Overhauling the Divas division: What would you do?

[akathelaw]

There's always discussion about how the WWE Divas division is lackluster, and the Divas Championship means very little especially compared to the Women's Championship of the past. I have noticed over the years that WWE is usually in a struggle to please existing core fans as well as attract new ones who aren't currently watching. This has led to, in the Divas division, a smattering of talent with a variety of assets and usually just as many faults. You have strong, skilled women who can't cut a promo to save their life. You have sexy, charismatic women who make a complete mockery of the event when they attempt a wrestling match. The Butterfly Title just casually switches hands between all of them, usually for no particular reason at all. What can you do to fix this? How do you please the existing fans who like engrossing stories and in-ring action, as well as draw in new fans who are easliy dazzled by sparkly breasts and long blonde hair?

If it were up to me, I would steal an idea from TNA. I'd introduce a Divas Tag Team Championship.

I'm sure plenty of folks will say that it would do just as much good for WWE as the Knockouts Tag titles did for TNA: no good at all. TNA's women's titles are so worthless that one is currently held by a male comedy jobber. WWE would have to give a f#ck, and I know that's apparently impossible in the misogynistic world of wrestling, but if they did they would have a much deeper, interesting and effective offering of women's wrestling than they currently have.

A pair of WWE Divas Tag Team Championships would create a new goal for the female wrestlers on the roster. It would create a reason for actual female tag teams to join up, whereas in recent WWE history female teams have no championship to represent that they are the best. Also it would make the Divas Championship scene smaller, leaving only room for the top Diva talents and lesser athletes could form a team to make up for their flaws.

Please add your ideas to this thread regarding how you'd fix the Divas division, what you'd add or take away, and what you'd like to see.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

According to a report I read, there's a genuine possibility that WWE will be overhauling the Divas in 2013. The report states that they conducted research groups involving fans and asked a number of questions regarding the Divas. I haven't read anything suggesting what the fans answers were but the report indicated that the fans had few positive things to say about the Divas.

As far as overhauling the Divas go, it's far too early to talk about introducing a Divas tag title. In TNA, the KO tag title is very much a token championship. It's literally nothing more than a prop. There've been very, very few KO tag teams in TNA so the champs, whomever they might be at the time, sometimes carry the titles around for months, literally, without working any matches. Right now, ODB & Eric Young are the KO titles so that's an indicator of how little they actually mean. In WWE right now, a Divas tag title wouldn't be any better. I don't think it could be any worse, but it's not going to help the Divas.

My ideas are dirt simple and one that I think could work: actually make the Divas a legit wrestling aspect of WWE programming. Instead of just having, mostly, random hot women running around in skimpy and/or skin tight clothing, the WWE should develop characters for them. They should be put into actual feuds, given some promo time, given opportunities to work on cutting promos and put into matches that count for something. The thing about the Divas is that the division can't get any lower than where it currently is as far as overall quality goes. Relatively simple ideas that I just mentioned are a VAST improvement. First and foremost, I think putting Divas into spots that have personality and wrestling ability is most important. Fans watch wrestling because they want characters they can invest their time in and they wanna see wrestling matches. I mean actual matches that sometimes go more than 3 minutes.

The Divas are NEVER going to be the center of WWE and rightly so. So if the Divas ever do get overhauled into something that's relevant, it's important to remember that they're NEVER going to be as vital to the programming as their male counterparts. I don't mean it to sound sexist but it is what it is. Women's wrestling has NEVER been a significant draw in American wrestling throughout history. But the Divas can certainly be more than meaningless filler and I honestly don't believe it'll take all that much effort. Like I alluded to earlier, anything would be an improvement and it'll just take some basic stuff done to make the Divas a solid aspect of WWE programming.

 

[TLDD]

I've seen an article talking about this subject. To me I would do a few simple things.

1. To overhaul the Divas Division you need actual women wrestlers not just models. I know we all like the eye candy but there's some dang hot women wrestlers out on the Indy Scene these days. These models that they're hiring like Kelly Kelly and Eve just dosen't work in my opinion.

