WWE Divas: A Revolution Doesn’t Happen Overnight

While fans and talent alike are complaining about the progress of the WWE Divas Revolution, 411Mania’s Greg DeMarco is over here like “It just started!”

Stephanie McMahon made her way to the ring on July 13, 2015, launching a supposed Divas Revolution that wrestling fans were led to believe would be just that—a revolution. Stephanie was responding to Nikki Bella’s comments about her lack of competition, as the WWE Divas Champion stood tall alongside Team Bella members Brie Bella and Alicia Fox.

Stephanie’s response was to bring Paige to the ring, and add two friends from NXT to the mix: Becky Lynch and former NXT Women’s Champion Charlotte. That made Paige (and the Internet Wrestling Community) quite happy, but Stephanie wasn’t done yet.

Naomi and Tamina decided this party couldn’t go on without them (apparently Emma and Natalya didn’t mind, though), so they joined in the fun. Stephanie obviously appreciated this, because she gave them a leader—a Boss, rather—in then NXT Women’s Champion Sasha Banks.

One hashtag later, the Divas Revolution was born.

Fast forward to the Raw after SummerSlam, where Paige, Charlotte and Becky appeared as guests on MizTV, touting their recent successes and proclaiming this The Age of The Female Athlete. It led to a six woman tag team match against Team Bella, and the crowd went absolutely…mild.

So much mild that the WWE took a random commercial break in the middle of the match that the announcers didn’t even throw to, and the internet reported plenty of derogatory chants and even a wave during the break.

This came one week after Minneapolis’s SummerSlam go-home show crowd chanted “We Want Lesnar” as WWE Divas Champion Nikki Bella battled NXT Women’s Champion Sasha Banks in a historic first-time encounter.

That instance was blamed on the fact that the crowd wanted to see their hometown hero, but that chant didn’t overtake any other matches on the broadcast.

Both Bella twins took to their Instagram accounts, and in between the ten hashtags (yes, I counted) they both complained about the crowd’s treatment of their segment and match. Paige has also been vocal on the crowd’s treatment of the Revolution angle through her twitter, saying “You helped us create change and then did your best to disrespect. Niceeeee jobbbbbbbb!” That tweet was later deleted, but the Bellas’ Instagram posts still remain at the time of this writing.

Former WWE writer Alex Greenfield posted about the crowd’s response on Twitter, doing so in a response to a tweet from a follower:

This. The crowd registering displeasure is just reinforcing VKM's preconceptions, which he feeds to announce. https://t.co/A3VE9oIc4P

— Alex Greenfield (@alexdgreenfield) August 25, 2015

Now to the crowd’s defense, they were also chanting for Sasha Banks, who seems to have gotten the most over despite having the least screen time. Obviously, you can’t hold true talent down…

Fans and talent alike have both been quick to place blame for the reaction. As I listed above, the talent have placed that blame on the fans, who obviously not reacting like they’re (we’re) supposed to!

While my comment is sarcastic, the above social media comments seem to say just that. The Divas are upset that all of their hard work is being heavily shit upon by the paying customers. Tell that to Randy Orton and Sheamus, ladies.

The hardcore internet fanbase is playing the blame game as well, but they’re (were) throwing it at the WWE themselves. Obviously the company is incompetent at booking the Divas, because they haven’t given us stakes to care about.

That criticism comes despite Sasha and Nikki doing battle in the last match during the go-home Raw for SummerSlam, and the Divas receiving over 30-minutes during Raw, including a spot on MizTV (although, in all fairness, that interview segment did more for The Miz than anyone!).

However, both the Divas and the fans are forgetting one very important factor, one that is basically impossible to change:

TIME.

Pictured above is a scene from the set-up to the WrestleMania X9 Lingerie Pillow Fight involving Stacy Keibler, Torrie Wilson, and Miller Lite “Tastes Great/Less Filling” Girls Tanya Ballinger and Kitana Baker. The card also featured a Women’s Championship match between Trish Stratus and Victoria. Guess which segment lasted longer?

This picture is representative of the damage the WWE has done to women’s wrestling. Despite the days of Wendi Richter feuding with The Fabulous Moolah to Madusa/Alundra Blayze to Divas of this generation like Trish Stratus, Lita, Mickie James, Victoria, Beth Phoenix, Natalya and AJ Lee, the Divas division has spent the better part of thirty years as an afterthought, as eye candy, as defunct, or as a sideshow.

Despite its highlights, the division has been mistreated for the overwhelming majority of Vince McMahon’s reign over the WWE/WWF. He has proven time and time again that his female performers hold very little importance to his product.

Until now.

Through their work with NXT and the Divas Revolution, respectively, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon have done more to elevate and promote women’s wrestling as a near equal to the men than anyone before them. And they’re still the minority in the “WWE office” who feel like the women can be legitimate draws for the future.

But it’s only been SEVEN WEEKS!

Most historians place the timeline of The American Revolution to be 1765 through 1783, starting with America’s rejection of British Parliamentary taxation without representation and ending with the signing of a peace treaty that closed out the Revolutionary War. It took eighteen years for the most famous revolution in modern history to take place, and we’re expecting real change in just seven weeks?

In this modern era, full of instant gratification and the latest technology (my Samsung Note 5 will be in my hands by the time you read this!), it’s people’s tastes that still take forever to evolve and change. It’s going to take more than some six-woman tags, MiizTV and a prominent SummerSlam match to truly revolutionize the division.

It’s going to take a real feud over the title, a women’s TLC match at the December pay-per-view, a top notch women’s match given lots of time at WrestleMania and maybe even a women’s Money In The Bank to really turn around how the majority of the fan base views the Divas of today and tomorrow.

Until then, it’s still going to be that amazing thing going on down in NXT.

Greg DeMarco is a wrestling fan of over 30 years and has worked on the independent circuit as a promoter, announcer, character and booker. Greg is a weekly contributor at 411Mania.com, applying his opinionated style to the world of pro wrestling as often as possible.

He began writing for 411Mania in October 2010 and has been pissing readers off ever since!

Follow Greg DeMarco on Twitter.
Follow 411Mania on Twitter.
Friend Greg DeMarco on Facebook.
Like 411Mania on Facebook.
Join YES! Wrestling – Facebook’s #1 Wrestling Group

And as always…