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.

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 Summerslam 2017 Women's Championship Matches

First of all, August 31st will be my last day blogging.

Onto Summerslam. There seems to be an overall theme with this PPV. So many of the feuds heading into this Sunday just feel underdeveloped. Considering this is one of the WWE's big four PPVs of the year and their biggest of the summer, the mediocrity is a little surprising. Both of the women's title matches are in this category.

Let me start with Raw's title match. It was obviously supposed to be Bayley getting this push. I would not have gone to her, but that is what the WWE chose to do. The WWE obviously had some time to work a story between Bayley and Alexa Bliss. They could continue the same story from the last time they feuded a few months ago, even though it was a pretty bad story. Problem is, Bayley got injured. The WWE was now in a tough situation. It was obvious Sasha Banks was the woman to push. She even won the title opportunity this week. Problem is, no time is left to develop a proper story between Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss. All you have is a basic title feud. This is exactly what you had when these two feuded for the title before Bayley got put back into the picture. It is very dull.

I am surprised the WWE doesn't go with the obvious story. Have Sasha Banks call Alexa Bliss out for hurting the women's revolution. Alexa Bliss represents the diva era. Sasha Banks is all about the women's revolution. I see a ton of fans on the Internet blaming Alexa Bliss for the quality of the women's division taking a dive recently. I am not denying Alexa has her fans, but she has her critics, as well. The WWE is not ignorant to the Internet and social media these days. They have to know that a lot of fans dislike how Alexa Bliss is pushed. They know all about Twitter wanting Emma to get a chance. But the WWE seems scared to run with the obvious storyline, so they go with this story-less feud between Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss. I guess they do not want Alexa Bliss to look weak, even though it would be up to her to prove she really can hang with Sasha Banks. Some fans were impressed with their last match. I don't think the WWE really has an excuse for not doing better between Alexa Bliss and Sasha Banks.

Who wins? Once again, Sasha Banks was obviously not even supposed to be in the story right now. The WWE could have Alexa Bliss retain here and eventually drop the title to Bayley or Sasha Banks, after the feud between Sasha and Alexa actually becomes more heated. I would pick Sasha. The sooner the title goes to a face, the more likely Emma finally gets a title feud. Whether she wins it or not is not the issue. The WWE should just go with it for the sake of freshness, to give Emma a chance, and to shut up a whole bunch of people on this issue. Right now, though, Alexa Bliss should retain.

What about Bayley? Should she just get pushed again as soon as she returns? Fans have soured on her in recent weeks. I would say part of the problem is that they made her look terrible in her feud against Alexa Bliss, then decided to just push her again after she was wrecked. You can't treat someone terribly and expect the fans not to sour on them. The WWE humiliated Mickie James terribly a number of years ago. They probably would have loved it if her overness did suffer. It would have made Michelle McCool look like a stronger heel and made Mickie easier to toss aside. But Mickie James was genuinely over with the overall audience back then in a way Bayley is not right now. Even though the WWE did not intend to ruin Bayley, because there really was no good reason to, that is what they did. I do not think the answer is to turn her heel. Give her a secondary storyline. Build her back up slow. Do not toss her back against Alexa Bliss and certainly do not toss her back into a feud that makes her look like garbage. Doing this kind of thing with Roman Reigns a few years ago actually did him some good. When he stopped getting his monster push, his hate lessened a little. If the WWE gives Bayley an angle that actually presents her as fun and entertaining, that might warm up her overness again.

Onto Smackdown. Raw actually has an excuse for their women's title feud being mediocre. Smackdown does not. It will be Natalya vs. Naomi. Natalya is not the woman I would have went with. I have said this before. At a big PPV like Summerslam, the WWE should have just created a better feud. Even though it would have created a face vs. face situation, I would have gone with Charlotte, or even Becky Lynch. Becky was the first Smackdown Women's Champion, who has not done anything too important in months. Charlotte was the first Raw Women's Champion, who has not done anything too important in months. But both these women could have made for more high-profile feuds than Natalya getting the title shot.

