I have compared credible jobbers in the diva division to positions on a football team before. These are the women with wrestling credibility not being pushed to be the stars that are used to put over the stars or being used as filler. From the time the diva division started to where we are today, no woman pushed in this manner has ever gotten over and moved on to a better position in the diva division. The most over diva to be pushed in this manner was Mickie James, who was even more over than the women they attempted to develop to be the new centerpiece after Trish Stratus. To say that credible jobbers are the "offensive line" of the diva division might be the best analogy to football to describe the role these women have in the diva division.
When you go back to the golden age you had with Trish and Lita, those two women might just get too much of the credit. Add Finlay to that list of those that get too much credit. I am not saying they did nothing and lacked talent. They are all great workers that had a hand in making things efficient and productive. But there are two other things you should also credit. Credit the WWE for running things more efficiently than they have in recent years. They made the right decisions. Problem is, their overall agenda is not one of efficiency and putting all their workers in a position to succeed to give the fans what they want. As the diva division stopped working the way they wanted it to, they started making bad decisions, started to lose interest, and have allowed things to collapse. The other thing you should credit for the success of the diva division back then was the credible jobbers. Wrestling fans respect them. They got thanked when Trish and Lita got inducted in the Hall of Fame. But I wonder if fans really understand how women like that helped the diva division to be golden back then. These days, eye-candy divas that become solid in the ring are being used to serve the purposes that those women with better wrestling credibility served back then. Even though these eye-candy divas have potential, matches are still not regularly as respectable as they were back then. Moreover, the WWE does not always show that they have confidence in these women. Divas get less time in the ring these days.
Which credible jobbers would I say made up the "Great Wall" you had during the golden age with Trish and Lita? Jazz, Molly Holly, Victoria, Jacqueline, and Ivory. All these women have held the Women's Championship at least twice during their runs in the WWE. None of them were pushed as centerpiece or had a rich career in the periphery. Ivory was interim centerpiece during the first dark age, but never touched the title again during the actual golden age. Jacqueline held the Cruiserweight Championship, but soon found herself in TNA not too long after that. All these women were rotated around, working with Trish and Lita, as well as facing themselves. All these women were solid in the ring. In terms of overness, none of them went beyond a B-tier connection with the fans. If these women were not there, could you imagine the diva division? Lita would still be getting her periphery angles. Would she be more likely to get injured working with inexperienced eye-candy performers? Would she be more likely to injure them? How great would Trish Stratus look without them? Would she be the greatest diva of a crappy women's division? Depth started to be an issue during the end of that golden age. Victoria was at one time the only credible jobber on Raw. No one ever really complains about the last year or two of Trish and Lita's time in the WWE, but issues that have led to the collapse you now have were starting even then. The "Great Wall" was falling apart and the WWE was not doing too much to maintain it.
People might act like Trish, Lita, and Finlay controlled the diva division. The system being run then was the same system being run when the diva division started. You had Sable as the centerpiece and Chyna as the top periphery diva. Who was your offensive line? Jacqueline, Ivory, Luna, and Tori. What are the odds that Lita would have been a credible jobber and the fifth woman in that line if Sable was still there when she debuted? But Sable left. And the dark age came. If Sable had not left, do I think they could have gotten a golden age out of her and those other divas back then? I think so. Sable was becoming solid in the ring. She had some solid credible jobbers around her. Chyna was a unique character.
I talked about the golden age. I talked about what you had prior to the golden age. How about the stuff you have going on since the golden age? Depth has been horrible. During the brand split, there was a time when you had only one face credible jobber and centerpieces failing to work out on Raw. Smackdown also had some horrible depth issues. What kind of diva division can you run with only two or three credible jobbers overall? Things are going to get stale fast. Injuries will also screw you over. When they ended the brand split, you would think that would make things easier. Depth is still an issue. After Beth Phoenix left, they arguably didn't get around to filling her void until Paige came along this year. And her and Natalya are pretty much it for your traditional credible jobbers. Aside from them, you have eye-candy divas being used to serve those purposes. That is a weak offensive line. AJ Lee is not a part of that. She is a periphery diva. That is like being the running back. No centerpiece right now. No quarterback. The WWE is one-dimensional right now. And it is hurting them. And even if they do decide to start pushing someone as centerpiece, they do not have the supporting players to help that woman really work out and get this division golden again.
That is the kind of system the WWE runs. I do not agree with it, but that is what they do. Those women being pushed as credible jobbers do not get a fair chance to get over and earn that better career. Can you imagine an offensive-lineman stealing the starting quarterback's job? How can he? They play different positions! But in that diva division, you would think that women with wrestling credibility that have not been pushed as eye-candy periphery divas would get a fair shot to earn a career the WWE wants to give to eye-candy periphery divas that develop wrestling credibility after already debuting. If they had given Mickie James that type of career she earned, that diva division would probably not have fallen to pieces. You have a centerpiece that is working out. Next, develop your periphery and credible jobbers. If you have a great quarterback, you still need a good run game and offensive line to help support him, as well as receivers.
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