Unfortunately for her and to the dismay of her dysfunctional fan-base (I know not all of you are delusional as the bulk of her fans - like CM Punk's, but still...), her days of reigning supreme as WWE Divas Champion are numbered for a multitude of reasons:
- The other WWE Divas, especially the bulk of the cast from Total Divas, have been stepping up their game over the past year.
- Due to her personal relationship to CM Punk as his real life girlfriend, WWE may do like they have done in the past and punish her as a means of sending a message to CM Punk. We all know about Punk's situation of walking out on the company and going home at the start of WrestleMania season. If it hasn't been obvious on the last few broadcasts, then you need to clean your glasses - WWE is beyond pissed off that Punk would not return to participate in WrestleMania XXX.
- The struggle of the Divas Champion would make a powerful topic to cover on Total Divas. It's a position that hasn't been touched upon on Total Divas this far. They have already established on what's it like to be the rookies (Eva Marie and JoJo), the veteran(s) - Natalya and arguably The Bella Twins (Nicole and Brie), and the girls struggling to find their identity (Naomi and Cameron) on the WWE brand. Season 2 has added Summer Rae to the cast to highlight what is it like to be a Diva from developmental (NXT) being promoted to the main roster and how that adjustment goes.
Who Should Succeed AJ Lee as the Next Divas Champion?
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| Aksana |
Aksana may not be the most talented Diva on the roster, but she's definitely a work horse. With a little polish she could definitely see a title shot in the possible near-future, but it's a huge stretch that she would be the one to dethrone AJ at this stage.
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| Alicia Fox |
Alicia Fox is easily one of the most (if not the most) hardest-working women on the WWE Divas roster. A former Divas Champion in her own right, a match between her and AJ would be rather interesting since these two Divas haven't been granted a platform to perform to fight with the coveted title on the line.
Sadly, Alicia Fox is one of the many victims to WWE Creative and piss poor booking. One week, she is a bubbling babyface on Superstars or Main Event, the other she's vying for a spot in the BFFs on NXT. C'mon, girl, ask them to give you some consistency with your character.
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| Emma |
The infamous "Dancing Queen" and leader of the #EMMAlution has recently joined the main roster, so it would be expected that she would be in contention for the Divas Championship in due time. So far, she hasn't even encountered AJ Lee in the ring. Instead, she is still somehow a pseudo-#1 contender to Paige's NXT Women's Championship - when she's not Santino Marella's comedy-induced love interest. I won't deny that her and Paige put on a wrestling clinic - in terms of standards for women in WWE anyway - at NXT ArRIVAL.
Unfortunately, I can't see Emma dethroning AJ. The Divas Champion hasn't even acknowledged her existence, despite boasting that she has defeated everyone that the Divas division has left to offer. On top of that, Emma's current comedy bit with Santino isn't doing her any favors. While it's mildly entertaining, it's doing nothing but keeping her away from being considered as a serious challenger to the Divas Championship. It's damn shame too, especially for a former student of Lance Storm.
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| Layla |
Layla has been MIA from action for months now, creating a gaping hole between her alliance with AJ Lee after deceiving Kaitlyn to no payoff to that angle in the least. Now Layla is back and allied with Alicia Fox, running with a heel tag team.
Layla versus AJ Lee would be an interesting contest but at the end of the day, it would be similar to the fallout between current TNA Knockouts Champion Madison Rayne and the returning Angelina Love. I'm not necessarily saying that's a bad thing, but it's not that far of a stretch that Layla would come back and take the gold. She did that to the Bella Twins back in 2012 when she came back from injury, so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to see Layla swoop in and take the gold until WWE grooms the next suitor for the Divas title.
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| Naomi |
By this point, you're possibly wondering why I'm only mentioning one of the Funkadactyls. Cameron already had her chance at AJ's title at Elimination Chamber. If I'm perfectly honest, I wouldn't mind seeing both Funkadactyls and Tamina challenge AJ for the title at WrestleMania in a Fatal 4 Way. All friendships/relationships would be tested here, but the ideal situation would be that Naomi gets the one on one match against AJ Lee that she was denied when she was sidelined with an injury, thanks to a poorly executed Knee Smash by Aksana.
While Naomi is easily the more gifted out of the two Funkadactyls in the ring, I still feel like she needs something more before she captures the gold. I could be wrong, as I'm not part of the group of chimps who does WWE's creative writing and match booking. As it stands, Naomi is the strongest candidate to take dethrone AJ - she hasn't had multiple opportunities to crash and fail against AJ in an one-on-one environment, she has room for growth after winning said title, and unlike the bulk of the other cast members from Total Divas, she's not shoved down our throats on a constant basis.
For those wondering, she's only wearing the eyepatch for show until Total Divas covers her road to recovery on the current season.
