Article: Do/Does WWE Respect the Divas?

[Snitsky]

To put it bluntly, the woman's divisions in the two mainstream American wrestling companies are slowly losing any form of respect that they had.

Don't believe me? Well here are some quotes off of yahoo answers, bleacher report, and other sites.

"All the diva's are just worthless eye candy"

"TNA knockouts aren't trained by TNA they are recruited"

"Both companies should just scrap their woman's divisions"

"The woman's title is worthless"

"The woman's matches are a waste of time"

My thoughts on mainstream woman's wrestling as of right now? Well to put it in my honest opinion it is currently, please pardon my language, a g**gr**ped B**tch-slapped, beaten down mess. It is nowhere near what it was as few as five years ago. Who is at fault for this? Well the blame can be a credited to two things, The companies themselves, and the fans.

Let's start with what the fans credit to the problem.



1) Lack of Care

Most wrestling fans really don't care about woman's wrestling. They view it as something that is boring or just a waste of time. We don't care for the rivalries because often we find them far too lackluster or repetitive.

2) Not looking at the complete package

Many fans believe the divas, or knockouts which ever you prefer, as eye candy. Well let me layout a fact. We call them eye candy and perceive them as such because that's all we want to see.

Far too often a wrestling fan will look at a Diva for her looks and not her wrestling skills. We as fans choose to look at a diva for what we believe to be her negatives instead of looking at what is positive about her.


3)Clinging to the past

Many fans yearn for the diva's of old, Trish and Lita. Don't get me wrong I love Trish and Lita and respect their talents and what they did for the diva's division, and woman's wrestling as a whole, as much as anyone else.

But as much as we want them to come back they are retired and they will probably stay so except for sporadic appearances. We need to stop clinging to Divas of the past and look towards the future of the division, Divas like Natalya or Kelly Kelly, who is probably one of the most underrated WWE divas.



Well, now that I got that off my chest let move on to who everyone likes to blame, The Companies.

1) Disrespect of The Women's skills

It is well noted that Good old Vince McMahon appears to hire Diva's for their looks without actually taking into account their wrestling skills or talent. Kelly Kelly, as talented as she is, is a great example of this.

She worked for a modeling agency and WWE contacted her and asked her to come train at OVW. She had no previous wrestling ability yet WWE gave her a contract.

However Christy Hemme who has a tremendous amount of talent was released as a budget cut. Ever seen some of Jillian's old OVW matches? She is an awesome wrestler yet she is reduced to a jobber.

Cherry was rising as a wrestler yet released because she was fat!? What!? As far as I recall Cherry didn't look that fat, if Cherry was too fat why didn't they release Bertha Faye back in the 90s?



2) Not Enough Ring Time

The woman are also given a very small time slate for their matches, the longest match I've seen in WWE in recent times was roughly ten minutes. It was a five-diva tag match, and guess what? Only four of the Divas total got any in-ring time. Its down right wrong. Some of the diva's deserve longer matches especially Jillian, Natalya and Beth.



3) None developed characters

Many of the Divas have the same gimmick, random blonde (insert number here), and a majority of the Divas that do have a gimmick aren't given the time to develop the character or the gimmick sucks.(Jillian Hall, bad singer = Ratings?)

Take Michelle McCool's heel turn, a random attack on three divas, one good interview segment and......nothing. They didn't even take the time to build her to be a good heel diva even though she is one of the most talented Divas on the roster and they already had a good thing running.

She could have easily been the next Trish if they had taken the time to develop her heel character.



4) Dumb/ repetitive storylines

I would like someone to explain to me how a man dressed in drag is bad at any other time yet its apparently good when we are watching it on Raw? Its stupid. It poisoned the entire air of the 25 Diva Ms. Wrestlemania battle royal.

That match should have been used to elevate a current Diva or add to the career of a long standing alumni who helped the business, instead it was won by a man with a terrible fake Italian accent and if that isn't bad enough they have kept this story going taking up all the time for the Divas on Raw.