Even though I would not have gone with Natalya, I really expected the WWE to do better with her these last few weeks to develop some kind of good feud between her and Naomi. They have not. Part of the problem is that the WWE has to feature Carmella and the briefcase. Carmella defeated Naomi last week. The week before that, Naomi defeated Carmella in a tag match. More focus needs to be put on Natalya. Smackdown is tonight, but I am not expecting anything too grand to make up for the mediocrity. I really expected better from Smackdown. They have taken workers that were not pushed well and made them look like bigger deals at times since last year. There are some exceptions to this, like Jack Swagger, but I would have expected better with Natalya for the sake of this feud. Ignoring Carmella and the briefcase, this is just a mediocre title feud between Natalya and Naomi.

Who wins? I am all for Natalya getting a push and even winning the title. Now is just not the right time. Natalya is still somewhat young. She is 35. I can see her lasting another few years, and she should be getting a "thank you" run at least down the line. Right now, it should be about women that are fresher and have more credibility. This is Summerslam. This feud was not worthy of this event when it started and they have not developed it to be worthy of this event since then. Naomi should not lose the title to Natalya.

Bigger question, should Carmella cash in and win? Yes, I think she should. Naomi has held the title for a couple months now. This is even her second reign this year. There are no good heels for her to feud with. Becky Lynch and Charlotte are the one that should be getting the title feuds. But if the WWE doesn't want to do face vs. face, a heel needs to get the title as soon as possible. Natalya is not that heel. Carmella is just the fresher option. Just have the submission specialist work over Naomi's leg, or whatever body part. Naomi manages to pull out the victory. Carmella sees Naomi hurt and cashes in to win it.

Overall, these are just two title matches that have had mediocre build. They are nothing more than basic title feuds. Again, ignore the briefcase for the Smackdown women's feud. Just looking at Natalya vs. Naomi and Sasha Banks vs. Alexa Bliss, the feuds are not interesting. There are times when the WWE shouldn't get too fancy with title feuds. Just let it be a title feud. I would say that was the case for Sheamus & Cesaro vs. Gallows & Anderson from earlier in the year. The WWE tried to get too fancy with referee nonsense and it just was not needed. Just let these guys fight. That is their strengths. But I would say the WWE needed to do more with these two women's title feuds. This is Summerslam. These aren't kickoff-worthy matches. The feud between Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss just felt like it had potential to be more than it is. Natalya needed better focus than she has gotten to make this feud seem like a bigger deal. The WWE is treating Summerslam almost like a Wrestlemania this year, but a lot of these feuds do not look worthy. And I'll be bringing this theme up again in the next few days.

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 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.

Previewing The Great Balls Of Fire 2017 Women's Match

It will be Sasha Banks getting a title shot against Alexa Bliss. She won an over-hyped gauntlet match on Raw last week. It is not surprising that Sasha Banks is getting this push, but I do not like how we got here.

They could easily have had the gauntlet match two weeks prior to when they actually had it. Why does it matter? Because then they could have time to build a good feud between Sasha and Alexa heading into the PPV this Sunday. More importantly, the other women in the division would then be free to develop their own storylines in the remaining weeks, whether it leads to a match at Great Balls Of Fire or not.

Another reason they should have done this sooner is the fact that things were just a mess prior to Sasha Banks just getting the title shot. The first Raw after Alexa moved on from Bayley, it looked like they were starting some angle involving Mickie James, Dana Brooke, and Nia Jax all having issues with Alexa Bliss. Week after that, Sasha Banks becomes more involved and Emma returns. Alexa Bliss walks away from her heel partners in a match that night, Emma and Nia. You now might start thinking that might be a story they would develop. Week after that, Emma comes out to confront Alexa Bliss, but then ends up shrugging off her issues with her. Bayley, who had been mostly irrelevant during this time, runs out to save the day during a brawl. You have just had multiple angles being developed every week and it seems a lot of it has been killed off when the WWE just gave the title shot to Sasha Banks. Terrible feud development.

I was all for Sasha Banks vs. Alexa Bliss since before Bayley lost her rematch. I anticipated the WWE going in this direction. But with the way the WWE handled things all these weeks, it just doesn't feel like something to become creatively invested in. I already mentioned all the other storylines that were brewing. Creatively, some fans might have started to get excited for Alexa Bliss vs. Nia Jax vs. Mickie James vs. Dana Brooke at one point, or some other multi-woman match. I am not a fan of too many multi-women matches, but it just feels like that is what the WWE should have done here. That would have somewhat justified the sloppy developments in the Raw women's division all these weeks. All these women have an issue with Alexa Bliss. All these women have to watch their backs with Nia Jax. This situation just calls for a multi-woman match. To just kill that off two weeks prior to the PPV to go with a singles match involving Alexa defending against a woman that has not been properly developed creatively in this picture all these weeks seems terrible. Not only might it be hard for some fans to care about, it is completely unfair to the majority of Raw's women. They lose out on proper creative development.