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| Natalya |
Natalya is arguably the best WWE Diva on the roster, but she has been burdened with awful gimmicks and even worse "dancing partners" for feuds/angles. If you want proof of her talents, look no farther than her bouts with both Emma and Paige on NXT at the end of 2013. If that's not enough, she has been a regular on Main Event, showcasing her talents when she's not accompanying Bayley to the ring on NXT.
She clearly has the passion and determination to be the next Divas Champion, but AJ has defeated, pinned or made Natalya submit too many times during her title reign for a win at this rate to not seem like a fluke. Natalya is another WWE Diva work horse who deserves to be wearing gold, but I doubt she is a strong candidate to take the gold from around AJ's waist as far as WWE is concerned at this stage.
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| NXT Women's Champion Paige |
The complete fan service and dream match for most WWE Diva fans would be a champion vs. champion scenario for WrestleMania XXX between Paige and AJ Lee. Almost everyone with a fan fiction or doing fantasy booking has already played out this potential feud in their heads in some shape or form.
As much as many women's wrestling fans would love to see this match-up, it's a better idea to keep the Divas division and NXT Women's division separate entities - at least until Survivor Series for a Team WWE Divas vs. Team NXT Divas-style match. Hopefully, that won't be a clusterfuck like last year's 2013 Divas Survivor Series match. Paige needs to focus on the looming threats of the BFFs (Sasha Banks and Charlotte) looking to take her gold from her.
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| Summer Rae |
Summer Rae was easily the best female heel to come out of NXT before her debut on the main roster. If AJ Lee was still babyface, I would have loved to see her feud with Summer Rae while still in her Mean Girls-esque gimmick from NXT. Much like Alicia Fox, Summer Rae is a victim of WWE Creative and booking. Her current NXT gimmick (leading the Mean Girls-inspired stable, the BFFs with Sasha Banks and Charlotte) and her main roster gimmick as Fandango's dance partner are completely segregated from each other. I don't see why WWE continues to do this as it's only going to confuse younger fans while holding Summer Rae back from further developing her character on-screen.
As it stands, she is as close to capturing the WWE Divas Championship as Emma and Aksana are.
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| Tamina |
Following AJ Lee's recent loss on Monday Night RAW (3/17/14), WWE went into deja vu territory as they pulled the same fallout between Tamina and AJ Lee that occurred the previous week between Lei'D Tapa and Gail Kim on Impact Wrestling.
I'm still in the minority that didn't see a good reason to pair AJ Lee with Tamina in the first place. Tamina was the same chick who was beating the shit out of her about two years ago after she lost her precious General Manager position and Vickie Guerrero used Tamina as her hired help/bodyguard. While that feud got no real closure, Tamina is just left to do AJ's bidding without question. That duo just seemed insanely retarded to me. It just couples along with the fact that WWE never did anything with AJ's pairing with Layla either.
That being said, Tamina does have an aggressive style in the ring that should be put on display more often. If WWE wishes to drop the belt to Tamina after their fallout then they need to properly build Tamina up as a monster. Making her look like Kevin Nash/Diesel in drag isn't doing it for me. Kicking the shit out of Nikki Bella was a great start, but nothing came from that afterwards, especially when she lost to Nikki with minimal effort a few weeks ago.
The Bella Twins
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| Nikki Bella |
Nikki Bella spent most of 2013 on the sidelines watching Brie improve with match after match until she was cleared to return to the ring. When she did return to action, Nikki showed some promise as she has been clearly working with her boyfriend John Cena on adding a more power-focused game to her arsenal - namely the Rack Attack (Backbreaker Rack).
Is that enough to warrant her a Divas Championship title reign? I don't think so, but after the past Monday Night RAW, it seems like WWE has their hearts set on a Bella Twin holding gold again.
If I'm perfectly honest, I don't have anything against Nikki (nor Brie) like most Divas fans, but I think she would be best to try to master the importance of playing a manager/valet for a while. It kills me that so many women in WWE seem to underestimate the role women can play in a match outside of merely wrestling. Just ask Lana, she has the right idea in mind...
If I'm perfectly honest, I don't have anything against Nikki (nor Brie) like most Divas fans, but I think she would be best to try to master the importance of playing a manager/valet for a while. It kills me that so many women in WWE seem to underestimate the role women can play in a match outside of merely wrestling. Just ask Lana, she has the right idea in mind...
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| Brie Bella |
Brie Bella has definitely been training with Daniel Bryan as it is obvious in her vast improvement in the ring over the past year. The only thing that would solidify her changes for the better is a new finisher. Nikki already replaced the Bella Buster (Facebuster) for the Rack Attack (Backbreaker Rack), I would like to see Brie pick up something new as well. Hopefully, it's not something out of Bryan's playbook like how Nikki did with John Cena's arsenal.
As for winning the Divas Championship, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch at this point. If one of the Bella Twins win the title from AJ, I can see them feuding among themselves over the summer, with Nikki going heel.
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