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Post by flatsdomino on Jan 15, 2013 2:46:31 GMT -5
...as it currently is.
Beth, Kelly, The Bella Twins, Kharma and now Eve; every over female wrestler they had in 2011 is gone, with AJ and Vickie being the only women getting screentime - for their non-wrestling roles. The previous generation of Divas anyone cared about, the post-Trish/Lita crew of Maria, McCool, Candice, Mickie James - also gone, a good amount of them forgotten too.
The division's NEVER looked this dire. The women's roster is insanely thin. It's beyond piss break, gone deep into "who the hell is this even AIMED at?" waste of time territory. None of the women are over, the majority of them can't wrestle very well. The division's become a complete joke that's not going to shake the stigma it's acquired anytime soon. The fact that the most pushed woman on the show, AJ, has nothing to do with it sends that point home more than anything. The roster's so thin it barely warrants it's own title, and even the more talented divas like Tamina are heatless because of how lackluster it is. It's at the point where I'd MUCH rather see a lower-card guy get the spot that the Divas match takes up, even if it is short, or I'd rather have that time added on to other matches.
It sucks, as a fan of Women's wrestling when it's good. But honestly, the best thing WWE could do would be to completely phase out the division for a while.
Here's what I'd do; quietly retire the butterfly belt, and end any pretention of there being a "Divas Division". The women's roster is so small that they could pretty much either move them into valet/non-wrestling roles for a bit, minimal wrestling roles like AJ and Vickie have, have them train new girls, have them be moved into developmental for a little while, or release them. And in that off-period, hire new girls - WRESTLERS who actually know how to get over and work good matches the crowd will give a s*** about, along with new, young women who can be trained. Then, in a year or two, reintroduce the division as something legitimate, with a new title, new Divas and older ones like Nattie, and actual storylines and matches. Because right now, all the Divas are doing is wasting airtime, and it's sad to watch.
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Post by frogsplash45 on Jan 15, 2013 2:51:20 GMT -5
Push Kaitlyn and AJ as the new Trish and Lita... cut everybody else (except Natalya) and rebuild.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2013 2:55:54 GMT -5
You people forget that they have 6-7 girls down in developmental, and that they can easily call up a few of them to patch up the wholes that the Bellas leave behind. They weren't a part of the divas division for real, were rarely used and QUITE replaceable.
Yes the loss of Eve and Kelly hurt, they were prominent figures in the division, but Kharma NEVER got a chance to make a lasting impression to the division itself. All she did was kill Divas for 2 months a week at a time. They can put more emphasis on Layla (turn her heel), have AJ and Kaitlyn do their own thing. They still have wrestling talent in Alicia, Tamina, Natalya and Naomi. Yeah it's bare, but bring up Audrey Marie and Paige, and you already have a better looking (although smaller in numeric sense) division.
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Post by CATCH_US IS the Conversation on Jan 15, 2013 2:59:15 GMT -5
Give the Divas more time to get over.
- Stop focusing solely on the champion and the challenger. Some non-title programs would be nice to have.
- If a female gets involved with a male performer, don't isolate her from the division. Use their connections to build fresh storylines.
- Push Kaitlyn as the face of the Division, and have her take on all comers
- Keep AJ as the valet who wrestles occasionally.
- Keep Naomi and Cameron in their Funkadactyl gimmicks, but have them wrestle more often, maybe even teaming with Brodus Clay in mixed tag matches to get them more over.
- Give Natalya and Alicia (who isn't all that bad) real storylines.
- Even if they aren't all that great, use Rosa and Aksana as enhancement for the Divas who actually have talent
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I don't really think "HURR DURR GET RID OF ALL THE MODELZ, BRING IN REEL WIMMENS RESLERZ" is the answer. I don't think hot T&A types are the answer either. However, a pretty face who can put on solid matches should be the ideal WWE Diva, which we had in Eve.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2013 3:02:27 GMT -5
However, a pretty face who can put on solid matches should be the ideal WWE Diva, which we had in Eve. Alicia Fox ![:D](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/grin.png)
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Post by Orange on Jan 15, 2013 3:05:06 GMT -5
You said retire the butterfly belt and I couldn't agree with you more. What was wrong with the old belt I haven't a clue, but that butterfly belt is ridiculous.