I've covered the dumb now the repetive. Allow me to sum up just about every storyline for the woman's title in the year or so.

"I want the title" Fans don't want to be see that! Not only is it not a really good story its been done over and over again between the same people! I think this story should be scrapped and the writer who thinks it is a good idea to use it over and over should be fired.


How it all ties together

Its actually rather simple, because the company proposes the same story, the same look for all the divas, and the lack of wrestling in their matches, Fans see the divas as boring and Eye candy, because Fans see the Divas as Eye candy that is what the company hires, and since they are boring the company makes their matches short and Divas cant develop their feuds or character which makes it more boring.

Its a vicious circle that needs to be stopped RIGHT NOW!!!!

bleacherreport.com/articles/163154-...tream-companies

What say you?

agree? disagree?

[Sajoa Moe]

The article mentions both mainstream companies, yet goes into no detail about TNA's women's division. They at least have developed characters and personalities, and are recognizable from one another.

[Dr. T is an alien]

Apr 29, 2009 16:41:10 GMT -5 Sajoa Moe said:

The article mentions both mainstream companies, yet goes into no detail about TNA's women's division. They at least have developed characters and personalities, and are recognizable from one another.

True, and when they gave attention to the division it increased ratings, specifically during Knockout matches. Granted, Gail Kim played a large role in that and she is now gone, but Kong is still there and should have still made for a solid foundation for the division.

[johnnyk9]

WWE maybe should experiment with eliminating the womens division for a little while, keep a few diva as valets only and endevor the rest and abandon the titles. It's a risk, but hey since they've gone PG I haven't seen a diva's mag or any bikini contests so maybe this is what WWE should do

[Deleted]

Womens wrestling in the WWE is just something to fill the show and try to bring in typical masculine types. Actually the PG ratings now mean that last one's probably a moot point.

Just too many platinum blonde, orange skinned models for my liking. I can't watch womens wrestling as I do respect the like of Beth, Natalya, etc (I dont' even think Michelle McCool is as crap as people say) but when there's 1/3 wrestlers and 2/3 people who can't even perform a hip toss then why should I be interested? Most just end up as 5 minute blown move fests.

On that note, does anyone still cringe when you see Mickie mess up consistently? Sometimes she looks great in the ring then she is just clumsy as any of the divas.

[CrazySting]

Aren't many of the new divas brought in basically for the guys to sleep with? Mark Madden wrote an article about it for wrestlezone, and said many of the new divas were basically rats.

So, no, WWE don't respect them. In many ways, quite likely.

[Mac]

They dont respect them for the most part because I think the WWE looks at the women wrestlers more as temps (The same can be said for the majority of male wrestlers too) But I dont think a current diva will be with the company selling out arenas for an extended point of time.

Theres not a diva on the roster the WWE would suffer for if they lost her.

[Loki]

To put it bluntly, the woman's divisions in the two mainstream American wrestling companies are slowly losing any form of respect that they had.

I stopped reading here...

Thw women's division never had respect, nor in WWE nor in WCW, and whatever TNA may have done, it's almost irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

So, no...

The most "respect" Women's Division got was a Survivor Series match in 1989, the one with the Jumping Bomb Angels.

Before that it was either filler, or part of a bigger angle (Cyndi Lauper).

After the MNW started, it was mostly T'n'A or HLA.

One occasional good match, buried in a sea of mud (and pudding, and pillows) doesn't change much in my opinion.

And some of the most relevant Female Wrestlers of the last deacade are most famous for not-so-flattering on-air events anyway.

[maniacmike]

No, WWE does not respect the Divas. I've thought this for a while. It won't stop me from watching them roll around the mat, but as for a good match...well, it'd be very refreshing.

[playoldgames]

If they're going to make the Women's divison a proper, competitive thing once again, with women who can work rather than just jiggle, then they need one thing. One thing with a proven ability to get the best out of the Divas, to show them exactly what they need to do to put on a decent match, and to make them more than just bog-standard PG eye candy.

Finlay.

[Magician under the moonlight]

I do think women wrestling should be scrapped. Adding a second title did not help the division either.

