Two Steps Forward, Ten Steps Backwards - Let's Talk About AJ Lee's Return to WWE (Post-MITB Monday Night RAW)

AJ defeats Paige for the Divas Championship with a F'N small package...
How about she go back home to CM Punk and play with his "small"
package?

The Divas of both NXT and those among the main roster have been taking great steps forward over the last few months, with the bar raised to the highest level at NXT Takeover between Charlotte and Natalya for the vacant NXT Women's Championship that literally stole the show. I was beginning to regain my faith in the WWE Divas until what transpired last night...

I honestly wasn't planning to do a write up on WWE Money In The Bank as I personally thought that it was a slightly above average Pay-Per-View and the following post-PPV Monday Night RAW wasn't impressing me at all in the first hour so I turned off my stream last night. My instincts told me to turn the stream back on a little before the main event and I saw the following transpire:

(Throws hands up into the air) Why WWE? Why did you do this to Paige? Within the pan of roughly ten minutes, WWE has taken the Divas division roughly ten steps backwards and confirms my fears about Paige's title reign in the first place - Paige was nothing more than FILLER until AJ came back from marrying and banging CM Punk.

Before people start a shit storm in the comments here and on my Twitter page, I like the idea of AJ and Paige feuding. I don't have a problem with that at all, nor do I have a problem with AJ Lee being champion (again). The issue I have with AJ's return is how all of this was executed.

Let's review this from the beginning shall we?

It's April 7, 2014, the RAW after WrestleMania XXX, whereas AJ pretty much has buried the ENTIRE Divas division by surviving Vickie Guerrero's insane Battle Royal with EVERY Diva on the roster in competition against her and still managed to walk out of the match WWE Divas Champion, despite the fact that she did next to nothing in terms of offense in that entire match. The perfect scenario for that match would have had anyone else but AJ Lee win the title (notably - Natalya, Brie/Nikki Bella, Tamina Snuka, Naomi, or Summer Rae) and have AJ get her rematch on RAW before her leave of absence.

AJ Lee comes out to boast about her win over every single Diva in the company. Enter Paige, the reigning NXT Women's Champion, coming out to congratulate the Black Widow. AJ arrogantly makes a title match against Paige, who eagerly accepts. In less than 5 minutes, Paige defeats AJ Lee with the Paige Turner and becomes the new WWE Divas Champion, ending AJ's title reign at 295 days.

Collectively, all of her marks and defenders say they are "done" watching WWE
after this transpires...

I stood up and applauded when WWE allowed Paige to pull a "Gail Kim" and win the Divas Championship on her debut, becoming the first woman to hold both the WWE Divas and NXT Women's Championship simultaneously. Allow me to clarify once again - I didn't hate AJ Lee as champion, I hated the idea that AJ put into majority of Divas fans' heads that no one was better than her. And good Lord, did people eat out of AJ's ass with a shovel. The entire Total Divas cast were regarded as all chicken fodder to AJ during her title reign, while Divas not cast on that show (Alicia Fox, Aksana, Tamina, Layla, Kaitlyn, Rosa Mendes, etc.) were reduced to AJ's easily forgettable lackeys and pawns.

This is why I don't get why AJ's fans act like she's "better" than the cast of Total
Divas when she is just as guilty as them for objectifying herself?

With AJ Lee knocked off her pedestal, it gave the Divas division the opportunity to start over from scratch. Paige being on the main roster meant that WWE were finally going to take Diva matches seriously and the Divas on the main roster started stepping their game up to compete at Paige's level of wrestling ability. Paige's career on the main roster started off slow with her gaining repeated wins against Alicia Fox and Aksana as crowds grew to warm up to her superior wrestling abilities. Instead of Divas' matches reduced to being the official bathroom break on every WWE broadcast, Paige helped change that mindset as fans were eager to see what she could do in the ring.

WWE would then deal Paige her first turn of bad luck by stripping and vacating the NXT Women's Championship that she never lost to begin with. NXT General Manager JBL stated that it was more important that Paige focus on her obligations on the main roster rather than NXT. NXT would have tournament for the vacated title, but include Divas from the main roster, including Natalya, Layla, and Alicia Fox. Gotta love that WWE logic...

If it were up to me, I would have had Paige act as a bridge between the NXT Divas and the Divas on the main roster. WWE fans could then be treated to bouts with Divas from NXT who they don't see compete regularly if they don't have the WWE Network, while at the same time, they are exposing the best of both Diva rosters' competition in their hopes to dethrone Paige.

At Extreme Rules, Paige defeated Tamina Snuka in her first "official" title defense, crushing Tamina's dreams of "avenging" AJ Lee and her own personal goals of becoming WWE Divas Champion.

At Payback, Paige defeated Alicia Fox, which continued Paige's dominance while at the same time, the loss contributed to Alicia Fox's mental breakdown.

Alicia Fox would continue to lose against Paige until she went bat-shit crazy - sparking a new creative direction for her onscreen personality. She even manages to upset Paige with an unexpected victory.

Sadly, WWE didn't follow up this new development for Alicia Fox's character before moving into a dynamic between Paige and the Funkadactyls. After Cameron expressed her feelings about Paige being champion then failing to defeat her in the match that transpired, Naomi stepped up to the plate to challenge Paige.