I had posted prematurely before I read your last paragraph - and I couldn't agree more with all of it. I don't think they should put it to bed right now, I think that they can legitimize the division without having to move away from it - and I'd say they're taking the steps necessary to do it.
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Post by Unaffiliated on Jan 15, 2013 3:14:15 GMT -5
I don't see what's so bad about it. How many of them are needed to vie for one title? If they need more, they've got enough in NXT to call up to the main roster to fill the gaps. Even then, how different is it from the other 'divisions'? What are the US and IC title divisions? How healthy is the tag team division, with the title scene narrowed down to just two teams (despite the promising signs just a while back)?
Regarding the talent, I don't see it as the main reason they are not over. How many of the fans (not just those on the Internet) actually care about talent? Maybe to a certain extent, but I believe almost all the divas can put on good enough matches that the casual fan won't dismiss as garbage.
I also don't think filling the void left by divas matches by lower-card male wrestlers would change much regarding crowd reactions.
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Jimmy
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Post by Jimmy on Jan 15, 2013 3:26:39 GMT -5
The answer is simple: Call up Sara Del Rey and her superior wrestling skills, have her win the Divas title, and build up the rest of the divas to try and knock her off.
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Sparkybob
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Post by Sparkybob on Jan 15, 2013 3:45:12 GMT -5
..........................The roster is not that bad. They have plenty of interesting divas that they can give pushes too if they choose. They can do Kaitlyn vs AJ at mania which will have a lot of back-story involved and it might have the crowd semi invested. Plus you don't really need a million divas on the main roster, You can get by with like 4-5 divas competing for the belt in a 4-6 months time span. You might have missed it but Kaitlyn did get a good decent pop for winning the belt on raw and most people on this board seem to have thought it was a good match. And to be truthful, most midcard/lower guys don't get a much better reaction than the divas so it's not like the wwe is holding back talent to put the Divas on the show.
Is the division perfectly booked? I don't think so but at least they have an "over" star Diva in AJ to build around and building a big star is usually the hardest thing to do for a division and they got that cover. People like Paige,Nattie,Naomi, Kaitlyn are all pieces that can help the diva's division become stronger in the future.
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Post by thelonewolf527 on Jan 15, 2013 4:11:01 GMT -5
Just give AJ the title at Mania and let her keep doing what she's doing. Even if she doesn't defend the title it'll still feel important
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Post by CATCH_US IS the Conversation on Jan 15, 2013 4:14:59 GMT -5
Just give AJ the title at Mania and let her keep doing what she's doing. Even if she doesn't defend the title it'll still feel important That won't really help the division at all. The person holding the belt looks like a million bucks, but the belt itself would be an afterthought. That's like the female equivalent to Cody Rhodes' IC Title reign.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2013 4:22:56 GMT -5
I think alot of people in this thread are forgetting one crucial thing:
Does the WWE have the potential to have a good divas division? Yes.
Will the WWE actually produce a good divas division? No.
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Post by Urfarkendarf on Jan 15, 2013 4:25:13 GMT -5
Just give AJ the title at Mania and let her keep doing what she's doing. Even if she doesn't defend the title it'll still feel important Nah, it doesnt. It becomes a prop at that point and completely devalues the title. I think this idea could work with someone like Beth, who looked like she could own the division just on physical attributes alone. AJ is a midget compared to the majority of divas, and I don't think they could keep her "dominating" realistically for a long period of time. Even Stephanie defended the belt when she had it. I agree that the division is all but useless and dire may not even be strong enough a word, but I don't think its at the "phase out" point. It seems that the last time the Divas had anything interesting AT ALL going on (amongst the girls only, not including the ascendance of AJ) was the debut of Kharma. That was what? 2 years ago now? It seems that the company just doesnt give a s*** about them in any fashion other than a 5 minute match and photoshoots, and in turn, we dont. IMO the only way to save the Divas division is to get the fans to care about them, but they're doing a great job not giving us anything to care about. I am very curious about all these departures though. I find it hard to believe that all of them have left just because the way they're being used. They get paid very very well and none of them (other than the few who still wrestle) have done much of anything since they've left or NDAs. They won't say as to not burn a bridge. It seems like since Maryse left, we lose one every few months.
