How to create a better Women‘s Division for WWE?
It‘s been the talking point for WWE‘s Women‘s Division for years. Ever since Stephanie McMahon first dropped the phrase of the ‚Women‘s Revolution‘, which later transformed to the‚Women‘s Evolution‘, the company is taking every chance to ‘create history’ with their female competitors. But is putting your Women into stipulations they’ve never been in before all you have to do to create an enjoyable part of the weekly-program? The past two years have shown: No it’s not! But yet WWE is on the hunt for other ‘firsts’ the women can do in WWE, forgetting that there is more to do tdawasahan just another moment of history. People still want characters to get invested in and more than just one storyline to get excited for. But what can the biggest promotion in the world do to generate long-term interest by the WWE audience even beyond? Let’s take a look.
The Quality/Quantity Balance
A common scene on SmackDown that all women are standing in a row. It
looks staged and the bad acting around it doesn’t help either. The
reason why WWE likes to have their women standing in a row is because
most times all women are involved in one single storyline and only
get one or two segments per show. That’s why Daniel Bryan’s
office is often full of women all saying their lines only to leave
after they got their answer, like well-behaved schoolgirls. WWE needs
to rethink their strategy of putting all women in one storyline. On
the other hand they need to get more women to the main roster, as the
recent Royal Rumble has shown. Their roster needs more depth, but not
all progress can happen at once. Pick your priorities. You’ve got
three weekly shows, if you count NXT, after all.
Character Development
In a recent episode of Total Divas, Lana, Natalya and Nia Jax clashed
over the topic of character development, mic-skills and bad acting.
While Total Divas is a reality-series and always should be taken with
a pinch of salt, Lana made some valid points during her lash-out. WWE
unfortunately forces their performers to learn word-for-word promos.
While some superstars are able to deliver great promos despite that,
the majority of the women’s roster delivers their lines more robot
than human. How can the audience invest in somebody that doesn’t
show any ounce of passion or drive? How are we supposed to feel the
Glow when Naomi is not shining at all when it comes to her microphone
time? How in the world can Tamina be intimidating when she just can’t
deliver a single line? And then there is Alicia Fox. She actually has
a unique way of delivering promos, but the way she found it not
believable either. And her character? She is crazy. That’s it. One
day she became crazy, because WWE needed a crazy girl. Constantly
turning from heel to babyface. How in the world could she act as a
threat or a women we could get behind? A lot of things do not make
sense in the world of professional wrestling, but in WWE’s women’s
division there is no sense at all.
Another important example is Bayley. She had her character in NXT. A lovable fan turned ultra-babyface willing to take on every challenge. In WWE’s main roster she is just the ‘huggable one’ and that’s it. She barely gets any reaction. And every time there is a glimpse of character, for example when Mickie James feuded with Alexa Bliss, that entire momentum is dropped after feud. What exactly is Mickie James doing now? Right! Nothing. If she even happen to get a storyline again, everything has to be rebuild from scratch, because her momentum is gone. She is just another body, just like most of her peers.
Another important example is Bayley. She had her character in NXT. A lovable fan turned ultra-babyface willing to take on every challenge. In WWE’s main roster she is just the ‘huggable one’ and that’s it. She barely gets any reaction. And every time there is a glimpse of character, for example when Mickie James feuded with Alexa Bliss, that entire momentum is dropped after feud. What exactly is Mickie James doing now? Right! Nothing. If she even happen to get a storyline again, everything has to be rebuild from scratch, because her momentum is gone. She is just another body, just like most of her peers.
The other sex
Making
history
I’ve
touched on this before. WWE is on an agenda to make history with
their women’s division. Every match the men had, the women must
have had, too. Only quicker and more forced. Who needs a natural
reason for a stipulation? Just get it in there. Whether it’s Hell
in a Cell, Iron Man, Money in the Bank or the Royal Rumble. What’s
next? A Boiler Room Brawl? No actually Elimination Chamber and the
Main Event of WrestleMania are rumored to be next. Just imagine by
the end 2018 everything has been done for the women’s division. The
only option WWE has then, is to hit the repeat button. Just like they
do with the men. But what to we really want? Equality or Similarity?
It is very easy to mix these two together, but what really changes if
you take out the men and put in the women, other then the sex of the
competitors? Nothing. If
the WWE really wants to make history they need to take one step at a
time and do things no man or
woman
has ever done before. Like
cashing in the briefcase on an NXT Title for example or challenging
male talent to ‘bring it’, verbally trashing the men’s roster.
Out of the box stuff that
not only differs, but defines the women from the men in
their appeal to the audience.
So
that one day we will not be in search for a female John Cena but in
the possession of the first Carmella. That
is making history.