Paige's defeat at the hands of Naomi earned Paige's respect, but Cameron was still bitter about her loss. Obviously, WWE is building towards the Funkadactyls splitting up since Brodus Clay has been released from the company and we haven't seen them together with Xavier Woods nor R-Truth in months. Even though it was hinted at for weeks, Naomi and Cameron's fallout didn't happen at Money In The Bank during Naomi's title opportunity against Paige. Regardless, Naomi and Paige put on a Divas match that was as amazing to watch as Charlotte vs. Natalya at NXT Takeover.

I don't understand why WWE doesn't just add Naomi to The Usos like how Lita
was added as the impromptu 3rd member of the Hardy Boyz. We all know she's
married to Jey Uso, so go ahead and pair them up together. She would totally fit
right in with them. Geez.

So here we are at Monday Night RAW (June 30, 2014) and let's review how the WWE Divas division has improved over the last few months. The WWE Divas are involved not one, but THREE featured storylines:

• The love triangle between Fandango, Layla, and Summer Rae
• Stephanie McMahon and Brie Bella's continued hatred of one another, sparked from the ongoing feud between The Authority & Daniel Bryan
• Trouble on Planet Funk - the inevitable fallout between Cameron and Naomi

Paige is still reigning WWE Divas Champion, but has managed to bring out the best of every opponent she has come across over the last three months. After their confrontations with Paige, Alicia Fox and Cameron have emerged as stronger heels as a result. Tamina Snuka was given the opportunity to shine outside of AJ Lee's shadow. Naomi proved that she has what it takes to be a future WWE Divas Champion, hanging with Paige, move for move.

After all of this, WWE decides to push the envelope further with Paige's development and do what Diva fans like myself have been begging for since her debut on the main roster and give her the chance to speak on the microphone - give fans a chance to get to know her personality. Let's face it - the #1 reason people love AJ Lee is that she was given a platform early into her WWE career to create her own persona. I can't hate on the cast of Total Divas because they took that opportunity to express themselves on a level they couldn't before and look now - whether you love or hate the show, the WWE Divas have more eyes on their division than ever before.

WWE fans seem to criticize every WWE Diva that's not AJ Lee, but fail to realize is that the main reason that the Divas fail to get over currently is that WWE rarely gives them the opportunities to establish a character/identity on their regular programming. As a result, most Divas raced at the chance to be on Total Divas or sought out to do like Zack Ryder and get themselves over on social media.

Paige is handed the microphone and she's interrupted in roughly two minutes of her promo before AJ Lee's theme hits to signal her return. 

#WWE I don't have enough hands to express how much I'm facepalming right now. Cool, AJ Lee's back and she's... http://t.co/Zcg13jX7cc— Let's Talk Wrestling (@LetsTalkWrestle) July 1, 2014

Thanks to the screaming cheers and chants for "CM Punk" AJ Lee is instantly turned into a babyface for her return while Paige is leaning towards tweener/heel territory. Just no already at all of this, but low and behold, it gets worse. AJ tricks Paige into an impromptu title match and she wins the title in the same manner that she lost it.

We're all sorry about your loss, Paige.

I know WWE are trying to kiss CM Punk's ass for he can come back from his own free will, but good grief, don't bury Paige in the process. We all know if it were any other Diva (other than Michelle McCool...), WWE would have buried them so deep even Zack Ryder would say "DAMN!" for their boyfriend's failure to comply to their demands.

If they meant to do this as a way to spark a feud between them, AJ winning the gold from Paige on her first night back wasn't necessary. They already planted the seeds during Paige's debut. Either way, Diva fans are getting what they want - the "rubber match" between AJ Lee and Paige in hopefully, a serious feud.

There are talks about WWE using this opportunity to have Paige go completely heel and unleash her "Anti-Diva" gimmick on the main roster to plow through the competition on her way towards the inevitable rematch against AJ Lee. This could work but at the same time, it would require Paige to bury the Divas who were just now getting a chance to shine in AJ's absence.

The way how they turned AJ Lee babyface and Paige seemingly heel was a knee jerk reaction to play off the cheers of the fans screaming for "CM Punk". If that's WWE's only reason to make AJ Lee a babyface then that's just downright stupid. The proper way to build up Paige from this highly-anticipated feud with AJ Lee would be to have AJ as the arrogant heel that she was to begin with. Have her rub it in Paige's face that she reclaimed her "baby" back and allow Paige to play the babyface to overcomes the hurdles that AJ tosses in her way to get the title back. We currently don't know where WWE are going to go with this feud, but for Paige's sake, I hope they don't mess this up like they already managed to screw up both Summer Rae and Emma on the main roster.

As it stands, Paige can't go back to NXT as that is seen as a step down for her at this point of her career while if she fails to stand out in this upcoming feud with AJ, then she will be just another talented Diva that WWE failed to capitalize on, just like Natalya. AJ Lee's return pretty much dropped Paige into "sink or swim" status.

As for AJ Lee, you can bet your sweet ass I'm going to continue criticizing her if she comes back to wrestling regularly only to half-ass her performances in the ring again - despite that lengthy break she's had. I'm not giving her a free pass. If WWE wants her to be the face of the Divas division, then she's going to have to impress me like Paige did every time she steps into that ring.