State Of The WWE Women's Division: August 2017

This will be the last one of these I do. Why not post a pic of my favorite singer? The big developments this month all involve the titles. Both titles on the main roster changed hands. Even the women's title in NXT had to be given up due to injury, although I will not talk too much about NXT.

Just in general, I do not have a problem with either Sasha Banks or Natalya getting title reigns. They are solid in-ring workers that deserved to eventually get them. I just would not have had either woman win it at Summerslam. In the case of Sasha Banks, her feud with Alexa Bliss was just rushed and poorly developed. I would have given her the title after a few weeks of proper build. In the case of Natalya, this should not have been her time at all. There were women that could have made for a better, bigger feud with Naomi at the biggest WWE PPV of the summer. The WWE even did a poor job building the feud to help Natalya look better. Are these writers even here to come up with creative ideas? Or are they just game managers that just put the women out there?

Let me talk about some of these other women outside the title picture. I will start with Smackdown. Becky Lynch and Charlotte are not being utilized right. These are two inaugural titleholders. They sure do not look like it. I would be the first to say Charlotte was overpushed and does not look like she deserves to be centerpiece, but you cannot just put all that work into her and drop the ball so easily on her. At the very least, she can be used to put over other women in properly-built feuds. Becky Lynch is someone I feel has more potential to be the centerpiece, but she is also just floating around.

I have seen some fans ask why Tamina is being pushed. Is she being pushed? You don't need to be in the title picture to be pushed, but is what Tamina is getting even a push? She has that storyline with Lana. Who is even supposed to be the benefactor there? Smackdown has done a terrible job putting focus on individual women since it became its own brand again. Becky Lynch had no proper focus on her prior to winning the title. I just brought up Natalya. Their idea of giving Naomi focus is just having her steamroll Alexa Bliss, despite her injury issues. Where is the proper creative development? I don't even know what to make out of this storyline Tamina and Lana are getting. Given Smackdown's history of tossing the title around, including rumors that Eva Marie was supposed to get a title reign, either one of these two women could get a title run. And neither of them deserves it. Outside of that, what is the payoff of this angle? They turn on each other? Not too interesting.

Carmella still has the briefcase and is hovering with it. I think she will win the title. And she should. Start the women's briefcase on a good foot. The WWE already failed to do that with the Ellsworth fiasco, but the WWE can avoid other mistakes going forward. Will Carmella cashing in on Natalya be a big deal? Maybe they should wait for a new face to win the title and Carmella cashes in on her. That could be either Becky Lynch or Charlotte. Naomi should not get the title back anytime soon. One thing that would be nice is to just have Carmella take a step back from trying to cash in. Let Natalya and Naomi, and whomever else, have a proper feud between themselves. Let Carmella feud with one of the other faces right now. Not only will that be good for Carmella, but it gives another woman something meaningful to do. You look at the men that have won the briefcase over years. They were not always this plastered to the title scene from the moment they got the briefcase to when they cashed in. They had other feuds. Do that with Carmella. Right now, the story being Carmella wants to cash in is just too easy.

Let me just say something general about the way Smackdown does things. I see a lot of fans giving Smackdown praise for giving all the women things to do. There are various reasons why it is not good, like an injury here and there possibly messing things up a lot. But let me bring up another. Just because these women have something to do does not mean they have something meaningful to do. It is like going to school, finding out the teacher is absent, and the substitute gives you busy work because the regular work plan was not left. Are the students getting something to do? Yes. Are they getting something meaningful to do? No. These women on Smackdown might be getting used regularly, but a lot of these feuds and storylines are just terrible. There is a lot of underutilized women. The writers are not really creating greatness. They are just sticking women in situations and having them work. They need to do more for these women. All the multi-women matches Smackdown has gone to far too much in the past year is an example of that laziness.

Onto Raw. Outside of the title feud, what is there really to talk about? Not much. Emma is getting an angle, though. She is getting TV time and is getting focus. Yeah, she is losing, but it is not unusual for these kind of angles to end in title reigns. The WWE should keep the title on Sasha Banks and have her defend it against Emma, and eventually drop it to her. That should quiet the fans complaining about Emma not getting a chance. There was a time when I would agree with them. But looking at Emma getting time recently, even if losing, that is better than what some people are getting. The fact is, Emma is getting a chance. If she has really won fans over like the people on Twitter might make you believe, have the live audiences roar for her. Have them regularly chant for her during other women's segments. Make her the female Daniel Bryan. The WWE is actually putting her out there for it to happen. Is she going to step up and get more over? Or is she just going to rest on her Internet popularity and give the WWE a reason to not follow up with her?

Mickie James has been seeing a little more TV time in the last month, since Bayley got injured. If Bayley had not gotten injured, I do not think Mickie James would have gotten what usage she has gotten. Bayley would be tied up with Alexa Bliss. Sasha Banks is the next priority in Raw's women's division. They would have found something for her. Maybe she would be the one working against Emma. Emma has just been going between losing to Mickie James and Nia Jax on Raw recently. Dana Brooke is obviously not good enough to push as priority above Sasha Banks or Bayley. Mickie James still lacks a legitimate storyline, but she is still around.

And what about Nia Jax? As far as I am concerned, she is still on probation. If she cannot keep it safe for at least the rest of the year, she should be fired. She is not a great worker. She currently does not have a proper feud. Should it be against Mickie James? Or does the WWE want to keep some women open to continue the angle involving Emma? Regardless, she will get TV time. I just hope she keeps it safe in the ring.

Outside of how the women are being utilized, how are the fans reacting to them? I think there is a problem. Everyone knows about the bad reactions Bayley would get. Even Sasha Banks has experienced a negative reaction at times. Is that just the Brooklyn audience? I am from Brooklyn, so I know how bad they can be. The Four Horsewomen, the NXT elite, all look bad right now. The two on Smackdown are not doing anything important. One of the two on Raw is injured, and has issues connecting with the fans. The other one got the title in a poor feud, and her own overness is in question. I remember getting my head bit off when I said these women were not that over. They were treated like automatic legends in NXT, but the main roster is something else. And it is not just them. All the women can be doing better.

Is it just the smarks? Smarks love heels. But the answer cannot be to just turn Sasha Banks heel. Heels do that edgy stuff that smarks typically love, but there will still be some fans that will not care.

I will say the issue is the women's revolution. It was fine when it first started and even last year. But it is time to stop talking about it and basing so many feuds and segments off of that. It is great that you are going to treat the women better, but stop talking about it. It is abrasive. Moreover, you might start wondering why you need to promote your good deeds so much. Is it just for the sake of your own ego? When Stephanie McMahon was plugged too much into the women's revolution the year it started, it definitely looked like an ego thing. Are you exploiting the situation? The WWE is definitely exploiting it in terms of promoting it and stroylines. Is this really a draw?

It is just not entertaining. TNA could run a respectable women's division without promoting too much that it was respectable. Did they promote it now and then and even use it for the sake of angles? Yes, but they did other things, as well, and did not do as terrible a job with it as the WWE. This is the reason some women like Lana and Alexa Bliss have gotten better reactions during the women's revolution era than you might think they should have. They are actually entertaining the audience, while these female wrestlers are doing their self-righteous screaming. The WWE needs to step back and make things fun again.

Look at the NFL. Last year, they had a dip in the ratings. Of the many reasons given, including it being an election year, some people said the NFL was just not fun anymore. Too many flags. Players were penalized for having fun out there and putting emotion into what they did. What has the NFL done this year? They are being less strict with touchdown celebrations. Players will have more freedom to enjoy themselves. It remains to be seen if viewership will increase for them, but this decision should bring some fun back into the game.

And that is exactly my point. The NFL realized that they should not stifle the enjoyment. That enjoyment is contagious. If players are having fun, that energizes the audience, both the live audience and the viewers at home. How about the WWE starts realizing that? Be fun again. Stop with the feminist screaming. I believe women should be treated fairly and equally, but making that the theme of the women's division is not fun. That is why some fans are dead for what is going on, or even completely sour for what is going on. The writers need to step up and create storylines that are more enjoyable. Enough of the complaining. The WWE will not be having women in their bra and thongs running around, but that does not mean they should not occasionally do some of the fun things that women used to do in the diva era. Face it, the diva era is not completely dead. Alexa Bliss holding the title was pretty much a throwback to Trish Stratus in the diva era. The WWE does not have one woman that is connecting with fans at an A+ level. I think some of these women have potential to be that great, but they need to step up and the WWE needs to do a better job pushing them. And, needless to say, certain arrogant fans need to give things a chance. Maybe the WWE will never be able to fix the problem. Some fans are just terrible.

Previewing The Battleground 2017 Women's Match

 

There just comes a point where you get sick of complaining about the same thing. I have frequently criticized Smackdown for having too many multi-woman matches at PPVs. They fail to properly develop good personal feuds a lot of the time, especially for the big PPVs since the brand split came back. Recently, there have been a couple Smackdown PPVs in a row to feature multi-women matches.

I saw a dirtsheet report in the past week mention that the WWE is doing a ton of multi-person matches because it is just convenient for the writers and they believe it gives everyone heat with everyone else, or something along those lines. Did you really need a dirtsheet report to know the writers were being lazy? Even then, I would not say it is that bad. Most of the PPV main events are still singles matches. Even other title matches outside the main event are mostly singles matches. It is a little annoying how they frequently toss everyone together for the sake of finding #1 contenders, but even that isn't done all the time. But this issue with the Smackdown women's division is really annoying.

Battleground will not be anything new. Five women compete to find out who faces Naomi at Summerslam. If there is any silver lining, it is that this match will lead to a singles match at a big PPV. Even then, that does not kill the bad habit. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte vs. Lana vs. Natalya vs. Tamina. I don't think there are any fresh, smooth options here.

