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Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on Apr 16, 2021 2:55:39 GMT -5
Smackdown looks really rough. There's almost literally no challengers for Bianca. After Sasha there Bayley/Carmella/Natalya who she all already worked on her way to winning the belt and then Tamina who is just awful and doesn't need to be in title programs. They could turn one of the Riott Squad heel but you can't even do that because other then Bianca they are the only faces on the show, so doing that means you would only have two babyfaces in their division. I'm not a huge fan of hers or anything but if they are going to have Santana Garrett under contract why not actually use her? Just to add some needed depth and someone who can do jobs for people.
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mistery
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Post by mistery on Apr 16, 2021 6:07:53 GMT -5
Smackdown looks really rough. There's almost literally no challengers for Bianca. After Sasha there Bayley/Carmella/Natalya who she all already worked on her way to winning the belt and then Tamina who is just awful and doesn't need to be in title programs. They could turn one of the Riott Squad heel but you can't even do that because other then Bianca they are the only faces on the show, so doing that means you would only have two babyfaces in their division. I'm not a huge fan of hers or anything but if they are going to have Santana Garrett under contract why not actually use her? Just to add some needed depth and someone who can do jobs for people. There was apparently also Vanessa Bourne but lol at pushing her as a threat considering how completely awful she is. |
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Post by RI Richmark on Apr 16, 2021 6:20:39 GMT -5
Smackdown looks really rough. There's almost literally no challengers for Bianca. After Sasha there Bayley/Carmella/Natalya who she all already worked on her way to winning the belt and then Tamina who is just awful and doesn't need to be in title programs. They could turn one of the Riott Squad heel but you can't even do that because other then Bianca they are the only faces on the show, so doing that means you would only have two babyfaces in their division. I'm not a huge fan of hers or anything but if they are going to have Santana Garrett under contract why not actually use her? Just to add some needed depth and someone who can do jobs for people. I've said it a couple of times already but I'd move Naomi to Smackdown, put her in Roman's stable (she is family after all) and send her after Bianca. I think they could have some exciting matches. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2021 6:31:27 GMT -5
Smackdown looks really rough. There's almost literally no challengers for Bianca. After Sasha there Bayley/Carmella/Natalya who she all already worked on her way to winning the belt and then Tamina who is just awful and doesn't need to be in title programs. They could turn one of the Riott Squad heel but you can't even do that because other then Bianca they are the only faces on the show, so doing that means you would only have two babyfaces in their division. I'm not a huge fan of hers or anything but if they are going to have Santana Garrett under contract why not actually use her? Just to add some needed depth and someone who can do jobs for people. I've said it a couple of times already but I'd move Naomi to Smackdown, put her in Roman's stable (she is family after all) and send her after Bianca. I think they could have some exciting matches. That'd work... but then you run into the issue that that'd leave the Riott Squad and Mandy & Dana as the only face tag teams. |
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Post by eJm on Apr 16, 2021 6:42:43 GMT -5
I mean, it's across two singles divisions and a tag division. Say you want to make them clearly distinct and you have five tag teams, suddenly you're down to 6 singles women per show assuming they're equal (and in actuality SmackDown doesn't even have that many). Your potential match options would be completely exhausted in no time. It'd maybe be workable as the novelty act piss break the division was a decade ago where you got like one five minute match a week, but with it supposedly being taken seriously now it's pathetic. Well in theory NXT call ups could solve a lot of these issues The problem with that is very few are actually available to be called up who aren't occupied with other things right now. Like, from what I know of NXT right now, the only three that'd seem likely would be Io Sharai, Toni Storm, and Dakota Kai since there's not much going on with them or they're big enough names to sort of mean something as a callup and even then, that doesn't seem enough to fill some of the other holes on the main roster that would need to be filled. Like, if there wasn't a pandemic, it'd be easier to call possibly some NXT UK people up who aren't exactly being used but then if there wasn't a pandemic, none of the people released yesterday would have been released at all so all that's redundant. |
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Post by polarbearpete on Apr 16, 2021 7:29:15 GMT -5
Io and Toni could be on their way up, along with a couple others from NXT. Becky back soon. Rousey back before the year is out I’d imagine. The Bellas will likely be back for a short run in the tag division.
