Is It Still A Dark Age?

The diva era in the WWE lasted roughly 17 years. That is the span where title matters were meant to center around eye-candy. During that era, you had different stages or periods. You had the beginning of the era. That led to the first dark age. The golden age followed. The era of failed centerpieces followed that. That led to the second dark age. And the WWE was never able to get the diva status quo out of that dark age.

This is a new era. You can't refer to this as the "new era" of the women's division forever. This is the women's revolution era. Not only is the WWE featuring the women better, but they are going to scream really loudly to make sure everyone knows it. That is, figuratively speaking. But they will mention it more than they really need to and utilize it more than they really need to for storylines. Aside from that, what stage are we in for the women's revolution era?

First, I would say we are past the beginning of this era. It started in 2015 when fans on Twitter destroyed the WWE for how they were handling the women's division. A few changes started from there. A few months after that, three respected women's wrestlers debuted from NXT in one night. A few months after that, the butterfly title, a symbol of the previous era, was dumped and "diva" became a bad word (except for Total Divas). Since then, there has been a ton of history crammed into a span of less than a year and Smackdown has its own women's title again. The general idea of what this era is about has already taken shape. No, I would not say we are still in the beginning stages.

Is it a golden age? What makes that kind of era so great, in my mind, are two things. First, efficiency. You have to be handling things smoothly and without too many mistakes. That is what puts you in a position to best be successful. Second, it has to be bringing great results. In the case of pro wrestling, which falls in the category of entertainment, it has to be popular. That doesn't mean everyone loves it. You will always have some people disliking what is going on, whether for a good reason or not. But are the majority of fans loving it?

Look at the golden age of the diva era. A lot of people praise this era for the wrestling quality. For the most part, the WWE had a good group of credible jobbers to help create a strong foundation and be efficient. And the booking was pretty good. Beyond that, it was a popular era, and not just with wrestling fans. Some of these wrestling fans seem to forget that this era featured the dreaded Bra & Panties matches and other matches and segments that they would riot for if the WWE tried it today. Not only did you have an era that wrestling fans could enjoy, but fans drawn to the fun diva-related angles could have things that they could enjoy.

Look at the current product in the women's revolution era. Is this the best you can imagine for this new era? I don't think so. They are not efficient. On Raw, they have been rolling with a centerpiece that is not connecting properly with the fans to deserve her monster push. Doing this kind of thing was something you saw in the era of failed centerpieces. On Smackdown, they don't even seem to have a centerpiece at all. They just juggle attention around numerous women. And they do not have the depth to properly do what they are doing. As far as how popular this era is, yes, there are fans loving what is going on, but there are also fans that just don't care for it or even dislike it. I have seen fans that wanted change even critical of some of the things going on. All of these women coming out of NXT seem to lose their luster on the main roster. The WWE is trying hard to hype these women and what is going on in the division, but it doesn't have that wide entertainment value.

Is it a dark age? Just look at what I said about the golden age and consider the opposite. That is what a dark age is. And I would say that is what you have. Raw and Smackdown seem to have two different agendas going on, and neither one is as efficient as it should be. No woman is as over as she should be, and the WWE is to blame in most cases for their sloppy booking. And the overall atmosphere they have created is not as popular as it should be to warrant the WWE continuing to hype it so much. It is abrasive. It is as polarizing as John Cena. Some fans love what is going on, but there are also a lot annoyed by it.

Part of the problem is that this era was born from a dark age. That is not shocking. From the death of one era comes the birth of a new era. But the WWE never got around to really fixing their efficiency problems. In fact, the whole company was really in a funk. To make matters worse, they decided to do a brand split, crippling the roster even more.

Another reason this era is not yet as great as it could be is that it is too much hype. Everything is history. They did a dual contract signing on Smackdown two weeks ago and hyped that as history. Really? That was just dumb. Yes, it is good that the WWE wants to treat the women better, but don't harp on it like this. The WWE obviously didn't do all this because they genuinely care. They did it because they were pressured to do it and continue to hype it like this more out of ego than trying to be smart. You can treat these women better without making a theme out of it. It is one of the reasons some people have soured on what is going on.

Will this dark age give birth to a golden age like the first dark age of the diva era did? Not if the WWE doesn't smarten up. You need proper depth in both divisions, if they insist on continuing the brand split. You need to handle these women smarter. You can't feature everyone prominently. Some people will get the short end of the stick. They need to change the overall atmosphere of the division. Less bitterness. Less hype. Less self-righteousness. Let the wrestling speak for itself, but come up with storylines and feuds that allow these women to show entertaining characters. You will have good wrestling going on to please wrestling fans and entertaining characters being featured to please the wider audience. That will produce results. You will have a women's division that is efficient and has appeal to a majority of your fans. And that's a golden age.