2. I've said this about TNA and I'll say it about the WWE. Start a working relationship with Shimmer Women Athletes. They've had a few ladies signed from this company but what if they did this? Come up with a plan and bring these ladies to FCW or the future developmental terrority. At the same time let them work the Indy Scene so they can gain more attention from the fans. When you feel that they're becoming a hot commidity sign them
3. Focus, Focus, Focus on the wrestling aspect of the Divas Division

4. Don't overdue it. If I recall properly the WWF had a Womens Tag Championship back in the day. If I also recall this didn't go over very well.

With all that being said I think that they need to focus on developing this division around younger athletic ladies while retaining some of the better veterans. They need to focus on making the Championship legit again instead of it being a novelity item. Learn from TNA'S mistake by rushing into a Tag Team Divas Division and don't do it.

I'd love to see the Divas Division become hot like it was in the past

 

[wrestler36]

I would intertwine the divas more into the storyline of the men. Not necessarily love interests or damsel's in distress but as a counterpart to some of the men. For example, with AJ getting involved in the main event, if she has a match on Raw tonight, more fans would be vested to watch the match to see if something happens rather than go to the restroom. Maybe they can have Heyman offer Eve to join their stable. She wouldn't even have to be on screen at the same time but just the association would keep things interesting.

 

[Slash-LN]

Nattie should be the face of the division. She isn't bad looking and she can actually wrestle. She can make the other divas look better in the ring.
I don't know if Davina Rose who they just hired can wrestle but she doesn't look like a model. I hope that's the direction they are going. She's cute I'm not going to say she isn't and she came from Shimmer so I hope that's a sign that she can wrestle.

Anyway my point is try to find a crop of female wrestlers like Nattie. Good looking enough that the guys who don't care about women's wrestling will still watch for the eye candy factor with the actual talent to please wrestling fans.

 

[Bernkastel]

The answer is simple really. The WWE should center the division entirely around AJ. Give her the belt and have her defeat the other divas while still maintaining her position as a figurehead among the top male talent.

If WWE keeps AJ face then she should feud against maybe Tamina with Vickie Guerrero as her mouthpiece. If WWE turns AJ heel then they should turn Vickie face and have her manage Kaitlyn. Tamina is easily a better heel than Eve, and WWE has kept the relationship between AJ and Kaitlyn relevant so a potential feud between the two would feel natural.

WWE could easily fill 6 months with either of these programs.

EDIT: And Nattie and Eve are both awful; neither should be anywhere near the belt.

 

[DirtyD79]

Give them actual characters. Outside of AJ, Vickie Guerrero (yeah I'm counting her), and Eve what do any of the other divas really do that makes them stand out? By actual characters I don't mean go the stripperiffic route of all the fly by night women's feds and have one dressed like a mechanic, one dressed like a surfer, one dressed like a librarian, etc. I mean real actual characters that have depth to them.

Some of the problem you can blame on the lack of TV time and woefully short matches. So give them more ring time to actually tell stories in the ring. Fans can't really get too emotionally invested in the match when the damn thing is over in the blink of an eye. If the women can't work an actual match then make them into valets or better yet hire women who actually can. Give them backstage segments as well as interviews and promos too. This way they can showcase their characters and explain why they do what they do.

 

[xavyer]

What i would do is bring someone back, like Trish Stratus, Ivory, Jaqueline or Lita, maybe not to wrestle, but to teach and show the ropes to today's Divas, because back then when Trish and Lita, Jaqueline and Sable, Micky James an Melina were feuding, they really drew people's attention, and their segments were as big or important as the men's segments or promos, and they had it all, beauty and athletiscism, that is why it was great, now, they just toss a couple of divas to kill 2 or 3 minutes for someone else to get ready, if they truly want to overhaul the division they have a chance this very moment, Layla already showed that she can wrestle as well as she can do a promo when she was with Lay Cool, Eve can also do both, so does Natalya and AJ, and Tamina can wrestle, so does Kaitlyn, if they really invest some time with these divas they can start something good before they bring someone else, like if they keep the AJ and Vicky/Tamina segments going, as AJ can hadle herself with the mic and can wrestle, and Vicky as Tamina's mouthpiece, because Vicky can draw as much heat as Paul Heyman, that right there is the begining of the re birth for the Diva's division to be relevant again.........

