How do you relate the concept of a "melting pot" to the diva division? It's not about a difference of race, nationality, religion, or anything like that. It comes down to a difference of background. Are you a trained wrestler or are you some kind of eye-candy diva? Do they debut you because you have wrestling experience or because you have this glamorous look. You sometimes have non-wrestlers, like Vickie Guerrero, but that is an extreme minority. You are either a female wrestler or an eye-candy diva. What would it mean for this women's division to be a melting pot? Give the eye-candy divas a fair chance to become solid wrestlers. Give the female wrestlers a fair chance to go out there and be like those glamorous divas. Give them all a fair opportunity to succeed and keep track of how they are succeeding. Push these women in the proper positions to keep the division efficient and productive.
Is the diva division actually a melting pot? Is the agenda that makes the diva division what it is a "melting pot" agenda? I would say it is not. The whole premise of the diva division is that an eye-candy diva will hold the top spot. That kind of woman will be the centerpiece. The majority of female wrestlers get used as credible jobbers. A small minority of them have gotten great careers in the periphery in the 16 years the diva division has existed. And eye-candy divas outside of the centerpiece get pushed rather well in comparison to the female wrestlers pushed as credible jobbers. They may not win titles, but they become more over than the credible jobbers. Overness is more important than title reigns. Being treated as someone they want over is more important than whether or not you are holding a title.
Of course, everything I have said pertains to the diva division when it is working the way it is supposed to. The first dark age was the closest thing to a "melting pot" era in the diva division you'll ever see. No centerpiece. Periphery angles were all over the place, going to both female wrestlers and eye-candy divas. I sometimes like to think of those years as a "periphery soup". What brought about the end of that golden age you had with Trish and Lita was the WWE no longer able to get their eye-candy centerpieces to work. Failure mounted upon failure to bring you this current dark age. You can argue that this current dark age is a melting pot. I wouldn't. No centerpiece. You have both eye-candy divas and female wrestlers being used inefficiently. In that respect, you can make the argument that things have melted together. Problem is, there is no pot. All you have is a mess.
TNA's women's division is more of a melting pot, in regards to differentiating between eye-candy women and female wrestlers. Knockouts like Brooke Tessmacher and Velvet Sky have had success, but so have female wrestlers like Gail Kim and ODB. No one type is pushed too much better than the rest. And they are treated as equals. Problem is, TNA does not do a proper job developing anyone in that division to be stars. Giving all these women fair opportunities to succeed is great, but none of them ever prove that they can do the job better than the rest to deserve to be pushed as the centerpiece? Does TNA even know how to push a star? A woman can earn a great career and not get it.
Why bring up this idea of a melting pot? Because I think a lot of fans take it for granted that the diva division is a melting pot. They take it for granted that all these women are getting fair opportunities to succeed and earn better careers. I don't think they even consider that those better careers don't come in one flavor. During the first dark age, Trish and Lita were equals. They were periphery divas. When things got golden, the two top divas were not equals. The WWE was developing the division around one woman, while the other was getting angles regularly and primarily in the men's division. Female wrestlers do not get to be the centerpiece in the diva division. For years, they never even bothered creating another Lita after she left. Their priority, not surprisingly, was creating another Trish. The whole concept of the diva division is not to melt these women together and give them all a fair chance as if they were equals. Water and oil don't mix in this division. And as that agenda has failed, things have gotten worse for everyone.
Let me talk about current affairs in the diva division briefly. I said that if they would give Paige the kind of freedom they have given AJ Lee, she would be amazing. What does the WWE do? They give that kind of freedom to Alicia Fox. Not surprisingly, a lot of people are now talking about Alicia Fox like she's the greatest diva on the roster. Just goes to show, in a lot of instances, it all comes down to how you are being pushed. What are you being allowed to do? Will they be consistent with you? Will they be consistent with Alicia Fox? She has been treated as a credible jobber for years now. Honestly, I cannot even remember the last time she was relevant in singles matters. She'll cause some buzz. If she does get a title feud, it would be good for them to finally develop something more for Paige. But this whole idea that all the divas hate Paige, that is too similar to AJ Lee having to defend the title against all the divas a few weeks ago. A little more creative thought would be nice. And looking back at that match on Raw, Paige got a good reaction. What is with these reports that she wasn't connecting well with fans? It's a miracle she is even getting those reactions. She just debuted and has not been pushed very interestingly.
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