Alexa Bliss will likely retain here. This is not a one-PPV feud, especially with the rushed job it has had. Sasha Banks will likely win the title at Summerslam.

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.

Previewing The Extreme Rules 2017 Women's Matches

I am not surprised the WWE would add another women's match for Extreme Rules. And this one is a mix of everything. It's a tag match. It features the women. It features the cruiserweights. Rich Swann and Sasha Banks face Noam Dar and Alicia Fox.

I like that it is a mixed tag match. These things have been rare ever since the women's revolution started. I have seen some fans get upset when the WWE finally had one last year. They felt it was a waste for the women to be teaming with the likes of Roman Reigns or Rusev. Face it, it needs to happen. The WWE can create interesting feuds, storylines, and segments when men and women interact. That is not just a "diva" thing. It can save fans from having to see stale matches. Did anyone want to see Sasha Banks vs. Alicia Fox for the millionth time in the last few weeks?

That is what I like. What don't I like? This feud is obviously just thrown together. Noam Dar wasn't even in the picture when these two women first faced each other to start this feud in England last month. And his involvement since then has not been that huge. It is like the WWE was just throwing this together from week to week. The injury to Emma obviously caused the WWE to shuffle things, so I won't make too much of this.

Who wins? Should be the faces. I see some people expecting the heels to win because Alicia Fox and Noam Dar are an actual pairing. That doesn't matter. Alicia Fox is a jobber. Sasha Banks is obviously not a top star in the women's division, but she's higher up the ladder than Alicia Fox. She should be winning this.

The Women's Championship will be decided in a Kendo Stick on a Pole match. This is actually one of the most "extreme" match types on the card. That should tell you how pathetic this PPV is. If you are a fan of hardcore-type matches, this PPV is mostly disappointing.

Alexa Bliss has looked way too strong in the last few weeks. She has bashed around Bayley with the stick, as well as Mickie James. She had the upperhand in that elaborate segment on Raw last night. Fans were sour overall on the segment, but that is a different story. The overpush of Alexa Bliss is just disgusting. I don't think even Charlotte has looked so strong for consecutive weeks during her centerpiece run on Raw as Alexa Bliss has. You will usually see a heel win the title, but still at least lose some non-title matches, like tag matches, or at least let the face challenger look better than Bayley has.

You can also compare Alexa Bliss to Trish Stratus. Something that Trish Stratus did during her run in the WWE is take hits. She got roughed up by men. That is obviously not going to happen to Alexa Bliss in today's WWE. But Trish was also involved in some hardcore matches where she took some hits. So far, Alexa Bliss has just been dishing it out. She has not tasted the wood. I would expect it to happen at Extreme Rules. That will help fans respect her as more than just a pretty face. I hate that Alexa Bliss is getting this push, especially in an era that is supposed to be more favorable to women's wrestlers, but if they are going to do it, this is just something they have to let happen. If it does not, it will just be even more disgusting how Alexa Bliss is protected.

Throw the rule about the person that has the momentum heading into a PPV losing. Alexa Bliss has the momentum. I fully expect her to retain. She can then feud with Sasha Banks over the title. I cannot imagine any title feuds for Bayley that the WWE would be willing to do with the other heels on Raw. Alicia Fox is a jobber and I am just not feeling Bayley vs. Nia Jax. What I expect this Sunday is for Bayley to get the stick, whack Alexa a few times, and then Alexa capitalizes on some small thing to get the advantage, hit her DDT, and win the match. Some people have brought up the partnership between Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax. The WWE has not followed up with that at all in the last few weeks. They have portrayed Alexa Bliss as a heel more than capable of  taking care of herself. I hate that. If you are great in the ring, then you can take care of yourself. If you are not, then get a sidekick. A woman that is not a great wrestler cleanly beating around women more talented than her can get annoying and it is basically an attempt to manipulate fans into thinking this woman that is not so great really is as great as the better worker. That is straight out of the diva era. And I expect the diva era to continue to make a comeback through Alexa Bliss as her run as centerpiece continues.

