New Blood For The Women's Division

[Jack-Hammer]

On Raw last night and tonight's SmackDown Live, we saw some new faces pop up for each brand's women's division. On Raw, we saw the return of Paige after she'd been out for well over a year dealing with various health problems and having her personal life splashed all over the tabloids. With her came NXT talent Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose as they laid out Sasha Banks, Bayley and Mickie James. On SmackDown Live, we saw the trio of Ruby Riot, Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan take out Naomi & Becky Lynch backstage before interfering in the SmackDown Women's Championship match between Charlotte and Natalya.

I was surprised to see Ruby Riot brought up to the main roster, though I think it's probably for the best as Ruby has too much talent simply to spin her wheels without being NXT Women's Champion. Liv Morgan never struck me as all that impressive and I barely saw Sarah Logan in NXT, though what I saw of her was more impressive than Morgan. As far as Sonya Deville goes, she's still pretty green and I'm not sure what to think about Mandy Rose; Given that Mandy Rose has spent most of the time being on magazine covers, I sort of expected her to be more along the lines of the next Eva Marie but hopefully that isn't the case.

If nothing else, it'll be a little intriguing for the next few weeks.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

Liv is awful in ring. She is like the Enzo of the women’s division, minus the gift of gab. Oddly enough they used to date. Mandy isn’t much better. DeVille at least lived her gimmick as a martial artist before she came to NXT, but overall she is still green.

Sarah And Ruby are the two gems. You may know Sarah better as Crazy Mary Dodson from her indy days. Why she never had a bigger role in MXT I don’t know, but she is solid. Ruby is a personal favorite of mine. She has a unique look, is solid in ring and passable on the mic. I’m not crazy that she debuted as a heel because she was a fan favorite in NXT, but I’m happy she is getting her shot.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Paige's return is extremely good for the Raw Women's division. She instantly became the best pick for the next Raw Women's Champion. After all, she was the one who truly began the Women's Revolution. Her return was easily the best part of Raw. When she said she did not come alone, I was wondering who she was referring to. Then out came Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose. I would never have guessed Sonya Deville, let alone Mandy Rose. Sonya was never all that impressive in NXT. She does sort of make sense as a bodyguard type for Paige, though Paige can take care of herself in the ring so she doesn't need one. Mandy I forgot even still had a job in the WWE. She seemed destined to take over Eva Marie's gimmick. Her having an alliance with Paige makes absolutely no sense. Oh well. At least Paige is back! Speaking of things that make no sense....

Then we have the debut of Ruby Riot on Smackdown. Ok. At first that seemed like a cool idea. However, she was joined by two others just like Paige's group. Ruby's group looks nearly identical to Paige's.... Ruby had Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan with her. The former hardly did enough in NXT to really get noticed and the latter is about as believable in forming an alliance with Ruby as Mandy was with Paige. How odd. Why are two very similar groups forming on the two main brands in the same week? Are we doing a one year build to Team Paige VS Team Ruby at next year's Survivor Series? That seemed really odd. Almost as odd as the fact that Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Liv Morgan, and Sarah Logan all got promoted before girls like Ember Moon or Nikki Cross. Let that sink in for a moment. When looking past these strange things about Paige's return and the 5 new girls, it will be good for both shows' female divisions in the long run.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

My only problem with this is that we get the same storyline on both show with the same type of groups.

On raw, you have, Paige, Mandy rose and Sonya Denville. A pale wrestler, a blonde bombshell and a brunette enforcer. On smackdown, you have ruby riot, liv Morgan and Sarah Logan. Again a pale wrestler, a blonde bombshell and a brunette enforcer.

So the formula is the same for both show, the dialog was the same for both show and the actions seem to be the same as well. So now, it's pretty much who is able to pull off this storyline better.

Right now, I have to give week one to paige's group. Not really because they looked better but because the reaction to the angle felt bigger with them.

In the end, will see how they will differentiates between the two angles as the weeks go by but I feel that this will get old on both brand really quick.

 

[Rayne]

Well, they needed a call up of some sort; you can only have the same five ladies perform against each other for so long before you have to repeat what you're doing, and you can only repeat what you've already done so many times before the audience gets bored.

It also may be for the best that these ladies have had limited exposure on NXT, because the WWE has had almost zero success in carrying over performer's success from one promotion to the other. In some cases (Neville, Bo Dallas), it could be argued that there was never any intention to try to carry over their momentum (remember, when everyone's John Cena, no one's John Cena), but they've fallen flat on their face with Bayley, The Ascension, and are in the process of fucking up an easy thing with Asuka. On the other hand, fans had no time to get familiar with Braun Strowman, the act is new, there are no expectations, and consequentially he's over as fuck.

We'll see what they do with these ladies over the next few months, and I imagine they'll all be part of some ten-way clusterfuck come Wrestlemania time.

