Did you know there was a site that archives web pages? It obviously cannot get them all. There is an infinite amount of pages on the Internet. More are made every day. It is called the Wayback Machine. I found out about it the other day and took a look at it. I had deleted my old diva blog when I made the full switch to this one in 2010. I looked to see if any of it still survived. Yeah, a few pages from the first half of 2009 are on there. Not a lot, but you can at least see that I was talking about the diva division since then. You can go to this link to see the dates they have archived and read some of my earlier blogs. I am going to talk about a few things about my earlier diva blog.
First, a little self-critiquing. I definitely was not a great analyst of the diva division back then. I have definitely improved. There were a few things I said back then that I can now look back and wonder why I said that. I once said that Trish was used to give other women a rub and get them over? With more time to look at it and actually pay attention to which divas are truly getting over and how they are getting over, no divas ever got over because the WWE wanted them over and used Trish to get them over. Lita got over in the periphery prior to feuding with Trish. Mickie James getting over was not because the WWE wanted it. No other female wrestlers during the time Trish was there got very over. The eye-candy divas that worked with Trish didn't really need her, since it was their own sex appeal that was their main asset. And none of them really worked out as well as Trish. What is the point of giving some of these women a rub if you don't follow through properly? I think I was probably being a little too respectful towards Trish and not being realistic enough. In general, I sometimes don't like the tone I used back then. Not realistic enough. A little too much speculation at times.
I used to blog every day back then. And primarily about women's wrestling. I think it is good that I widened my subject matter and am taking a few days off a week. Don't force myself to blog. Moreover, it is good to pay attention to what happens in the men's division. Issues that exist there also exist in the women's division. Paying attention to that could have helped to sharpen my ability to read the diva division. There were a few blog entries I wrote on my old blog that might have been meaningless. Of course, the divas were my main subject, so anything related to what they were doing back then was open material.
Did I talk about Mickie James too much back then? Aside from being my favorite diva, what was going on with her was worth talking about. No one seemed to understand what was going on back then. The most over diva on the roster is not being pushed like it. Who is to blame? What is going on? Mickie James was for the women's division back then what Daniel Bryan is for the men's division in recent years. You have a man not being pushed as an A+ player that is going out there and connecting with fans better than a lot of guys meant to be ahead of him. That was the story of Mickie James. I always see people discussing Daniel Bryan. They talk about why the WWE mistreats him, whether he deserves that better career, what the WWE can do to make stars out of these other guys they actually want to push, how his fans are reacting, and so on. Not enough people were talking about this for Mickie James until it was too late.
On February 27, 2009, I talked about Mickie not being pushed as someone the WWE would want to be over and why they should want to do it. I "blamed" her for how she was being treated. I was being sarcastic. I tend to use that tone frequently. This was also the entry where I said Trish was used to get other women over, as I previously talked about. Moreover, I said that Mickie James rose the bar for the divas back then, or should have. Other divas actually have to work and step up if they want to get over and earn those better careers. Of course, the WWE was not even pushing Mickie at the time, so they didn't want to raise the bar. You can see that is obviously the case with the diva division now. The bar is so low, Eva Marie executing a dropkick properly would probably get her a standing ovation.
I would say Daniel Bryan is also a guy that raises the bar, or could be used like that. It is not enough to be pushed to be a star. You really want to get over? You have to steal it away from Daniel Bryan. If you want to be as over as him and earn the career he deserves, you have to be the kind of worker he is. You have to have the talent, you have to work hard, you have to be passionate, and you have to be something the fans love seeing. The WWE's ability to create stars has been weakened. They have not created a successful centerpiece in the diva division since Trish Stratus left. They are having issues developing Roman Reigns. Who should be blamed? How about Daniel Bryan? He can go sit in the corner with Mickie James. You can see how having someone you never intended to become that over can be a problem. This is two years in a row now that you have had a controversy around Daniel Bryan and how he is being pushed. Having someone like that just forces the WWE to work harder. They should allow their workers to work harder to compete against Daniel Bryan.
One more blog entry I want to bring up. On April 14, 2009, I talked about Mickie's 4th title reign, which she won one year prior to that. I called it a little "conspiracy theory" back then. In retrospect, I don't even like putting it that way. If you are ever going to examine what happened to Mickie James in the WWE, that fourth title reign cannot be overlooked. This is the reign that Ken Doane likes to say Mickie James slept her way to the top of and got over off of. Aside from what he says, this was the push that made it obvious to me the WWE did not want to push Mickie James as someone they wanted over.
That blog entry lacked proper historical analysis, which would have helped to support my point even more. Since the first dark age ended, the WWE never gave the title to an eye-candy diva not being pushed as centerpiece. It was one of the things that helped to keep the division respectable. Mickie James was the only face credible jobber at the time on Raw. Add in at least two more facts. First, she was already over prior to that push in 2008. Second, she was feuding with Beth Phoenix prior to Candice returning in early 2008. That feud never got a proper finish. If they had done anything else other than give Mickie James the push, it would have looked awkward and suspicious. Problem is, not handling the whole thing smoothly and killing her push when Candice Michelle would pop back up still points to something being wrong. I am glad that blog entry survived, even though I have probably brought it up again since then and argued it better.
Good to reread some of my old blogs. I wouldn't say I was wrong about everything back then, but I have gotten better. And some things definitely still hold true. Some things I once said for Mickie James years ago might apply to Daniel Bryan right now. Issues in the WWE that impact the divas also impact the men.
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