Alexa Bliss Wins Back The Title

I wanted to to talk about the women in my last few days blogging, but this is not what I wanted to have to talk about. Alexa Bliss defeated Sasha Banks on Raw to win back the title. After that, Nia Jax attacked Bliss to start a feud there.

This is just garbage on so many levels. If they were not going to give Sasha Banks a proper run with the title, they should not have given it to her at all. The only thing the title change accomplished is stopping Alexa's reign before it topped Charlotte's first run with the Raw Women's Championship to become the longest-reigning titleholder. And it's not like that reign is so long that it cannot be topped easily. It probably will be beaten in the next few years.

Meanwhile, Alexa Bliss has her resume inflated. Sasha, as well, but to a lesser degree. Alexa Bliss is the centerpiece, not Sasha. In less than a year, Alexa has won four title reigns between Smackdown and Raw. Again, that is just garbage. The WWE has to create some fresh feuds with women that are properly developed and deserve the push. Failure to properly build challengers is likely one of the reasons for so many women getting poor reactions that should not be getting those poor reactions.

It is ridiculous that the WWE cannot come up with ways to keep Alexa Bliss relevant outside the title picture. Okay, she sells merchandise. Fine, that is a reason to feature her. But not like this. I have said this about Roman Reigns in recent weeks. The guy has not held a main-event title in over a year. He is on a PPV losing streak. He is not looking like a top guy, in terms of booking. In terms of hype, he obviously still is a top guy. He is in a big feud with John Cena. I see some fans upset this isn't happening at Wrestlemania. It probably should. Give more time to rebuild Reigns. What about Bliss? There are obviously less top performers for her to work with in the women's division, due mainly to the WWE's failure to properly feature the women, but they could still find something else for her to do.

Let me once again explain the system the WWE ran in the diva era. The WWE liked to have a woman they would push as their top star and to regularly be featured in the title scene. That was their centerpiece. They would frequently build up women with wrestling credibility to trade the title with the centerpiece and be an obstacle for her to overcome or someone to draw heat off of. These were credible jobbers. They frequently got tossed aside when done doing the job. They were also sometimes used as interim centerpiece when something happened to the real centerpiece or the real centerpiece was getting an angle away from the title. Outside of that, there were periphery divas, or stars featured in the periphery of the title matters. They might sometimes get title reigns, but the bulk of their time was meant to be outside the title picture. Lastly, this system was run with the idea that an eye-candy diva would be the centerpiece. That was what made the diva era what it was.

Smackdown obviously doesn't have a centerpiece. They just go in different directions. But Raw is that centerpiece-driven division. You saw it last year with Charlotte. She got that annoying booking of frequent title wins and other women, mostly Sasha Banks, not getting pushed right. Charlotte is now Ms. Irrelevant on Smackdown, while Alexa Bliss has come and taken her place on Raw as the centerpiece. She is getting that annoying booking. Sasha Banks was recently once again the victim. Bayley has also been a victim of the bad booking designed to help Alexa Bliss.

The thing is, centerpiece booking was never this annoying during the diva era. Trish Stratus won 7 women's titles in roughly 5 years. If Charlotte had not gone to Smackdown, it looked like she might have won 20 titles in 5 years. Alexa Bliss is now the one on pace to win 20 titles in 5 years. It will obviously not happen, but this is annoying. And you never had this many short title reigns for the credible jobbers back in the golden era. Barring an injury, this should not happen. The women were typically allowed to have some successful title defenses. There were even spans where Trish took a break from the title scene. The most memorable was her angle involving Chris Jericho and Christian.

That is another problem, the terrible periphery. You have some periphery women today, like Maryse, but they are not featured as well as they were back in the day. Chyna, Lita, and AJ Lee were all featured very well in the periphery, and all before ever winning a women's title in the WWE. The WWE obviously cannot do certain things today, but AJ Lee's push in the periphery came in the PG Era. There is still potential to do something. And that is where Alexa Bliss should be pushed outside the title scene. Give women like Sasha Banks, Emma, and Mickie James a chance to freshen up the title feuds. Alexa Bliss's best attributes are her looks and her character. That screams periphery. That is where they need to push. Find an angle alongside the men.

Lastly, how about Nia Jax seemingly next in line for a title feud? Horrible. How about the WWE stops awarding women for underachieving, having injury issues, and even being dangerous in the ring? If you are underachieving, step up and get over, or at least put some good effort into it. If you have injury issues, do your best to change your style to stay healthy and show you can be trusted. If you are dangerous in the ring, you just got to clean that up. It was not long ago that Bayley got injured while working with Nia Jax. All the blame cannot be put on Nia, but there was at least one spot in that match where it was obvious she was being clumsy with an injured Bayley. And that was not her first instance of being dangerous in the ring this year. Nia Jax needs to be held accountable, not be given title feuds. Needless to say, match quality will not be good between Nia Jax and Alexa Bliss. Even if you toss in Sasha Banks, it will likely still not be what some fans were hoping for when this women's revolution started.

