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| Every now and then, I read an article about women's wrestling that pisses me off to the point that I have to rant about it. PWMania's recent article did just that trick. |
If you like what I have to say, Like this post, share it with your friends, or sound off in the comments. If you don't like what I have to say, you can bash me all you want, but I'm not going to waste my breath arguing with you in the comments. I'm saying my piece here and leaving it at that.
Good With The Bad: The State Of The WWE Divas Division | PWMania
The article that I'm quoting is linked above and throughout this post, I'm going to quote and refer back to the original article, so feel free to follow along
"AJ Lee is the best Divas Champion of the last decade."
(Busts out laughing) So this clown is saying AJ is the BEST champion the Divas division has EVER had since 2004? Mind you, Lita and Trish were still with the company at that time. I get that AJ Lee is an idol to a LOT of fans nowadays since she's openly a geek and married to CM Punk now, but C'MON get your heads from shoved up her ass, Diva fans.
I'll quote my best bud and say that NO Diva is the best in the last decade. There's some strong contenders but no single candidate for that title. I'll gladly give AJ props for being the best champion of the last (roughly) 2-3 years though.
Much like Brie Bella's current program with Stephanie McMahon, AJ being involved in Punk/Bryan's feud was "best for business". She was the wildcard in play here and history shown that in Bryan's past feuds with Sheamus and The Big Show, that she could be used as a prop to throw a monkey wrench into either Superstars' plans. But let's not forget something. EVERYONE was anticipating something big from AJ in that title match at MITB 2012, but she was just a pawn to be manipulated by both men for Punk to win the match clean.
Call me what you want, but her whole gimmick of being the female CM Punk is really starting to bore me. It's ran it's course and I think she's going to have to do something else to catch my interest. And that whole thing of her cutting that look like Prince during Chappelle's Show when he played basketball against Charlie Murphy to cue that she's "cray cray" hasn't done anything for me since day one.
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| This is EXACTLY what I think of when I see AJ Lee's "crazy" look... |
"Her (Brie Bella) build is coming from her injured husband, and the heel work of Stephanie McMahon. She’s the luckiest Diva in the world right now."
Excuse me while I laugh out loud here at this stupidity. Women in wrestling being attached/associated to a high profile Superstar(s) is one of the OLDEST tricks of the trade in wrestling. Miss Elizabeth and Sherri Martel were attached to the hip to Macho Man Randy Savage and multiple other Superstars to get them over. Luna Vachon was attached to Gangrel. Sable was attached to Marc Mero before she surpassed him in popularity, only for Jacqueline to pick up the reigns after their separation. Debra was attached to Jeff Jarrett. Lita was attached to the Hardy Boyz (then later Rated RKO), Trish Stratus was tied to Test & Albert, and Terri Runnels/Marlena was attached to the hip with Goldust. Melina was w/ MNM, Ashley Massaro w/ Londrick, Cherry w/ Deuce & Domino, Rosa Mendes w/ Zack Ryder (then Primo & Epico before they were repackaged), Aksana w/ Cesaro, Summer Rae w/ Fandango, Kelly Kelly, Brooke Adams (now Tessmacher in TNA), and Layla w/ The Miz, Maryse w/ Ted Dibiase, Beth Phoenix w/ Santino (before picking up Emma recently), Chyna w/ Triple H, Tori w/ X-Pac, and so on. I could go on here ALL night with these pairings.
So what's the problem with associating Divas with Superstars? Goddamn NOTHING, I tell you. It's a concept that needs to be used more often if you ask me to get more Superstars AND Divas over nowadays.
For example, do you know why Rusev is over as fuck right now? It's F'N Lana. Whether you love or hate her, she's got eyes all over Rusev to increase his star power. I GUARANTEE you that dude would be completely forgotten in fans' minds as Vladimir Kozlov or Luther Reigns otherwise if he didn't have her in his corner.
So is there anything wrong with Brie riding off the popularity of her husband? NO. Stephanie did the same to go heel back during the McMahon-Helmsey Era and even AJ Lee herself is guilty of doing this. She would be just another former NXT Redemption (and easily forgettable) Diva on the main roster if she wasn't tied to the hip of Daniel Bryan and found a way to stick herself with almost every main event Superstar (Bryan, Punk, Cena, Ziggler, Kane, etc.) to propel herself into stardom. Now that the marks know that she's married to CM Punk she's set for life as they are going to INSTANTLY mark for her on that reason alone.
If anyone is the luckiest girl in the world right now, it's AJ Lee. If Vince wasn't dead set on trying to stay on Punk's good side, she would've been buried deeper than the memory of Chris Benoit.