Naomi is a face, so it might make you wonder if they would really let Becky Lynch or Charlotte win. Would a face vs. face feud really be interesting? Would they turn someone heel just for the sake of this feud? Even then, you have a heel, Carmella, looming with the briefcase. Neither Becky nor Charlotte would make for a smooth feud.

Would Natalya vs. Naomi be considered a fresh feud? Natalya is not really fresh. She does not have much attention on her, creatively. I just feel like the other women seem to have more going than her.

Normally, I would say Tamina is Tamina. But the WWE has decided to give her a storyline. This is another example of a person that has not earned something getting something. This angle involves Tamina training Lana. If there was not a women's revolution going on and the writing was better, the story to tell would be that Tamina successfully trains Lana to finally beat Naomi for the title. After that, Tamina could want a title shot. Lana refuses. And a feud happens between the two, with Tamina going face. But how likely is it that Lana wins this? And Tamina is not worthy of getting a title shot at Summerslam.

Who wins? I think it comes down to the fact that this is Summerslam, one of the biggest PPVs of the year. Charlotte has not been pushed well since coming to Smackdown, but she has the most title credibility in this match. The WWE would likely give her the push. As for the awkwardness of face vs. face, the WWE will likely have Carmella cash in on Naomi prior to Summerslam, possibly even this Sunday, and the Summerslam match becomes a triple threat. And Smackdown continues its streak of multi-woman matches.

Redoing The Money In The Bank 2017 Women's Matches

The last few days have not been very smooth for the Smackdown women's division. Money In The Bank featured two women's matches. Carmella won the briefcase, thanks to a controversial assist to James Ellsworth. Lana failed to beat Naomi for the Women's Championship. This week on Smackdown, the outcomes of these two matches seem to have been voided. Carmella was stripped of the briefcase and there will be another ladder match next week to decide who gets it. Lana gets a rematch for the Women's Championship against Naomi.

First, let me start with the controversy. The controversy isn't really that Ellsworth grabbed the briefcase. He didn't go rogue and do anything he wasn't supposed to do. The controversy is that the WWE had this happen. A moment that should have been about the women ends up being about a man that got in the way. But the WWE is acting like mere interference is the issue. As Carmella mentioned in her promo and Daniel Bryan also brought up, these matches are No DQ and interference has happened before. But that was not what made how this match went down so annoying.

The WWE has done this kind of thing in the past. There is a kayfabe controversy that the WWE tries to push over the legitimate issue. Remember when Roman Reigns won the Royal Rumble? He got an assist from The Rock. The fans gave that match a nuclear reaction. They hated it. The WWE tried to sell the controversy as The Rock getting involved. No, the issue was that fans hated how the match was booked, including Roman Reigns getting that big push over Daniel Bryan, besides the growing resentment against Reigns.

Mistakes are going to happen. The women will botch in the ring. The writers will come up with dumb ideas. Vince McMahon will want something done that fans just hate. But you should try to limit these things. As I have mentioned before, the women's revolution has not gotten over as well as it should. The WWE is not helping with some of these dumb things that they do, like having Ellsworth be the most talked about individual coming out of that women's ladder match. Fans have more of a reason to get excited for this guy doing something than the women doing anything. This is not the kind of controversy the WWE should be doing.

I mentioned that promo Carmella did. I went back to look at it. Fans were talking about how great it was. It was decent, but nothing that great. It was the typical self-righteous speech a person gives about being held back and slamming those people that are supposedly ahead of the individual. Smarks eat this stuff up, so I am not surprised they like this. Just talk about working your ass off and scream for respect. You don't even need to try to be entertaining. AJ Lee, Paige, and other women have done similar promos.

How about the decision to redo two PPV matches next week? Well, Smackdown's viewership was terrible last week. It got the second lowest number since the brand split came back. And there was no good reason for it to be so low. It did not go against any major sports competition. No huge political drama that night, even though news shows did well that night. And yet, Smackdown flopped in terms of viewership. I can see why they would try to drum up some controversy to draw for them this week, and then create some big matches for next week.

But does redoing these matches hurt the value of anything? I see a lot of fans complaining about all these rematches. Why bother watching PPVs? Were the matches meaningless? Does this hurt the value of the first-ever women's Money in the Bank ladder match? The second one is coming so soon. I can understand fans being annoyed by the situation. Some rematches are obviously going to happen, but redoing the ladder match, and on free TV, is kind of awkward. The WWE just better hope it draws.

Another thing to consider, what is the point of redoing these two matches if both end in the same way? Carmella wins the briefcase back and Naomi once again retains against Lana. Seems like a whole lot of trouble for nothing. There is a chance at least one match might end differently.

A lot of people are talking like Carmella was screwed. I don't feel that way at all. It isn't like she's lost a push. Focus is still on her. The only reason I was okay with Carmella winning the briefcase in the first place is because the WWE needs to develop a fresh heel that can go in the ring to work with the faces. Natalya is a veteran. Tamina is not that great and not fresh. Lana isn't great in the ring. Smackdown doesn't structure their women's division very well. They seem to try to push too many women and they can't do it. Raw's division is looking even more like a mess these days, but that is a different story. Carmella should just be built as a credible jobber. If attention is now on her for the cheap way she won the briefcase and she is starting to get a reaction and even smarks are feeling bad for her, she is set for a push, with or without the briefcase. I would have no problem with another woman getting the briefcase.

Getting down to it, if another woman is going to get it, it should be either Becky Lynch or Charlotte. Whether you like it or not, Charlotte has gotten the career of a star. Getting the briefcase is something you would expect the WWE to do for her. Personally, I do not think she has proven she deserves to be the centerpiece and some other woman should get a legitimate shot. I would go with Becky Lynch winning the briefcase next week. For all the talk about her being the first woman drafted to Smackdown and being the first Smackdown Women's Champion, her career has been mediocre. She lost a PPV match to Natalya. She had no proper focus heading into the match where she won the title. Her reign was short and mediocre. She won a feud with Mickie James and went nowhere from there. She has not regained the title. She has not won the briefcase. She has not done anything noteworthy. She should be the top female star of Smackdown. Some people can talk like she is, but she is not booked like it at all. Getting the briefcase can be a good start.

What about the other women's match? Lana gets another shot against Naomi. The fact that Lana is not great in the ring might not necessarily stop the WWE from giving her the title. You would think in an era that is supposed to be about women's wrestling, standards would make it unthinkable that Lana would get the title, but she could. And it just feels like Naomi has run out of steam in this title reign. They made her look untouchable when feuding with Alexa Bliss, but she has looked more human since Alexa Bliss left Smackdown and Charlotte came. I will say Naomi retains. If Carmella fails to get the briefcase back, she can get a title shot against Naomi.

Will the woman that wins the briefcase cash in that same night? Probably not. The ladder match will likely be the main event, not the women's title match.

Previewing The Money In The Bank 2017 Women's Matches

Of all the women to get a shot at the Smackdown Women's Championship at Money In The Bank, it is going to be Lana. It would be easy to write her off. She's a diva. She's not that experienced in the ring. She just debuted last week on Smackdown. There is no way the WWE will have her beat Naomi for the title.

I remember when Alexa Bliss was feuding with Becky Lynch for this same title. I remember some fans saying that it was obvious that Alexa Bliss was just there to be a successful title defense for Becky Lynch. Alexa Bliss ended up winning the title. Even I wanted to give the WWE a fair chance back then. I wasn't a fan of the self-righteous tone of the new era in women's wrestling, but I thought the WWE was more serious about it than it seems now. Smackdown was a throwback to the diva era in some ways, but it still does not seem right to give the title to eye-candy divas in the manner the WWE has been doing since the brand split returned.

How about Naomi? She steamrolled Alexa Bliss for the title. I hated that booking. She won every match and never looked weak even in brawls. It is not that I like Alexa Bliss. I just hate the booking. And I don't recall any other fans criticizing it back then or even making a topic out of it. Recently, the WWE pulled the same kind of booking on Bayley, having Alexa Bliss pretty much steamroll her. Now I see fans asking if Bayley has been buried. Some are upset about how she was booked. Some are chuckling at it. There are always people like that. It is nothing new or weird. They did it to Alexa Bliss. But back to Naomi. After making her look so good for a couple months, including ignoring her injury history, she now looks mediocre. I am not surprised. It makes the big push she got even more irritating. If they were doing this to make a star or create someone to put over someone in a big way, it would be different. It doesn't feel like either of those two things are true. Naomi looks very beatable right now.

Should Lana win the title? On the one hand, it would seem bad to have her lose so soon, like how she lost her first main-roster match at Wrestlemania last year. On the other hand, she shouldn't win the title so soon. I don't care if she is good in the ring, have her prove it to the main audience first, then worry about giving her the title. But the WWE has shown that they don't have proper standards. They dumped title reigns into the lap of Naomi, despite her issues staying healthy. Lana should lose here, but I will say that she wins.

Onto the match fans probably are more interested in. The women are getting a briefcase ladder match. Charlotte vs. Natalya vs. Carmella vs. Becky Lynch vs. Tamina. I will say a little about each woman.

Charlotte seems like the popular choice to win. The WWE has already shown a desire to push her hard and hand her a ton of history. Since coming to Smackdown, however, she has not looked as glorious. Alexa Bliss made history by being the first woman to hold the two Women's Championships that were recently created. I am sure Charlotte will make history again by being the first woman to have held those two titles and the NXT Women's Championship, for whatever that is worth. But I don't think it is a guarantee she makes history on Sunday.