How The WWE Chose To Handle Bayley's Injury

When I talked about Bayley's injury last week, one of the points I made was that the depth in Raw's women's division was still good. They had various women they could start utilizing in Bayley's absence. When I said that, however, I did not mean the WWE should just take all these women and dump them into matches on Raw.

Last night, they had two triple threat matches to decide the new #1 contender for Alexa Bliss at Summerslam. The winners of those two matches would face each other next week to decide who gets the title shot. It will be Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax.

Why do I dislike the WWE doing this? I do like the idea of tournaments and things like that. But there are various reasons why doing this kind of thing now is not good. First, it leaves the WWE with no time to build a proper feud between Alexa Bliss and the winner of next week's match, likely Sasha Banks. Summerslam is on August 20th. Next week is the last Raw before the PPV.

Go back to the last Raw PPV. Sasha Banks ended up getting the title shot against Alexa Bliss. But the WWE got there in a very poor way. They did not develop Sasha Banks well at all. When she finally did get the title shot, there was only one week left before PPV and the WWE really could not do too much to make the feud interesting. It was just a basic title feud. But there is one reason why I would not complain too much about that back then. I figured this feud would continue past Great Balls Of Fire. It didn't. They went back to Bayley. And now with Bayley injured, Sasha Banks is the logical choice to push, but the WWE is once again limiting the amount of time they will have to work with to make this title feud more interesting.

The second reason I dislike how the WWE handled things is that it really does nothing for the extra women that were involved in these matches. Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax was just the likely match even before this week. They should have just gotten it over with and spent Raw next week properly developing Sasha vs. Alexa. And there was no swerve in the results of the triple threats last night. No surprise winner of either match. No Paige return. Nothing interesting. All those extra women were really just fluff.

If you are one of those fans that want to see Emma or Mickie James doing something more than they have been doing, you cannot settle for just seeing them on Raw used like they were. That's nothing. That's not a push. That's not being used in a creative way. Last night isn't going to help them or the other extras, Alicia Fox and Dana Brooke.

The WWE needs more creative depth in Raw's women's division. They need one other storyline besides Alexa Bliss and whatever she is doing. They have teased little things here and there, but they need to stop playing around and just develop some feud or storyline already. Creatively, the title feud is not that creative at all, and there is nothing else going on to talk about. It's just chasing after a title. Very dull. The WWE has to do more than that.

Bayley Injured

During Bayley's match with Nia Jax on Raw, it looked like Bayley had suffered a legitimate shoulder injury. It has now been confirmed by the WWE that Bayley is injured. Assuming Bayley is out for a long period of time, how does this impact things?

The first thing you have to talk about is the #1 contendership. Bayley was supposed to face Alexa Bliss at Summerslam for Raw's Women's Championship. Thankfully, the depth is good. The WWE can just go back to pushing Sasha Banks. I would say Sasha Banks never should have lost the push in the first place. Of course, they can't just hand the title shot to Sasha Banks. They can have her win some match to earn the title shot. She can beat Nia Jax.

Overall, how does the loss of Bayley impact the depth of the Raw women's division? Hopefully, Bayley recovers well and is back soon. Until then, however, there is no shortage of faces. Mickie James and Dana Brooke have just been floating there for weeks now. Dana Brooke is not good in the ring, but the WWE can lean on Mickie James to team with Sasha Banks in tag matches for the next few weeks, or use her as a jobber. I have seen fans completely forget Mickie James is even there. Hopefully, if anything good comes out of something as bad as Bayley getting injured, Mickie James gets more usage.

The other issue to consider is Nia Jax. This is not the first time she has been involved in a match with some scary botches. Just a couple months ago, Charlotte's final match on Raw was against Nia Jax. It wasn't pretty. All the botches cannot be put on Nia Jax. Some botches are the fault of the person executing the move. Some are the fault of the person taking the move. And some are the fault of both individuals. I decided not to make a big deal of Nia Jax back then, since I did not feel she deserved all the blame back then. I still feel you cannot put all the blame on her for what happened this week, but she definitely has to take some of the blame. Moreover, this might be becoming a theme with her. Clumsy botches are one thing. Botches that result in serious injuries are something else.

