10 Worst WWE Moments Of 2008
7. The Divas Title Is Born
Wrestling is a subjective business, so somebody out there might regard Michelle McCool as their favourite wrestler ever. Fair enough, but WWE's pretence that she was some tremendous in-ringer who made waves in the women's division and is equal to stars like Trish Stratus or Lita is objectively wide of the mark. Can anybody name even one memorable McCool match?
That sounds harsh for a Hall Of Famer, but can they?! Her time riding high as a babyface singles name in the division peaked when WWE introduced a second belt for the women at the Great American Bash '08 pay-per-view on 20 July. There, Michelle beat Natalya in a match that ran less than 5 minutes, and she became the first ever Divas Champ as a result.
Vince McMahon was so excited about his new creation that he forgot all about it, and McCool didn't defend the thing until Unforgiven in September. That should've told fans tuning in just how important the belt was. Somehow, it lasted until 2016 when the superior trio of Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks reinvented the wheel at WrestleMania 32 - they strived to become Women's Champion, not Divas.
Admittedly, McCool and Layla's tag-team did pin down the division for a while a few years later, but many of Michelle's solo matches were bang average. Being fair to her, WWE didn't do nearly enough to make anyone care about the Divas gold. Or pink. It was a trinket, one to be downplayed whilst the women struggled to adjust to life without titillation to fall back on.
They'd been creatively institutionalised, and so had fans, so it was difficult to take the Divas belt seriously.