Natalya is a veteran heel. It just seems like a heel should win the briefcase. Natalya has been featured better since the women's revolution really got rolling than she was prior to that. But when it comes to winning titles or anything major, she hasn't gotten anything in the last year.

Carmella seems like a good choice as the next fresh heel credible jobber. Charlotte can eventually win the title from whichever heel and Carmella can immediately cash in on her. That would give Charlotte a fresh singles feud and inflate her title history even more when she wins the title back from Carmella.

Becky Lynch has not really been pushed that well. She won the Smackdown Women's Championship when it was first created, despite not having any proper focus on her. After losing it to Alexa Bliss, the only thing Becky accomplished was winning a feud against Mickie James. And Becky went nowhere after that. The fact that she doesn't seem like a favorite to win this match doesn't mean she should be counted out. Winning the briefcase might revitalize her.

And Tamina is Tamina.

Of the five women, I am going with Carmella. What the WWE has a history of doing with Charlotte does not mean anything. Everyone knows Nikki Bella was someone the WWE was serious about pushing very well. She had more focus on her prior to the match to crown the first Smackdown Women's Champion than Becky Lynch. She did not win it and has never won it. Charlotte has not been buried on Smackdown, but she is not getting the same push she got on Raw. I can see Smackdown spreading out some of the accolades. Carmella winning would just help to set her up as a fresh heel to push that can go in the ring. Lana does not have any credibility, yet. And Natalya, as I said, is a veteran. The WWE needs to aim to build someone young. I just feel that person is Carmella. And needless to say, Tamina is not young. She is 39, the oldest female wrestler on the main roster. Carmella just seems like the best choice. She was the person I was going with before the WWE had Lana pop up last week and get a title shot. We will see how that influences things.

Smackdown Women's Money In The Bank

The WWE is going back to hyping history for their women. Money in the Bank, a Smackdown-exclusive PPV this year, will feature a women's ladder match for a briefcase. It will be Charlotte vs. Natalya vs. Carmella vs. Becky Lynch vs. Tamina.

The "cookie cutter" response would be to say how great this is for the women. They're getting to do something only men have been allowed to do in the past. History. Historic. Amazing. Yeah. That's nice.

I am not impressed. This is once again a situation where all the Smackdown women are tossed into the same picture. There is no creative depth and the booking is lazy. I have pointed out numerous times that Smackdown has a tendency to do this ever since the brand split returned.

You want to talk about being treated as equals to the men? Do you see all the men that have nothing else to do being tossed into the Money in the Bank Ladder Match for the men's briefcase? No. That's not the way it works. That has never been the way it works.

My issue is that the WWE is relying on hype and not properly developing any of these individual women to be stars. Where's the proper character development? Where are the great personal feuds?

The WWE can release every woman on the main roster and nothing of value would be lost. I honestly believe that. Just replace them with women from NXT and the indies. Tessa Blanchard can replace Charlotte. Melina can replace Mickie James. Mandy Rose can replace Alexa Bliss. The replacements might not come in all at the same time, obviously, but the WWE can just phase all these women currently there out and keep doing what they are doing. That is because they are just relying on hype to draw for them. They are relying on quantity over quality. In the case of Alexa Bliss, they are relying on sex appeal with character. Just help Mandy Rose develop a character. Or Lana can get some time being pushed as the new Alexa Bliss. There is a lot of underachieving in the women's division these days and no one is bringing A+ results. And a lot of the blame has to go on the poor way the WWE is handling these women. The WWE can just bring in these new women and start handing them whatever history is left to be had.

I have nothing against a ladder match. Women in TNA have had them all the time. And if the WWE had done a better job creating personal feuds for the Smackdown women prior to this, I would probably be all for it. But they have not, so I cannot get excited for more of the same that I have come to expect from Smackdown.

Lana made her Smackdown debut this week. She tried to get in the match. She ended up attacking Naomi. She will face Naomi in a singles match for the title. Will she win? Whatever way they go, they are putting her in the same picture with everyone else. Moving forward, there will obviously be some separation, but I hope it comes sooner rather than later.

What do you make of Lana? I would say she fits right in with the brand that is keeping the diva era alive. Of course, Alexa Bliss is bringing a diva revival over on Raw. How far will Lana go? She has been training to wrestle. She's beautiful. She has charisma and a great character. She can be another Alexa Bliss. That will appeal to many fans, but also annoy wrestling fans. I do see fans annoyed by how Alexa Bliss has been pushed on Raw. They feel the quality of the women's division there has been slipping in the last few months. The WWE switched a centerpiece that was very good and respected in the ring, Charotte, for one that just isn't, Alexa Bliss. And it shows. Smackdown isn't really as centerpiece-driven, so Lana will not have the same impact here as Alexa Bliss is having on Raw. That is, unless certain backstage officials love Lana so much that they start having everything revolve around her.

And just one aside to end the day. One thing really bothered me on Raw. Mickie James and Dana Brooke went out there to get some of Alexa Bliss. What happened after was Nia Jax just pushed them aside to get some of Alexa Bliss for herself. She then pushed them down again after when they confronted her about shoving them aside. And what does the WWE have Mickie James and Dana Brooke do? Just go and stand in the ring with Nia Jax as Alexa Bliss is walking away. And Nia Jax beat them up, again. Why would Mickie and Dana do that? It is just incredibly stupid. A woman that is not your friend and was just knocking you around is standing in the ring. What do you do? Go stand with her! What else would you do? How about just stare down Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax from ringside? How about get in the ring and at least try to fight back against Nia Jax for shoving you around? It was just incredibly stupid.

That is one of the reasons it is hard for many fans to care about Mickie James during her current run in the WWE. Her character is terrible. It was terrible on Smackdown and it might be even worse on Raw. Having her job so much is one thing. But putting her out there to be knocked around and do stupid things like what happened on Raw is not helping her. I would say it is doing even more damage than having her lose. She just looks terrible.

Previewing The Backlash 2017 Women's Match

In the past, I have brought up the point that Smackdown frequently gets the short end of the stick with their women's division as compared to Raw. They don't hype it as well and don't feature history as much and as well as Raw does. It is not unusual for them to push quantity over quality. In the past, I have brought up Charlotte's tendency to be overpushed. Last year, the WWE handed her a lot of title reigns and history in a short span. It really got annoying. When these two identities met, you have to believe something would have to give.

Let me just say that I am not a fan of either of those two things I just mentioned. The women on Smackdown should be promoted better. If the WWE wants to make this division a little more diva-like, that's one thing. But all these multi-woman matches and everything else isn't good. And no one should be pushed like Charlotte was last year. It doesn't get you popular. Even if you were popular and talented and deserved a fabulous career, the way Charlotte was being pushed last year was too much.

Back to Charlotte's tendency to be overpushed vs. Smackdown's tendency to be mediocre. So far, it looks like the latter is winning. Charlotte may have gotten a title shot in the main event a few weeks ago, but she has not won the title yet. More importantly, the first Smackdown PPV since the trades last month will not have a title match. It will not even have a singles match. It will have a six-woman tag match. The first Raw PPV since the trades featured a title match. Once again, Smackdown fails to present their women as well as Raw is.

The match for Backlash will be Naomi, Charlotte, and Becky Lynch vs. Natalya, Carmella, and Tamina (The Welcoming Committe). The whole things seems pretty stupid. You can't mistreat people for a long amount of time, then start pushing them as a threat and expect people to care. Natalya may be a former Diva's Champion, but that was many years ago and she has been treated terribly and inconsistently since. Carmella was lost in the shuffle for a while before they pretty much had to start featuring her again for Wrestlemania. And Tamina is Tamina. I mentioned that main event between Charlotte and Naomi. That was when this group was formed. Even then, this feud did not deserve the main event.

It would be easy to say the face team wins at Backlash. The heels are essentially jobbers. They have been built up to have momentum. The face team features women that have actually been pushed better.

And yet, I can imagine the WWE letting the heels win. Smackdown has done some dumb booking decisions to extend feuds that a lot of fans would have just liked to have seen end. They have to. With the depth issue, they have to extend feuds. Moreover, did the WWE put work into making a group just to kill it after a month? Because I can't imagine Charlotte going back to feud with Naomi for the title right away. They will probably put it on a heel first, then have the heel put over Charlotte. But if The Welcoming Committee loses already, that ruins their credibility. Again, Smackdown has done some terrible things when developing heels to put over faces, like how they treated Mickie James a couple months ago against Becky Lynch. They could very drop the ball again with this feud.

This match can go either way. But since it is a meaningless match, I am not going to kill myself over it. I will say faces win.

State Of The WWE Women's Division: May 2017

The brand split is less than a year old. It took a while, but you could start to see individual identities arise for the separate women's divisions on Raw and Smackdown. Raw was the more serious women's division. It got featured better at the major PPVs since the brand split. Only the NXT elite held the Women's Championship. History was being "made" right and left. Meanwhile, Smackdown was the last stand of the diva era. I don't mean to imply there is anything wrong with that. They let women that obviously were not hyped very much for their in-ring work get title reigns. But whatever you want to say about those identities, the trades last month shook it up.

Let me start with Raw. Alexa Bliss won the Women's Championship last night from Bayley. Ever since this title was created last year, only the NXT elite held it. That would be Charlotte, Sasha Banks, and Bayley, three of the 4 Horsewomen. Alexa Bliss may have come from NXT, but she's not considered elite in the ring. I would say giving her the title was a terrible idea. The WWE should have maintained their standards. Alexa Bliss isn't as terrible in the ring as Dana Brooke, but she is not considered as great in the ring as she should have to be to win Raw's Women's Championship, especially after the women on Raw spent over a year creating that respectable identity for that title. And for someone like her to have already won more titles in less than a year than Becky Lynch has won since coming to the main roster 2 years ago is terrible, especially in this era that is supposed to be more about female wrestlers, like Becky Lynch, than divas, like Alexa Bliss.