Nia Jax is not a great worker. She is not that great in the ring. She does not have an appealing look. She does not show any great charisma. The fact that she's not like most girls does not mean anything. There are a lot of women out there that do not have the stereotypical look that manage to be stars. Adele does not have the stereotypical look. But she has a powerful voice and makes music that has helped her become a success. Thing is, you have to be good at what you are doing. Nia Jax is not.

How should the WWE handle Nia Jax going forward? Some say she should go back to NXT. I would not do that. But it is time to hold her accountable. If she cannot clean up her matches and start being smarter, fire her. I know botches will happen now and then, but if another serious botch happens that causes an injury, and it is obvious Nia is at fault, she should just not be getting any TV time, while other women that are better than her in the ring, like Emma, don't get opportunities. A worker like this should not be on the payroll.

Bayley Gets Another Shot At Alexa Bliss

Summerslam is starting to take shape. Challengers for the women's titles are already set. Over on Raw, Bayley defeated Sasha Banks to get another shot at Alexa Bliss.

I do not like it. Going back a few months, I would agree that Bayley was not treated right in her feud against Alexa Bliss. Losing the title is one thing, but the WWE made Bayley look bad. But they had to move on. And they did. To Sasha Banks. Even getting to her was not done smoothly and there was no time to develop a proper feud between her and Alexa Bliss. But sticking to Bayley, she wasn't even relevant for a number of weeks. All of a sudden, she is the one getting the title shot again. This is sloppy.

I would have stuck to Sasha Banks getting the title shot. She didn't exactly lose decisively to Alexa Bliss at their last PPV encounter. Sasha getting another shot just made sense. Some people were even expecting a triple threat when Bayley vs. Sasha Banks was made. That match would end indecisively and both would go on to face Alexa Bliss. Even that would have been okay. This kind of feud development of moving away from Sasha Banks before her feud with Alexa Bliss has proper closure and moving back to Bayley after the story has stopped being about her for so long is just not good. If Sasha Banks was injured and they had to go back to Bayley, then I would agree with what they did. But if there is no special situation right now, this is just bad development.

What people are expecting now is that this turns into a heel turn for Sasha Banks. Remember when Sasha was supposed to turn heel months ago? It didn't happen then. If it happens now, I don't think the ends would have justified the means. Heel Sasha Banks would obviously feud with face Bayley, but these two have wrestled each other multiple times on the main roster already. Another possibility is Sasha Banks going to Smackdown. Even then, it does not change the fact that the development recently has been terrible.

The WWE needs to stop this dance they have going on with Sasha Banks and Bayley. These two seem to be involved in every Raw Women's Championship feud since around this time last year. Throw in Alexa Bliss dominating the title scene for much of the year, regardless of which brand she is on. And the only other thing you have going on is the occasional insertion of Nia Jax being a monster and beating everyone up, which does not have any long-term value.

There are other women on the roster that can make for some fresh feuds. Smackdown has put the NXT elite on the back burner at times. Neither Becky Lynch nor Charlotte have been pushed very well these last few months. Smackdown could do better in a lot of ways with their women, but at least they aren't overdoing it by forcing one of two women into every title feud like Raw is doing. It is just getting ridiculous.

Emma got squashed by Nia Jax. Some say it is because she complained on Twitter about not being given a chance. She should keep complaining. Either the WWE will give her something to do or they will release her, freeing her to work somewhere else. There are multiple angles she could have gotten these last few weeks to feature her better on Raw. The story with Emma, Mickie James, and Dana Brooke is underdeveloped. That could have been a solid secondary feud. There was that point where Alexa Bliss walked out on Emma and Nia Jax and Emma came out to confront her. Something could have been made of that. Nothing. Is what is going on now a legit storyline they will follow through with? Instead of anything great, there is this sloppy juggling act going on that results in either Sasha Banks or Bayley getting the spotlight in these terribly-developed feuds.

The Sloppiness Of The Raw Women's Division

Both the Raw and Smackdown women's divisions have their issues that are resulting in fans getting irritated and women not realizing their full potential in terms of how they are being pushed and how well they are connecting with the fans. I talked a lot about the issues with Smackdown recently. I cannot let Raw off the hook.

A couple weeks ago, Raw had a very dumb interaction for their women that I briefly mentioned. Alexa Bliss defended the title against Nia Jax in a pathetic match. But that was not even the issue. Mickie James and Dana Brooke were out there because they are also not on good terms with Alexa Bliss. They end up going after her. Nia Jax pushed them out of the way because she wanted Alexa for herself. She attacked them again. The segment ended with Mickie and Dana just getting in the ring with Nia and letting her destroy them. That was bad writing. After Nia Jax already knocked them around a few minutes earlier, why would Mickie and Dana just get in the ring to stand there like they could trust her? Why wouldn't they at least try to get revenge? They could have even just stared down both Nia and Alexa from outside the ring. Mickie and Dana just looked stupid with that kind of writing.

