The Monday Night War Review: Episode Thirteen- ‘Divas Gone Wild’

The Monday Night War Review: Episode Thirteen- ‘Divas Gone Wild’

-ECW week meant no new episode last Tuesday, but things are back on schedule this week as the show is all about the ladies of the Monday Night War. This one should prove interesting as the women deserve a ton of credit for all they did during the MNW and how they influenced the business.

-MNW Opening and yep, Awesome!

-We open with a rundown of women’s wrestling in the 70s and 80s. Heyman mentions that historically they were a special attraction. Woman’s wresting was starting to fizzle out, so Vince decided to use them in other ways and that leads to Miss Elizabeth. As you would expect she is given a ton of credit for being a pioneer as a female manager, and Styles makes sure to note that she was rather beautiful. Damn right she was!

-We jump to RAW debuting in 1993 and now Vince wanted to try to reach all the fans and the women’s division was brought back. The leader of this division was Madusa, who jumped from WCW. Punk calls her more than a pretty face as she could go in the ring. She debuted in the WWF as Alundra Blayze and quickly was pushed to the top as the Women’s Champion. Justin Credible pops up as a talking head and puts over how she was a pretty woman that was also an athlete.

-The revamped division had a shallow pool and Bryan mentions that Blayze was the only champion for a good while. The ratings on RAW started to sag in 1995, and then evil old Ted Turner came calling and started Nitro to go head to head with Vince. We get stock footage of Vince from 2009 complaining about Turner’s deep pockets and how they emulated what the WWF was doing.

-Madusa jumped ship to WCW and she was still the WWF Women’s Champion. Bischoff mentions he convinced her against her will that it would be great to dump it in a trash can on Nitro. Vince calls it a tawdry thing to do, and Booker T calls it disrespectful. Everyone calls it a huge moment as it basically declared war on the WWF.

-As 1996 began Miss Elizabeth made her return to wrestling and showed up in WCW with Hogan and Savage. Apparently
the WWE was reeling with the loss of Liz and Madusa (though Liz hadn’t been on WWF TV in over 3 years, but got to keep the idea going that Turner stole another WWF star apparently), and it sent Vince back to the drawing board. Heyman mentions that Vince felt the woman’s title had been so damaged that he wanted to move past women’s wrestling and just wanted to use women in another way.

-That brings us to Sunny, and holy piss did I forget how insanely hot she was in 1996. They peg her here as the original Diva and I will go along with that as Liz wasn’t really cast in that role. Sunny pops up and talks about how it was very PG when she started in the WWF, but they slowly loosened the reigns.

-Next up is Marlena and she was very important as they put her with Goldust to tone down the homosexual overtones of the character and leave things a little more ambiguous. Cody says it best as she was necessary to give the males a reason to cheer for something about the Goldust character.

-WCW was kicking ass though in 1996 thanks to the n.W.o and that carried Nitro to an 84 week winning streak as the ratings graphic has jumped to January of 1997. They talk a bit about the n.W.o and how awesome and ground breaking the group was.

-Back on RAW they were parading Sunny out in bathing suits in an attempt to get back some viewers. They call Sunny the hottest attraction in the WWF and the show was geared to feature her. They discuss how they would have her do almost every job just to get her on camera whether it be managing, announcing, doing interviews, etc. They bring up that she was the most downloaded celebrity on AOL.com in 1996 which was kind of a big deal back then.

-Over in WCW, the n.W.o was still kicking all kinds of ass and they make it seem here that because of that the women in WCW were more a luxury than a necessity. Back to the WWF and Vince was pushing the envelope with what he would do with the Divas.

-Cole talks about how they made the Divas both sexy and powerful. Beth Phoenix mentions that beautiful women in skimpy clothing will always bring ratings.

-Next up they discuss Chyna and how her being the Anti-Diva was great for her and the WWF. Miz mentions that she was someone you could buy as being able to beat up the guys. They show footage of Chyna beating up Bart Gunn and then discuss how she was a major player on RAW and a founding member of DX.

-With RAW gaining ground WCW decided to incorporate more female talent and they show one of the funnier exchanges ever between Liz and Savage as a throw away piece of video. It was Savage walking backstage before a match with DDP where he tells Liz he was going to invite 30-40 women and wanted to know if she had a problem with it, and when she said no, he yells “I like it.” Just awesome!

-Bischoff footage as he mentions he wasn’t a fan of women’s wrestling because there wasn’t a lot of hot ones that could wrestle as well. He was also tired of women being valets, but he knew he needed something. He came up with the idea of the Nitro Girls because of the success of the Cowboy Cheerleaders. One of those girls ended up being the wife of Shawn Michaels, so apparently he was paying attention to the Nitro Girls.

-Sunny mentions there was no comparison between what the WWF had and what WCW had. She thinks they had them beat by a mile. I tend to agree with that though I will always side with Miss Elizabeth and how she seemed to get hotter as she aged. Anyway, the WWF finally launched their Attitude Era and it helped grow their audience and close in on Nitro.