 

[Bernkastel]

What i would do is bring someone back, like Trish Stratus, Ivory, Jaqueline or Lita, maybe not to wrestle, but to teach and show the ropes to today's Divas, because back then when Trish and Lita, Jaqueline and Sable, Micky James an Melina were feuding, they really drew people's attention, and their segments were as big or important as the men's segments or promos, and they had it all, beauty and athletiscism, that is why it was great, now, they just toss a couple of divas to kill 2 or 3 minutes for someone else to get ready, if they truly want to overhaul the division they have a chance this very moment, Layla already showed that she can wrestle as well as she can do a promo when she was with Lay Cool, Eve can also do both, so does Natalya and AJ, and Tamina can wrestle, so does Kaitlyn, if they really invest some time with these divas they can start something good before they bring someone else, like if they keep the AJ and Vicky/Tamina segments going, as AJ can hadle herself with the mic and can wrestle, and Vicky as Tamina's mouthpiece, because Vicky can draw as much heat as Paul Heyman, that right there is the begining of the re birth for the Diva's division to be relevant again.........

I'm not understanding your points. Why would WWE want to bring back all the women of yesteryear when many of the current divas already know how to be entertaining?

Practically none of the current women know how to be entertaining. The women are featured so obscurely because the majority of them are just painful to watch. They are either sloppy beyond comparison, too green to have found their niche, or don't grasp psychology. They can't even fall back on their sex appeal because of the PG television. If anything the current diva product should be definitive proof about just how crap-tastic about 90% of all the female performers are.

 

[JaylisJayP]

A lot of talk and effort to revamp something to appeal to an audience that doesn't exist in WWE right now.

Doesn't matter how well the women can wrestle...at all. Hell, it doesn't even matter how well the men can wrestle. The vast majority of people watch for the stories and character development (what's left of it). But WWE can't even fix that on the men's side of things.

The only way the divas division will be "over" is if WWE draws a new audience of female viewers. If they wanted to put the resources into that and they were somehow sucessful, then they could build that division. What's the point in building a division for an audience that never cared about it to begin with? You can reference Trish Stratus and Lita all you want, but they still never drew any money.

Why is AJ over? Her character and her storylines. Nobody gives a crap about watching AJ wrestle Tamina.

 

[Bernkastel]

A lot of talk and effort to revamp something to appeal to an audience that doesn't exist in WWE right now.

Doesn't matter how well the women can wrestle...at all. Hell, it doesn't even matter how well the men can wrestle. The vast majority of people watch for the stories and character development (what's left of it). But WWE can't even fix that on the men's side of things.

The only way the divas division will be "over" is if WWE draws a new audience of female viewers. If they wanted to put the resources into that and they were somehow sucessful, then they could build that division. What's the point in building a division for an audience that never cared about it to begin with? You can reference Trish Stratus and Lita all you want, but they still never drew any money.

Why is AJ over? Her character and her storylines. Nobody gives a crap about watching AJ wrestle Tamina.

Actually this is not true at all. Checking the ratings during their individual primes it's clear that Trish and Lita's segments and matches did draw - not on HHH's or Batista's or Cena's level - but enough that not only did they not lose viewers, but the WWE kept rewarding them with more screen time.

And you contradicted your last point; if fans like to watch AJ because she's over, then why wouldn't they give a crap about watching her wrestle Tamnia? Add in Vickie Guerrero as Tamina's manager, and that's a good feud waiting to happen right there.

