NXT Providing Blueprint for How WWE Should Book Main-Roster Divas Division

NXT continues to show WWE how to handle a Divas division.

While the women on the main roster are bogged down by soap opera storylines, the women at Full Sail University are getting more traditional wrestling angles to work with. The females of NXT are also benefiting from longer matches and better competition.

It's not a complicated formula that NXT is running, but it's an effective one.

Being both a fan of women's wrestling and WWE is often an infuriating experience. Just as one gets attached to a new wrestler, one has to watch them be treated like a last-minute add-in. While the men are portrayed as warriors, monsters and braggarts, the women are divided into two categories—sassy/sexy and mentally unstable.

For now, WWE developmental is more of the major league product for women's wrestling. The bookers for the main roster would be wise to learn from what they do every week in Florida. 

Match Times

If you're a Diva on the main roster, you better learn how to tell a story in the blink of an eye. Divas matches on Raw and SmackDown routinely last less time than the entrances preceding them.

Per ProFightDB.com, Summer Rae vs. Brie Bella on Monday's Raw lasted just under two minutes. When Alicia Fox and Paige took on AJ Lee and Emma that same night, their bout went on for only a few seconds shy of three minutes.

By contrast, Charlotte and Bayley battled for 10 minutes and 45 seconds on the Oct. 2 edition of NXT, per CageMatch.net. That's enough to time to have five Summer vs. Brie matches.

Even on pay-per-views, with a title on the line, the main-roster Divas get slighted.

Event	WWE or NXT	Match	Match Time
Night of Champions	WWE	AJ Lee vs. Paige vs. Nikki Bella	8:41
SummerSlam	WWE	AJ Lee vs. Paige	5:04
Battleground	WWE	AJ Lee vs. Paige	7:13
Takeover: Fatal 4-Way	NXT	Charlotte vs. Bayley	10:44
Takeover	NXT	Charlotte vs. Natalya	16:49
Arrival	NXT	Paige vs. Emma	12:54

AJ and Paige, the division's two top Divas who wrestled each other at one of the biggest shows of the year, only had five minutes to work with. The NXT women's champ, on the other hand, consistently gets ample space to showcase her skills.

Longer matches don't always equal better matches. Still, it's not surprising at all that the three NXT matches shown in the table above were some of the best female matches of 2014, while the more hurried bouts on WWE shows were more of the forgettable variety.

With as unappealing as many of the main-roster Divas storylines are, though, it makes sense that WWE would want to get those matches over in a hurry. NXT has built rivalries that beg for longer, more compelling matches.

Better Stories

When Divas hit the main roster, it's as if the folks assigned to creating their storylines decide to completely depart from the cornerstones of wrestling angles.

The pursuit of championships gives way to melodrama. The hunt for revenge is replaced by sexual undertones.

Compare Brie and Nikki Bella's rivalry to the one between Bayley and Charlotte.

The sister-on-sister feud featured Nikki revealing all the crappy things her sister did to her in high school, including making her take a test for her. It has involved a Jerry Springer segment, a dispute over their last name and a personal trainer having an affair.

Meanwhile, Bayley and Charlotte are battling over the NXT Women's Championship.

Theirs has a been a story centered around Bayley looking to prove herself against an opponent she has struggled to beat. In pushing Charlotte at NXT Takeover: Fatal 4-Way, she earned some respect from the champ, who had previously scoffed at her.

Bayley reached that title match by knocking off Sasha Banks, bettering her record and eventually becoming No. 1 contender.

The Bella feud sounds like something one would see on a soap opera. The one between Charlotte and Bayley is a wrestling story, one that would just as easily fit into an NWA show as it would Ring of Honor.

Not surprisingly, the NXT one is more compelling and has produced better matches.

WWE doesn't have to give its female wrestlers trite stories to try and woo the female demographic. Ditch the cheap and cringe-worthy segments and let the Divas fight for the same things the men are.

The company wouldn't have Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose bringing up standardized tests or tease kissing each other the way Paige and AJ Lee have. 

Showcasing the Best

At NXT, if you're not ready for prime time, you don't get put onscreen. On the main roster, if you are a part of Total Divas, it doesn't matter if you make Giant Gonzalez look like Dean Malenko. You can still wrestle in front of a live audience.

On the main roster, JoJo has wrestled on two editions of Raw and on one pay-per-view, per CageMatch.net. At NXT, she's only allowed to do ring announcing and backstage interviews.

She's too green to be wrestling on TV, and for some reason, the NXT officials recognize that, while the folks in charge of Raw saw it fit to put her in the ring.

Emma appeared on NXT often and put on some impressive matches. Since she's moved to the main roster, she's become an afterthought, a rarely seen sight. She's the female Zack Ryder.

A part of that, one would imagine, is because of her shoplifting arrest in July. The other part of that equation is that WWE continually pushes the cast members of its reality show. Rosa Mendes, Eva Marie and Cameron are all getting more airtime than Emma.

At Full Sail University, fans have yet to see fitness model Ashley Sebera on TV. She's relegated to house shows at the moment because TV is reserved for the more polished Divas such as Banks, Bayley and Charlotte.

If Rosa or Eva headed down to WWE developmental, they likely wouldn't be on camera.

The NXT Divas division has shown itself to be of high quality, good enough to compete with the men each week. That is not remotely true for the main-roster Divas.

It only makes sense that the move from NXT to WWE should see an improved level of entertainment, but that hasn't been the case with the Divas. Limiting their ring time, throwing in the scrubs with the stars and giving their stories the trash-TV treatment is hurting the women on the main roster.

Luckily, NXT is setting an example WWE can follow to remedy that.