wrestling / Columns

SmackDown Live’s Women’s Division: Opportunity Realized

February 24, 2017 | Posted by Steve Cook
WWE Smackdown

In July 2016 when WWE did their Draft splitting the Raw & SmackDown brands apart, most of us thought that SmackDown Live got the short end of the stick. Not that we were surprised, Raw is the three-hour show and the traditional powerhouse of WWE television. Placing an emphasis on Raw only makes sense for WWE. But, at the time, it still seemed shocking how obvious it was that Raw was getting the lion’s share of the talent. Especially when it came to WWE’s revitalized women’s division.

Charlotte & Sasha Banks were widely considered the top two female talents on the draft board, and Raw was able to grab both of them before Shane McMahon & Daniel Bryan finally selected Becky Lynch. SmackDown’s late-round selections of Eva Marie & Alexa Bliss from NXT while the other member of the vaunted Four Horsewomen, Bayley, was left undrafted, were also widely questioned at the time.

Shane & Daniel’s tone during the draft didn’t exactly inspire confidence in the future of SmackDown’s women’s division, as they derided Mick Foley & Stephanie McMahon for picking Charlotte & Sasha so early in the Draft. It wasn’t exactly out of character for either man either, as Shane had stated before his Hell in a Cell match with Undertaker at WrestleMania that part of the reason he came back to WWE was he felt that a man should be the one taking control of the company once his father died. And although Bryan is married to a woman that was on WWE’s active roster when he met her, he’s also made some pretty sexist statements about women’s wrestling in the past.

So it wasn’t crazy to be skeptical about the future of a SmackDown’s Women’s Division. Fortunately, those of us who were have been proven wrong so far. SmackDown Live has lived up to its reputation as the Land of Opportunity for the women they drafted and the women that have shown up later on as free agents. Most of them are being used better than they ever have & are reaching the peak of their careers.

Alexa Bliss has been a revelation since her call-up to SmackDown Live. While she was active as a wrestler during most of her time in NXT, she found her character as a valet for Wesley Blake & Buddy Murphy. She wasn’t considered to be on the level of the Horsewomen in the ring, in fact most people would have argued she wasn’t ready for the big time when she got drafted. She’s become the two-time SmackDown Women’s Champion and one of the faces of the division, so most of us were wrong on that one. Alexa’s a small grappler compared to most on the WWE roster so you’d think it would be tough for her to get heat from audiences, but her strength as a performer is her ability to be completely & utterly detestable. Critics will point out she’s still not on the same level as WWE’s more veteran female wrestlers, but as far as attitude and protraying a character goes she’s miles ahead of a lot of them. We all know one of the tools every wrestler needs in their box of talents is a character that makes people either love or hate you, and Alexa’s got that.

Becky Lynch got split apart from Charlotte & Sasha Banks at just about the right time. She was beginning to come off as the third wheel in that feud & was probably about to get shunted down the card to do…well, let’s be honest, in the Women’s Division that existed before the roster split there wasn’t much for women that weren’t at the forefront of the title picture to do. Moving over to SmackDown Live to become the top babyface of their new Women’s Division was just what the doctor ordered, and she’s done very well in the role of the good girl that always gets screwed over by the likes of Alexa Bliss & Mickie James.

Speaking of Mickie, it’s been nice to have her back in WWE. When we heard the reports that she would be revealed as La Luchadora as part of the Lynch/Bliss feud, it seemed a little backwards. Considering Mickie’s popularity with the audience in the past, it appeared that it would make more sense to bring her in as Becky’s friend instead of as Becky’s rival. After all, Becky & the other Horsewomen were the first women since Mickie’s departure from WWE to really take the craft of women’s wrestling to another level, so one would think Mickie would support that. Nah. They didn’t give Mickie enough respect. There’s never anything wrong with the story of the bitter veteran that’s angry because they don’t get enough respect. It’s an easy story to tell because a lot of us have that feeling at some point in our lives. We don’t lash out though, and that’s the difference between us & Mickie.

Mickie isn’t the only veteran presence in the division. Natalya & Nikki Bella have been around for quite some time & have seen it all in WWE. They’ve been going at it against each other for the past few months now, and it led up to a pretty entertaining Falls Count Anywhere match on this week’s SmackDown Live. This has been Natalya’s highest-profile feud since…well…ever. She’s been touted for years as one of the most underutilized talents on the WWE roster, the worker that never gets to show it because she has to make younger, less deserving talent look good. This is the first time in years she’s gotten the chance to have an extended feud with somebody that can work up to her level.

While Nattie is considered underappreciated by WWE, I’ve always thought that Nikki was underappreciated by the hardcore wrestling fans. I’ll be honest, she got popular with me real early on in her career because of her looks. She got by on less with me for years. I admit that I’m flawed in that respect. But I also have to admit that Nikki has improved her game more than almost any woman in the history of WWE during her time with the company. She’s turned herself into one of the best female workers in WWE, and while a certain portion of her popularity with audiences is always going to boil down to her physical appearance, there’s a lot more to her than that. She’s really become the female John Cena, with probably not as much merchandise sales. Not like that’s anything to be ashamed of though.

The one woman that had been lost in the shuffle a bit was Naomi. This has been a common thing during her career, as she seems to get a big push out of nowhere for a few minutes, then disappears again. Three months went by with no sign of her, I’d been wondering if she was still with the company or not. She finally got her shot in late January & managed to win her first Women’s Championship at Elimination Chamber. It finally seemed like things were going Naomi’s way…until a knee injury knocked her out of action and she had to vacate the Championship. It’s a shame. Naomi finally took advantage of the Land of Opportunity and it was taken away from her…but on the bright side, that means it’ll be much sweeter when she returns to the top of the mountain once she’s healed up.

Not every woman is going to make it to the top of the mountain, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be valuable cogs in the machine. Maryse’s in-ring career seems to be over for the most part, but she has been invaluable as Miz’s second. She’s done a tremendous amount to add to his persona and take him to a higher level. It looks like she’s heading back into the ring at WrestleMania, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. She’ll have no problems getting heat, that’s for sure.

Carmella was part of the Enzo & Cass act in NXT, so it had to be disappointing for her when she wasn’t included on their main roster excursion. She’s doing pretty well without them. She isn’t ready to move to the top of the division or anything like that, but I like her getting involved with James Ellsworth in a comedic angle that tells the classic story of the pretty girl using the goofy looking guy. It establishes her character more and puts Ellsworth in a good spot on the roster without overexposing him & turning people against him for the wrong reasons.

Add in Renee Young as the best female broadcast talent in WWE history, and the SmackDown women have all been killing it lately. They’ve taken what looked to be chicken excrement in July 2016 & have made a damn fine chicken salad out of it. Everybody on the roster is involved in something of some importance, there’s nobody standing around with their thumb up their rear doing absolutely nothing. The writers have given the women things to do, and the women have delivered on their end of the bargain.

There’s only one aspect of SmackDown’s women’s division that has been an undeniable disappointment…we never got to see Eva Marie’s Spectacular Debut.

Maybe someday.

For more of Steve Cook’s thoughts on pro wrestling, along with his thoughts on the Cincinnati Bengals, Cincinnati Reds, Nashville Predators, Tottenham Hotspur & University of Louisville sports teams, follow him on Twitter!

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Smackdown, WWE, Steve Cook