WWE Divas: Beth Phoenix and Natalya Have Become Afterthoughts in the Division

On this week's episode of Monday Night Raw, Divas champion Beth Phoenix made her first appearance on show for several weeks and proceeded to defeat challenger Eve Torres in a laughably short match, even by current diva standards (exactly 30 seconds) by pinning her with the GlamSlam.

A dominant, impressive victory this was not. Indeed, the whole match came off as an entire sham created solely for the post-match angle, which saw evil monster Kane go after Eve before John Cena came out to rescue her.

Phoenix quickly disappeared after getting the pin and, throughout the segment, was treated as nothing more than a bit-part player.

Interestingly, the whole debacle served to perfectly symbolize Phoenix's—and on-screen tag team partner Natalya's—struggling WWE career. Far from being dominant in the women's division, as they vowed last year when they formed, “Pin up Strong” (formerly “Divas of Doom”) have become complete afterthoughts.

Considering the terrible way they've been booked, this is not a surprise. Nevermind recent weeks, when they've become full-blown jokes, these girls were being booked atrociously way back in the summer and autumn of last year, when they were supposed to be getting huge pushes.

First of all, it took Beth Phoenix three times before she managed to defeat Kelly Kelly for the Divas Championship. And when she finally did defeat the former model at the Hell in a Cell event, after losing clean to her twice on previous pay-er-views, she needed a ton of help from Natalya to do so.

Considering Phoenix's whole gimmick at that point was as a dominant monster who would tear through the division and grab Kelly's title with no problems whatsoever, the fact that she took so long to beat the smaller, weaker Kelly made her whole monster character look like a farce.

Even when she finally won the title, she looked like a joke and, unsurprisingly, she's been treated as such ever since.

Since emerging from Hell in a Cell with the Divas Championship, Phoenix had a few decent matches with Eve Torres on pay-per-view which were, despite the girls working incredibly hard, greeted with general fan apathy in the arenas. Aside from this, she has made sporadic and brief appearances on Raw and SmackDown and, as of late, become a regular on B show Superstars.

Beth has been so overlooked, it wouldn't shock us if even people in WWE have forgotten she's the champion.

Natalya hasn't fared much better. While Beth has largely been ignored on WWE television lately and generally forgotten about it, Natalya was subjected to some downright embarrassing material on last week's episode of SmackDown, which presented her as having an, er, flatulence problem in a backstage skit with Teddy Long and Aksana. This crass, demeaning segment was apparently WWE's attempt at “comedy.” It really, really wasn't.

To make matters worse, she then went out and lost to clueless non-wrestler Aksana clean in five seconds. What a disaster.

Are things likely to get better for these two? Alas, the answer is probably not.

As most will know by now, Kharma (formerly Awesome Kong in TNA) made her huge, highly-anticipated return to the company at the Royal Rumble and looks set to dominate the women's division. With her size and fearsome look, Kharma can play the monster heel far better than either Phoenix and Natalya are, and it is easy to see her overshadowing them and taking their spots (pathetic as their spots are).

No doubt when Kharma does return full-time, the first thing she will go after is Phoenix's Divas Championship, which she should be able to do with relative ease.

What has made Phoenix and Natalya afterthoughts? That's simple—a combination of sloppy booking, indifference from management and an apathetic fanbase.

Judging by their half-hearted recent performances, both Natalya and Phoenix seem to have lost confidence in themselves, too. This is regrettable, but not at all surprising.