I cannot see the WWE handling things right from here. I still believe Sasha Banks should have been the one turning heel and going after Bayley for the title. After Alexa Bliss finishes with Bayley, they can still go to Sasha Banks, but what would be the point? Sasha Banks is going to put over women's wrestling and talk about how women like Alexa Bliss are ruining the women's revolution? The WWE really needs to move away from those kind of storylines. Sasha Banks is pretty much a face RTC Ivory. Not only that, fans were anticipating that heel turn for Sasha Banks. I am not always a believer that a heel turn fixes everything, but they probably should have gone through with that for Sasha Banks. They teased it and never followed through.

Aside from that, Raw has the angle between Emma and Dana Brooke going on. It may not seem like much, but it is a storyline. Creative depth is a good thing, especially when handled right. Problem is, I don't know if they have the roster depth to make this angle good. They already dug up Alicia Fox last week as a jobber for this angle. After a while, though it may just go nowhere. It might end up like the angle between Carmella and James Ellsworth. It started out with some actual segments. Ever since, you just take it for granted that Ellsworth is there and will get knocked around by the women. I can see the angle between Emma and Dana Brooke eventually just lead to something mediocre. Nevertheless, still something to talk about.

Mickie James and Nia Jax are getting nothing to talk about. A feud seems obvious, but I don't like it. Mickie James deserves better than this. It just gets hard to book Nia Jax after a while. You can't always have her look so dominant. And she's also not a great in-ring worker, which makes you wonder if she even deserves to look so dominant. This would just be a very terrible feud. Mickie James needs help establishing her character. An angle in the periphery might be better for her than a feud, whether she wins or loses. At the same time, I wonder if the WWE even has space for this women's feud on Raw.

Over to Smackdown. The WWE has not given Charlotte the Women's Championship there yet. That is shocking. The WWE has overrated her a ton, including handing her history on multiple occasions. And they pass by the opportunity to do it again by making her the first woman to have held both titles? That just seems unlike them. They are obviously high on Alexa Bliss, but Charlotte has been featured as above her. Moreover, they did not even make enough out of the potential angle they had of Alexa Bliss and Charlotte racing to make history. The whole thing started and ended in less than a month. I just would have expected more out of them.

Charlotte did have a title shot last week against Naomi. This was the main event of Smackdown. Yeah, that seems like something the WWE would do for Charlotte. But this match had no business being in the main event. The last time Smackdown had women in the main event, it was a steel cage match, it was the culmination of an angle they were running for weeks, and it featured a return. Charlotte vs. Naomi had only been going on about 2 weeks before this match. It was hardly an interesting feud. It didn't have time to be an interesting feud. And then Natalya, Tamina, and Carmella attacked the two women. No offense, but is this the female Job Squad? It is hard to take any of these women seriously. And even when they win matches, they never seem to go anywhere. And the WWE decided to have Smackdown end with this group standing tall.

With all this, you can see Charlotte turning face. Is it a good idea? As far as Charlotte goes, she is not great when it comes to showing character. The WWE will have to help her with how she is portrayed to make the character work. As far as depth goes, they needed to do it. Your faces were Becky Lynch and Naomi, who has a history of injuries, whether you want to blame her for the injuries or certain women she has worked with. Nikki Bella is a face, but she is not around. Your heels were Charlotte, Natalya, Carmella, and Tamina. Terrible face/heel depth has been an issue with Smackdown's women's division before. But they made the right decision to do a face turn. Did it have to be Charlotte? It just seems like the most convenient option. I am not going to criticize them for what they did.

One thing Smackdown has been good about is creative depth. They frequently have had multiple angles going on for the women. Where is that now? All the women seem to be stuffed into this angle involving Charlotte. The only other thing you have going on is the debut vignettes for Lana, which looks like another throwback to the diva era. I don't think debut vignettes should really count. Smackdown has lost one of the things it has done right with their women. Will Charlotte bury the division? Or will Smackdown eventually get on track again and have multiple proper angles going on for the women?

Overall, the two divisions really do seem to have lost their identities. Don't get me wrong, both identities were imperfect. There was still a lot of room for improvement. But it seems like some of the things the two brands were doing right have been hurt. Raw doesn't feel as respectable as it used to be. Smackdown might become too centerpiece-driven. And I do think overall match quality will be hurt. I never believed the WWE could sustain what they were doing last year, but it will be interesting to see if fans keep on buying into what is going on as much as they did last year.

Lana To Smackdown

A few women were sent to Smackdown, but only one is worth talking about in any depth today. I don't mean Charlotte. I already talked about her moving a couple days ago. And I don't mean Tamina. Not much to say about her. She is not over and not a great worker. The WWE should use her as a supporting player on Smackdown. If she wants better, she needs to step up and do more. Of course, in this new era, and especially on Smackdown, they will probably try to give her some kind of meaningful angle even if she doesn't earn it.

I am talking about Lana. Rusev also moved to Smackdown. It would be easy to say that these two are simply filling the void Miz & Maryse left. Thing is, it looks like Lana will get some special individual attention. At least, that is what it looks like for now.

I have seen some fans question whether what they are doing with Lana is good or bad for the women's division. Some people just don't pay attention. Ever since Smackdown became its own brand again, it soon took up the identity of the diva era's last stand. They tried to do something meaningful with Eva Marie. Alexa Bliss got some runs with the Smackdown Women's Championship. Nikki Bella and Maryse got big pushes in the periphery recently. These are all divas. Smackdown's women's division has not been treated as being as elite as Raw's women's division. They still featured some female wrestlers feuding against each other, like Mickie James vs. Becky Lynch, but you have not gotten the hype that Raw has. I am not surprised at all that they would be willing to put some individual focus on Lana, and not be afraid to let that individual focus be based on her sex appeal. As far as I am concerned, this is just more of the same from the last few months.

Does Lana deserve it? I think so. Unlike some women, she has actually shown potential to connect well with the fans. Back when this new era was getting started and fans were complaining on the Internet for better treatment and respect for women's wrestling, Lana, an eye-candy diva that wasn't even wrestling, was having fans in the audience chanting for her. It just shows how polarizing this era is. Not everyone out there cares about it as much as some fans might think. Regardless, Lana has also been training in the ring. No one should expect her to be able to put on great matches, but Smackdown is the brand for her to be featured like this and not really ruin the identity they have.

Is she the replacement for Alexa Bliss? I talked about the fact that Alexa Bliss cannot really replace Charlotte on Raw. She is not good enough in the ring. Maybe that is why Mickie James also went to Raw. But who replaces Alexa Bliss on Smackdown? Charlotte doesn't have the look Alexa Bliss has, which is one of her best traits. But Lana does have the look and has been trying to improve her in-ring work. This just seems like a clear replacement.

Will Lana have the title success on Smackdown that Alexa Bliss had? Smackdown's standards would obviously make it more likely than if Lana was still on Raw. Problem is, Charlotte is someone I can picture the WWE booking to dominate the division, no matter which show she is on. Will Smackdown's identity trump her tendency to be pushed hard? Or will her tendency to be pushed hard impact Smackdown's identity? If it is the latter, it is less likely Lana has any title success. If all else fails, she can always lean on Rusev again. I think Lana is in a very favorable position.

Shaking Up The Women's Divisions

Less than a year after the brand split returned, the WWE is already going to shake up the rosters again. Rather than talk about every division, I am just going to focus on the women, a topic I have been talking about regularly since 2008. Whatever major moves happens for the men, I will talk about that tomorrow and later in the week.

It just seems like the obvious switch for the women will be Charlotte going to Smackdown and Alexa Bliss going to Raw. Both have been somewhat "written off" in the last week. They have jobbed. They have lost their momentum. If they are not being sent to the other brand, the WWE is probably setting them up to be released. I will say it is likely they are just switching brands.

As I have mentioned before, both Raw and Smackdown seem to have their own identities, although it has still been pretty sloppy on both shows. Raw has more hype and respectability to it. This is where the serious, history-making matches get most of the attention. The only women to have held the title on Raw since the brand split are the NXT elite. It has been the 4 Horsewomen. Over on Smackdown, it has been somewhat the last stand of the diva era. This division has frequently gotten the short end of the stick. As far as the title on Smackdown goes, Becky Lynch may have been the first woman to hold it, but the two other women since then cannot be considered in-ring elites. I am talking about Alexa Bliss and Naomi. Smackdown, moreover, has done a slightly better job with periphery angles. Nikki Bella and Maryse have been treated pretty well. Those two are obviously divas.

I don't remember if I ever brought it up before, but I always felt the WWE should have two different identities for the two women's division and maintain those standards. Let one show be the place for serious women's wrestling. That could be Raw. Let the other show be for the divas and more character-driven and storyline-driven drama. That could be Smackdown. If a diva wants to end up on the show for serious women's wrestling, she needs to improve her in-ring work. If a female wrestler wants to go to the other brand to improve her overness with fans wanting more than just wrestling, she needs to show some personality that might make her valuable on the other brand. Obviously, there will be one or two female wrestlers on Smackdown to act as jobbers and supporting players, like Natalya and Tamina. On the other side of that, there might be a diva on Raw for a periphery role, like Lana. Overall, however, both brands maintain their own identity. And fans of different aspects of pro wrestling could choose what they want to watch. Right now, you just have some women on Raw that are obviously not good and it gets painful seeing them work with the better wrestlers. Dana Brooke is one of those women. Over on Smackdown, you have some women that can just be great characters, but the WWE doesn't develop it properly. Alexa Bliss falls in that category.