 

[Olan]

I love the added depth to the women's roster. New blood opens up new s/l possibilities.
I know some are saying having the attacks back to back lessen the impact but I disagree. After the events of Monday, was anyone expecting what happened last night? I wasn't so it was a complete shock. Despite knowing Paige was debuting Monday the debuts of Sonya and Mandy were complete surprises. Kudos to WWE for keeping the surprises in this digital information age.

It does open some questions:
1) is there someone behind these debuts s/l wise?
2) does the added depth open up the possibility of a women's tag title?
3) rumored women's rumble more likely?

 

[GOOZEKING]

My only problem with this entire idea is them bring up extremely GREEN girls up on the main roster. Instead of bringing up girls that actually have experience and are good like the iconic duo or someone GOOD from the Mae young we get trash

 

[Aeon Mathix]

No problems with this at all. Each show had roughly 5 women in their "divisions" so numbers being added was definitely necessary. I don't want to sit through 20 Sasha Banks vs Charlotte matches again for a 6 month period. Even if they were all solid to great it was beyond tiresome. Some of these NXT girls aren't that great yet, but not everyone needs to or can be a major star.

You always need jobbers to make bigger stars look good. Now instead of I don't know Bayley pinning Sasha Banks or Alexa Bliss on Raw to get a title shot she can beat one of Paige's crew. I miss the art of beating lower level names to advance on the totem pole versus guy pins the world champion clean and we see the same match a few weeks later at the pay per view.

 

[1truefan]

You know the thought occurred to me...Could this possibly set us up for the long rumored Women's Royal Rumble? With the addition of the new girls there are currently 21 Active wrestlers between both rosters so that is always a possibility. I don't think they are ready to explore the route of women's tag champions but that would create more story lines for under-utilized talent. They could always call in some of the participants from the MYC to fill in the rest of the spots if they wanted to do 30 Woman RR.

I am very under whelmed by Mandy Rose, Sarah Logan, Liv Morgan and Sonya being the choices for call-ups. As none of them have accomplished anything down at NXT. I would have chosen Nikki or the Iconic Duo to be the next call ups personally. But I guess we will have to see where this all leads.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Other than Paige I am not familiar with any of these women. None at first glance look like they will have much of an impact but that is first glance. If I'm not a top woman before this (i.e. my name is not Charlotte, Asuka, or Alexa), I am worried about my job and practicing my dance moves for when I am asked to be in the background of WM's musical act.

From a positive perspective, this would give hope to WWE creating a women's program. But probably not unless they want to dump 205 Live.

 

[Vanilla Midget]

Ultimately, new blood and new direction is great for both women's divisions. The similarities between the two groups are too much to ignore.

Porcelain skinned, alt-style woman leads trio with eye candy blonde and physical bruiser. That description fits both of these teams. They also both debuted laying out multiple women in the middle of matches.

I keep thinking we're going to find out these teams are connected somehow, but for what purpose? To what end, and why across brands?

If you're taking five women out of NXT at once, these are the five. Who else? Cross goes up when Sanity goes up. Sane just debuted. Ember is the focus of the division in NXT going forward.

You could make an argument for the Iconic Duo, but they deserve to be the focus of their debut, not debuting in a faction. That and Moon needs heels to fight.

These debuts remind me of the faction wars that kicked off the Divas revolution. Everyone shacked up in these random factions, it made little sense and the teams had weak names and felt thrown together.

Where do they go from here? Most of them are green, but that can work out. Think of how green Braun was not long ago. Trish went from valet to GOAT.

Some of these women will sink or swim. We need to know their motivations, we also need to know why these women are teams and why we should care. They also need both teams to be different enough, otherwise the feeling of homogenization will be ever present.

Neither Raw nor SDL have managed to carry more that one consistent women's story beyond their respective title pictures. The build to Survivor Series being the major exception, when's the last time they ran a consistent second story that never faded to the background?

Nia would have a feud one ppv, then gone the next. Carmella has had her briefcase, but who specifically has she been feuding with other than her angle with dearly future endeavoured Ellsworth?

Women outside of the title picture have struggled to get a storyline going that lasts more than a week or two. Now they will be pushed further to the fringes. That is that happens to the men, but there are many more storylines booked for them.

Hopefully this is a start to women getting consistent feuds out of the title scene. Even if it's multi-women feuds. Speaking of multi-women, there are pretty close to 20 women on the main roster now. Royal Rumble? Who wins? Who do they challenge?

 

[BigDaddyKewl]

As others have mentioned it's nice some of these women from NXT are getting a chance to shine on the main roster but I have my doubts. It's reminiscent of when Sasha, Charlotte and Becky debuted and they formed a bunch of random stables like Team PCB, Team Bad and The Bella Army. It seemed forced and I don't think the Sasha, Becky or Charlotte got a chance to shine until the stables disbanded. You can't just throw bunch of women in a couple stables and expect them to get over.

