If you just took a look at what has been going on recently in the diva division, you would see a lot of women getting storylines and getting things to do. You would think that this would be good. If you look a little closer, however, you would notice that women's wrestling is not improving in the division. What is going on?There is a lot of periphery things happening recently. Kharma, who obviously had her baby, returned to participate in the Royal Rumble match. Eve Torres has her angle with Zack Ryder continuing. AJ Lee has her angle with Daniel Bryan still going on. In all three of these, there is no real diva feud connected. Kharma was in the ring against men a few days ago. Eve is pretty much just a supporting character in the bigger storyline between Kane and Cena. I will talk more about that in a second. AJ is being used to make Daniel Bryan's heel turn more interesting. In all three situations, the involvement is more in the men's world than the women's. That is usually how periphery treatment will work. If the WWE continues to push these women in the men's world to get over(Kharma mixing it up with the men and Eve and AJ getting romance angles), then you would have periphery divas on your hands. Time will tell whether or not they do it with Eve and AJ, but I cannot imagine them centering the diva division around Kharma. They are definitely going to keep her on the side. Having her enter the Rumble was not surprising to me. Was I expecting it to happen this year? Since I did not know she had the baby yet, that part was surprising.
I want to talk more about Eve's storyline because it gives me an excuse to talk about recent title matters. Beth Phoenix, after being sidelined with an injury and being kept off Raw for about a month, had her first title defense on Raw since that injury this week. As you saw, it was against Eve. Alicia Fox was actually the last woman to pin Beth Phoenix, and injured her, but Eve gets the shot. That's fine. Obviously, it wasn't even about furthering diva matters properly. Eve vs. Beth Phoenix was the last match on the show. Such an honor? No, not really. Look at how it went. It didn't even last a minute. I know, the story was that Eve was distracted by Zack Ryder's recent drama, so she couldn't handle herself emotionally. That's kayfabe. That's the storyline. The reality of the situation is what I do not like. Look at what happened in the earlier squash match with Brodus Clay winning. I think that match actually lasted a few seconds longer, but that is not even my point. What happened after Brodus won? He danced. He celebrated. Focus still on him. What happened after Beth Phoenix won? Out the ring. Time for Kane. Focus no longer on Beth. For the moment, it was still only about Eve. That quickly turned into Kane/Cena. That is my major issue. It isn't even so much that the match was so short and not interesting. It was that the match was completely overshadowed by something the WWE obviously cared more about. A Diva's Championship match was basically used as just a means to set up Cena brawling with Kane. You can say that the women will benefit from this, but Eve actually stands to benefit from all this than Beth. I can picture fans connecting with Eve's character. Beth is being used in a boring way. At the end of the day, it's still all for Cena at the moment.
There is something going on right now on Smackdown that I want to talk about. No, not AJ. Natalya. If you watched last week and this week, you know what I mean. I don't even want to say it. You want to talk about crass? What they are doing with Natalya isn't even crazy and fun. It is not intriguing and exciting. It doesn't draw me, unlike a certain other act involving a diva that Vince McMahon did say was crass. Natalya is being humiliated. Is it necessary? I don't care if this is supposed to lead to a split between Beth and Natalya, there are more entertaining or respectful ways to do it. Some people can say that humiliation happens in pro wrestling, so don't take it too seriously. Nevertheless, there are some forms of it that are not entertaining and disgust your fans. Moreover, you have to think about why it is even being done. Let me talk about the two biggest instances of diva humiliation. You have Vince McMahon forcing Trish Stratus to strip and bark like a dog, and Michelle McCool making Mickie James cry by calling her fat. The main thing I want to bring up in comparing these two right now is what the WWE was trying to accomplish. How were they going about it? Starting with the segment in 2001, this was part of an elaborate, main-event storyline that Trish Stratus was getting. Trish was not there simply to help Vince look like a good heel. Vince doesn't need that kind of help. But Trish Stratus turned face for the first time through this storyline. How many women can say they turned face in a storyline involving Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, Triple H, and other top names? They had Trish Stratus stand up for herself. This happened in the first quarter of 2001. By the end of 2001, Trish was holding her first Women's Championship. She was the centerpiece. You know the rest. And Mickie James? Why was she humiliated? She wasn't exactly in there against someone able to gain their own heat well. Michelle McCool was quite the opposite. But McCool got the best heat of her career while Mickie was there to put her over. And that was the point. The WWE never really did anything to properly sell the idea that Mickie James was not fat. They never even had McCool stop bullying her after Mickie won the Women's Championship. And you know what came after that. While the WWE continued to develop an epic career for Trish Stratus after her humiliation against Vince, the WWE tossed Mickie James aside after using her for McCool's benefit. Back to Natalya. This humiliation obviously will not benefit her. What makes it even more stupid is that they are not even using her for the benefit of some other diva. It's just plain stupid.
The last thing to talk about? Where's your centerpiece? Kelly Kelly? Is she still the centerpiece? She sure isn't being treated like it. I still can't tell why. Bad driving? That would be stupid. She obviously did not have the solid in-ring ability as other centerpieces, but I don't think she had flopped yet. She was over, but not all the wrestling fans were buying into her. This all could still be a rest period. But if they have given up on her, don't plan to push Layla as centerpiece, and don't have any other option on the horizon, then you will definitely be having a period like you did right after Sable left. Periphery diva storylines and usage was very common back then. Already showing signs of that now.
The promise I made myself is that I would stop writing a pro wrestling blog when I see the WWE diva division end. Meaning, I want to see them stop pushing models as the best wrestlers in the world at the expense of real wrestlers. If you look at the division right now, would you say there is improvement? As I said before, more women are getting used well. However, match quality is not improving. There may be no model centerpiece currently, but this has happened before. The WWE can very well coast the division like this until they have chosen a new centerpiece, assuming Kelly Kelly is no longer it, and developed that new woman. And the cycle will continue. All that being said, I don't think I will be retiring from this blog in the near future.
No comments:
Post a Comment