They are doing the bullying thing. I immediately got flashbacks of what they did with Mickie James against Michelle McCool. As I have pointed out numerous times, Paige is getting the type of career Mickie James had. Paige is being pushed as a credible jobber, a diva with wrestling credibility used primarily to put over the centerpiece and used for filler. I have also said that Paige has the potential to do what Mickie James did with that career and overcome it to get over. But she is not there yet. No reason for the WWE to go overboard in an attempt to bury her.
What about what this means for The Bellas? Obviously, they are meant to be the primary benefactors of this storyline. I have held off on saying Nikki is the new centerpiece. I was waiting for them to actually start booking her as they would someone like Sable or Trish. And this kind of feud going on now is that kind of treatment. This is kind of a step back. The Bellas were being pushed so strongly last year. They just seemed to have lost that momentum. Of course, this is not too different from what happened with Trish Stratus. She got some huge storylines in the main-event scene prior to being pushed as centerpiece. Pushing her as centerpiece might have seemed as a step down in some ways, but being pushed as the A+ player in the diva division is worth more than those periphery pushes. But I don't know how much this will help The Bellas. The division is inefficient and I don't think they have solidified their overness.
I also had some flashbacks to what happened just a few months ago with Paige. Because of how they were tossing the title around between Paige and AJ Lee, the feud ended up getting extended and the WWE created this angle of Alicia Fox being Paige's new best friend to make things more interesting. That angle went nowhere. The two split soon after. AJ Lee moved on to something else. Will that kind of thing happen again? Does the WWE even have the mindset to keep the ball rolling with The Bellas? The idea is that all they need is a spark to start running the diva division efficiently again. AJ Lee did not provide it. The Bellas don't seem to have provided it. These are women they have pushed to be stars that have gotten good reactions at times. Problem is, the WWE has not been able to follow through and these divas don't seem to be able to maintain their own momentum with the fans the way they should.
Who wins? I would say Nikki retains. Wrestlemania is just around the corner. Why would the WWE want Paige to hold the title heading into that? If recent history is any indicator, the WWE will just develop some kind of multi-diva match or get celebrities involved. The last singles title feud for the divas at Wrestlemania that was just between two divas and did not even include lumberjills happened in 2006. If the WWE is ready to put better focus on one diva being developed to be centerpiece, that would be one of The Bellas. They could have Nikki regain the title from Paige at Wrestlemania or drop it to Paige there just to give her a Wrestlemania moment. I am not convinced the WWE is ready to break away from the tradition of weak diva matters heading into Wrestlemania. Back to what happens at Fast Lane, if Paige has the momentum heading into the PPV, she will likely lose. If the feud seems too much on the side of The Bellas, Paige would probably win the title. Does not mean she will be pushed as a star. I will say Paige does regain some momentum and Nikki retains at Fast Lane.
What is more important than who wins? How about whether this storyline helps anyone? The bullying angle you had with Mickie and McCool was obviously meant to help a centerpiece that was failing to properly connect with the fans at the expense of a credible jobber that got over on her own. McCool could not keep a lasting connection with the fans. The only reason she got the great reactions she did get at times during that storyline was because Mickie James was there to cry for her. The Bellas are not as bad as Michelle McCool in terms of connecting with the fans. They are not A players, but they are somewhat over. Nevertheless, a diva pushed as an A+ player should get A-level results. How do you get that back for them? The bullying angle back then did not help McCool get long-term results, so I don't know why anyone should think it is a great idea to try it again. Just a lack of fresh ideas. I don't think it is helping The Bellas. I don't feel it is helping Paige too much. How about just interesting the fans in general? I don't feel the fans are that into it. It is not pushed at the level as what you had on Smackdown a few years ago. Moreover, it does not involve anyone that is very over. If it did, people would definitely be talking about it and reacting to it more. To put it simply, will this feud and storyline end up failing? There is a possibility.
I once had a conversation with a Paige fan on Twitter. I was talking about Paige getting over. He told me that Paige getting over is not something she needs to be concerned about because she's already over. I felt like bashing my head through a wall. Yeah, Paige is over. She has her fans. I like her. But she can definitely be getting better reactions from the fans and support for her could be better. Just because there are a bunch of Paige hashtags floating around Twitter does not mean she as A+ overness. You cannot just look around Twitter to determine whom is really over. The WWE probably wishes it was that easy. They can see a whole bunch of people talking about things they are doing and think those things are legitimate draws, even though other indicators would say otherwise. Paige has a lot of potential and she is being pushed in a manner from which almost no one ever gets over. She has not yet brought the results to be an A+ player, and I am not blaming her for that at all. Thing is, should she bring those results, would it be fair for the WWE to still push her as a C+ player?
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