There’s many theories and ideologies these days about what truly makes a women’s division in wrestling. Different wrestling companies go with different ideas on how to promote these women and make it seem like these women are stars. Lucha Underground have heavily promoted women like Sexy Star to the point where she is as good as many of the biggest male stars in that organisation, even being able to wrestle and beat them. Some will argue that it is progressive to shot the spotlight on a female in this fashion, but others argue that this sort of booking is incredibly risky when the women are treated like men although some women just aren’t good enough to play that role. Not to mention that Lucha Underground’s lack of depth in their female wrestlers also serves as a huge problem when Sexy Star, Ivelisse and Taya are the only important ones around.
Then there’s TNA, who’ve actually booked women pretty well since the inception of the Knockouts Championship in 2007. Their treatment of women have usually been pretty decent, with the likes of Gail Kim serving as an excellent leader while many other women became stars in that division too. Heck, some of the greatest women’s matches in the last ten years have actually taken place in a Total Nonstop Action wrestling ring. Their only limitations were down to the way the company was run and the great losses in talent that the division have suffered.
Almost out of the blue, WWE have decided to create their own “women’s revolution” based on the success of the NXT Women’s Division. The four horsewomen Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Bayley and Becky Lynch have been at the centre of huge change in the way that women have been booked, with the girls playing a more prominent role in the product. Then the brand split came along and changed many things….
The most obvious change was that the women’s division was split into two for the two separate brands, with Charlotte, Bayley and Sasha on RAW while Becky led the charge on SmackDown! Even though that these women have still maintained their new-found place high up the pecking order, both shows have treated their divisions differently. The real question is, which brand is getting it right?
Now, as our Brand Warfare pieces have clearly demonstrated, SmackDown! has been the vastly superior show ever since the return of the brand split. RAW, as a whole, has not been in the same league as the blue brand. However, it’s actually a much more closer race in the eyes of many when it comes to the women’s division. Both divisions are different but are both treated “well” by the WWE creative writing team. The women of RAW in particular have been given some of the biggest pushes in the entire company.
As you’re all aware, Charlotte and Sasha Banks main-evented the Hell in a Cell show and broke new ground as being the first ever female main event for a main roster PPV. I’m sure that the progressive police were delighted with this treatment that the women received but the match itself wasn’t actually that much of a success when all said and done. Not only did the match completely fall apart with the finish but a lot of the live crowd reportedly actually left the show prior to the main event. That’s not good news in terms of selling the idea that these women can become true main-eventers.
The biggest issue facing these RAW women, now that they’ve gotten the main-event rub, is that it saddles the other RAW female talent with a huge burden of having to continue providing the work at the high level that Sasha and Charlotte were expected too. The funny thing is that while Charlotte and Sasha Banks did the best they could, considering the material they’ve been given and what they’ve had to work with, these women are still unfortunately not over to the level of their push. I know that people may be upset to hear that but that’s what happens when you raise expectations for those not ready for that kind of responsibility.
Not only does that hurt the division, when the exceptional girls can’t get over to the level of their push, but that also puts the pressure on the other girls in the division. Bayley’s momentum has picked up after a rocky start but she’s still new to the main roster too. Bayley and Sasha have both been great contenders to be the biggest babyfaces in the whole company, but have both been victims of the astonishing unbelievable push for Charlotte Flair. Due to a constant and weird obsession to push Charlotte, nobody else in the division can get over to a great level. This creates a problem for the division that if Charlotte, and possibly Sasha and/or Bayley, get injured (which is very likely considering how many risks they take nowadays), who is left for the RAW writing team to build the division around?
Nia Jax? I guess that’s fine, since she’s not been beaten so far, but she’s still also a few months into her main-roster run. Not to mention that without a girl like Bayley around, the chances of her whipping out excellent matches are very slim. Then there’s the best of the rest. Alicia Fox has been there and done that as the Divas Champion, and would be a poor choice when trying to sell the idea of a NEW women’s revolution for the company. I’m still in the small minority that sees a lot in Summer Rae but again, I’m in the small minority. WWE have not given me a good enough reason to believe that these two could perform in a main-event setting, as unfortunate as that is. Summer Rae winning the title now would be a bad time for her to get a taste of that championship program feel for the first time. Paige has been having issues ever since the brand split began while Emma’s unfortunate repackaging will dampen her chances of becoming a seriously top female star that she seemed close to becoming just before her injury in May.
The point is that without the three of the four horsewomen around, the RAW women’s division would be in dire straits. It’s not healthy for a division to rely solely on the fact that they’ve been hyper pushing just three girls and getting by on the fact that they are given main-event treatment. That’s there justification for this type of booking which will really come back to bite them.
On SmackDown! however, it is a totally different story. There is no single girl that is given a push like Charlotte’s but many more of them have been getting over to a good enough degree. Becky Lynch has been getting along fine as the top female on SmackDown!, although the injury she sustained last month didn’t help matters. Alexa Bliss has been getting over greatly ever since she arrived on the main roster, while Nikki Bella has been able to produce pretty good work with newcomer Carmella. Naomi and Natalya have been given actual purposes on SmackDown!, although it does sadden me a little that Natalya is not treated better. Waiting in the wings will be Eva Marie, who had also somehow been able to get over with her recent gimmick. I assume that the eagerness to see Eva again will probably remain as strong as it was before.
The point is that all of these girls have a purpose and a reason for being on that show. They’re all been given good treatment and some spotlight, which can help all of them in the long-run. Some will argue that this is somewhat counter-productive in the sense that they’re trying to push everyone at once. Especially with what happened when they tried that with the infamous “Divas Revolution” angle, it could be considered unwise. However, these girls are actually getting over based on their individual characters as opposed to the Divas Revolution that saw everyone reduced to just being part of the revolution banner. They couldn’t get over as their characters but mostly because they were all grouped together in that multi-woman scenario. This SmackDown! treatment is different.
Not to mention that if one domino goes down for SmackDown!, it’s far from the end of the world. Look at what happened when Becky Lynch got injured. These girls did a fine job while their top female star was injured, meaning that Becky never really exposed them for being a weak roster. Becky being out was a loss but it was not like these girls couldn’t survive without her. On RAW, it is exposed just how weak the roster would be without the likes of Charlotte and Sasha. Last week on RAW, they basically confirmed that when Alicia Fox of all people somehow made it onto the RAW team for the five-on-five women’s match with Team SmackDown! at Survivor Series. Not that I have anything against Alicia but she’s barely been a credible threat as a female competitor nowadays.
All I’ll say is that if Team RAW wins the women’s Survivor Series match in Toronto, it’ll be a damn shame. If the Survivor Series matches were to be booked based on who has been the better show, SmackDown! probably should clean sweep RAW. SmackDown! should really be commended for their efforts, although something tells me that the women’s elimination match will not go down as it should. With the whole “push Charlotte to the moon” ideology, it seems like Charlotte probably will be the one to grab the victory for Team RAW when it really should be SmackDown!’s for the taking.
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