And the stupidity continues. This week on Raw, Sasha Banks and Nia Jax had another match that was nothing to get excited about. Once again, however, that was not the issue. Another brawl broke out. It seems all the women hate Alexa Bliss. Emma came out to get some of Alexa, who did walk out on the other two heels the week before in a tag match. Nia Jax held Alexa for Emma. Emma accidentally hit Nia Jax. A little while after that, Emma and Alexa just shrug off their issues and attack Sasha Banks. I know two enemies might put aside their differences to attack a common enemy, but Emma was just focused on going after Alexa Bliss a few moments ago, how could you just shrug that off so easily? Alexa Bliss was her immediate target, not Sasha Banks. Mickie James and Dana Brooke then come out to go after the heels. Bayley runs out after. I was watching this segment on Monday. Part of me expected Bayley to attack Mickie James and Dana Brooke? Why? Because it would match the rest of the stupidity going on here.

There are various reasons why none of these women are as over as they could be. I think two of those reasons came up in this very segment from Raw.

First, the WWE's writers are not doing a proper job building characters, relationships, and feuds. Fans just don't know what to make out of a lot of what they are seeing. Emma comes out there focused on getting Alexa Bliss. Next thing you know, they seem to be on the same side again. You also have Mickie James and Dana Brooke together. That's fine, but they could have done a much better job creating that relationship to make it easier for fans to care about it.

The second problem I saw on Raw was that things are just congested. This has been an issue I brought up for the Smackdown women. Too many feuds and PPV matches involving too many women. That problem has really taken over on Raw recently. Things started out as Alexa Bliss vs. Nia Jax, with Mickie James and Dana Brooke also involved in the story. That was fine. The WWE could have done something good with those four women. Next thing you know, Sasha Banks is in the story and the spotlight seems to be on her more. Emma returns and is thrown into the story. This week, Bayley runs out. Is Alicia Fox going to get involved next week? This is just not good. The WWE has added way too many women to this thing and created a mess.

Let me focus on Bayley. I would be the first one to say that the WWE has not treated her right since she debuted on the main roster. And she looked terrible in her feud with Alexa Bliss. But she lost the feud and the WWE looked like they were moving on. She has to take a backseat. Either find her another angle or rest her for a few weeks. It isn't fair to other women to have her pushed back into the picture. I said the same thing about Sasha Banks. She deserved a proper title run. But if the WWE was unwilling to do that and just continued the endless feud with her and Charlotte, that was just unfair to other women. In this case, it was unfair to Bayley. Even when Bayley won the title, Sasha Banks was out there. What face woman was sharing the spotlight with Sasha when she won he first title? This is one of the reasons Bayley has not worked out better. She has not had that individual spotlight properly on her when her push started. But it is unfair to keep sending her out there when there are other women that could use some proper attention.

Not only can you talk about congestion in terms of women in this picture, you can talk about creative congestion. Everyone dislikes Alexa Bliss. Not only does she have a title everyone would like to have, but she has done things to ruin her relationships with various women, even though the WWE is sloppy with that. You also have the fact that everyone has to keep an eye on Nia Jax because she will attack both the faces and the heels. So what is the feud that is going on right now? It is not clean at all. The WWE can try to toss together some multi-woman match for Great Balls Of Fire, but they have not set this up properly at all. What is the story? All these women want the title? All these women want revenge on Alexa Bliss? Should the focus be on Nia Jax? Things were already messy even before Bayley ran out this week. What is her story? And will it properly fit in with anything else? Then again, stories don't seem to matter here. Everyone is just going to fight each other.

How would I do things? First, Sasha Banks should be the one getting a singles feud against Alexa Bliss. She has the freshness. It could have started this month and gone to Summerslam. There was no need to have this congested mess. If the WWE wanted to toss all the women together for a #1 contender's match, they could have just done that by now and without all the sloppy half-developed angles that they have been throwing out there.

Second, Mickie James, Dana Brooke, and Emma should be doing something separate. Emma is returning from her injury, so it would be nice if she could get some proper focus on her. Mickie and Dana have that partnership that can really be featured a lot better. Dana and Emma used to be partners. The story just seems to write itself. Instead of having all these women focused on either going after Alexa Bliss or defending themselves against Nia Jax, create an interesting storyline away from that which might help the character development of these women. The story could either lead to Dana turning on Mickie James to go back to Emma or Dana finally knocking her former partner to the curb. It would be something the audience would have an easier time getting behind than the sloppiness of the last few weeks. And Mickie James vs. Emma would be a good singles match, certainly better than just Emma vs. Dana Brooke.

