Views From The Turnbuckle: Can WWE Really Give Divas A Chance?
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views of WrestlingInc or its staff.
In the fallout after Wrestlemania, there are always going to be different decisions and routes taken by WWE. Certain wrestlers will see their stock rise, and some will see their stock fall rapidly. One of the more headline worthy movements bubbling around WWE is the heightened focus that is reportedly going to be put on the Divas division. The Divas division has been floundering almost since the get-go, but now WWE finally appears to be ready to commit more towards the females on the show.
#GiveDivasAChance has become the central rallying cry for any fan/performer that wants to see more women involved in the product. The movement towards a greater focus on women in WWE is just a miniscule part in the much broader equal-opportunity cultural movement that is making headlines everywhere. If we are going to use the term "equal opportunity," than the case for the Divas is very cut-and-dry. The women in WWE do not get the same opportunities that the men do. They don't get nearly as much in-ring time, they rarely get time on the microphone, and they almost never get an interesting storyline for any of their matches. On a really good day, there might be two women's matches on a show, but most of the time there is only one, or worse, none at all.
Even when the Divas do get time, there is rarely any long-term plan or focus for them. The division right now is a complete mess booking-wise. At the top, you have the Bella Twins and AJ and Paige. The Bella Twins are the only female wrestlers on the roster with a clearly defined character, and since they are the heels, AJ and Paige became the faces almost by default. To set up their tag team match at Wrestlemania, they had singles matches, including a match for the Diva's Championship. Ideally, the championship should be the number one driving force behind the division, but instead it was being used as a prop to set up a future tag match, which is completely backwards when compared to traditional wrestling logic.
AJ and Paige were victorious at Wrestlemania, but what did that really mean? Did someone earn a title shot? Who knows? WWE never really explains these things. We don't even really know why they are fighting. Compare this to say, Randy Orton and Seth Rollins. We know they are going to feud because Orton hates Rollins for pushing him out of The Authority, and despite the fact that Orton beat him cleanly at Wrestlemania, Rollins still managed to hijack the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. It's simple, but it makes sense and it creates a match that fans want to see. With the Divass there is nothing like that. A new contender emerges, sometimes straight out of the blue, and then they have a match at the PPV, maybe the challenger wins, maybe the champion retains, but really it doesn't matter. There is so little effort put into the Divas' storylines that being the champion hardly means anything.
Going forward, WWE seems to always have something for the Bella Twins, even if it isn't that engaging. Paige and AJ (when she is there) also seem to get some form of consistent storyline involvement. Whatever they are involved in still leaves a lot to be desired, but they actually have it pretty good. The lower-tier Divas never seem to get anything. When was the last time Alicia Fox was involved in a legitimate storyline? Outside of a few times when she went crazy on Raw, I can't remember if she has EVER been in anything substantial.
But the idea that WWE could fix all these issues and create a tremendous interest in the women, interest that could rival the men, if they just booked things a little bit better and gave them more ring time, is not as simple as just giving them equal opportunities to showcase their skills. By this point, fans have been conditioned to not care that much about the Divas, and so even conscious booking and storytelling will be met by skepticism. On Monday's Raw, the Divas had a match that went 13 minutes, which might be the longest Diva's match on Raw in several years. The crowd, which was filled with hardcore wrestling fans who stayed in town for the show, ran wild on the match and instead of being invested in the match, they took this time to chant random things Enzo Amore's catchphrase. These were fans who you would think would appreciate in-ring action, but because it was the Divas', they knew not to get their hopes up very high.
WWE is not the only entity responsible for creating a general lack of interest in women's wrestling. The fact of the matter is, only on very rare occasions has women's wrestling been very successful. Until the late 90s, WWE had a women's division off and on for their entire existence. Even in the territory days, women's wrestling was often viewed as a sideshow within the normal wrestling card. Similar to how WWE does interview segments and dance contests, women's wrestling matches were seen as things to break up the monotony of the normal matches, but they were rarely seen as legitimate assets that drew money. In the late 80s-90s, Japanese female wrestlers (known as joshis) became extremely popular thanks to good promotion and outstanding in-ring work, and stars like Manami Toyota and Kyoko Inoue were arguably as big as names like Misawa and Choshu. However, the rise in fame was largely viewed as a fad, and today joshi wrestling is just a blip on the Japanese independent scene.
The idea of equal opportunity makes perfect sense in the corporate world or in education, but it doesn't quite work out when it comes to entertainment. For the same reasons that the WNBA doesn't rival the NBA, fans are not going to be nearly as invested in a lesser product when a better one is easily available. Men's wrestling is just on average, better than women's wrestling. The stars are bigger, the wrestlers are more athletic, the emotions are sharper, etc. That is not to say that women's wrestling cannot be consistently good, and that they can turn out matches that are just as good if not better than male wrestling, but on average, the men are more interesting to fans and the history of the wrestling business reflects that.
The great hope for the Divas is NXT. By hiring Sara Dey Ray (now using her real name Sara Amato) they have begun to specifically focus on women's wrestling, and it reflects in the quality of their product. They are still hiring mostly unknown talents (Charlotte and Alexa Bliss have never wrestled matches outside of WWE) but the main difference is that they are getting the most out of their athletic ability and talent.
The big question still remains if the effectiveness of NXT can work on the big stage. Yes, the matches in NXT have been successful and have gotten rave reviews, but can it work in WWE? We have seen talent that flourished in NXT falter in WWE. If you just went by what was over in NXT, Adam Rose and The Ascension would be really over right now. The women of NXT are currently benefiting from a relative lack of politics, they have perhaps the best women's wrestler in the world training them every day, and they are away from the chaotic day-to-day booking of the normal WWE. For women's wrestling to succeed in WWE, they are going to need to make a lot of corrections, and it is questionable if WWE currently has the ability to make the changes necessary.
You can follow Jesse Collings on Twitter @JesseCollings