On February 23, the Bella Twins had a horrid 30-second match against Paige and Emma that led to a mountain of much-deserved backlash from fans and wrestlers alike about the state of womens wrestling in WWE. Less than five months later, NXT female wrestlers Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks showed up on Raw to kick off the Divas Revolution. It looked like something that even WWE couldnt screw up. Oh how wrong we were. Faced with the challenge of messing up a gift-wrapped present, the writers have managed to turn the Divas Revolution into a meaningless corporate catchphrase. Sure, match quality during Divas bouts have increased, but strong, developed characters and simple, logical booking the hallmark of the NXT womens division were brushed aside in favor of the same typical WWE writing thats plagued the Divas in recent years. Sasha Banks, possibly the hottest female wrestler in North America after her performance at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn in August, has been relegated to the sidelines until recent weeks, much to fans chagrin. Charlotte, who was genetically superior in NXT, has become a caricature of her father, Ric Flair, in WWE. Becky Lynch is the gullible, wacky sidekick. Throw in the Team BAD/Bella/PCB rivalry that was beaten to death in lieu of actual competition for a Divas Championship what wasnt defended for the first two months of the Divas Revolution and you have a recipe for failure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00OOLg5sOJI The saving grace of all of this is that the talent is there and Stephanie McMahon and Triple H have been outspoken about their support of the women and belief in womens wrestling, so maybe this is more of a long game than a sudden change. But that still doesnt change fans level of disappoint over what could have been this year.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