What about the other women, namely Nia Jax and Bayley? They can either feud with each other or just take a backseat for a while. It happens. It happened all the time in the diva era. It just becomes hard to come up with an angle for everyone on a consistent basis in the women's division. If you force yourself to do it, you end up with the sloppiness you now have. What is wrong if these two women are just supporting players in another feud? Be there as tag partners for the Alexa/Sasha feud or to put these women over to give them momentum in the feud.

The WWE needs to fix the problems. Come up with clear angles for these women and stop trying to give them all something to do. It is just not practical. It makes it harder for fans to connect with a lot of what is going on.

Emma Injured

Emma suffered an injury recently while the WWE was on their international tour. It still remains to be seen how serious it is and how long she will be out, if she will miss time at all. Just for the sake of discussion, let's talk about what happens if she does miss extended time.

This is not the first time Emma has suffered an injury. She suffered a serious one last year. The "Emmalina" angle then followed this year. That got dropped and she returned with the same character she had before her previous injury. She was getting a storyline with Dana Brooke, her former partner. It didn't look like it would be that great of a storyline, but it was still something to do.

It is bad luck for her. I am not going to put her in the same category as Naomi. For one thing, Emma has never been getting a serious push that got ruined because of injury issues. If she is out for a long time, she should be allowed to come back and get another angle. Just like I said with Naomi, however, the WWE should not be planning to rush any titles on her. She needs to stay healthy. First things first, I think it is more important to just get her over. I don't think most fans, beyond the smarks, have gotten to know her that well. With all the injuries, going back to NXT, and whatever other issues, she has never really gotten a chance to really get fans to know her on the main roster.

I would say that she should reinvent herself again. I know that will not be easy to do. A lot of fans who watch NXT fell in love with the heel character she developed there. Problem is, assuming she is out for a while, that character is now a couple years old. It has never gotten anywhere, although you can't blame Emma for that. I am not saying she come back as Emmalina, but this heel character just seems like it lost any freshness it had left.

Is the depth of the Raw women's division hurt? Raw still has a lot of women. You saw them all last week. Even with Emma out, they can just use Alicia Fox more, if they really need to.

Aside from roster depth, you have to think about creative depth. As I mentioned, Emma was getting a storyline going with Dana Brooke. Assuming Emma is out for a while, that storyline is now ruined and the only storyline going on right now is the one revolving around Alexa Bliss. It is always good to have multiple angles going. It gives multiple people something meaningful to do and gives fans more to talk about.

I would start a storyline with Dana Brooke, Mickie James, and Nia Jax. Dana Brooke isn't good enough to push as a serious in-ring worker. But she is there and she has character potential. Nia Jax is a heel that is arguably just under Alexa Bliss in Raw's women's division. The WWE would probably want to give her something. And Mickie James needs help with her character. She had a bad heel character on Smackdown and a poor face turn. Some people were still unsure whether she was face or heel until last week, when she teamed with the other faces. For the many fans that do not know who Mickie James is, it is time to give them a reason to care. I would have Dana Brooke vs. Nia Jax. Nia wins and continues to bully Dana. Mickie James comes out for the save. And just take things from there. Should Emma return before this feud ends, she can team with Nia Jax against Mickie James and Dana Brooke. That way, multiple women get something meaningful to do.

Previewing The Payback 2017 Women's Match

As of now, there is only one women's match for the upcoming Raw PPV. That would Alexa Bliss going after Bayley's Women's Championship. There are a couple things to talk about before previewing the match.

First, go back two weeks to when Alexa Bliss came over to Raw, along with Mickie James. That segment seemed to have been overbooked. Let me just focus on one thing. Did Sasha Banks turn heel in that segment? Fans have been anticipating that for a while. Sasha Banks finally starts looking like she might go after Bayley for the title. Next thing you know, three other women show up.

Is it fair to Sasha Banks to just overlook her like this for the sake of Alexa Bliss? I don't think so. If nothing else, there was a story brewing here between Sasha and Bayley. Even if the WWE eventually goes back to that story, the sloppiness may just hurt the value. Beyond the story, how does this make Sasha Banks look? This is not the first time she has been pushed hard for a while, then gotten lost in the shuffle. That is how you expect a credible jobber to be pushed, but you would have hoped the WWE would be doing better than this these days.