[Jay Peas 42]

Like much of the WWE, the Women's division lacks focus. Being hot is not a gimmick. Well, it is, but not when everyone has the same look.

[Andrew is Good]

The problem with WWE's women are lack of gimmicks. In TNA, the only chick resembling a WWE style female babyface is Taylor Wilde, though Taylor isn't as sexualized as the other girls (is that even a word). Taylor is just your happy go lucky white meat babyface. However, also in TNA are the cocky babyface with Sojo Bolt, the anti-diva with ODB, the rebellious hardcore knockout Roxxi, and the formerly insane Daffney (according to her anyway, she's cured now according to her). Now, Christy hasn't been around much, and didn't have much of a run after the Rock n' Rave Infection, so I'm not gonna count her now. But, I just named the 6 female babyfaces in TNA, and they can all be described differently.

In WWE, the heels also all, for the most part, have the same gimmick. Arrogant bitch. In TNA, you have the prima donna stable, the Beautiful People, who all have the same gimmick, but are in a stable together, so there's nothing wrong with that, the monster Awesome Kong and Siad, who is the burrkah wearing, mysterious protege of the monster. Now, TNA is kinda low on heels, but hey, new girls are supposed to be coming in.

The Divas Battle Royal proved that they didn't care about them. They just threw them all out there so they wouldn't pick up on Santino right off the bat, and that's bullshit. I'm sure Sunny for example would have gotten a huge reaction, if she wasn't just thrown out there.

[kendrick1989]

Does WWE respect the divas?

[Snitsky]

I think TNA has respect for their womens divison i mean if they wanted eye candy why would they have all the girls WWE didnt want, looks wise?(i guess apart from christy)

[Lenny: Smooth like Keith Stone]

I think WWE respects the divas just fine. The divas get paid good money to do what they do. It's the fans of women's wrestling that WWE doesn't really respect, since WWE has no desire to make it a serious part of their product. Of course it's been that way basically forever, so this isn't a recent thing. Even some of the WWE's greatest female feuds such as Trish vs Mickie didn't come without heaping amounts of sexual overtones.

Of course the WWE fans who don't want to see women's wrestling far outweigh the ones who do, so I doubt it's ever going to change. I am a women's wrestling fan, but I know better than to look for it from WWE. Kinda like I wouldn't walk into a bakery and look for the oil change department.

[Snitsky]

Apr 29, 2009 19:46:48 GMT -5 Lenny: Smooth like Keith Stone said:

I think WWE respects the divas just fine. The divas get paid good money to do what they do. .

depends on what you call good money, i would say a handful earn over 100K-the rest probably earn the same amount as working a regular professional job

this is from 2006- i would say most of the divas on the roster now are no where near earning these amounts

Ashley Massaro: $131,000
Jillian Hall: $52,000
Lilian Garcia: $90,000
Lita: $286,000 (Mostly downside paid due to lack of wrestling)
Maria: $41,000
Melina: $155,000
Mickie James: $72,000
Stacy Keibler: $178,000 (Only downside paid during absence)
Torrie Wilson: $260,000
Trish Stratus: $618,000 (Receives 20% of all Trish Stratus merchandise sold)
Victoria: $275,000

[EoE: Workin On My Night Cheese]

Apr 29, 2009 19:44:14 GMT -5 Snitsky said:

I think TNA has respect for their womens divison i mean if they wanted eye candy why would they have all the girls WWE didnt want, looks wise?(i guess apart from christy)

And even then, Christy was working her arse off training to be a better wrestler until she did her neck.

[weekendwarrior]

Feminism ideals has no place in wrestling.

[Eli]

The female audience is growing, like it or not (not steeply, but it's climbing). I think it's stupid that they get divas out of the Local Hooters when there are divas training for years. That's one of the reasons I like Mickie is because she pestered WWE to the point they hired her. Another problem is many women feel like they should never push their boss for a better position, pay etc. I think that Santina is funny, but it's annoying that someone not even trying supposedly beats all the Divas.