 

[EastCoastFan]

Based on everything I've seen from WWE (the press release that they're having yet another "casting call", the focus groups, ...), they're more interested in hiring hotties and fitting them in than finding credible female wrestlers, as hotties are much more marketable to a mainstream audience, which is why they kept trying to smash Kelly Kelly over on the Divas Of Doom. Kelly was popular - as long as she stayed out of the ring. Once she became Divas Champion and was winning over Beth, fans began to backlash against her.

In order to rebuild the Divas division, you first need a focal point (someone to fill the role Trish had years ago), and the leading candidates are Eve Torres and AJ. WWE wants to push AJ, but they can't seem to decide on a direction for her. Eve Torres has found her niche as the manipulative administrative assistant, but she needs to do more in the ring. For someone who has all the jiu jitsu training she does, she never seems to use them.

 

[CJH]

And you contradicted your last point; if fans like to watch AJ because she's over, then why wouldn't they give a crap about watching her wrestle Tamnia? Add in Vickie Guerrero as Tamina's manager, and that's a good feud waiting to happen right there.

The week after AJ quit as GM after months of being a focal point of Raw, Vickie put her in a match with Beth Phoenix. The match lost viewers and did the worst quarter hour rating of the whole night. So, yes, fans can like a catchphrase or gesture or gimmick without being interested in matches.

 

[Bernkastel]

Based on everything I've seen from WWE (the press release that they're having yet another "casting call", the focus groups, ...), they're more interested in hiring hotties and fitting them in than finding credible female wrestlers, as hotties are much more marketable to a mainstream audience, which is why they kept trying to smash Kelly Kelly over on the Divas Of Doom. Kelly was popular - as long as she stayed out of the ring. Once she became Divas Champion and was winning over Beth, fans began to backlash against her.

In order to rebuild the Divas division, you first need a focal point (someone to fill the role Trish had years ago), and the leading candidates are Eve Torres and AJ. WWE wants to push AJ, but they can't seem to decide on a direction for her. Eve Torres has found her niche as the manipulative administrative assistant, but she needs to do more in the ring. For someone who has all the jiu jitsu training she does, she never seems to use them.

I don't want Eve to be the focal point of anything in the future unless it's a pink slip. She's terrible. For all her apparent athleticism her moves look unbearably sloppy. She's consistently been a piss poor actress and entertainer, and I would blame her for why the Kane/Cena was [supposedly] bland. And top this off her psychology is awful... if WWE is turning AJ heel it's because Eve couldn't cut the mustard.

No, AJ should be the focus point of a division overall without question. The only grey spot in her career all year has been this love scandal over Cena, and I blame that on piss poor writing from the creative team rather than the abilities of either AJ or Vickie.

The week after AJ quit as GM after months of being a focal point of Raw, Vickie put her in a match with Beth Phoenix. The match lost viewers and did the worst quarter hour rating of the whole night. So, yes, fans can like a catchphrase or gesture or gimmick without being interested in matches.

Two things...

1.) Neither of those women are Trish or Lita.

2.) Beth Phoenix was largely mediocre for the majority of her career, and being job out of for most of 2012 must not of helped.

 

[JaylisJayP]

Actually this is not true at all. Checking the ratings during their individual primes it's clear that Trish and Lita's segments and matches did draw - not on HHH's or Batista's or Cena's level - but enough that not only did they not lose viewers, but the WWE kept rewarding them with more screen time.

And you contradicted your last point; if fans like to watch AJ because she's over, then why wouldn't they give a crap about watching her wrestle Tamnia? Add in Vickie Guerrero as Tamina's manager, and that's a good feud waiting to happen right there.

I didn't contradict my last point at all. People like watching AJ as a character involved in storylines. They don't particularly care about watching her wrestle. A divas match is a bathroom moment and always has been.

Trish/Lita put on good matches, but did people buy PPVs to watch that match? Doubtful. It's also the ONLY female feud in like 20 years that I can even remember watching.

