wrestling / Columns

Is the Divas Revolution a True Coup D’etat or Simply More #HashtagActivism?

August 1, 2015 | Posted by Wyatt Beougher

Introduction: Last October, I wrote a column about how the women’s wrestling renaissance was nearly upon us, and while I believed that #GiveDivasAChance was probably not going to pan out, the recent main roster debuts of Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Sasha Banks had me on the edge of my seat with excitement. In the ensuing weeks, we have seen the women of WWE get more time and have more importance placed on their matches and segments than at perhaps any point in the past; however, something still feels off to me.

First off, let me start by saying that Charlotte, Becky, and Sasha making their long-awaited main roster debuts was absolutely a feel-good moment for anyone who is a fan of women’s wrestling. All three women are insanely talented in the ring, charismatic, and capable of holding their own with the more established Divas on the main roster. Charlotte brings a famous pedigree of wrestling royalty, Becky has over a decade of experience under her belt and international appeal, and Sasha is easily one of the top five performers, male or female, currently under WWE contract. The simple fact that they have all been added to the Divas division immediately makes it stronger, and the string of good segments and matches since their call-up only serves to cement that fact.

So why am I hesitant to fully invest in this latest attempt at changing the face of women’s wrestling in WWE?

There are several reasons, actually, and the biggest one is that I am still not sure that WWE management has decided what they want their Divas division to be. There have been a lot of rumors floating around in the days since the three NXT standouts debuted on Monday Night RAW, and while it is hard to pinpoint the truth in any of them, some of them could actually bode quite well for the future of the Divas division, while others could end up being disastrous. In no particular order, here are three that I would like to address:

-the call-up was the brainchild of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon: On the surface, this seems like a no-brainer – Triple H has plenty of time invested in these women in the portion of the WWE that he runs, and both he and his wife have posted multiple proud photos on social media with each of the debutees. And while this seems pretty easy to believe, it is equally troubling, for the simple fact that Vince McMahon may or may not have been fully on-board with the idea. If that is the case, and other rumors (that we have heard too many times to be patently false) are to be believed, Vince could decide tomorrow that he wants to go back to meaningless matches and segments featuring the Divas that we have seen since Trish Stratus retired from active competition. It also plays into the notion that Kevin Dunn will do his best to dissuade Vince from doing anything that garners Triple H more favor with Vince, meaning the main producer of both main roster shows could soon be working to actively sabotage any progress that we have seen over the past few weeks.
-WWE is trying to cash in on the success of Ronda Rousey in mixed martial arts: With Rousey appearing at Wrestlemania 31 in a well-received segment and being probably the only person to get over on Stephanie McMahon without getting comeuppance in her entire career as an on-camera performer, and speculation running rampant that WWE wants to do more work with Rousey in the future, this, too, seems like a highly believable scenario. Unlike the previous example, though, with Rousey showing no signs of losing momentum, this would actually be the least troubling scenario, as recent events like Rousey winning the ESPY for Best Fighter give Triple H and Stephanie an easy argument in favor of allowing the women to continue to have more realistic, well-worked matches going forward.
-WWE is going to get rid of the awful Divas Title and create a belt more in line with the NXT Women’s Championship: Compared to the other two, I realize that this one is relatively minor, but depending on how it plays out, it could actually be telling as to the overall direction and longevity of the “Divas Revolution”. Allegedly, discussions have been ongoing about introducing a new Divas championship title belt that looks less like a tramp stamp and more like a traditional wrestling title belt. The supposed hang-up is that little girls love the current Divas championship belt, and if you have been to a live show recently or pay attention to the crowd shots during the television broadcasts, that certainly seems to be the case, as replicas of the butterfly belt are a common sight. The latest that I read on the belt was that WWE would be choosing a more gender-neutral design that is more in line with the men’s championships, but that they will likely keep the more feminine colors so as not to lose all appeal with the pre-teen girl demographic. In my opinion, the less gender-specific cues any new belt has will likely indicate that WWE is committed to treating their female performers as equals to the men, while keeping the same title belt that Nikki Bella currently holds will likely mean that they are reluctant to stray from the formula that they’ve employed for the past several years.