 

[Rayne]

A thirty woman Royal Rumble sounds absolutely unbearable. If we count this week's call ups, that would make for somewhere just short of twenty ladies between Raw and Smackdown- and that sounds like the sweet spot for a ladies rumble. That gives you room to get most of the ladies in, have a couple of NXT ladies, a surprise appearance, and possibly a title match leftover.

 

[Kodo Sawaki]

Same thing and they even look alike. Paige one I understand but Smackdown was just discount RAW storyline. Really hoping that they do something to differ them all because like this its ridiculous.

 

[Spencesc11]

I think it's time the Women get tag titles for each brand. Let's face it with Asuka, Bliss, and Paige likely dominating the Raw scene it would be a nice way to have Banks & Bailey still look strong. And same for smackdown what if Becky Lynch teamed up with Naomi that would be a fun face team. I know their depth isn't great but it gets the women outside of the singles title feud something to do.

 

[roipdh123]

I think that the 2 reasons for it are:
A. To free up space in the NXT division for the MYC women, but still keeping the top draws of the NXT women's division heading into the next months (aka. Moon, Cross, Royce).
B. To further deep the main roster divisions heading into the women rumble (hopefully).

I think it is a good move that Ember or Cross are not called up to the main roster yet, but I think that they should have had it a little different:
Paige's faction should have been with Mandy Rose and Ruby Riot, while the SD faction should have just been Peyton Royce and Billie Kay (possibly adding Liv Morgan into the mix).

I really like Peyton Royce and I see her as the next big star in the women's division after Asuka (we had AJ Lee, followed by Charlotte Flair, then we now have Alexa Bliss, who will soon be followed by Asuka). She is really talented, and the fact that she is not called up to the main roster, for me means that she is going to be the one taking the title from Ember Moon at NXT.

 

[JoeMallard]

Anyone who think Ruby or Sarah are green are clueless idiots, both women have been on the scene for years and are completely ready to be on the main roster.

 

[TakeTheSting]

I was so glad to see new women on both shows, especially raw when they had the same 4 women getting ready to have a fatal 4 way to be number 1 contender I thought great the same women here we go again. It was a pleasant surprise when Paige and the other two broke it up. I’d love to see them bring Toni Storm in eventually she’s awesome in the ring and a straight up beauty to boot, and was really Impressive in the mae young classic.

 

[HORRORHOLIC]

I agree Toni Storm is awesome and would add a lot to the division right now.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Week 2 of this storylines is over and I'm glad that their was some difference between the 2 shows. On raw, it's all about Paige and her being forgotten as the one that started the women's revolution. On smackdown, it's more about them making a name for themselves. The fact that the riot squad had a match and took out Naomi during the match was what made both story different. While I like Paige and her group more then riot's, I willing to give them a chance to prove themselves.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Well now that both factions have names, things are differentiating between them after their nearly identical debuts last week. Absolution is an odd name. The faction itself really doesn't make any sense, however Paige is back and that's good enough for me. The Riott Squad is the better group of the two so far, despite the random unnecessary extra "T" that they added. Ruby's group came off better as a cohesive unit. They also have a cooler name. We'll see where it goes. Hopefully the two groups remain on different paths from here.

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

I'm glad Vanilla Midget picked up on the similarity between these two groups and the last time women got promoted en masse. Can WWE not book any woman not named Asuka to debut by themselves? It makes storylines needlesly convoluted.

Personally, I am happy with all the choices. Four of the five had limited exposure - and personally I have a huge soft spot for Liv Morgan; Ruby Riott is well-deserving of her opportunity and it leaves the NXT women's division in a healthy state. Also, both Raw and Smackdown absolutely NEEDED fresh blood, their storylines were already repetitive six months ago; Smackdown's division was particularly weak, a fact acknowledged by WWE seeing as the whole division was constantly put in matches together. Oh how Emma could have thrived on Tuesday nights, if only you'd given her a hope in hell of succeeding...

One thing I didn't really like is Riott Squad being introduced as heels. Given two of the three were never heel on NXT, it made little sense. In fact, when Ruby walked up to Naomi on Smackdown last week, Naomi knew who she was (saying "hello Ruby") but sneered at her and gave her a really disapproving look. In short, Naomi acted like an absolute dick and I sympathised with Ruby, feeling she was completely justified in her attack. If anything, Naomi felt more of a heel than Ruby did. I haven't seen any of Smackdown this week though, so don't know how well they played the heel role this week.

One last thing: I absolutely hope there is not a women's Royal Rumble match and it is NOT the time for a tag division. The Rumble is sacrosanct - there should only be one on a show in my opinion, and let's be honest, more often than not, WWE fail to book that right, I wouldn't want them to screw the women's Rumble up as well - and there is nowhere near enough depth on either roster to introduce tag titles. Perhaps if they never split the women's and tag divisions in two at the brand split, eh...?