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.

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 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.

Should Sasha Banks Turn Heel?

Recently, I talked about Mickie James and why she should not return as a heel on Smackdown, as well as not return as La Luchadora in general. But that is not the only potential heel turn in the women's division of the WWE to talk about. There is talk about Sasha Banks turning heel. The WWE is teasing it. Will they go through with it? Should they?

The conversation can begin and end with an analysis of depth. Right now, Bayley and Sasha Banks are your main faces. Charlotte, Dana Brooke, and Nia Jax are the heels. Alicia Fox can go both ways. She has been mostly a face these last few months, but she has had a few matches with Bayley not too long ago. When Emmalina eventually debuts, if it ever happens, she will likely be a heel. Her character is just made to be a heel, unless the WWE pulls a swerve and has her debut as something else. If Sasha Banks turns heel, that leaves just Bayley as the only true face on Raw's women's roster. Why would the WWE do that to themselves?

Depth is about more than just quantity. It is about quality. You can say that Bayley and Sasha Banks are both great in-ring performers, so letting Sasha turn heel won't hurt. Just turn someone else face. Who? Dana Brooke is not great in the ring. Charlotte is probably better off as a heel. Nia Jax is unlikely to turn face, although they might soon need to do it with the lack of freshness coming up. The WWE can definitely choose to turn someone face to balance out a possible heel turn for Sasha Banks, but that person they turn is not likely to be a great option, whether you are talking about them as an in-ring performer or their ability to play a good face character.

Moving away from a discussion of depth and just looking at Sasha Banks, does she need the heel turn? You can talk about staleness and her just being a better heel, but smarks are likely to care about her just because of her wrestling ability and history of big matches. And even if she does turn heel, who is she going to feud with? Alicia Fox? No one is going to want to see that. Bayley? Where would that leave Charlotte? They would just make a lot of problems for themselves. There are still options for Sasha Banks as a face. She has a feud going with Nia Jax. When Emmalina debuts, Sasha can feud with her. By the time all that is done, then the WWE can think about putting her back in the title picture or a heel turn.

How about in terms of overness? There is definitely room for Sasha Banks to become more popular than she is. The problem with this era is that you are often caught between two extremes of crowd types. You have rowdy smarks that will destroy anything they don't like and heavily support what they do like. But then you also have some crowds that just seem dead. In between that, you have marks that will cheer for Roman Reigns, much to the disapproval of smarks. The overness of a lot of people is not what it used to be. I remember Daniel Bryan being a little less hot during his last run as an in-ring performer. Even The Undertaker and other such legends don't always get the reactions you would expect. What does all that mean for Sasha Banks. I don't think you need to turn her heel just because her crowd reactions are not consistently awesome. It is just a sign of the times.

Part of the problem is how the WWE wants to run the women's divisions in this era. They are just forcing themselves to have more angles going on than they can properly manage. Look at Smackdown. You have Nikki Bella feuding with Natalya, Alexa Bliss and Becky Lynch going at it over the title, and they are still trying to find matches for Carmella. They don't have the depth to pull it off. They have to rely on jobbers not even on the main roster to feed to Carmella recently, and it isn't always pretty. Nikki and Natalya are just arguing and brawling. Alexa and Becky are playing with masked women. On Raw, trying to force having multiple women's feuds will also stretch the depth. And all it will take is one key injury here or there to destroy what the WWE is trying to do. If the WWE relied properly on the periphery like they used to in the diva era, they could come up with something for Sasha Banks to do without a heel turn. If they made better use of the periphery, I would say the WWE has just about as many women as they need on both rosters. But with the way they want to handle things in the era of the women's revolution, both rosters need more women to manage what they are trying to do.

In the end, where do I stand on the issue of Sasha Banks turning heel? No, don't do it. It would hurt the depth of Raw's women's roster. No face turn of the women already on the roster can properly balance it out. There are no women debuting from NXT on the horizon just yet. There are no other returns to help this division. There are still things for face Sasha Banks to do. There are still other women to be pushed. A heel turn for Sasha Banks would probably not help these other women. And if the WWE does go through with this heel turn in the coming weeks and has Mickie James return as a heel, then it would be incredibly stupid. I would have not seen such incompetence since the Buffalo Bills special teams in the final game of the recent season. Why would you have so many heels and so few quality faces around?

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.