Even though the WWE does not really uphold the system I just talked about, let me talk about the likely switch in those terms I just laid out. Can they really switch Alexa Bliss for Charlotte? Raw has been the brand for these serious women's feuds and matches since the brand split came back, and it seems Charlotte has been involved in all those matches. Alexa Bliss has improved, but she is still not someone I consider being that great in the ring. How many matches can the WWE get out of Bayley and Sasha Banks for a year? Throw Emma into the mix. She's pretty good. Outside of that, there's not a lot of women to produce the same quality matches you had for the last year on Raw. You can send Asuka there, but some might argue Smackdown can also use her.

Is there a possibility Alexa Bliss might get lost in the shuffle on Raw? Unless the WWE lowers their standards for Raw's women's division to let her be treated as a credible threat that can put on highly-rated matches with the likes of Sasha Banks, she is definitely going to be treated more poorly than she was on Smackdown, at least. Raw has never been great with periphery angles since the brand split. What can they do with her?

What about Charlotte? The WWE will have her make history by being the first woman to have held each brand's title. They did the same kind of thing with Michelle McCool. That is probably why they wanted Smackdown's title on face Naomi so bad, although I would say Becky Lynch also might have been an option. And with Alexa Bliss on Raw, they could try to sell it as a "chase" to see who will make history first. They used Mickie James to serve that purpose back in 2009. Problem is, as I mentioned, standards are different today and Alexa Bliss getting that serious push just would not be right.

Since I do not like the potential move to Raw for Alexa Bliss, which Smackdown woman would I send there? You are looking for someone with wrestling credibility that can fill Charlotte's spot. Natalya, Becky Lynch, and Mickie James are all options. Mickie James is one of those performers that could work out on either a wrestling-first brand or a storyline/character-first brand. It is just a shame the WWE has done such a terrible job with her character. Even now, is she really a face? Or still in tweener limbo? Either way, they could send her to Raw and just take her character in either the face or heel direction.

Let's say what the WWE really wanted to do, for whatever reason, was get Alexa Bliss to Raw. What would be a good Raw woman to send to Smackdown? Dana Brooke comes to mind. You are not looking to replace a great wrestler here. You are just looking to replace a heel that can show emotion and personality. That is pretty much what Dana Brooke does best. She has been involved in some botched spots and terrible situations since her debut. Going to a brand that lets her character shine and does not put much on her in terms of wrestling might be good for her.

Wrestlemania 33 Preview: Part 1

I will be talking about the women's matches today. Cena/Nikki vs. Miz/Maryse will be talked about later this week. This is just about the women's-only matches.

First, the overall theme. Laziness. I have brought this up a few times over the years. Trish Stratus vs. Mickie James at Wrestlemania 22 was the last women's feud for Wrestlemania season that was personal and handled right. Everything since then has been tag matches, lumberjill matches, battle royals, and other multi-woman matches. You have had Playboy pushes and celebrity involvement. You might let some of this stuff go, but not having one heated singles feud for the women at Wrestlemania in all these years? Disgusting. This is an era where women want to be treated the same as men? Well, I see men getting heated singles feuds for Wrestlemania every year. There may be some multi-man matches, as well, but there are heated singles feuds. The women aren't getting this. No one is upset?

The laziness is most clear in Smackdown's women's match for Wrestlemania. Alexa Bliss vs. The World. Right now, it just looks like the other women will be Mickie James, Becky Lynch, Natalya, and Carmella.

There is speculation that the WWE might bring in Asuka for this match and/or women from the past. And I dislike that. What does that say about the WWE's confidence in the women they have now? They have mishandled the Smackdown women. The answer isn't to look over all of them and create hype through NXT or even more women from the past. The WWE needs to do better with the women they have now. If they bring in someone like Asuka and don't book her right, that's unfair to her. If they book her better than everyone already on the roster, that is unfair to those women already there that have been pushed poorly. Worry about fixing the issues managing the talent, then worry about debuts and returns. This is one of the reasons I said a couple months ago that Mickie James should not return. Smackdown is not as efficient as some fans make it seem. Being better than Raw isn't saying much.

Let me look at some of the women in this match. First, Carmella. She has her angle with James Ellsworth. Ideally, the story you would have is that Ellsworth helps Carmella win the title. Carmella can later reveal that she was just using Ellsworth to help her. But this just seems like a story better suited for a singles feud, and not suited for Wrestlemania. It could be a nice story, but with the way Smackdown handles things, I am not sure they would handle it right. They need to make better use of their depth.

Next, Mickie James. I wouldn't be surprised if she never wins a title in the three years she is back for. I am not saying they won't book it to happen. I am just saying I wouldn't be surprised if it never happens. I don't think it is anything personal. They might look at her and see whatever it is they saw in The Dudleys that got them booked like crap last year. They might also want to protect Trish's legacy until Charlotte breaks her record. When it comes to major World titles, the magic number for the WWE is 16 and the name is Ric Flair. When it comes to major women's titles, the magic number for the WWE is 7 and the name is Trish Stratus. Mickie James has already won more major women's titles than Trish, but the WWE will not acknowledge her TNA reigns. That is pretty unfair, since Ric Flair did not win all his World titles in the WWE. I have seen a Mickie James fan hoping she can get lucky number 7 and tie Trish's record. Instead of talking about getting to double digits, he only goes with the WWE only acknowledging the 6 title reigns. And if they want to bury the Diva's Championship reign, they will continue to say she is only a 5-time Champion.

Lastly, Alexa Bliss. She should not even be holding the title now. Naomi's injury led to her getting the title back. I have seen some Naomi fans dreaming that she returns and Wrestlemania and gets the title back. With her injury issues, she seriously needs to prove she can stay healthy. As for Alexa Bliss, she might as well retain the title. Lose the belt in a singles feud after Wrestlemania.

The Raw women's match has had better build than Smackdown's women's match, but it isn't too hard to have better build than a match where every available body is thrown in. But this feud is still pretty mediocre, and it is once again a multi-woman match.

Compare it to last year's triple threat. Fans were pretty hyped for the feud. It was Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks. Women's revolution! Death to the butterfly title! High expectations for a great match! Lita with the new title! Okay, that's nice. Now, take away all the hype. What do you really have? It was just a title feud. There was no rich story. They could have had one with Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch, but they inserted Sasha Banks and that story got diluted. And I would say the feud development was actually pretty sloppy. But when you buy into hype, you typically overlook things like that. And that is what happened last year. This feud did have issues, but fans overlooked it because of all the hype.

This year, it is Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley vs. Nia Jax. This year, the same hype is not there. Without that hype it is even easier to see this feud for what it is. It is another lazy title feud. At first, it was Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley. Instead of just trying to build that feud, they just inserted distractions. Charlotte has had to deal with Dana Brooke turning on her. Bayley had to deal with Nia Jax, which eventually led to Nia getting in the match.

Should Nia Jax even be in this match? It seemed likely for a while that it would happen, but should the WWE have changed their mind? As I said, it feels like including her has just been a distraction that has taken away from the feel of the feud. The WWE has done a terrible job keeping Nia consistently in the picture. If they had done a better job, things would have been smoother and I would not be bringing this up. You also have to think about match quality. Nia Jax might be good for a few spots during the match, but she might hurt the match quality, overall. Problem is, Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley happened just a few months ago. It was not a stellar match. I am sure these three can put on a better Wrestlemania match, but the match did happen. Adding in Nia Jax does create a fresh match. Then again, what's wrong with doing Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley again? Do it once with Charlotte as Champion, then with Bayley, and then with Sasha Banks. Make it a series. In the end, having Nia Jax involved does make a fresh match.

Who wins? Bayley. She can then feud against a heel Sasha Banks. The WWE has already taken steps to fix the depth issues a heel Sasha Banks would make. Dana Brooke went face recently. Emma can also eventually return as a face. Or Asuka can debut on Raw as a face. Until all that, there is no PPV streak to keep in tact here.

Dana Brooke Turns On Charlotte

Dana Brooke has been Charlotte's sidekick since last year. At first, the relationship was good. No issues between the two. Of course, Dana often proved to be a poor lackey. This led to Charlotte eventually pushing around her sidekick. On Raw this week, Dana Brooke finally snapped and attacked Charlotte.

This is a fine story for Charlotte outside of the title scene. Problem is, she is currently still in the title scene. And this is Wrestlemania season. Again, I am all for the WWE doing this, but now is not the time for it. This Wrestlemania season is just filled with mostly bad feuds, for various reasons. Raw's women's title feud was better than Smackdown's women's title feud, but it still had some issues. One of the major issues was the fact that it was another multi-woman match, killing the personal feel that Wrestlemania feuds should have. To make matters worse, the WWE decides to do this now. This is a distraction. Instead of focusing on Charlotte vs. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks, the WWE throws this into the pot. It hurts the build for the match.

I am not going to say it is pointless to turn Dana Brooke face. If the WWE is serious about Sasha Banks going heel, they desperately need to turn someone face. I can see what they are doing.

But did they need to do it now? Why not wait for the night after Wrestlemania? Have Dana Brooke accidentally cost Charlotte the match at Wrestlemania. Charlotte then chews Dana out on Raw the next night. Dana finally has enough and snaps.

As for Sasha turning heel, that could happen at Wrestlemania. Or let Bayley have a feud with Nia Jax after Wrestlemania, with Sasha Banks in the picture. Sasha then turns on Bayley when that feud concludes. There are multiple ways to go with this.