Next, go back to last week when it was Alexa Bliss vs. Sasha Banks vs. Mickie James vs. Nia Jax. Who was the face in this match? Alexa Bliss is a clear heel, although they were in her hometown last week and she got cheered. Nia Jax is also a heel, although she is not an anyone's side. I just talked about Sasha Banks turning. Mickie James has had her character in limbo for a while now. I can't tell what she is. The WWE really needs to do a better job with the characters of these performers. I'm not even talking about gimmicks. I am talking simply presenting them as clear heels or faces. I am not saying they should never do tweener characters. And some tweener characters can be very entertaining. But you don't have that here. Nia Jax attacking both faces and heels is not that great. Sasha Banks having her heel character look like an afterthought so easily is not great. Whatever Mickie James has been doing in the last few months is definitely not great. The WWE needs to do a better job presenting these women.

Speaking of things that are not fair, is it fair to Mickie James that she has not been treated better since coming to Raw? The creative depth is not great with the Raw women right now. Yes, Dana Brooke and Emma are getting an angle outside the title scene. That's good. I have seen someone complain that Emma is being wasted. Emma is getting an angle, while certain other women have nothing to do. Mickie James is one of those other women. I have seen some people expecting Mickie James to feud with Nia Jax. And where's that? I think it is terrible that they have not made a better effort to create a feud for Mickie James for Payback. Even if it only gets on the pre-show, it can be the start of something that could last a few more weeks after April. Just dumping it on the card now is not the same as properly developing it prior to the event.

Onto the actual match. Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss will likely not be a classic. The respectable aura that the WWE had created on Raw's women's division may very well start to fade. I always felt it would be hard to sustain, but the WWE just better be careful with what they do. They might be entering another diva era.

Who wins? It should be Bayley. The WWE will likely have Charlotte win the title on Smackdown before Alexa Bliss gets any run on Raw. Besides that, I think it would be insulting to what has been created on Raw in the last year to give Alexa Bliss the title here. Yes, what she did on Smackdown might have been good enough to earn a title reign there, but Raw has had better standards. Alexa Bliss needs to show even more here. Then again, the WWE is terrible with maintaining standards. Nevertheless, I will stick with Bayley.

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.

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 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.

Survivor Series 2016 Preview: Part 2

I will talk about the women's match today. Aside from the actual match, I have to bring up the personal feuds on both brands with these women. It will obviously spill over to some degree this Sunday.

Let me start with Smackdown. Nikki Bella, Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss, Carmella, and Naomi will be teaming up. Three faces and two heels. Aside from that, Nikki Bella and Carmella are coming off a feud that seemed to be more heated than it really needed to be at times. Carmella would be assaulting Nikki before matches even had a chance to start. And there was never any strong personal reason for that. Becky Lynch has been feuding with Alexa Bliss over the Smackdown Women's Championship. Becky may have retained it, but this feud is not over. But these will be two feuds that might spill over to the women's match at Survivor Series.

How about that decision to not make Becky Lynch, the Women's Champion of Smackdown, team captain? I still see some fans annoyed by it. Again, I am not going to shake my head at this decision. Becky Lynch was out for a while due to a medical issue. When she came back, she was immediately still tied up in that feud with Alexa Bliss. She was not really free to handle the angle of being team captain. Why not spread some of the attention around?

Over to Raw. Charlotte will be teaming with Sasha Banks, Bayley, Nia Jax, and Alicia Fox. Once again, three faces and two heels. Charlotte being the captain here is understandable. She wrapped up Sasha Banks at Hell in a Cell and the WWE got around to pushing her for this Survivor Series match right away. Even though both Sasha Banks and Bayley will be gunning for Raw's Women's Championship, a title feud has not been as active on Raw as you have had with Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss on Smackdown in recent weeks. Nia Jax had lost a ton of momentum prior to this push. Alicia Fox was even further down the ladder than her. She was last relevant when being used to put over Nia Jax. But these two are really just extra bodies.

Who wins? There is obviously a ton of personal feuds on both teams that can influence the story of this match. There will be a lot of talk from the commentators about how all these women can coexist. But I think Raw's team will win this one. I wouldn't be surprised to see Bayley as one of the survivors, if not the sole survivor.

Previewing The Clash Of Champions 2016 Women's Championship Match

Clash of Champions will be the first Raw-only PPV of the new brand split era. Not a lot of big matches to talk about at all. I'll talk about the women's matches today.