And, again, like so much else, all of that is my speculation on other speculation, which is about as much as we can do at this nascent stage of what could be a truly transformative period for the Divas division. And while I wish that I could resign my fears strictly to the rumors swirling around the Divas division, there are other troubling signs that all point to this being nothing more than a temporary change before a return to the Divas division status quo, not unlike #GiveDivasAChance was earlier this year.

Foremost among that is the fact that while the wrestling has drastically improved and the backstage segments are better simply by virtue of the talent that WWE creative now has at their disposal, the division is still centered around what basically amounts to jealousy – the Bellas run the division and Paige and Naomi are jealous, so they found back-up (or, in Naomi’s case, were arbitrarily assigned an additional backup because Stephanie McMahon said so) to level the playing field since the Bellas cheat.

What’s worse, the Bellas are ostensibly the main heels of the division, but they still cannot seem to vary their in-ring styles enough to stop pausing for face reactions and playing to the fans. That, in and of itself, is simply an indictment of the Bellas perhaps not being versatile enough to truly anchor the division, but the real problem lies in the fact that none of the new call-ups has truly been given a personality. Charlotte is a Flair, Becky is the spunky one, and Sasha is the sassy one – that is it. If you’ve followed these ladies’ careers in NXT, you know they have more levels than that, but if you are seeing them for the first time now that they have made their main roster debuts, WWE is missing out on some serious opportunities to allow the fans to invest in these women emotionally. Rather than sticking Sasha with Naomi and Tamina because “people of color”, let her be the best wrestler on the women’s roster who continues to have these show-stealing matches and act like an arrogant jerk because she is completely insecure about her place in the company and is still unaware of just how awesome she really is. Instead of Charlotte being Paige’s taller, tanner, blonder friend, let her be the “genetically superior” uber-athlete who knows that she is better than the Bellas and is not afraid to point that out to them at every opportunity.

I realize that the main roster tends to take the rich, nuanced characters that performers develop in NXT and try to distill them down for the lowest common denominator fans who watch the main roster shows, but, as I have urged WWE repeatedly in these columns, it does not have to be that way. And frankly, it should not be that way, because, by and large, that approach is not working. As much as I did not care for the recent segment with Rusev and Summer Rae making puns about Dolph Ziggler and Lana, the one good thing to come out of the Bulgarian’s thorough dismantling at the hands of John Cena is that he has been allowed to show more facets of his personality. A lot of the segments concerning his break-up with Lana have not been what I would consider quality television; however, at least he has grown as a character, something fellow NXT alumnus Bray Wyatt has not been allowed to do. For an example that already exists within the Divas division, look at the treatment of Paige and Emma since being called up to the main roster last year. Yes, Paige is a two-time Divas champion; however, she went from being a caring, emotional woman who projected a gruff exterior in NXT to a woman who is jealous of the Bellas’ success and yells a lot.

Emma’s case is even worse. In NXT, she was this seemingly-simple submissions savant who actually was a pretty terrible person at her core, and she became nothing more than Female Santino before his injury (and her shoplifting charge) got her sent back to NXT, where she has been engaged in an emotionally complex character arc that actually makes sense and has allowed her to show off a truly exceptional heel side.

Would that have ever happened on the main roster? Could it happen today?

I still cannot definitively answer “Yes” to that question, and that is why I am reserving judgment on the Divas Revolution until we see how deep WWE’s commitment to it really lies, and whether or not it is simply going to be about improving the wrestling. That will still be a huge improvement, but NXT has shown that, given the opportunity, the women, especially this generation of them, can hold their own with the men, not just in the ring, but also in terms of engaging the fans. This is one of those instances where I sincerely hope that WWE proves me wrong, but at this point, I believe that history is on my side.

As always, though, I encourage you, dear readers, to examine the evidence at hand and draw your own conclusions, and I welcome debate on this topic in the comments.

Wyatt Beougher is a lifelong fan of professional wrestling who has been writing for 411 for over three years and currently hosts MMA Fact or Fiction and reviews Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.