Another issue, what kind of face will Dana Brooke make? She is not good in the ring at all. The face style, especially for most of the women, involves high-energy and relying on agility. Dana looks sloppy even as a heel. The face style is not going to help her. There can be some ugly matches to come involving Dana Brooke. The WWE will probably limit her.

In terms of overness, I am not ready to say Dana Brooke will be a great face just off of watching how fans reacted to her on Raw. A lot of fans out there still love a good catfight or brawl. She's not going to be able to do that every night. Will she be able to sustain a strong connection with the fans? Or will her sloppiness hurt her?

Previewing The Fastlane 2017 Women's Matches

Another PPV with more than one women's match. I will start with Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax. They have been feuding for a while now. But that feud hit a snag in recent weeks when Sasha Banks spent more time in Bayley vs. Charlotte than feuding with Nia Jax. That feud just became a bit of an afterthought. There is a difference between two feuds crossing paths and one feud just becoming an afterthought. You might have something like Roman Reigns feuding against Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins feuding against Chris Jericho. Those feuds obviously crossed paths, but the individual feuds still remained strong. The WWE just could have done better with Nia Jax in recent weeks.

Who wins? If the WWE had done a better job with this feud, this might be the point where Sasha Banks wins it. But they have not. Since that is the case, they might as well keep Nia Jax strong for Wrestlemania. She'll get another win against Sasha. Will that lead to Sasha turning heel? That is another issue. I do not think the WWE should do it. We have already seen what bad depth can lead to on Smackdown recently.

Onto the title match. Bayley defends against Charlotte, who seems to have a fetish for being handed title reigns at PPVs. She only loses them on Raws. Speaking of that, there was an issue that Bayley is not a draw with the young female demographic. The Raw main event where she won the title did not do as well in that demographic as Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte, so some people want to spin that to mean Bayley is not a draw. There are a few points I want to bring up.

First, the female demographics for that final hour of Raw that night were still better than numbers Total Divas and Total Bellas have been getting this previous season. And all I hear is that these shows are great draws with women. Well, if that episode of Raw, including the third hour, did better ratings in the female demographic, including with younger women, why should you worry too much?

Move on from the fact that the main event still drew decent numbers, when compared to the reality shows the WWE has out. It did do less than Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte. But is it a fair comparison? Sasha and Charlotte were feuding for months before they main-evented Raw, without even including NXT and their feud with Becky Lynch also involved around Wrestlemania. The WWE stuffed a whole bunch of history into this feud. I think they could have booked it better, but you can see why it might draw good numbers. Even then, I wouldn't overrate the numbers it did get.

Compare that to Bayley vs. Charlotte. First of all, Bayley had her push against Charlotte killed off twice because the WWE went back to Sasha Banks. How is that going to make her look? Second, when they finally did let the feud really get started, it had only been going on about two months before the main event happened a few weeks ago. It was a fraction of the development Sasha/Charlotte had. It also does not help that it was not a fresh storyline connected to the feud. Viewers say this story already. It's just not fresh. You can say that Bayley just got Sasha's leftovers. There is a reason I frequently talk about feud development. If you do not develop a feud properly, don't expect it to draw for you as well as a feud that was developed a whole lot better. Bayley should not be blamed for the numbers.

Last thing to consider, Sasha Banks and Charlotte, the two supposed draws of the previous two women's Raw main events, were also involved in this. Why should they not shoulder the blame for numbers not being better? I would say they are not draws. What was the draw before was the hype and development. Because that was lacking here, even Sasha Banks and Charlotte being involved in the story could not help it. The WWE probably should have just spent the time properly pushing Sasha Banks against Nia Jax. If they expected her to give this feud a rub, it didn't work. Or is she just in the picture for a heel turn? Again, not what I would do.

Who wins between Charlotte and Bayley? If history is any indication, Charlotte is winning the title. And if I still cared enough to watch this stuff, I would probably throw my TV set through a window. The WWE could pull some swerve and have Charlotte win in some manner that she doesn't get  the title or have the match just get thrown out. Nia Jax can come out and destroy everyone. Charlotte's PPV streak is not broken and Bayley gets to defend the title at Wrestlemania. But I'll go with Charlotte winning, because the WWE seems to want her to be a 16x Champion.

Is Nia Jax Going Backwards?

It is not unusual for big monstrous wrestlers to squash jobbers when they first debut. They then graduate to better feuds. Some lose momentum and get tossed aside. Nia Jax is the women's division's big monster. She had been squashing jobbers for a long time. Local jobbers, even.

In recent months, it looked like she finally graduated. Recently, she had that feud going on with Sasha Banks. She was tossing Sasha around and looking monstrous. She was finally feuding with a credible opponent. But that feud never really got finished yet.

Next thing you know, Sasha Banks is back deeply involved in the picture with Charlotte and Bayley. She was there to give Bayley an assist to win the title last week. They were again involved with each other this week. Fans are already anticipating Sasha turning heel on Bayley.

But where is Nia? She once again squashed a local jobber on Raw this week. Now, it is not unheard of for an established big man to go back and squash jobbers here and there, but it is too soon for Nia Jax to be back squashing jobbers. This can hurt her development. Most squash matches are not entertaining. Yes, James Ellsworth got his big break being a local jobber, but it was his awkward look that got people talking about him and won him a contract.

This once again highlights the depth problem. Charlotte and Bayley cannot be involved with just each other every week. They need supporting players. Enter Dana Brooke. But who sides with Bayley? They could try to force Alicia Fox into the picture, but Sasha Banks already has a stronger connection with Bayley. Problem is, how they are using Sasha now just makes the feud she was having with Nia Jax irrelevant. There are not enough bodies to go around to handle what they want to do efficiently.

Even then, I think they could have done a better job keeping Nia Jax in the picture with Sasha Banks and everyone else. She will get a title feud sooner or later, but there is no need to waste her with these short squash matches until then. Fans already know she can be dominant. Don't botch the progression she is going through. Have her still target Sasha Banks. Even just a backstage segment with any of the women currently relevant would be enough. You can say that they needed to do the squash match to kill time, but I think they easily could have added that extra minute to any other match or segment. It is just poor feud development.

Previewing Bayley Vs. Charlotte For Tonight's Raw

I usually do not preview title matches on Raw or Smackdown. When it comes to Charlotte and Raw's Women's Championship, however, title changes on Raw are not uncommon at all. Tonight, Charlotte defends the title against Bayley.

Bayley already lost a title match against Charlotte at the Royal Rumble. But Charlotte has that PPV win streak going. If Bayley is going to win the title, tonight seems like the time where it might happen.

Should Bayley win it? Is she ready? Going by how the WWE seems to dump title reigns into the laps of certain individuals these days that are not ready at all, it might even be an irrelevant question to ask. The WWE has made questionable decisions with men, women, tag teams, and don't leave out the cruiserweights.

Nevertheless, I will repeat the question. Is Bayley ready? She has wrestling ability and was very popular in NXT. Since coming to the main roster, however, the WWE has botched how she has been pushed. And I see a lot of fans criticizing the storyline she has been getting. Some say it is the same thing she did in NXT. Some say it is the same thing Sasha Banks just did with Charlotte, without Bayley bringing up Eddie Guerrero. All this is part of the reason Bayley has not been more successful on the main roster. I am not talking in terms of wins and title reigns. I mean in terms of connecting with the audience, which matters a whole lot more than title reigns.

I would say Bayley is not ready and the WWE should not just force the title change and keep on chugging along with whatever they have planned like everything is working beautifully. Yes, the WWE is making money and all that, but they are really doing it by spreading themselves out and trying to make as much money as they can off wrestling fans. They can be making a lot more money and have a lot more mainstream success if they put thought into winning over the wider audience, not just playing with smarks and wrestling fans. As for Bayley, she is looking worse than Sasha Banks. And I didn't even think Sasha Banks looked that great during her push last year. Redoing the same kind of feud is just dull.

What about Charlotte? Her booking has been disgusting. The WWE has just been inflating her title resume. Some people criticize how John Cena has been booked since becoming the centerpiece over a decade ago. I would say how Charlotte has been booked is even more terrible. People groan whenever Roman Reigns challenges for a main-event title. He has only been WWE Champion 3 times in about 2 years. Since coming to the main roster roughly two years ago, Charlotte has won 5 women's titles, which includes being the last woman to hold the Diva's Championship. In that span, there have been multiple men that have had lengthy main-event title reigns, besides Reigns. Not one woman on Raw has had a title reign last more than a few weeks in that time Roman Reigns has held his titles, besides Charlotte.

If the depth was so terrible that they had to push Charlotte this much, I probably would not complain. The WWE is in a tough spot and just pushing the best in-ring worker they have. That is not the case. And that is the only situation where this booking should be allowed. Charlotte isn't even that popular. Even if she was, this juggling act is inexcusable. If she was so popular, they would not need to overrate her to look great and could just focus on showcasing her.

If Bayley does win the title tonight, will she drop it back to Charlotte at Fastlane? I read the rumors about Bayley feuding with Sasha Banks, and the WWE has done things to tease a heel turn for Banks, but the WWE has shown that they are going to push Charlotte as the centerpiece. And she is the most annoying centerpiece since Michelle McCool. Might be even worse. I will be shocked if they remove Charlotte from the title picture for even 5 seconds.

All that being said, who wins tonight? Bayley does not feel like she has been built up properly. The WWE has created a trend of Charlotte dropping the title on Raw. I would say it is likely the title change happens. As I pointed out before, the WWE is not afraid to hand off titles to people that have not been developed properly. Bayley can just join the club.

