2. The Divas Are Lacking Direction And Originality
In a year when Trish Stratus will be inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame as one of the greatest Divas of all time, it is probably time to reflect on how far the division has fallen since her departure. It is arguable that her retirement match with Lita at Unforgiven 2006 was the last meaningful and compelling moment of the Diva's division. Despite having some women that are effective wrestlers, over the last five years a multitude of these women have left the company, and the only prominent women on RAW at the moment are non-wrestlers AJ Lee and Vickie Guerrero. I would not be at all surprised if anybody reading this didn't know that Kaitlyn retained her championship against Tamina Snuka last night, or that she was even competing at all. The problem is not the wrestling itself, because despite Kaitlyn's notable shortcomings, she was able to put on a perfectly serviceable match with Tamina at the PPV. I wouldn't call it exciting, but both ladies performed well enough and would not have disappointed the interested fans. The problem is that none of the fans were truly interested or invested in this match, because there was no build or even rivalry to this match. Prior to the match, there was a recap of the build to this match, which was Tamina Snuka stating that Kaitlyn was a pitiful excuse for a champion, and then the champion responded with a slap, which led to a catfight in the locker room. Is it just me or has that been the build-up to every Diva's Championship match for the last two years? Can you imagine if all rivalries in the WWE were essentially one superstar going up to another, saying they were bad, which is responded by a punch, and then you have a match later in the evening. You'd probably never watch wrestling again, and would be justified in doing so. It will certainly not succeed in attracting a new audience, and therefore the Divas are unlikely to be compelling television for the new generation of wrestling fans. In order for the division to become a notable force again, they need a storyline that isn't tailored specifically for women. It would be a rivalry that would make sense to either gender, and would be either original or with greater longevity. If you provide them with similar storylines to the superstars and they still are ignored, then it is the fault of fan bias. But until creative starts giving them some effective material, there is little chance they will be anything more than filler in the near future.