My greater question in my post would probably be why try to force something that your audience as a whole doesn't care about and isn't asking for? Doesn't necessarily have to be about them being female, I mean that's the topic if this discussion, but at what point has any research shown that WWE fans want a serious, revamped Divas division?

 

[Bernkastel]

I didn't contradict my last point at all. People like watching AJ as a character involved in storylines. They don't particularly care about watching her wrestle. A divas match is a bathroom moment and always has been.

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You are absolutely right, how foolish of me. The fans hated this match so much that you can hear nothing but crickets the whole... wait a second this isn't a Ziggler or Del Berto match.

The fans showed nothing but emotion the entire time... hardly a bathroom break match.

Trish/Lita put on good matches, but did people buy PPVs to watch that match? Doubtful. It's also the ONLY female feud in like 20 years that I can even remember watching.

If 150,000 people buy a PPV and 5,000 bought it just to see Trish vs Lita, are they not considered draws? Are they not making the WWE money?

Not true. Trish vs Mickie and Candice vs Beth were both good feuds.

My greater question in my post would probably be why try to force something that your audience as a whole doesn't care about and isn't asking for? Doesn't necessarily have to be about them being female, I mean that's the topic if this discussion, but at what point has any research shown that WWE fans want a serious, revamped Divas division?

Is there any proof that they don't besides your biased assumptions that women wrestling has never drawn anything? The division hasn't drawn as much as say, the WWE championship, but they have drawn enough to be exceptional.

If fans will watch a woman because she plays an interesting character then they will watch her matches because of the fact that she is an interesting character. That's how pro wrestling works.

 

[hatehabsforever]

There's really only one way that I would overhaul the WWE Divas Division, and that is to abolish it. I would eliminate about half of the roster altogether in terms of giving them their future endeavors. The rest I would utilize as managers, valets, GM's, and various other forms of eye candy. That way, they could get involved in an occasional match, or insert themselves into action involving the people they are associated with. But there would be no Divas title, certainly no tag team Divas title, and no division per se.

Let AJ be the crazy chick. Let Vickie be a manager or a General Manager. Keep another three or four girls in a predominantly non wrestling capacity, and say good bye to the others. After all, the WWE has shown no interest whatsoever in doing anything to validate the Divas Division. There's nothing to suggest their viewpoint has really changed. Long gone are the days of Lita or Trish, and the talent is simply not there to sustain a viable division anywhere. Really, I'm not sure if it ever really was, but it certainly isn't now.

Truth be told, the amount of work required to rescucitate the Divas Division is never going to happen, and the payoff for doing so wouldn't be there anyway. Why not maintain the only aspect of the women that the company cares about, and the use the rest of the time for other ventures, such as the continued re-emergence of the tag team division.

 

[Sexcellence of Sexecution]

AJ is without a doubt the most over female on the roster, and it's not even close. So logic dictates that she will eventually become the focal point of the women's division, i.e. the champion. However, aside from her, the talent depth just isn't really there. To me, the women's division was at its strongest when you had Trish, Lita, Jazz, Victoria and Molly Holly as the main competitors (like 2002-2004 or something like that). You had a combination of hot women and women who weren't as attractive but could work really well (usually as the heels, so they could dominate most of the match). They also all had some sort of character development so the fans could have the chance to actually get invested in the match a little bit. This is how a strong women's division is built, you need to make the effort to bring in solid talent, develop characters and angles, and the fans will be invested. Another good example of this is Mickie James. She was a good wrestler who was also quite attractive and was brought in with a strong character and a good storyline with Trish Stratus, and when Trish faced Mickie at WrestleMania 22, the crowd was really, into it, more so than any women's match in WrestleMania history.

 

[SlamFan]

Overhaul- Natalya, Tamina, Aj, Naomi, Paige, Kaitlyn, Eve and Layla as your "main event" divas & bring back Kharma. Aksana can sod off, Rosa can stay a valet and maybe some other divas from FCW.