Previewing The Royal Rumble 2017 Women's Matches

Charlotte finally faces someone over Raw's Women's Championship at a PPV that's not named Sasha Banks. She defends the title against Bayley at the Royal Rumble.

Let's talk about Bayley. She debuted at a time Sasha Banks was taking some time off. Her push got screwed up when Sasha Banks came back. They looked like they were going to push her again, but then they once again went back to Sasha Banks. But here it is, Bayley getting a title feud on the main roster.

I see a lot of criticism for Bayley. For one thing, a lot of fans don't like some of her promos. Well, a lot of these women, including the highly-praised top women's wrestling talent coming out of NXT, are not that great on the mic. Charlotte often seems robotic with some of her promos. Fans, and the WWE, just have to realize that not everyone is the same. That may sound obvious, but you have to put that idea into practice. Bayley may not be the type of performer that can cut certain promos or handle certain storylines. It just doesn't fit her character. But her character does have potential. She's someone little kids can like. She has a friendly personality. Whether she ever develops greater depth or not, you just have to find storylines and angles that work for her. It is the old idea of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It can really ruin Bayley if they just take her and just try to make her into something she is not.

Another criticism I have seen brought up is that Bayley doesn't have that same magic she had down in NXT. People say she was so over in NXT. They say she had the greatest underdog story in women's wrestling. The WWE may think that the could just redo the same kind of things they did down there for her. But it isn't working. I am not surprised. I have seen it before that something that looks so amazing down in NXT comes to the main roster and loses that luster, even if the WWE does try to feature it prominently. But this criticism is more on the WWE than Bayley. They cannot take it for granted that something successful in NXT will carry over on the main roster. And they should be terrified if that ever becomes the norm. NXT only gets a fraction of the audience the main roster gets. Do they want Raw only getting a million viewers or less? Do they want live events featuring main roster talent to get a crowd of 300? Do they want to only appeal to smarks? Put the proper work in on the main roster.

Who wins this match? Charlotte. Not only does Bayley not look like she's ready, but I doubt the WWE ruins Charlotte's undefeated PPV streak here. It's not a draw. I doubt the person that gets the "rub" by ending the streak will really benefit. It is just a means of hyping up Charlotte. End it at Wrestlemania. End it against an opponent that has been developed better. Whatever the case, it is not likely to end here.

Further down the card, Sasha Banks takes on Nia Jax. As I have said before, in the previous era, it would be rare to see someone that was just used to put over the centerpiece in the women's division still get a proper feud after she has been rotated out. I am not talking about a periphery angle. I mean a female wrestler feuding with another female wrestler in a legitimate feud that will go to a PPV. I cannot think of one example of a credible jobber getting a proper feud like this once during the diva era off the top of my head. Sasha Banks fans should not be complaining about Sasha Banks getting something to do.

One of the problems with this feud is that Bayley already beat Nia Jax a few weeks ago in a singles match. Nia Jax isn't undefeated on the main roster anymore. If she still was, that would make this feud seem even more important. Can Sasha Banks hand Nia Jax her first official loss on the main roster? Of course, they couldn't really help it. The roster lacks depth. If they wanted to have a #1 contender's match, there aren't a lot of credible options for Bayley to go over available. You have to take into account injuries and other angles the WWE has going on. In the old days, the WWE might just do a battle royal to decide the #1 contender. Bayley eliminating Nia Jax to win that would not be the same as beating her in a singles match. Nia Jax would still be undefeated in singles matches. But it is hard to book properly when you don't have a lot to work with. Because of that, this feud loses some of its luster. Sasha Banks still has to beat a destructive monster, but people have already seen that the monster is beatable.

Who wins? It comes down to how long the WWE wants to prolong this. And the WWE has shown that they do love prolonging things these days. This is a feud for Sasha Banks to win, but the WWE might extend this feud beyond the Royal Rumble. If they do, Nia Jax would win at the Royal Rumble and Sasha would win the feud later on. That is what I will go with.

Raw's Women's Division Finally Moves On

Charlotte regained the Raw Women's Championship last Sunday. Not shocking. What is also not shocking is that Charlotte is now moving on to Bayley and Sasha Banks gets Nia Jax.

Question is, what took them so long? I don't care if you are a Charlotte fan, Sasha fan, Bayley fan, or whatever. I don't care how much you like or dislike the WWE's handling of the women's division since #GiveDivasAChance made them look bad. I don't care if you enjoyed the wrestling from Charlotte and Sasha these last few months or not. You have to admit, that last title reign Sasha Banks had was just pointless. They extended the feud for no good reason. They were already showing signs of rotating in Bayley to face Charlotte. They killed that just to do another juggling act with the title between Charlotte and Sasha.

If you are in the camp that says Charlotte and Sasha are putting on great matches, you mean to tell me Bayley can't wrestle? She is one of the highly-regarded NXT women. The WWE really hurt her momentum with that sloppy booking over the last month. Moreover, even without the the title on the line, or at least not changing hands, Charlotte and Sasha could still have faced each other and put on matches wrestling fans can enjoy. The issue is having so many title changes and just continuing this feud too long.

Nia Jax has been another woman stuck in limbo while the WWE kept going with Sasha Banks and Charlotte. She gets something to do. Moreover, Sasha Banks, who was just used as a jobber to the centerpiece, gets a feud for herself outside the title picture. In the previous era, you couldn't count on something like this. Credible jobbers would get lost in the shuffle after putting over the centerpiece or filling in for the centerpiece. This feud is obviously not a title feud or bigger than the title feud, but it is still something for Sasha Banks to do. And there is a chance it gets featured well. At the very least, it might get featured better than the mediocrity credible jobbers would get in the diva era.

Previewing The Roadblock: End Of The Line Women's Match

You know the WWE has way too many PPVs now when they are pretty much recycling event names within a year. Sasha Banks defends the Raw Women's Championship against Charlotte for the last time in an Ironman match.

There has just been so much to criticize with this feud. First, it has been endless. There have been too many title changes in the last few months, which has warranted rematch after rematch. There have been multiple women that could have gotten proper title feuds that have just been floating around during these last few months. Bayley was added to a triple-threat a few months ago, but that is not the same as Bayley getting a singles push. Moreover, you have to wonder if she even would have been in that match if the WWE had things work out the way they intended. You also have Emma(lina). She hasn't debuted. Nia Jax has been made to look strong and has nowhere to go with it.

No rematch for the loser of the match this Sunday? Okay, if that is the way it has to be to end this feud. Don't be surprised if Charlotte and Sasha Banks still face each other in 2017, and possibly for the title. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn supposedly had their "final" encounter a number of months ago. They have faced each other a couple times since then. If anything, at least, this stipulation means a fresh feud will be starting after this Sunday.

Another thing to dislike is that history has just been stuffed between these two women in this short time. First two women to main-event a PPV. First two women to wrestle inside Hell in a Cell. First two women to have an Ironman match on the main roster. It is just abrasive to listen to some of these promos during this feud. The company is just trying way too hard. Relax. Worry about entertaining the fans, not hyping things up that the majority of potential viewers out there are not going to buy into to tune in on a consistent basis.

Who wins? I think the next potential feud might give a clue. Bayley looked to be on the road to a push against Charlotte for the title. That push got blocked when the WWE tossed the title back to Sasha Banks. Charlotte will likely get the title back so that she can continue her feud with Bayley.

And how many title reigns will Charlotte get handed to her off of her next feud? Her father won titles over the span of decades. Her father was also a lot more charismatic and deserved to be pushed at a high level and treated like a legend. Charlotte is going to win as many titles as her father and in half the time. It is disgusting. And if the WWE does juggle the title around Charlotte next year like they have these last few months, it will be vomit-inducing. Even if Charlotte had the overness to deserve this type of career, it is annoying booking for anyone to have. It's like stat-padding in sports. A player just keeps on putting up numbers when the game is out of hand, whether his team is winning or losing. Whenever it happens, some fans out there always roll their eyes. Overrating Charlotte with all these title reigns and history is not going to get her over. And if she can't get the overness to deserve the big career she has gotten, how about giving someone else a chance?

State Of The WWE Women's Division: December 2016

The band split is back, so I have two divisions to talk about. Aside from that, I will talk about the overall direction of the WWE when it comes to the women.

Let me start with Raw. The title shot back to Sasha Banks last week. Beyond that, Ric Flair came back. It just felt like the WWE went back a year. We are back to Ric Flair being involved in the women's division because his daughter is getting a big push. Everyone is expecting Ric Flair to turn on Sasha Banks and help Charlotte regain the title. Enough of Ric Flair. Start better utilizing the full-time talent already on Raw.

How about the WWE just juggling Raw's Women's Championship around? I find it disgusting. There are other women that have just been hovering around in limbo for the last few months. Bayley has not gotten a proper push. Nia Jax is just there. I see people making jokes about the debut of Emmalina. Is she going to show up with a dancing gimmick, like Brodus Clay? The debut is supposed to be coming next week, but you can never tell with this company. And forcing so much "history" between Sasha Banks and Charlotte is also disgusting. Save some for the rest of these women. People are going to look back and say that this feud did so much for women's wrestling. This feud was forced.

I have seen other fans talk about it and there is a point that I like that I have seen them bring up. This feud has had no real development to it. It is just these two women swapping the title and talking about history. The addition of Ric Flair only adds another supporting player in the same story. The creative interest here needs work. Too much hype. These women can wrestle, but there are a lot of fans that are not going to be interested based on wrestling alone. And there are also some fans that are annoyed by all the hype and this feud still going on. The WWE just cannot keep it fresh in a proper way.