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Post by dreidemy on Apr 16, 2021 14:35:32 GMT -5
Raw and Smackdown should actually share the womens and tag divisions
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Apr 16, 2021 14:51:24 GMT -5
Well any vague connection I can use as an excuse to post this, I’ll take it:
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2021 14:56:51 GMT -5
Smackdown looks really rough. There's almost literally no challengers for Bianca. After Sasha there Bayley/Carmella/Natalya who she all already worked on her way to winning the belt and then Tamina who is just awful and doesn't need to be in title programs. They could turn one of the Riott Squad heel but you can't even do that because other then Bianca they are the only faces on the show, so doing that means you would only have two babyfaces in their division. I'm not a huge fan of hers or anything but if they are going to have Santana Garrett under contract why not actually use her? Just to add some needed depth and someone who can do jobs for people. There is NO reason why they shouldn't be giving Liv or Ruby some singles wins and having one of them face Bianca at a PPV. Liv vs. Bianca would actually be a really fun match. |
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Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on Apr 16, 2021 16:16:07 GMT -5
Smackdown looks really rough. There's almost literally no challengers for Bianca. After Sasha there Bayley/Carmella/Natalya who she all already worked on her way to winning the belt and then Tamina who is just awful and doesn't need to be in title programs. They could turn one of the Riott Squad heel but you can't even do that because other then Bianca they are the only faces on the show, so doing that means you would only have two babyfaces in their division. I'm not a huge fan of hers or anything but if they are going to have Santana Garrett under contract why not actually use her? Just to add some needed depth and someone who can do jobs for people. There is NO reason why they shouldn't be giving Liv or Ruby some singles wins and having one of them face Bianca at a PPV. Liv vs. Bianca would actually be a really fun match. It would make for a good power vs. finesse type match. They had a babyface match on Main Event back in the fall that was pretty good. IIRC Bianca ended up playing the de facto heel for it. I can understand why they wouldn't want to do a program with Bianca against Liv or Ruby since they'd both be faces and they want to establish Bianca as a face champion but with the sorry shape the roster is in they have like no literally no other options. At least none that are either fresh or good. I don't think turning any of them heel would be a good move either because all three are better suited as faces and also they are the only three faces on the show so they don't have room for that anyways. If they had drafted her to Smackdown and not just cut her, someone like a Peyton Royce would be useful right now for situations like this in that she was a heel who could hold her own enough in the ring and it would be fresh. Would've been a solid feud for Bianca to give her a strong win and get her through the spring or summer depending on how long they plan on having her feud with Sasha. Not that I want anyone getting fired and I get you got shuffle the deck but the problem is they never cut the people who have are kind of past their expiration date and are completely played out from a creative standpoint. Like if they cut Natalya/Carmella/Tamina instead of Peyton/Billie/Chelsea Green (not really a big fan but she would at least be fresh) I think their roster would look better in that it would be less stale and younger. Along with the problems with staleness and depth another problem I'm noticing is that the roster is starting to get old. Not including Sonya Deville who is in a non wrestling role, Liv and Rhea are the only two active women on Raw or Smackdown in their twenties. That's not enough. Even someone like Carmella even though she still looks good and plays a hot girl character is almost 34. |
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Post by PKO on Apr 16, 2021 16:50:40 GMT -5
Along with the problems with staleness and depth another problem I'm noticing is that the roster is starting to get old. Not including Sonya Deville who is in a non wrestling role, Liv and Rhea are the only two active women on Raw or Smackdown in their twenties. That's not enough. Even someone like Carmella even though she still looks good and plays a hot girl character is almost 34. Personally I’d say that is one of the few areas WWE has really improved on in recent years. For the past two decades it was depressingly common for a woman in WWE to hit 30 and get pushed aside. Now the vast majority of the women are 30-35 which I think is great. Don’t get me wrong, having young talent around waiting in the wings is necessary, but this wouldn’t even be a topic of conversation if we were talking about men. Nobody would say, “Oh most of the roster are getting old in their early/mid 30’s”. A woman's value being tied to her youth is something our society needs to get over, especially when you’ve got talent like Asuka approaching 40, or Bianca basically just starting out at 32. |
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Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on Apr 17, 2021 3:03:26 GMT -5
Along with the problems with staleness and depth another problem I'm noticing is that the roster is starting to get old. Not including Sonya Deville who is in a non wrestling role, Liv and Rhea are the only two active women on Raw or Smackdown in their twenties. That's not enough. Even someone like Carmella even though she still looks good and plays a hot girl character is almost 34. Personally I’d say that is one of the few areas WWE has really improved on in recent years. For the past two decades it was depressingly common for a woman in WWE to hit 30 and get pushed aside. Now the vast majority of the women are 30-35 which I think is great. Don’t get me wrong, having young talent around waiting in the wings is necessary, but this wouldn’t even be a topic of conversation if we were talking about men. Nobody would say, “Oh most of the roster are getting old in their early/mid 30’s”. A woman's value being tied to her youth is something our society needs to get over, especially when you’ve got talent like Asuka approaching 40, or Bianca basically just starting out at 32. I wouldn't have a problem with it if most of the 30 somethings were any good but a lot of them are people who bring little or nothing to the table (Tamina, Natalya, Lana) and are just taking up roster spots that could go to others