Sasha Banks had won the right to face Charlotte at the PPV last week on Raw. Due to a questionable finish that the WWE obviously did not like happening, they changed it this week to a triple-threat match, adding in Bayley. If the WWE had planned for both their shoulders to be down at the end of the match last week, they just would have acknowledged it during the show. The Internet sure saw it and made a whole bunch of noise. I am not surprised at all that they would turn it into an angle this week. Considering how many times Charlotte has faced Sasha Banks on the main roster alone, adding in Bayley at least makes the Clash of Champions match a little fresher.

Who wins? Charlotte just won it back last month. I don't care if they want her as the centerpiece, Sasha Banks as the centerpiece, or will just juggle these women around, there is no need to rush the title off her now. The WWE needs to do a better job developing these women. Bayley has just debuted a few weeks ago. Sasha Banks just returned from her break a short while after that. And now they are both in a title match. Bayley has already tasted defeat on the main roster. You have a botched finish in a #1 contenders match last week. Sasha Banks always seems to have a dangerous botch in big matches. This Sunday will probably be no different. I just think the WWE needs to stop and think things over. Even though I think it would be a good decision to keep the title on Charlotte, I will say the WWE puts it back on Sasha Banks. As long as there isn't some injury issue, the WWE might just put it back on her.

A less-important match happening his Sunday is Alicia Fox vs. Nia Jax. I don't think I need to spend many sleepless nights wondering who will win this one. At least Nia Jax has graduated beyond local jobbers. But the WWE actually has to go somewhere with her. If she is going to get a title shot soon, that means a face will have to be holding the title, which is another reason I feel Sasha wins this Sunday. By the time Sasha is done feuding with Charlotte, she can move on to Nia Jax.

Previewing Sasha Banks Vs. Charlotte At Summerslam 2016

How did the WWE further the women's feud on Raw this week? They dug up Alicia Fox from wherever they buried her and had Charlotte go over her. I have been saying that the WWE has a little bit of an emergency situation with their depth in the women's division right now. Using Alicia Fox again is a step in the right direction, but not much. It's like having a bunch of poor quarterbacks behind your starter. Having all those bodies there means nothing if they aren't helping you win games when the starter goes down. The Dallas Cowboys learned that last season. Depth isn't just about quantity. It is also about quality. Alicia Fox isn't terrible, but she has no credibility, despite having held the butterfly title once, and most fans don't care too much about her. Can you imagine Sasha Banks getting injured and the WWE pushing Alicia Fox as the top face? I can't see them doing it. They would probably immediately go to Bayley or bring back someone like Melina. But just in terms of the match they booked, the WWE at least put two people together that haven't gone at it in a while.

What happened after the match is what really matters. Sasha Banks, who was on commentary during the match, made her way down to the ring to confront Charlotte. Dana Brooke went after Sasha. Charlotte got the upper hand and locked Sasha in her submission for a good while. That is a better way to build some heat in the feud prior to Summerslam beyond just having Charlotte go over a jobber.

Who wins this Sunday? Going by the momentum rule, Sasha Banks will win. The odds are against her. Or did they have Charlotte weaken her on Raw just to give Sasha a bit of an excuse for losing?

It pretty much comes down to what they have planned after Summerslam. Is Nia Jax going to be moved in as the top contender? Then it makes sense for Sasha to retain to face her. Is Bayley popping up? Then the WWE might want to give the title back to Charlotte and let the feud between Sasha and Charlotte continue a little longer to have their rematch, then move on to heel Charlotte vs. face Bayley. I will say Sasha retains and moves on to Nia Jax. Nia can't continue just beating local jobbers forever. The WWE should start going in some direction with her. Probably help sell more of those generic-looking shirts they made for her.

Even more important than who ends up with the title, who is the centerpiece? Is the WWE even going to have one true centerpiece in their women's division anymore? Last year at this time, Nikki Bella, an eye-candy diva, was Diva's Champion and looking like the centerpiece. What is the status quo of this new era in the women's era? I would say it is way too early to tell. Charlotte just lost the title a few weeks ago. Sasha Banks just won it. Which of these two women is the centerpiece, if any of the two? What happens when Nikki Bella returns? What is going on with Smackdown's women? How will the WWE react to injury issues piling up? Injury issues were a factor in the decline of the previous era in the women's division. How long of a leash does this era have? Giving these female wrestlers an opportunity does not mean you let them do whatever they want and outcomes don't matter. I know wrestling fans want to hand every respectable female wrestler to come out of NXT a gold medal, but I wouldn't be so quick to say everything is so marvelous. Some of these women need to clean up their in-ring work a little. Some of them can work on developing their characters more. There is still more work for both the WWE and these workers to do. And all it may take is a few big injuries to ruin this era.