Outside of the female wrestlers, you have Lana in the periphery. She has that angle with Enzo. Some fans are entertained by these segments they have been having. Some are annoyed. It is kind of like the angle with Ziggler, Summer Rae, Rusev, and Lana last year. Most fans hated it, but it had potential. At least Rusev and Lana are getting a storyline.

Over to Smackdown. Alexa Bliss won Smackdown's Women's Championship at TLC. That is not what I would have done. I have said Smackdown's women's division looks like the diva era's last stand. I am not too shocked that they would allow a diva to hold a title. Over on Raw, it has just been a show between Sasha Banks and Charlotte, two women with solid wrestling credibility. Alexa Bliss is not at their level. She has an interesting character and an appealing look, but I don't think she is at the level of Trish Stratus at her prime. Nevertheless, I do not see any heavy complaining from wrestling fans about her getting the title.

What about Becky Lynch? She just lost her title to her first real challenger for the title. Is this just so she can eventually win it back? I don't think so. That kind of booking is just annoying and it is bad enough that Raw is doing it. Alexa Bliss is just not a credible challenger. The WWE should have had Becky Lynch run through this feud and lose the title to a stronger heel. The fact that the WWE instead went with this title change may suggest that they have something else planned than just using Alexa Bliss to put over Becky Lynch. But the WWE should make an effort to still give Becky Lynch a proper push. She doesn't need the title to be featured well. She made history by being the first woman to hold that title. She wasn't getting that fantastic of a career prior to the big win. She wasn't even pushed well in the weeks leading up to Backlash where she won the title. She didn't really have a great overness to deserve the moment as a reward. The only way they can justify this booking decision is giving her that big career now. If not, it is just a wasted booking decision. Push her well until you have a good reason not to. I do not see that good reason.

Some people say Alexa Bliss won the title just to lose it to Nikki Bella down the road. Nikki won her match against Carmella. I would not be against Nikki getting a title reign. The WWE put a lot of work into her for a few years. She came back from a serious injury. She is more over than some people might like to admit. She is also more solid in the ring than some people might like to admit. The WWE has done well in featuring her well without the title these last few months. A title reign next year would not be horrible.

Over in Smackdown's periphery, Maryse is still with Miz. But she has not been utilized as well as Lana has recently. Is that a good thing or bad thing? As I said, some fans just dislike these periphery angles. But they can be done well. Whether or not the WWE comes up with something better for Maryse, she just remains some eye-candy to look at.

In general, both divisions lack a strong identity. What does the WWE want to be when it comes to women's wrestling? If they want to be about serious women's wrestling, giving Smackdown's Women's Championship to a Alexa Bliss so soon is not a move that makes sense. And if their goal is to push women's wrestling, why put so much focus on just Charlotte and Sasha Banks on Raw? They are not the only women that know how to wrestle on Raw.

And I didn't once bring up the word "centerpiece" when going through the two women's divisions. What does the WWE want in terms of a central focus, if there even will be one? I could say it is Charlotte on Raw, but then the WWE continues with this endless feud between her and Sasha Banks. Can you picture a world in 2017 where these two are not feuding? Over on Smackdown, it is even worse. By giving Becky Lynch the Smackdown's Women's Championship first, you would think she would be the centerpiece. But her development prior to the title win was poor, her title reign has not been that amazing, and now there is a chance she will be pushed out of the title scene. Is Nikki Bella the centerpiece? If so, why not just have her be the first Smackdown's Women's Champion? Or is the WWE going for the younger option, Alexa Bliss, to be the centerpiece of this diva-friendly women's division?

As I have said before, you have to wait a while to get a feel of what the women's divisions will look like in this new era. So far, it seems like even the WWE does not know what they want to be. You have Becky Lynch get poor development heading into Backlash and still winning the title. You have Bayley looking like she will finally get a title feud, then get ditched so Charlotte/Sasha can continue. The WWE has to be more decisive. That does not mean being stubborn. If you see someone is not really working out in getting over, don't force it. But they just look like they can't commit to things properly right now. And that is a huge problem.

A lot of fans are talking about women the WWE can sign, including Mickie James. I am a Mickie James fan, but I would not bring her back. Not right now. The WWE needs to look at the roster they have right in front of them and decide what they want to be and how they are going to go about becoming what they want to be. The WWE is just looking for easy answers to cause buzz for them, without actually improving how they manage their talent. No Ric Flair. No Mickie James. No Trish Stratus for just a guest appearance. Their primary concern should be what they have now. Even with the brand split, it is possible to be more efficient with the rosters they have. Without improving there, it is very likely that whatever other women they bring in will not be handled properly, and that will hurt their overness. Mickie James is only 37. She still has a few good years left. Let the WWE spend a couple months to a year getting their act together, then bring her in.

Two Endless Rivalries

Seth Rollins has been feuding with Kevin Owens over the Universal Championship and Sasha Banks has had that feud with Charlotte over Raw's Women's Championship. Both feuds have been going on longer than they need to.

Let me start with the women's feud. It has been going on for longer than Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens. On the main roster, you can say Sasha and Charlotte have been feuding since that night they both debuted last year. In terms of feuding over a title since then, you can say they got started at Wrestlemania season this year. Becky Lynch was also involved back then. That feud took a hiatus as Charlotte went against Natalya. Sasha Banks then took back the feud. And they have been feuding since. They have already juggled the title between them a few times. Charlotte recently won back the title at Hell in a Cell last month. Sasha Banks never got her rematch. That is what she will get on Raw next week.

I was all for Sasha Banks retaining the title at Hell in a Cell. I don't think she deserves to be pushed as the centerpiece, but she certainly deserved the opportunity to legitimately show what she could do when the spotlight is truly on her and she's not just being used as a jobber to the centerpiece for Charlotte. Problem is, that didn't happen. She didn't retain the title. And since that is the booking decision that has to be lived with, they should not just shoot the title back to Sasha again. Not so soon. Charlotte is likely to retain against Sasha Banks, then move on to Bayley.

What about Sasha Banks? She can move on to Nia Jax. She is lucky she even has that to do. In the previous era, credible jobbers would be treated a lot more poorly. They would have complete mediocrity to do, if they were even lucky enough to have that.

Onto Seth Rollins and his never-ending quest to burn Raw to the ground and get back at Triple H. Or not. He just seems to get title shot after title shot. He had one on Raw this week. Pretty good match. But it ended in a controversial way that pretty much makes it obvious that he will still be feuding with Kevin Owens.

Now, Rollins and Owens have not been feuding as long as Sasha Banks and Charlotte have. But the problem is that Seth Rollins has been involved in every PPV World title match he could legitimately be involved in since first winning the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania last year. The only exceptions have been the period in which he was injured, Smackdown-exclusive PPVs recently, and Survivor Series recently, where neither World title was defended.

While on a message board recently, I came across another piece of trivia about Seth Rollins that shows just how overbearing his booking has been. Someone pointed out that he has been involved in every Universal Championship match. The title is only a few months old, but it is kind of ridiculous that this one guy has been in all the matches, despite never winning the title. This is worse than Roman Reigns. Roman Reigns never had a stretch like this.

Seth Rollins is supposed to be feuding with Triple H. That whole storyline has just lost almost all its edge. The WWE has failed to properly follow up with this at all. Some fans point out that it was created at the last minute when Finn Balor got hurt. So what? Injuries happen all the time in sports. The "Next Man Up" philosophy doesn't just mean you throw someone out there when an injury happens and let whatever happens just happen. You try to help the replacement to succeed. Okay, an injury happened to ruin what the WWE had planned. But they did a good job in laying the seeds of a big angle when Triple H showed up to screw Seth Rollins. But they have not nurtured this storyline well at all. I don't care if this is going to culminate at Wrestlemania, they should have handled these few weeks better. And if they had no intention to, they should have come up with a different angle when Finn Balor got injured to cause some buzz.When they eventually do go back to Triple H vs. Seth Rollins, I doubt that feud will have that same feel to it that it could have.

What could Seth Rollins have been doing now? Why is he not feuding with Jericho? Jericho has been a torn in his side. Those two could have feuded for one or two PPVs. By the time it was all over, it's Wrestlemania season and Triple H can take over against Rollins.

Where does that leave Kevin Owens and his title? Pick any legitimate contender in the men's division and have him go against Owens. The men's division has a lot more bodies than the women's division. In the women's division, moreover, there are just some women you would not expect to be treated as legitimate contenders for the title, like Lana. But there are so many options for the men. Why is it Seth Rollins, Seth Rollins, Seth Rollins, and Seth Rollins in the title picture so much? Especially in the brand split era, this kind of thing is just not going to work. There are so many guys being underutilized, while one guy just gets pushed in the title scene too much. I wouldn't even mind Roman Reigns getting a brief push against Kevin Owens again. He has taken a few months off from the World title scene.

Just like great booking can help a wrestler get over, terrible booking can hurt a wrestler's overness. I don't think either Sasha Banks or Seth Rollins have A+ overness, but the booking they are getting is not helping. Especially in the case of Seth Rollins, they are obviously not screwing the guy. He is a guy they want to be a top star. But they are botching. No one needs to be in the title scene this much. As a Mickie James fan, I have said in the past that I wish she had gotten some great periphery angles like Lita got. It would have helped to extend her career and take her to another level. But they only pushed her as a credible jobber. Being in the title scene so much for her was not a good thing. They were just using her to put over whom they wanted over or using her as filler. Sasha Banks looks like she is following in that path, although the new era will be kinder to her. But back to Seth Rollins, it is just so much easier to keep men relevant outside the title scene than it is for the women. There are so many men on the roster for him to feud with until Triple H continues the storyline. But this booking is just going to turn some fans against Rollins. I doubt he gets as bad as Roman Reigns, but he is not reaching his full potential.