Natalya Was Diva's Champ Just 3 Months Ago, Right?

Almost thought I was going to be talking about Lita being hospitalized for a drug overdose right now. If you have no idea what I am talking about, no worries. False alarm. Stupid rumor. Fake Facebook account. There is a lesson here somewhere about believing everything you read from wrestling news sites or supposed wrestlers' blogs and sites, no matter how credible they may seem, but I am going to keep this all in the back of my mind for another night.

Natalya. At the end of last year, they were feuding her against LayCool for the title. She wins the title from both of them. She goes on to win a diva tables tag match at TLC, which was supposed to be an answer to TNA having Mickie James and Tara compete in a cage match on Impact. She goes over heel Melina to retain the title. A short while after that, she loses it to face Eve. Aside from having Eve go over Natalya in the rematch on Raw, Natalya has not done much on the main brand. A few days ago on Superstars, which is now on WWE.com like Heat ended up, she lost to Maryse.

If you have read anything I have ever written about the diva division in my few years writing about it, you know this treatment of Natalya does not surprise me. If you have stumbled on my blog for the first time, I am going to explain the depush of Natalya anyway. If you stumbled along here because you were looking for Natalya pics, you are not reading anything I am writing here anyway. So why am I writing this?


Around October of last year, when Natalya's push was first starting up, I ended a blog entry talking about her by asking, and I quote, "what chances does Natalya have of real proper treatment, whether during the title feud, title reign, or anything that may come after? In the end, this may just be the rise of Natalya as a fresh new face tool." I think enough time has went by for me to assess how the WWE's treatment of Natalya has come through. I would say the title feud itself was pretty good. Yes, LayCool made fun of her, but that is the gimmick the WWE has decided to run with. Moreover, they did not have Natalya cry to put over the two as great evil heels. Just let them be annoying, childish, and hopefully as entertaining as certain heels have managed to be and get over. They did develop things pretty well.

Her actual title reign was pretty good too. It is true that her feud with Melina was the only televised successful defense she had, and that they were slowly and subtley rebuilding Eve for the title even while Natalya still had the title and had not even finished her feud with Melina as of yet, but she did get to put LayCool through a table at a PPV. Could more have been done? DEFINITELY. But I still believe it could have been possible for Natalya to start to get over, connect with those fans whose standards go beyond just needing to be a solid wrestler, through the build to her title win and some of the attention they were giving her during the reign.

I talked about the feud, I talked about the reign, and now what has come after? Superstars. No real storylines to keep her character fresh or move her up the card. Even better, she lost to Maryse. Needless to say, this is not proper treatment. Whatever overness Natalya may have been gaining during her push, it may be at risk of diminishing now. While nothing has been done to help Natalya's character look good over the last few weeks, resources have been used for Eve's benefit, and I will not even mention the Wrestlemania diva crap. I am not surprised this has happened in the least. Having the title go from face Natalya to face Eve was even more low than I thought the WWE would go. Face Natalya could have carried the title until the WWE wanted to drop it to a Bella, or whoever. It just goes to show, as long as the WWE can control the push, they can attempt to manipulate the overness. And that is what it is all about. Is this the rise of Natalya as a fresh new tool? If she does not get released, I would say it is.

Let me say a bit about Awesome Kong. First, when I compared the current state of the diva division to 1999/2000, I may have made it seem like it was all horrible. It was not that bad. It was during this period that a female wrestler debuted who the WWE did push with the storylines, rubs, and consistency to get over and stay over. If you look at how they treated her, you could tell they wanted her to stay over and helped her. You cannot say that for Natalya, not to mention a lot of other women. Point is, I am talking about Lita. However, people must realize that Lita was never pushed as a true centerpiece in the same way Trish Status or Michelle McCool have been. Lita was more on the side, on the periphery. She spent a lot of her time as a valet to the guys. Without going into her too much now, let me just say that this is a very strong possibility for how the WWE will treat Awesome Kong. She will not be treated as a true centerpiece. She does not have the look. I doubt the style and gimmick they seem to be pushing for her would make for a lot of great diva matches with the models. The only way they can push her as an effective centerpiece is to pretty much kill what makes the diva division a "diva" division. And if they were really interested in doing that, they would have done it with Mickie James. She had the overness and was able to get over against the grain of how a typical diva centerpiece does. They could have started pushing a regular women's wrestling division with her. That is not what they wanted. Aside from being pushed on the periphery, Kong may also follow in the path of Mickie James and Natalya and be used as a credible jobber. She has wrestling credibility, which is all it really takes to be a credible jobber. I think this would be a great waste of her, and I do not believe the WWE would be stupid enough to do that. Still, there is a better chance of this than having her be a true centerpiece.

Let me close by saying that Kong may or may not get a title push straight off her debut. Should it happen, that would not necessarily mean that I am wrong and that they are pushing her as a centerpiece. Without listing numerous explanations and rationales right now, let me simply point back to Natalya. After you saw her win the Diva's title from LayCool, you might have thought that made her the centerpiece. After you saw her put them through a table, you may have thought that really proved it. And when she went over Melina, a multi-time Champion, you might have made yourself believe she was the next big thing. Where is she now? She was just filling a spot. LayCool didn't need the title for the storylines they were going to get. The WWE wanted to pass the credibility accessory, the butterfly title, to Eve. And now Natalya is in a position to be a credible face jobber. That is what she is. Higher up the ladder than Gail Kim, but she is not the centerpiece. Wait a while to find out how the WWE really pushes Kong. When the title feuds end, is she going to have something to fall back on, like a Lita, or is she going to be tagging up with a model on Superstars to face Natalya and her model partner for the evening? If the major diva feud on her brand always does involve her, or if she is getting a storyline that moves her up the card while filler divas feud over the title, THEN she would be a centerpiece.