In Brie's case, this is her golden opportunity to prove herself and shut up the critics. While I'm not expecting a 5 star match between her and Steph, but I'm expecting it to be spotfest, much like Bret Hart vs. Vince a few years ago. Straight-forward and to the point, much like that WeeLC match from earlier this year.
"Stephanie is making it (the division) look bad because she’s going against the wrong person. It really should be AJ vs. McMahon. There have been two main event segments that Stephanie has dominated on the microphone. All the while, Paige’s transcendence into the next big heel in the division is flourishing. AJ and Paige work so well together because their feud is about being the best."
Once again, NO. AJ vs. Steph would be overkill. Wrong time and wrong place. You know people would want them to bring up the real life drama of the CM Punk/WWE situation into the light and I doubt BOTH parties are willing to air that dirty laundry. At the end of the day, that feud would pretty much DEMAND Punk come back and be in AJ's corner. That's not going to be happening as the guy has openly stated that he's done - retired - for good from wrestling.
Here's another thing that Diva fans are failing to see the big picture of here. The Divas division does NOT need a new big heel. IMO there's TOO many heels in the division. What they need is a new big babyface. The Trish vs. Lita feud worked so well b/c there was that clear distinction on which side each Diva was playing. Paige vs. AJ just seems like who is trying to upstage who for ghetto Queen Bitch spot.
As for AJ's current feud with Paige, it's underwhelming for a lot more reasons.
1) WWE already gave us this match at Battleground last month and they left a lot to be desired in terms of match quality. I wouldn't say it's the fault of either Diva in terms of ring ability, I just think it's one of those occasions like with Gail Kim and Mickie James where they are talented athletes but have ZERO chemistry in the ring together. It just doesn't click. I hope to be proven wrong in their rematch at Summerslam, but I don't have my hopes up at all.
2) Their match at Battleground didn't allow neither AJ nor Paige cut loose in the initial build up to this feud. They were playing off each other as "frienemies" with Paige becoming the aggressor now while AJ has reverted back to her "crazy" gimmick in an attempt to show some degree of unpredictably that she has a chance against the Anti-Diva. From the attacks on WWE Friday Night SmackDown and WWE Monday Night Raw to their most recent verbal exchange on WWE Main Event this past Tuesday, WWE has been booking this feud poorly. It's as if WWE doesn't understand what a big deal this match is supposed to be.
3) AJ ALREADY beat Paige twice now. First on her first night back, then again on Summerslam. It's like that last time The Rock challenged Steve Austin at WM18. Austin was already up 2 to 0 in that feud and Rock's win did NO favors for him. It's looking the same way for Paige. I could understand if they were tied even in this feud then I would care more. Paige's change in attitude to a more aggressive style is going to make this match more enjoyable to watch, but I don't have a single doubt in my mind that they are going to allow AJ to drop the title to her, especially from how Paige has been beating her up week-in and week-out.
4) Like I said before, there is NO clear distinction on who is face or heel here. At Battleground, it was a match between two struggling faces/tweeners. Now going into Summerslam, it seems like a tweener (who wants to be heel SOO bad) against the obviously heel Paige. I understand we are in an age of wrestling where being the bad guy is perceived "cool" but heel vs. heel feuds tend to be completely boring in my eyes.
"The Divas title that should be the apex of the division is taking a backseat."
I know this is going to be point where a LOT of people get mad at me, but I'm going to speak the truth when I say you ONLY have AJ Lee to blame there. She buried the ENTIRE division at WM30. Why else should people care if this chick made the rest of them look pathetic in comparison?
While AJ was on her "vacation", the division was slowly rebuilding itself. The Divas were in more segments and putting on stronger matches on the main roster. AJ comes back and we're back to how it was pre-WM30. Quick squash matches, a LOT of angles have been dropped (anyone remember Cameron/Naomi's feud that got axed? Or how about Crazy Alicia Fox?), and we're back to square one, especially after she beat Paige - who was regarded as the best Diva the company has seen in years in terms in-ring ability within SECONDS of AJ's return. Just ALL KINDS OF NO on so many levels. I already wrote an article about that so I'll skip that rant again:
Two Steps Forward, Ten Steps Backwards - Let's Talk About AJ Lee's Return to WWE (Post-MITB Monday Night RAW) ~ Let's Talk Wrestling
People shit on TNA 24/7 but they CLEARLY know how to run a women's division better than WWE. Take their top veteran, Gail Kim. She can EASILY fall into any role that's needed for the division - top heel, top babyface, top workhorse to put over new talent, etc. TNA managed to make their division great for the past year with LESS than 6 active women when WWE has roughly a dozen and don't know how to book a SINGLE damn interesting feud.