that could potentially do more with the opportunities they get. I've noticed that for some reason they kind have a bias to the women who were called up from 2008 when Natalya started to about 2016 when they had several callups to fill the rosters after the brand split. Basically a lot of the Total Divas crew. Even the midcard ones it seems like always have something to do and always tend to avoid the "budget cuts" even if they, Tamina and Lana especially come to mind, have a lot less going for them talent wise then the ones they do axe. Other then Asuka who is just so talented even they can't ignore, it seems like most of the women called up from 2017 onwards have got little love and either don't last long (Zelina, Sarah Logan, Peyton, Billie, Kairi) or just never get pushed or do anything (Liv, Ruby, Mandy, Sonya). Also I realized I made a goof in saying that there's only two in their twenties as I somehow forgot about Sasha and Alexa who are also both still in their twenties albeit barely as both are 29. I guess with both being fairly old in TV years and being so established it's easy to forget they're both still pretty young. Basically the antithesis of Bianca who it's hard to believe is already 32. Not that 32 is that old but it's still surprising as with her being this hip cool newcomer you think she would be younger. |
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Post by theironyuppie on Apr 17, 2021 5:40:43 GMT -5
Along with the problems with staleness and depth another problem I'm noticing is that the roster is starting to get old. Not including Sonya Deville who is in a non wrestling role, Liv and Rhea are the only two active women on Raw or Smackdown in their twenties. That's not enough. Even someone like Carmella even though she still looks good and plays a hot girl character is almost 34. Personally I’d say that is one of the few areas WWE has really improved on in recent years. For the past two decades it was depressingly common for a woman in WWE to hit 30 and get pushed aside. Now the vast majority of the women are 30-35 which I think is great. Don’t get me wrong, having young talent around waiting in the wings is necessary, but this wouldn’t even be a topic of conversation if we were talking about men. Nobody would say, “Oh most of the roster are getting old in their early/mid 30’s”. A woman's value being tied to her youth is something our society needs to get over, especially when you’ve got talent like Asuka approaching 40, or Bianca basically just starting out at 32.
For sure. It's one aspect of the pre-Revolution era that doesn't get talked about much, but it's an important shift. To give an example, Trish and Lita retired at 30 and 31. If say, Becky and Charlotte (now 34 and 35) had retired at those ages, their careers would have ended in 2017.
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Post by grungesmurf on Apr 17, 2021 9:19:47 GMT -5
Unfortunately she's likely not seen as marketable by Vince. They didn't see AJ Lee as being marketable either saying that she was unf***able and she ended up being a top merch seller alongside Daniel Bryan, John Cena, CM Punk and the Shield. I had four of her shirts. I miss AJ Lee. 😢 |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2021 12:42:08 GMT -5
Make that 20, and that's counting Becky, Lacey, Reckoning, and Sasha despite them all being inactive.
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Post by polarbearpete on Jun 2, 2021 13:24:52 GMT -5
Make that 20, and that's counting Becky, Lacey, Reckoning, and Sasha despite them all being inactive. They certainly have enough for the singles divisions on Raw and Smackdown but the tag belts are starting to look like a stretch. |
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mistery
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Post by mistery on Jun 2, 2021 13:29:34 GMT -5
Make that 20, and that's counting Becky, Lacey, Reckoning, and Sasha despite them all being inactive. They certainly have enough for the singles divisions on Raw and Smackdown but the tag belts are starting to look like a stretch. I would argue otherwise for Smackdown, at least singles wise. The only credible women right now are Sasha, Bayley, and Bianca. That's three women. They desperately need some more major names, as Bianca's reign is already getting long in the tooth because they had her effortlessly run through Carmella, and are going to do it again with Bayley. And probably Sasha when she gets back. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2021 14:17:56 GMT -5
I wouldn't even say it's enough for a singles division. If you assume each show has eight women presently active (which isn't accurate, SmackDown only has six) then even doing heel vs. heel only gives you 28 possible matchups. It's impossible to make anything feel like a big deal when there's that little keeping people separated, especially if you do more than one women's match per show or continue to put them on Main Event.
If you take out Natalya and Tamina due to them presently basically being the entire tag division, then SmackDown presently only has Bianca, Bayley, Carmella, and Liv. That's 6 possible matches to build a division around.
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Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on Jun 2, 2021 15:55:03 GMT -5
I wouldn't even say it's enough for a singles division. If you assume each show has eight women presently active (which isn't accurate, SmackDown only has six) then even doing heel vs. heel only gives you 28 possible matchups. It's impossible to make anything feel like a big deal when there's that little keeping people separated, especially if you do more than one women's match per show or continue to put them on Main Event. If you take out Natalya and Tamina due to them presently basically being the entire tag division, then SmackDown presently only has Bianca, Bayley, Carmella, and Liv. That's 6 possible matches to build a division around. I don't even know how the hell you book and manage such a tiny roster like that. I guess you would have to turn Liv heel to go with Bayley and Carmella and then have Bianca/Natalya/Tamina as your faces so you at least have a total three faces and heels apiece. Then you just have Natalya and Tamina work primarily singles when they are on Smackdown while doing their tag stuff on Raw since they actually have at least ONE team they can actually have a program with on that show. |
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Post by Corre.222 on Jun 2, 2021 15:56:25 GMT -5
There's no excuse why these divisions should be so paper-thin when there's hundreds to thousands who want to be in the WWE.
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