WrestlingNerd Editorial: Is the Divas' Division salvageable? Part 2

The prominent Women's Championship

Welcome back everybody. This is part two of my editorial on: Divas' Division. Last time, we looked at the history of Women's Wrestling. Now, we shall take a short look at the current history of the Divas' Division, and determine if it is salvageable.
Let's get to it.





Diva's Search (2004-2008)

The Beginning of the End of Women's Wrestling

Last time, we left off of Trish and Lita leaving, but behind the scenes we had a Diva Search. It was a means to bring in models as wrestlers. Although it brought in wrestlers like Layla and Eve Torres, it brought in a ton of untrained models. Around the time Trish and Lita left, we had Victoria, Mickie James, Michelle McCool and Gail Kim that had to fill their shoes. All of the real wrestlers went on to become TNA stars besides McCool. So with the slew of models the wrestling suffered as we went along. The Division were starting to have horrible storylines mostly around who is going to pose for Playboy. The wrestlers had to train each one. Most of them didn't make it past 2008. Each match started to look like a bathroom break.

Birth of the Divas' Belt (2008-2010)

Michelle McCool with the Purple Butterfly

With a huge roster of women on both brands of RAW and Smackdown, WWE decided that Smackdown needed another Women's Championship. However, they wanted to cater to the idea of the "Divas" name, and the Purple Butterfly Belt was born as the Divas Championship. As time went on, we had stories of heel factions like LayCool and Bella Twins. Other than that, the storylines were non-existent.
The Divas Search was over, and the flood of Divas were being trained. The inclusion of Melina, Alicia Fox, Tamina, Natalya and Beth Phoenix were emerging. They gave us some great matches, but their model opponents were nothing to watch. WWE continued down the PG role and again limited the Divas to an even more non-existent storylines. Think about it...if we as an audience has seen everything and want something different from the male wrestlers, how much worse was it for the female wrestlers, especially ones that are not trained well as wrestlers?
By 2010, the flood of the Divas were drying out, and the talented ones were going to TNA. We were left again with only five wrestlers that only two made anything out of nothing, and the rest were bathroom break models. With everyone leaving, WWE decided that the Women's Championship and the Divas Championship would be merged into one. After 56 years, the Women's Championship is retired.
The Divas Division continues to falter as the TNA Knockouts emerged.

TNA Knockouts (Overall and not limited to era)

TNA Knockouts

Now while I talk all about the Divas Division, I want to give a lot of credit to the Knockouts of TNA. A lot of the Knockouts are former Divas. However, does the Knockouts of TNA deliver better? YES! But only after 2006, did people catch onto the Knockouts. With the collection of former talents in WWE, they didn't need much training. Which means their skills in-ring and on mic were far superior than the Divas. The matches were much more appealing to the eyes. The storylines were pretty good, but we have seen them before. However, the two best things about the Knockouts was that they looked like models, but were the older type of wrestlers. They weren't hindered with a limited move list. The second was they weren't limited on types of matches. Knockouts had a multitude of matches like: cage, tournaments, battle royales, ladder and fatal four ways.
The only problem was TNA tried to compete with WWE. They made themselves to believe they are just as big as WWE. TNA found themselves financially unstable, and in a result, they had to sign off some of their Knockouts. Many women have left the company. TNA is dwindling in profits and can barely afford new talent.

NXT/Total Divas (2010-Present)

