Total Divas Is Greatest Enemy to Real WWE Divas Revolution

In 2013, World Wrestling Entertainment and E! Network unleashed Total Divas, a reality show based on the women of WWE and their lives outside the squared circle. What should have been a great tool for introducing new viewers to the world of sports entertainment, a platform for Divas to gain more mainstream exposure and the emphasis for a stronger push of female talent on Raw and SmackDown has, instead, become the greatest enemy to a real and truly great Divas Revolution in WWE.

Somewhere along the line, WWE Creative got lazy (I know, you're shocked) and began using the reality program to set up feuds that often lasted less than two weeks. Alicia Fox and Natalya may have had words on the show about hair, and, suddenly, they were working matches on Raw and SmackDown.

It was also not uncommon in the least to see a Diva or two who originally had one role on television switch for no reason other than to placate the supposed "reality" presented on that show.

Months of storytelling unraveled because on Total Divas, Paige comes across as a heel, but WWE Creative may have had her booked as a babyface at that point in time. So, suddenly, and without a lick of sense made, her character was altered because someone thought it was more important to line her up according to what the show—not what was followed by every wrestling fan watching WWE's two premiere broadcasts—dictated, rather than everything that had been done to build, shape and mold her from the get-go.

It was, and still is, counterproductive to everything WWE has attempted to do with its Divas Revolution that began last summer.

The arrival of Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks in July 2015 was the emphasis for a renewed focus on women's wrestling in WWE. Their arrival was supposed to reignite interest in the sport, especially on the heels of the phenomenal wrestling matches they delivered on a weekly basis in NXT.

But a true Divas Revolution cannot possibly occur when WWE continues to revert back to their old thinking, erasing months of character development and cutting off stories because they want to focus on promoting Total Divas and the stories that play out on that show.

How can fans invest emotionally in someone like Paige when she is shuffled back and forth from heel to babyface, all to suit some confrontation or issue that arises on a reality show?

And therein lies another problem.

The issues between the women on Total Divas are sold as reality. Yet, by bleeding those programs over to WWE television, the company is asking fans to buy that those issues still exist on the fake entertainment show.

Why would the characters on Raw and SmackDown care if Natalya is emotionally distraught over where her career stands?

Fans would naturally care more about the fact that Nikki is a hated heel champion in the middle of a feud with Lynch and Charlotte, established on Mondays and Thursdays, than whether or not Eva stepped out of line in the locker room last week.

Fans of Law & Order: SVU do not have to concern themselves with whether or not Ice T and his wife are fighting on Thursday because their reality show does not blend over into SVU. It would not make sense, seeing as the legendary rapper plays a character on the NBC broadcast different from who he is in his everyday life.

The blending of reality and fiction that occurs every time a feud bleeds over from Total Divas to one of the WWE television shows is detrimental to the continued efforts to present women's wrestling on the level of their male counterparts. 

Fans cannot follow the progression of their favorite characters, nor can they emotionally invest in stories surrounding said characters, when they are constantly in danger of having those characters or stories altered for the sake of promoting that week's episode of a reality show they have no interest in.

Worst of all, it is extremely difficult to look at the ongoing story involving Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks and be optimistic about the future of the sport when, an hour later on the same show, Natalya and Paige are battling Alicia Fox and Brie Bella because Fox "threw shade" at Paige on Total Divas.

While the show may be an invaluable tool for WWE when it comes to acceptance in pop culture and on a mainstream stage, it cannot continue to bleed over to Raw and SmackDown. Fans need consistent, logical stories that are untouched by the goings-on of a program they do not care about and, most likely, are unfamiliar with.

They need to be able to understand what the issues are, who the heels and babyfaces are and trust that it will stay that way without suddenly shifting to suit the filming of a 30-second scene for Total Divas. 

Until that happens, all the work done to sell the sport as serious and worthy of one's attention will be for naught, and WWE Creative's so-called "Divas Revolution" will fail miserably, the victim of boy drama and heat between Divas behind the scenes that has no business playing out in front of a camera on either of WWE's top two shows.