But when they do something magical like this Steph vs. Brie feud, there's marks like this retard who wrote this article who bitches about it b/c AJ's not in it. Get the FUCK over yourselves. If this feud goes well, then that means the division as a WHOLE is smiled upon.
"There is too much talent in the division right now to pander to sub-par talent that are where they are because of how they look (Eva Marie), their bad attitude (Cameron), or even their personal lives (Bellas). There is better talent that is coming up through Sara Del Rey’s magnificent work behind the scenes who are going to blow a lot of the ladies out of the water. NXT is flourishing with Charlotte at the helm. Bayley, Becky and Sasha Banks are all solid hands. Natalya is killing it with Tyson Kidd. Paige is only 22. Despite having trouble behind the scenes, Emma is just waiting for some time to wrestle. Emma vs. AJ would be really fun too. Women’s wrestling in WWE is turning for the better, but it’s things like Total Divas and Brie vs. Stephanie that are holding it back because it is about look and not the substance."
I know this is a foreign concept to newer Diva fans, but NOT every woman that comes into WWE will excel at EVERYTHING in the ring. Some will be just great actresses (Stephanie), others will be used just b/c they are pretty (Eva Marie), then there's others that will be pushed to the moon b/c of their families (Paige, Natalya, Charlotte, Tamina, etc.) or who they are associated with (Bellas, AJ, etc.). There's a place for ALL of these pieces of the puzzle in the grand scheme of things here in wrestling. There's just that process of finding out how the pieces fit correctly into the puzzle. The perfect example is what we're witnessing with Steph and Brie's feud. And much to contrary of the author of that article's beliefs, this feud has MUCH more substance than he/she is giving it credit for.
"The pieces are there to build the division to be better than Lita, or Trish ever had it. Actually, THAT is what the division really needs. It needs a Lita. Not Lita per say, but the spirit of Lita. Think about how the wrestling in the division really is. A ton of on the mat, submission and general stuff. There isn’t a high flyer to provide any explosiveness to matches. All Divas wrestle the same in the division, and a female wrestler who was willing to take risks would make a killing right now with the audience. The division needs something different to watch. These kind of ideas are what is lacking in the division because the powers that be are content with Stephanie making the division look stupid on the mic while the Divas title and best wrestlers get less exposure. I think everyone needs to try harder to make it feel important."
There's NO high flyers? What crack is this ass-clown smoking? I guess Tamina, Naomi, and Alexa Bliss don't count for anything huh... WWE has a Diva that does something different in the ring with Paige, but WWE chose to dilute her when AJ came back into the picture. Compare her matches with Fox, Tamina, and Naomi BEFORE AJ's return with her matches after that stage. It's like day and night.
Steph is NOT making the division look stupid on the mic. She's making Brie look stupid. There's a HUGE difference. Before AJ's marks defend her with that infamous verbal exchange between Steph and AJ last year, allow me to set the record straight. Steph was doing a show of force to remind AJ (in AND out of character) who the boss was and where to draw the line on her CM Punk-style attitude on the microphone. If AJ can't take that, then she needs to skip her ass back to kindergarden playground she came from. Steph wasn't the one who "tried" to bury the entire division on the microphone saying "no one is good enough to lace up her Chuck Taylors" before doing it literally at WM30.
The division already has a Lita, they just aren't using her. Who am I referring to? Naomi. If they attached her to the hip with the Usos and let her go nuts in their matches like Lita did w/ the Hardyz back in the day, I'm sure crowds would get behind her instantly.
"I think women’s wrestling can be something that everyone would tune in to see every week. I think it is being held back."
This, my friends, is literally the ONLY line of this article I agree with. If you want GOOD women's wrestling though, you're looking in the WRONG place as mainstream wrestling as a whole has a few lines they won't EVER possibly cross with women's wrestling.
If so-called WWE Diva fans want better things for this division, stop trying to belittle or nit-pick everything that isn't saturated with AJ Lee's presence as negative and hoping that it would fail. If you were a REAL fan of this division, you would be happy that more Divas other than AJ Lee are getting an opportunity to shine. So shut up and be happy that the Divas Division is getting a spotlight - if any, at all PERIOD - on WWE programming.
There, I'm done ranting folks. Love or hate it, I've said my piece.
Like it, hate it, unfollow/unfriend me, whatever. I don't care if I just pissed on your parade, but that's 110% truth on how I feel about this article that pissed me off enough to warrant this lengthy write up.
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