-AJ Lee talks about how the Divas also embodied the Attitude Era, and that leads to discussion of Sable. JBL mentions that Mero was on the shelf and they weren’t sure what to do with Sable. Russo talks about how they had her as a model for an inflatable King of the Ring chair and the building exploded for her. That’s when they realized they needed to push her more.

-Cole calls her perfect and the Diva that guys dreamed about, and again, I will say that I was more of a Sunny guy if I had to choose between the 2 at the time. Though no chance in hell I would ever have choice of either one any way. They discuss how she also could get it done in the ring and they show her hitting Mero with a powerbomb. I will say Mero deserves a lot of credit for his part in her rise.

-The WWF finally dethroned Nitro in the spring of 1998 and they continued to push things with characters like Val Venis and The Godfather. Lawler mentions that there was no bigger fan of the Godfather and the Ho Train than himself. No kidding!

-Back to Nitro and they mention how the Nitro Girls couldn’t go as far. Cody calls them filler and how it was basically cheerleading and he wasn’t into it. The two companies traded wins during the summer, but Vince is a genius and was always pushing new things. In this case they started to have the women compete in bikini contests and evening gown matches. Nash mentions that Sable was huge in regards to ratings as any quarter she was in it beat anything Nitro did at the time.

-The WWF Women’s Championship was finally brought back in 1998 as Sable and Jackie did battle to crown a new champion. In a bit of a surprise Jacqueline wins the match (thanks to Mero) and that ushered in a new era of Divas. Cena mentions that during the Attitude Era any match involving women became The Attraction instead of just a special attraction.

-Funny bit as Orton discusses how he was 18 and was cheering on the women because sex sells. We get various shots of the divas being stripped down to their bra and panties. Things reached a pinnacle when Sable hit the cover of Playboy. Steph discusses how that elevated them to a new place and several people mention the magazine with Sable was one of the greatest sellers in the magazine’s history.

-They continued to push things both in the ring and outside the ring with the women as Chyna became the first woman to win the Intercontinental Title. By 1999, WCW was getting murdered in the ratings and they finally decided to try to give each Nitro girl an identity and push them.

-Hell yeah, that means Stacy Keibler and she was crazy sexy. Hayes mentions that only Keibler and Torrie Wilson really made a name for themselves in WCW. Again between the two of them I was on team Keibler.

-Back in the WWF the next generation of Divas started to come up and one of them was Lita. She mentions that when she came into the WWF she didn’t know what her role would be. They just knew that had something with her and her dare devil style. Cole mentions she was different with the tattoos and by doing things in the ring that no other female could do.

-Of course if we are going to discuss Lita, we need to discuss Trish Stratus. Her early days were as a manager, but she knew he wanted to compete in the ring as well. She had no issue with bra and panties matches as he knew it would get eyes on her and then she could prove what she could do. Sable pops up and puts over how awesome Trish is as well.

-In Jan of 2001 Time Warner merged with AOL and they mandated that anything racy needed to be stopped. Nash mentions that they had a Standards and Practice guy watching over things in WCW while RAW had Val Venis hanging out with Jenna Jameson. Yeah, easy to see who was winning the war when you look at it that way.

-Talk now shifts to Stephanie McMahon and boy did I love me some Steph from 1999 and in the early days of the McMahon/Helmsley Regime. I mean she is still pretty darn hot to this day, but just something about her in those early days. Jericho mentions how she got the business quickly and never took anything personally because she learned from her dad.

-The War ended in March 2001 with Vince buying WCW, and Cole says that Rock, Austin, and DX were a big reason they won the war, but the Divas had just as an important role in winning the battle. They do mention that a few of the women from WCW got a better chance in the WWF and Booker mentions that people don’t remember Miss Hancock (oh, I do), but remember Stacey Keibler.

-On Dec 6th, 2004 history was made when Lita and Trish faced off in the Main Event of RAW. It was a rather big deal and they delivered with a fantastic match in which Lita nearly killed herself. I will also mention, since I am a pig, both women were quite possibly at their hottest during that period as well.

-Things wrap up with some of the current Divas discussing how they were influenced by those Divas that were there during the MNW. I’m almost shocked they didn’t show the footage of AJ Lee crying when she met Lita at an autograph signing. Trish gets the final word as she discusses how proud she is when the current divas credit her and the previous divas for what they did for women in the business.

Extra Thoughts: Much better episode this week as the women truly did deserve their own episode. They were a huge part of the MNW and this episode did a solid job of covering a little bit of everything. The big names were all touched on, and as one would expect they didn’t mention anything involving Woman for obvious reasons, though her contributions in WCW during the war shouldn’t be forgotten. The bias here was the normal with Vince being painted as the victim because of Turner’s money, but it was only minor. Overall a strong episode this week that was a step up from the last few weeks.