and see that Kaitlyn is no longer with the WWE. Okay, I wasn't exactly prepared to talk about that now, but I guess I should. Kaitlyn was utilized as a credible jobber. After her filler run with the title, they didn't use her properly for anything. That is more depth in the diva division that is lost. Should they have treated her better? She was not amazing in the ring, but she was improving. And she was connecting well with the fans. She wasn't over enough to cause people to really scrutinize why she was not being pushed better, but the fact that she did connect as well as she did despite the mediocre treatment is worth mentioning. I would say she was one of those divas they should have pushed better to add more creative depth to the division.
How is Summer Rae doing? Of the women on the roster, she is still the best choice to eventually be pushed as centerpiece. Since her mini-feud against Natalya, she has done things here and there, but nothing huge. Fandango is also in the midst of inconsistent treatment, so Summer Rae will not benefit from any great periphery angles. But I still expect her to eventually split from Fandango and be pushed more regularly in the diva division.
With Kaitlyn gone, that might make some fans even more eager for the debut of Paige. She is a female wrestler. You look at the success AJ Lee has had and that might make you excited for Paige. Keep in mind that the WWE developed AJ Lee as a periphery diva at a time when they were giving up on the woman they were pushing as centerpiece, Kelly Kelly, and developing another woman in the periphery that went on to be the next centerpiece, Eve. They had more momentum then than now. And given their recent lack of interest to develop more than one diva properly at a time, where would it leave AJ Lee if they did want to develop Paige as a success? Unless they plan to stop running an agenda focused on eye-candy divas, and there are a lot of those women still in NXT, I don't see why the WWE would want to develop two female wrestlers as periphery divas right now. They did that kind of thing during the first dark age, but that dark age was better than this one. I cannot picture great things for Paige if she debuts. It is not that I don't want her to debut. I just do not think they will use her properly.
Let me end it the way I started. This is the worst the diva division has ever been. Respectability is not there, they are not efficient, obviously not productive, lack of depth creatively and in the roster, inability to properly push women they do want over, and I'm sure they are only five seconds from booking Jinder Mahal to win the Diva's Championship. Problems just get poured onto problems. I don't see how things can get worse. I'm sure the WWE will surprise me.
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