With the Divas Championship now in play, models officially took over. All of the new talent were models. Natalya, Tamina, Beth Phoenix, Melina and Alicia Fox were the only wrestlers left. However, Melina and Beth Phoenix rose up and conquered the Divas Division. Even when Melina left in 2011 Beth Phoenix continued on with Natalya. Behind the scenes, WWE made NXT in 2012. Along with some male wrestlers, females have been working to bring up the Divas' Division on their wrestling and microphone skills. Of course, they are still limited on moves and types of matches.
In 2013, Total Divas arrived. They brought real life to the WWE. I'm going to be honest. I watched this show, and I liked it. I won't watch it again, but it isn't for Wrestling fans. It's more for the women of wrestling fans. The part about the show I liked was the behind-the-scenes drama about couples in WWE and the drama in the Diva department. Now Total Divas does have its problems. For one, it leaves out other Divas in WWE. I'd like to see more about AJ and Tamina. Two: it doesn't have enough drama. It obviously wants to be like "Jersey Shore" or "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." The last problem I'll get to later.
As time went on, Beth Phoenix left us another void. The Bellas unfortunately was pushed down our throats. Same with Total Divas cast. Eva Marie and JoJo absolutely are terrible in the ring. They never went through NXT. My current favorite Diva (Kaitlyn) left. Now we are stuck with no-talent, match type and move list limited, untrained models. Even Natalya is helping much. She lost her reputation with her farting gag. We need a rise of Divas that remember the good days of real wrestling.

Paige

Emma

Summer Rae

Each of these women are trained through NXT, and are great in the ring. I do see a hope.

Is the Divas Division Salvageable?

Before I answer, I want to analyze all the problems first.

• Dropped the Women's Championship- WWE took a prestigious title that had a great history from misogynists, banning Women's Wrestling, mainstream attention and some of the great matches in wrestling history. Now we have a title fit for models.
• Untrained Models- Models can't wrestle period. Vince McMahon has allowed these Divas to takeover the division. They can't act or use the microphone either. In the Pro-Wrestling career, you need both.
• No microphone usage- No one in the Divas Division uses the mic. It is the main tool to create great storylines. The only reason they use it is to promote a product.
• Sloppy wrestling- Botches are made constantly. This advertises itself to show the disdain of wrestling matches. Hell even something simple of a strike is horrifying to see.
• Hot-Potatoing the Title- The Divas Championship is given to everybody. Except the ones who really deserve it. Natalya and Alicia Fox never get a chance at this title. However, in the past three years I can only think of two people that held the title for a lengthy reign (AJ Lee and Beth Phoenix).
• Opening up a Real-Life drama- Total Divas number one problem is that it is linked with RAW and Smackdown. I don't want to watch Total Divas to figure out the storyline to last week's RAW. If they can promote it without including what is happening in the show, that is fine. They bring the problems to RAW and we only get half the story.
• No specialized matches- The Divas seem to have only three types of matches: One on One, Tag Team(2vs2,3vs3,ect...), and an once-a-year Battle Royale. It is quite boring and we need to see something else. Ladders, submissions, elimination and cage matches can work if the models can overcome their fear of a little pain. 

 So now finally I will answer the question...
Yes, the Divas Division is salvageable. However, it will be a long process. There are many ways to improve and boost attention to the Division. Most are just a reversal of the problems above, but here are some other ways to improve the Division.

• Diva Title Tournaments- Much like the King of the Ring. WWE should have a Queen of the Ring tournament for the Divas Title.
• Keep Models on Non-Wrestling- Interviewers, Valets, Singers and such should be used for models. Same as Total Divas.
• More Heel turns- The Divas Division is riddled with Babyfaces. AJ Lee is practically the only heel. Aksana and Alicia Fox are nowhere believable to be heels. At the same time, make the heels win more.
• More moves- Face it...Lita was the last aerial high-risk taker. Daniel Bryan and Seth Rollins could show these Divas a thing or two. We even need more power moves.
• Monster Divas- Big women have come and gone, nor can I remember one that made an impact in recent years. Beth Phoenix and Kharma were the last. We need more women that can bring fear into these skinny Divas. Hell, WWE should bring in ODB from TNA. Besides if Edge can like bigger women, so can we.
• Take risks and stipulations- Stipulations are non-existent in the division. We need more. We also need more aerial risks and the use of some weapons. A ladder match would work.
• Stephanie McMahon- Stephanie McMahon would do very nicely to oversee the Divas Division. Even as an onscreen authority figure towards these women would be a welcoming mix.

Well that is everything I can do. Hopefully, WWE will see this and change things around. There is a light at the end of the tunnel with the NXT rookies, so don't give up yet.

I don't care what Vince thinks.
ODB is sexy as hell to me.