Nia Jax

Nia Jax was one of the NXT women to debut for the brand split. I'm not a fan of her. I don't find her look appealing. I don't find her character that interesting. And her in-ring work doesn't draw me in. Overall, the WWE really needs to stop hiring The Rock's relatives. If they wanted a dominant woman in their division again, why not bring back Kharma? Because she got fired twice from TNA for assaulting people? Good point. Nevertheless, there are a lot of other workers that can use the chance to earn a spot in the WWE.

Recently, the WWE has been just having Nia squash local jobbers. When is that going to come to an end? It should be soon. Just a few weeks into the brand split, it feels like they already have an emergency situation on their hands. Raw's women's division's depth is pretty terrible. It hurts even more when you don't utilize the entire roster properly. You can't just suddenly start pushing someone like Summer Rae and think everyone will care and buy her as credible. At least Nia Jax has some credibility and is fresh.

I am all for creative depth, having multiple angles going on at the same time, but now is pretty much a time when they should have brought Nia into the title feud. I am not a fan of her, but the title feud has just gotten stale with the same players involved. The mixed-tag match was a breath of fresh air. Luckily, Summerslam is this Sunday. But if the WWE does decide to continue Sasha vs. Charlotte, they need to add someone else to freshen up these matches. Why not Nia Jax? She's not going anywhere just squashing local jobbers.

The thing that really stands out to me about Nia Jax is that she has her own shirt. That's it up there. Why does that matter? Why would the WWE even bring out a shirt for her? I understand NXT has become a brand now, complete with them touring and selling merchandise for talent down there, but Nia Jax wasn't really a hot act from NXT. Moreover, she hasn't really made a major splash since coming to the main roster. The WWE isn't pushing her in a great way. And she gets a shirt?

It is a sign of times changing. The WWE is trying to make money wherever they can. I believe Naomi was upset not too long ago about lack of merchandise for her. She now has a shirt out. Shinsuke Nakamura just debuted a few months ago in NXT. The WWE already has at least four shirt designs out for him, plus other merchandise. I can understand that. He is a hot NXT act. Nia Jax, however, is something else.

Aside from paying attention to how a worker is being pushed, another way of sometimes telling if the WWE is serious about them being a star used to be looking at how much merchandise the WWE makes for them. The WWE doesn't just create stars so they can get cheered, but also so that the company can market them to make money and promote them to draw for them.

Look at Mickie James during her time in the WWE. She never complained on Twitter about a lack of merchandise for her. She probably should have. She was more over than Naomi. I can understand the WWE not making more merchandise for Candice Michelle or Maryse. The WWE attempted to develop these women to be centerpieces, but they never worked out. Why bother making shirts for workers that aren't working out well? But what's the excuse for Mickie James never getting a shirt? If the company wants her to be a star, why aren't they putting more effort into making merchandise for her to make money off her? She is over. I am sure the WWE can design a better shirt for her than TNA did. Some people say the WWE was upset with Mickie James because they couldn't make money off her music career. Okay, and what was their excuse for not doing more to make money off her prior to her interest in a music career? Did they need a wake-up call? To me, that was just another sign that they did not want her as a star. They never pushed her as one and they never tried to market her as one. When they released her, they did not lose a star and they did not lose a source of money. They just lost a credible jobber that was more over than the women meant to be stars.

But this is a different era. The WWE is making merchandise for everyone. And I'm not just talking action figures. It is what they need to do. The WWE Network hasn't exactly been the greatest investment ever. Talk about record revenue all you want, but costs are also increasing. Making money wherever you can get it doesn't hurt. They just have to be sure they are making smart investments. Market what the fans actually want, not what you want them to want and certainly don't market what definitely they do not want. Waste of time and money.

Back to Nia Jax, I talked about what the WWE should do with her in the short-term. As far as long-term potential goes, what can you say about her? I doubt she will still be squashing jobbers four years from now, if she is still around by then. Where can they put her where she will really be useful? The best thing for her might be as a bodyguard. Let her be Charlotte's sidekick. Or create a stable with Dana Brooke also involved. A woman like Nia Jax might not last long, unless pushed in the periphery. That's where Chyna was pushed. That is where Kharma would have ended up. Beth Phoenix is the only dominant woman from the diva era I can think of that didn't get pushed big in the periphery, but she didn't exactly stay that dominant forever. She became beatable. I just don't think Nia will work as the next Beth Phoenix. The periphery is also not very strong these days. If she won't be a periphery diva and may not be a great credible jobber, what is left for her? If yearly mass releases become a regular thing again, I would not be surprised to see her gone one day.