#GiveDivasAChance gave rise to the women's revolution in the WWE. People wanted the WWE to give the women a chance. They wanted them to treat the women better. Not surprisingly, the WWE's hatred of bad publicity led to them making some big changes since 2015.
Let me go back a little. During the period that the fan anger was building, you really had two problems. First, the problem with the diva era's identity, even during the years of Trish and Lita, was that it revolved around an eye-candy diva being centerpiece. The majority of female wrestlers were pushed as credible jobbers. They didn't get the kind of career in the periphery that Lita got. And no woman during the diva era pushed as a credible jobber ever got over and escaped to a better career. I would say any system that does not give people fair opportunities has an innate problem right there.
To make matters worse, the second problem is that it just became insanely inefficient. The WWE did not react well to years of failing to make another Trish Stratus. There were times I wondered what it would take to make the WWE motivated again. The success of AJ Lee, the best periphery diva they had since Lita, did not motivate them. Things continued to be terrible to the point that fans finally went on Twitter and destroyed the WWE. It was the inefficiency they complained about, not really the WWE's history of not giving female wrestlers fair opportunities.
The WWE responded by becoming efficient and motivated again, as well as putting better emphasis on women's wrestling. You had those three NXT women debuting in one night. The WWE got rid of the butterfly title. They dropped the term "diva" in most of the things they do. Women have been main-eventing more. They made a second women's title after the brand split. Mickie James, one of the female wrestlers that got screwed by the status quo in the diva era, was allowed to come back. There was a lot more hype and respectability to what they did.
But there were issues. For one thing, a lot of it just seemed overrated. It seemed too much. I did not think the WWE could sustain doing what they were doing, handing out so much history in such a short time. Also, a lot of fans were just not into this self-righteous atmosphere. And women that seemed so over in NXT came to the main roster and soon lost their luster. Even Mickie James, the most over diva the WWE had for a number of years, has not gotten a good reaction. Even with the WWE's improvements, they were still inefficient in a lot of ways. Depth issues is one of the reasons they have looked inefficient. Lastly, you cannot deny that there have been some horrendous botches that make you believe the WWE needed to hold these women back.
Recently, things just seem to have gotten worse. I see more and more fans asking what happened to the women's revolution. Smackdown's women's division has always been treated as the weaker division since the brand split came back. They have three women that were essentially jobbers being tossed together to form a heel stable. That has led to a multi-woman PPV match. And did that feud even deserve a contract signing at all? Over on Raw, Alexa Bliss is being treated as the queen bee. Everyone else is literally getting smacked around by her. Sasha Banks is stuck in a filler feud with Alicia Fox. Mickie James is jobbing worse than she ever has, which is obviously one of the reasons she is not as over as she used to be. Matches seem to be shorter and less impressive.
Alexa Bliss getting the push she is getting is straight out of the diva era. That's Trish Stratus. She is pushed for her looks. She is not great in the ring. Even if she improves, she got this big push in the first place because of her looks. This is the foundation that the diva era was built on. Build around a hot model-type performer that will improve as time goes on. Funny thing is, looking around, a lot of smarks love Alexa Bliss. She still has some critics and people blaming her for the demise of the women's revolution, but she does have a lot of fans. It is somewhat ironic that the WWE finally succeeded in making a new eye-candy centerpiece in an era that was supposed to be about female wrestlers.
Has the women's revolution failed? It sure is heading in the direction of failure. Whom should you blame? You can't really blame Alexa Bliss. The WWE has control over which women will get pushed and how. Question is, does the WWE have a right to do what they are doing? Are they justified off of the inability of the female wrestlers to get the job done? I started off today by saying an opportunity means putting someone in a position to succeed. If they do not do well, you have to move on. Problem is, did the WWE do a good job putting these women in a position to succeed? I am not suggesting they sabotaged things and screwed these women on purpose. But they certainly did botch things terribly at times in how they handled these women. The women have definitely not knocked it out of the park. But it comes down to whether or not they were given a fair, proper chance. If they were, they have to take the blame for things not being as they were last year. If they were not, blame the WWE.
Regardless of who is to blame, I do not think things have to be getting as bad as they seem to be getting. For one thing, Alexa Bliss should not have to be the centerpiece on Raw. She could be pushed well in the periphery. She still gets something meaningful to do, without really corrupting the respectability that was defining Raw's women's division for the past year. The legitimate female wrestlers can then work with themselves. If Emma had not gotten injured, there could have been a lot of fresh feuds with just the female wrestlers on Raw. Keep in mind there are a ton of women on the brand Mickie James has never had a legitimate feud against. As for Smackdown, stop giving every woman something to do. Create great singles feuds that also involves other women as supporting players. And let these women get some of the legitimate history that is to be had. The first chance these women had has not been great, but it might be time to think about giving them a second chance.
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