WWE: Is the WWE Divas Division Destined to Fold?

While no one ever expected the WWE women's division to become a top drawing, main-event attraction, it is still sad to see how far women's wrestling has fallen in the company: botched moves, short matches (likely because management doesn't trust the girls to be in there for a prolonged length of time), one-dimensional characters and an often indifferent audience. 

Indeed, going by this recent WWE worked/shoot article on the company's official website, which notes that the likes of Kelly and Eve have struggled to step out of the shadows of past great divas and the angry reaction from current divas to it, it seems to be a current issue in WWE, too. Heck, you know things are bad when Melina has to be the voice of sanity and step in and tell everyone to calm down.  

Fact is, despite the protests of Eve and Kelly, fans have seen much better: the likes of Trish Stratus, Victoria and Lita were churning out enjoyable matches and gripping feuds in the period 2002-2004, when with the help of road agent Fit Finlay, they all greatly improved as performers.

So what happened?

Well, the Raw Diva Search, which started in 2004, can probably be pointed to as the main culprit. While ostensibly on the search for a woman who would wrestle, few female wrestlers ever made it in (ODB and Velvet Sky both tried out, but never made it into the later stages of the contest), and the final lineups of the contests usually consisted of fame-seeking models and actresses who had been turned onto the contest by casting agencies. Very few of them were natural wrestlers or athletes, and the in-ring results reflected this.

Things got worse when the real wrestlers, Trish and Lita, both cornerstones of the division, retired in 2006, and pretty much every girl in the division was an unprepared model who wasn't over with the fans.

In fairness to girls like Christy, Candice Michelle, Ashley and Maryse, they all tried very hard learning to wrestle (in fact, Ashley incurred a whole list of gruesome injuries because she was so eager to throw herself in there, rather than be relegated to a strictly T&A role). But most of these women simply weren't cut out or built for wrestling. (While Trish and Victoria were both models when WWE signed them, they were fitness models and thus had the natural strength required for wrestling and bump-taking.)

Indeed, out of all the diva search alumni, only Layla El and the now-retired Michelle McCool can be considered successes, having had very entertaining heel gimmicks as two bitchy friends who were competent in-ring performers. That's two out of around 30 girls; not a great success by any standard.

In fact, people are so turned off by most of the girls that feared monster Kharma often garnered cheers in the arena by brutally taking them out. Of course, that storyline faltered because of Kharma's pregnancy, and with the demise of that very promising angle, it might be time to ask: Is this a division doomed to failure?

Indeed, management still seem indifferent to women's wrestling and appear to regard it as little more than eye-filler. Even with the Diva Search contest finished, they still insist on signing models out of magazines, and numerous indy female wrestlers have been turned down due to them not having “the look.” New champion Kelly Kelly has struggled in the role since becoming champion in June, and she is not hugely over or setting the world on fire with her in-ring work, either.

Of course, many would point to the recent storyline with Beth Phoenix and Natalya as evidence that things are looking up for the much-maligned division. Both Phoenix and Natalya are competent wrestlers and neither were signed because Johnny Ace spotted them in a bikini magazine. Of course the storyline has a few flaws (both women are decrying the pretty, caked-in-makeup divas while, strangely, going out of their way to appear pretty and caked in makeup whenever they appear on Smackdown or Raw ), but it is something new, after all.

But will it last?

Past behaviour tells us no. When WWE swooped in and acquired popular wrestler Gail Kim from TNA, many expected her to be a star of WWE's women division and took the acquisition as a sign that WWE were ready to focus more on the wrestlers than models. Of course, WWE did nothing with Gail for years, eventually leading to a frustrated Gail quitting the company. In 2009, WWE made no attempts to sign Angelina Love (at that point, considered to be the most talented all-round female wrestler in America) when she parted ways with TNA. More recently, on the all-women season of NXT, it was only A.J Lee who had any indy experience out of all the women (and even that wasn't very much: A.J had roughly 20 matches on the indie scene before signing her WWE contract).

Indeed, with the exception of Kharma (who was greatly aided by Jim Ross and Steve Austin praising her to management), there's no real indication WWE have changed their hiring practices when it comes to women or are willing to accept in-ring ability is as important as looks when it comes to a future diva.

Sure, Phoenix and Natalya are getting screen-time now, but what about when some new photogenic girl catches management's eye and gets called up? And frankly, as long as biggest backer of the models and actresses, Johnny Ace, is Head of Talent Relations in WWE, it's highly doubtful whether things will change and that, once again, the proper wrestlers will be relegated to the sidelines as the attention falls on the models-turned-bad wrestlers. It would be nice to think things have changed, but I'm not convinced they have.

I don't personally think the division will ever fold, though. WWE management wants a whole lot of divas on their roster and seem insistent on throwing them in the ring, no matter how disastrous the in-ring results are. The division will probably always be around in some form. Will it thrive and return to being the entertaining mid-card act it once was, though? That remains to be seen.