When Stephanie McMahon introduced Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Charlotte onto the main roster on the July 13, 2015 edition of RAW, a sigh of relief was shared amongst every WWE fan watching.
No more would the fans have to witness the back and forth Paige/Nikki Bella matches that had been the main focus of the divas division ever since the ‘retirement’ of AJ Lee.
Currently, WWE isn’t short of Divas on their main roster, of which includes Paige, Becky Lynch, Naomi, Tamina, Sasha Banks, Summer Rae, Brie Bella, Natalya, Alicia Fox and of course the Divas Champion, Charlotte.
That’s 10 Divas, and that doesn’t include the lengthy title holder Nikki Bella, or constant ‘backstage heat’ magnet, Lana.
So why is it that we’re heading to Wrestlemania 32 with just 1 Divas match? Sure, it’s the Divas Title, which is obviously the main match in the division, but why are there other divas being completely left out in the cold?
Take Naomi & Tamina for example, they were on quite a role, Naomi had re-invented herself completely from her ‘Funkadactyl’ days, and her alliance with Tamina was starting to build up momentum.
It seemed that once Sasha Banks was a part of the group, her career began to rise rapidly, whilst Naomi and Tamina faded back down the ladder they’d worked so hard to climb.
Although great for the ultra talented Banks, her teammates seemed to be the ones that suffered, pretty much losing most of their momentum, and once the inevitable Banks/Team BAD split occurred earlier in 2016, the latter dropped down even further.
Team PCB (Paige, Becky, Charlotte) was a very bizarre group indeed, where the seeds of someone turning on the group were planted very early on, however, it resulted in both Paige AND Charlotte being the ones to turn.
So Paige was jealous of the attention both Becky & Charlotte were getting, so kept turning on them/walking out during matches, although the very next airing of RAW/Smackdown all had been forgotten. Eventually when Paige turned on her NXT teammates, she became the dominant heel of the division, starting rivalries with both girls as well as a personal attack on Natalya. It seemed that was the end, until Charlotte then turned on Becky too.
Paige would then play the role of villain against Natalya and Becky, until a month later on RAW when Paige would enter for a tag match WITH Natalya. Confused? I don’t blame you.
This has always been the problem with WWE and its booking of the divas, there is no stability whatsoever, and that hurts a lot of the credibility with their characters.
Linking feuds to storylines seen on Total Divas the majority of the time falls flat, because WWE has to assume that its entire audience actually watch Total Divas (believe me, they don’t.) So showing a clip from the show to explain why a match is taking place just doesn’t cut it.
The booking of Brie Bella has been odd, to say the least. First there was her heated, personal feud with Nikki Bella, which resulted in a match where Brie was forced to become her sisters personal assistant for a month, however after the month had expired, Brie just automatically became Nikki’s sidekick anyway.
There was no explanation for that.
Despite playing the heel role for the past year or so, suddenly now her husband, Daniel Bryan, has retired WWE have been booking her as a face, and it’s left fans confused, as they don’t actually have a valid reason to root for Brie.
Even recently with the slight feud developing between her and Lana, it’s confusing who the crowd are supposed to be supporting, which is killing both of theirs reactions, and crowds are often quiet in confusion.
The same thing happened when they tried to book The Bellas V Team Bad.
Back to the matter at hand, with these 10 talented divas, why are the likes of Natalya, Paige, Naomi, Summer Rae, Alicia Fox, Tamina and the previously mentioned Brie left without anything to do?
Of course knowing WWE they’ll predictably do what they do best when they have divas that don’t have a role at Wrestlemania, and place them in a tag match.
That to me is the easy way out.
Would it have hurt WWE to have built up a Paige and Natalya feud? Or even Natalya/Brie? Both divas are very popular amongst wrestling fans and putting together an entertaining programme would be easily for both talented workers.
You have to wonder looking forward if, as expected, Sasha Banks wins the Divas title at Wrestlemania 32 where she will go next? I would like to think that WWE would give Naomi a chance to step up and be number 1 contender and challenge her former Team BAD ally, however, the reality is we’ll probably just see the same 2 or 3 divas rotating their spot at the top of the ladder.
But then again, with the competition rising rapidly over on NXT, you might just see another revolution.
Who would you like to see get a chance at the Diva’s Title?
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