Greetings to all… It’s David Davis with my weekly blog: Death of Wrestling. For all of those who read this regularly, you will know that this is not a blog about bashing wrestling; it’s a blog of a frustrated fan, who loves the business and wishes that each week it could be a little better.
This week I’m going to talk about women’s wrestling and, in a way, I’m actually going to praise the WWE for their focus on the Diva’s division as of late… I know what you’re thinking: this is going to be a short blog…
We all remember Trish Stratus’ Hall of Fame induction speech and how much her man got booed for just being her man – alright that’s not relevant, but it did make me smile – the bit that is relevant is her mention and recognition of the Golden Era of the Divas’ Division… I can still fondly remember watching those matches between Lita and Trish and how sometimes they were the matches that I would be most looking forward to on a card…
A little further back and you get Alundra Blayze or Medusa depending on who you talk to. Of course she was involved in something almost as infamous as the Montreal Screw Job when she went to WCW and dumped the WWF belt in the trash… Could you imagine actually caring if a Diva jumped ship and did that now?!?
Over in TNA, the Knockouts get a little more screen time and a chance to actually wrestle. The problem is TNA remains the B league for the foreseeable. They have great talents like AJ Styles and Samoa Joe; probably two of my favourite wrestlers (possibly of all time) who TNA are struggling to make household names in the same way John Cena is who arguably has less in ring talent than either of them. So what chance do the Knockouts really have???
I think it’s a shame that the WWE don’t focus more on their ‘mid-card’ divisions as, personally, I think they are missing a trick. I watch a lot of MMA; UFC in particular and they have a policy of stacking fight cards. People obviously care about the main event, but they aren’t about to pay $50 for one fight – they want an evening’s worth of entertainment. If the main event is awesome, but the rest of the card sucks people tend to voice their displeasure at a lack luster 3 hours that couldn’t be saved by one decent fight. In contrast, if the main event sucks, but the rest of the card is awesome, people talk about what a great night of fights there was, even if the main event was a bit shoddy…
I think the same is said for wrestling. When I order a PPV, I don’t want to just order CM Punk vs. John Cena with 6 undercard matches I’m not that interested in. I want to order a night’s worth of entertainment… Otherwise I won’t bother and if enough of us stop, yep, that’s right… it’s the DoW.
Every belt should be defended on a PPV and every belt should have a proper feud with a match that I am dying to see and that includes the women. Now I did say that this was going to be a blog that praised the WWE and here it is… The last few weeks have seen some focus back on the Divas. We’ve had number one contender battle royals won by AJ Lee, the Bella twins have been prominent, the Funkadactyls are doing their thing, and Kaitlyn has a secret admirer… Even Natalya’s odd pairing with the Great Khali is starting to grow on me.
Admittedly, this is hardly the rebirth of the Golden era, but it is encouraging and it is a spotlight back on the Divas that actually involves the championship belt. If we’re to believe what we read then the Bella Twins are the secret admirer and they’re doing it to get under the skin of the champion, presumably to get a shot at the belt – the women aren’t just having pointless matches, the Divas actually have story – practically a decent feud…
Unfortunately, almost all the Divas’ segments were cut from Hulu Plus, so we know how the Divas are still viewed internally, but at least the WWE are taking baby steps to rebuild a division that has long since lost it shine…
That’s all folks… As always, post your comments, thoughts and opinions below! Or message me on twitter and let me know what you think the ‘Death of Wrestling’ is and I might just blog about it!!! Peace and I’m out…