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Post by thelonewolf527 on Jan 15, 2013 4:35:31 GMT -5
Just give AJ the title at Mania and let her keep doing what she's doing. Even if she doesn't defend the title it'll still feel important Nah, it doesnt. It becomes a prop at that point and completely devalues the title. I think this idea could work with someone like Beth, who looked like she could own the division just on physical attributes alone. AJ is a midget compared to the majority of divas, and I don't think they could keep her "dominating" realistically for a long period of time. Even Stephanie defended the belt when she had it. I agree that the division is all but useless and dire may not even be strong enough a word, but I don't think its at the "phase out" point. It seems that the last time the Divas had anything interesting AT ALL going on (amongst the girls only, not including the ascendance of AJ) was the debut of Kharma. That was what? 2 years ago now? It seems that the company just doesnt give a s*** about them in any fashion other than a 5 minute match and photoshoots, and in turn, we dont. IMO the only way to save the Divas division is to get the fans to care about them, but they're doing a great job not giving us anything to care about. I am very curious about all these departures though. I find it hard to believe that all of them have left just because the way they're being used. They get paid very very well and none of them (other than the few who still wrestle) have done much of anything since they've left or NDAs. They won't say as to not burn a bridge. It seems like since Maryse left, we lose one every few months. How does it completely devalue the title? No one gives a shit about the diva matches, at least here they can talk about how the Diva's Champion is with the World Champion or like is above the other divas and stuff
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Jimmy
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Post by Jimmy on Jan 15, 2013 4:36:52 GMT -5
Even Stephanie defended the belt when she had it. No she didn't.
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Post by Hit Girl on Jan 15, 2013 4:38:06 GMT -5
It was time to phase out this division once the Attitude Era ended.
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Steveweiser
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Post by Steveweiser on Jan 15, 2013 5:24:46 GMT -5
I'd concentrate on Kaitlyn vs. AJ for now, then after Mania, draft in new blood, beginning with Paige. She can be compensated down in NXT by Emma, Sasha Banks and whatever they call Davina Rose.
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Post by Urfarkendarf on Jan 15, 2013 5:47:25 GMT -5
Even Stephanie defended the belt when she had it. No she didn't. Yes, she did. www.profightdb.com/wrestlers/stephanie-mcmahon-320.htmlOkay, lets say they go with your proposal. They put the title on AJ and she just keeps doing what she's doing. Whats the point of putting it on her in the first place? For someone to hold it? I agree with you that no one gives a s*** about the divas matches, but the title still carries the perception of being the title. If they just put it on AJ for the sake of it, it ceases to become meaningful at all. I get that an argument could be made that it already is meaningless, but at the least if its being defended, it is not a complete loss.
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Jimmy
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Post by Jimmy on Jan 15, 2013 6:07:41 GMT -5
...no, she didn't. She won it on on March 28, 2000. She had two non-title matches against Lita in June (one was a minute long, the other 12 seconds), one tag match in July, one tag match in August, and lost her first and only title defense in August to Lita.
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Post by thelonewolf527 on Jan 15, 2013 6:22:45 GMT -5
Yes, she did. www.profightdb.com/wrestlers/stephanie-mcmahon-320.htmlOkay, lets say they go with your proposal. They put the title on AJ and she just keeps doing what she's doing. Whats the point of putting it on her in the first place? For someone to hold it? I agree with you that no one gives a s*** about the divas matches, but the title still carries the perception of being the title. If they just put it on AJ for the sake of it, it ceases to become meaningful at all. I get that an argument could be made that it already is meaningless, but at the least if its being defended, it is not a complete loss. The idea is make the Divas Champion look like a big name so that she can have a positive effect on the other divas
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