Bring in Angelina Love, Daffney, Hamada, Cheerleader Melissa and Roxxi to add a mix of new unique talent (who cares if they were from TNA, they are what made the KO's back then) Start good connections with Shimmer, bring the womens title back or at least change the damn design of the divas one.

Let the divas have streets fights, get put the through tables & other crazy shit again.
Let them have more then a 2min match.

 

[wiz828]

Bring in Angelina Love, Daffney, Hamada, Cheerleader Melissa and Roxxi to add a mix of new unique talent (who cares if they were from TNA, they are what made the KO's back then) Start good connections with Shimmer, bring the womens title back or at least change the damn design of the divas one.

I'm afraid Daffney is pretty much permanently retired from wrestling mate. Also I don't think Hamada would work on WWE, which relies much more on storyline/promo work than TNA. Unless they have some sort of gimmick that allows them to not speak, anyone who doesn't speak English isn't gonna cut it in WWE these days.
(for the record I think Hamada is absolutely awesome, one of the best female wrestlers in the world, I just don't think it would work).

 

[xavyer]

Echelon, i didn't say to bring all these women from the past, i said bring one of those that i mentioned to teach the current divas how it's done, like i said, the WWE at this time may not have the same talented divas as before, but the have enough to make the diva's division relevant again in AJ, Eve, Vicky as a manager, Tamina, Kaitlyn, Natalya and Layla.......

 

[silrock316]

What I would do is stop focusing on how hot the divas are, firstly. Back when the diva's division was at its best they had a couple real hot women like Trish and Lita(to me) but both of them could really wrestle for women. The rest of the division was pretty diverse and it wasn't like the women were ugly but they could flat out get down in the ring. Women such as Victoria, Molly Holly, Ivory, they were all PRETTY women, not GORGEOUS but pretty but they could all wrestle. Which made for better tv for the women wrestlers.

Now most of the divas look like models but only 20 percent of them can even wrestle. Naomi is actually a really good womens wrestler but she really hasn't even been used yet. Kaitlyn is ok, as is Eve. Eve has gotten much better actually but thats about it

Focus less on their looks and more on their skills and the division will get better.

 

[CJH]

I don't want Eve to be the focal point of anything in the future unless it's a pink slip. She's terrible. For all her apparent athleticism her moves look unbearably sloppy. She's consistently been a piss poor actress and entertainer, and I would blame her for why the Kane/Cena was [supposedly] bland. And top this off her psychology is awful... if WWE is turning AJ heel it's because Eve couldn't cut the mustard.

No, AJ should be the focus point of a division overall without question. The only grey spot in her career all year has been this love scandal over Cena, and I blame that on piss poor writing from the creative team rather than the abilities of either AJ or Vickie.


Two things...

1.) Neither of those women are Trish or Lita.

2.) Beth Phoenix was largely mediocre for the majority of her career, and being job out of for most of 2012 must not of helped.

1. So what? AJ was still one of the most pushed people, female or male, on the roster this year.

2. And you could just as easily argue that when AJ is an segment with a Diva rather than Cena, Punk, Bryan, Kane, or Ziggler, quite a few people will tune out.

 

[GeTiTT]

There's plenty of divas on the roster that they can use for different storylines... AJ is doing an amazing job getting over being involved with the guys storyline.

Aside from her there are 4 other talented divas that I would love to see a 4 way feud for the title.. Kaitlyn and eve are already developing a rivalry... I would really love to see tamina and nattie thrown in that mix. 3 power house divas going after the champion. I can see eve and Kaitlin feud going along ways. And a feud between tamina and nattie is one that started when tamina debuted and was dropped... I've been waiting for that to reignite

 

[JGlass]

Nothing. Divas wrestling will never, ever draw and putting in time (and therefore money) to revamping it is a waste of time. That's not to say that women's wrestling can't be fun and/or entertaining, but it's not practical to spend your time developing.