Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Previewing The Diva Matches For Fastlane 2016

This is one of those rare times where there will be 2 diva matches at a WWE PPV. Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks team up to take on Naomi and Tamina, while Charlotte defends the Diva's Championship against Brie Bella.

The tag match is pretty straightforward. Sasha Banks turned face and split from her stable. This is the customary feud you would expect to see. Faces win.

Some people were ready to say Becky Lynch was buried after the Royal Rumble. She lost to Charlotte, then Sasha Banks popped up and made her intentions clear that she wanted the title. What followed was Sasha turning face and eventually finding an ally in Becky. I have said before that the WWE could develop an elaborate storyline for Becky Lynch against Charlotte. They aren't doing it. Even if they do go back to that feud, it has lost some of its heat. Instead of Becky being that determined to prove herself and get revenge on her former friend, she's teaming with Sasha Banks while Charlotte is busy with something else. If they wanted to make this elaborate, they would have Becky still remain on the fringes of Charlotte's current feud, not plug her into Sasha's feud against Naomi and Tamina. Regardless, I would not say she is buried. There are some women in the division that don't even have as much to do as Becky currently has.

Onto Charlotte. She has Brie Bella. This is another feud that isn't too intriguing, in terms of how it has been built. But there are those rumors going around that Brie Bella will retire. That might make the winner of this title match obvious. Charlotte retains. Of course, The Bellas are no strangers to getting a short title reign prior to leaving the WWE. It happened with Nikki years ago. Moreover, there were rumors of AJ Lee leaving the WWE back in 2014. She went on to still get another title reign, take more time off, come back for another Wrestlemania win, and then seemed to pull the rug out from under the WWE by retiring soon after that. There certainly would have been some angle if the WWE knew she was retiring in advance. Point is, a lot of things can happen, despite these rumors. I will say Charlotte retains, but a title change here would not be shocking.

Let's assume Brie Bella is leaving. Nikki Bella has been out with an injury and her in-ring career may be done. The WWE really has no stars in the diva division. Before anyone bites my head off, I am not saying there are no women with talent. I am not saying they have no fans. I am saying no one really has A-tier overness. I am saying there is no centerpiece right now. I am saying AJ Lee, the WWE's top periphery diva, retired last year and the WWE never got around to replacing her. I am saying the eye-candy periphery divas that are around aren't featured very well. I am saying that what you are pretty much left with are a bunch of credible jobbers that made a lot of noise in NXT, and some of that overness is carrying over in some cases, but none of them are really stealing the show. Moreover, the WWE cannot make the mistake of thinking that these women are really over just because of NXT fans or fans complaining on Twitter for better matches. Even if both Bellas were here and good to go, that would not fix the WWE's problems.

I do not think the WWE needs to immediately debut anyone from NXT to fill the void Brie Bella might leave. Keep in mind that the WWE debuted three women in one night a few months ago. That left them with more women than they could properly handle. It's probably a good thing to let some women go to become more efficient with the women they do have. After they do that, then worry about debuting more women.

How about that centerpiece position? Charlotte is definitely not a good long-term option. I doubt the WWE is ready to put an end to the status quo of the diva division. You can look at how they have stuck with Roman Reigns to get the idea that they will not give up easily on something they want to work. The status quo of the diva division has existed before Roman Reigns even joined the WWE. Some might say it has flopped even worse than Roman Reigns, but the WWE will probably still be just as stubborn with it. If the WWE is moving on from Nikki Bella and still want an eye-candy centerpiece, I can imagine them either going to Summer Rae, going to NXT for someone like Alexa Bliss, or try to bring back a former eye-candy diva, like Eve Torres.

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