WWE
Opinion: Women Superstars, Not Divas, Should Be Given Credit for the Women’s Evolution
WWE Superstars that step between the ropes dedicates their lives to professional wrestling. The female WWE talent has been going through a sort of Renaissance in recent years. With the first Women’s Royal Rumble, Women’s Elimination Chamber, Women’s Hell in a Cell, and four women’s matches at Wrestle Mania 34, now is truly the best time to be a female competitor in WWE.
Nothing seems to be off-limits for women in WWE anymore. This is all thanks to the hard work and dedication of women superstars of past generations and now. Charlotte Flair, Trish Stratus, Lita, Paige, Alundra Blayze, Mae Young, are just some of the SUPERSTARS that have made women’s wrestling in WWE what it is today.
Women like Torrie Wilson, Dawn Marie, Christie Hemme, Maria Kanellis, and The Bellas are often timed referred to as DIVAS. Divas, which is what female talent in WWE was called prior to 2016, are considered talentless in in-ring competition. They are mostly there to show off good looks. They have very little to no in-ring skill. Sadly, some female WWE talent can still be called divas even today.
Women superstars, not divas, are what made women’s wrestling in WWE what it is today.
Divas
The term “Diva” wasn’t used on a regular basis until 2003. The first “RAW Diva Search” started on July 1st, 2003. It was a way to find WWE’s next “Diva”. These women were not wrestlers. Most of them were beauty models looking for a way to expose themselves to a broader audience.
The only credible wrestlers to come out of this competition were the likes of Layla El, Michelle McCool, and Eve Torres. These women had wrestling ability, as can be seen later on in their career. Michelle McCool is a former Women’s and Divas champion. Layla El is also a former Women’s and Divas champion in her own right. Eve Torres is tied for first with the most divas title reigns at three runs with the championship (tied with AJ Lee).
Sadly, in an era where women’s wrestling wasn’t taken very seriously, talented women had to resort to the mundane tasks the divas were actually good at. For most of the 2000s, a divas “match” was either a bikini contest, dance contest, mud pen match, or some other embarrassing stipulation. Of course, the less talented divas shone brightest in this kind of “match”. But when it came time to actually try to wrestle, very few could do the task.
The women that were taken seriously (Trish Stratus, Lita, Victoria, Natalya, to name a few) had to make due with very short matches. Trish and Lita did main event Monday Night RAW for the first time in women’s wrestling, and that was a very good match. But it would take almost an entire decade from that night before the term “Diva” would finally retire.
A Revolution Has Begun
NXT went through a re-brand in 2012. It was no longer a talent competition. NXT was now a developmental brand for new up and coming wrestlers. The likes of Paige, Emma, Asuka, Bayley, Sasha Banks, and Becky Lynch came up through the revamped NXT.
Paige was the first NXT Women’s champion, beating Emma in the finals of a tournament. Their rematch at NXT TakeOver: Arrival is often considered the starting point in the Women’s Revolution.
But NXT wasn’t the only place the WWE Women’s Revolution began to find traction.
AJ Lee, one of the longest reigning Divas champions of all time and arguably one of the best SUPERSTARS of all time, began the hashtag “Give Divas a Chance” (Divas, meaning the main roster women’s division at the time). AJ is one of the first women’s wrestlers to make people realize women were more than just eye candy. There were dozens before her, but it was AJ’s un-Diva personality that made her stand out.
AJ, along with Natalya, Kaitlyn, Victoria, and Eve Torres, made the women’s division more credible. Sure, they were still in segments that were degrading, but when it came time to put on a match they could show the world women are great too. Just like Trish, Lita, Alundra, Chyna, and Mae Young did years before them. Was this thanks to good looks and revealing clothes? No. It was thanks to their great in-ring skill and dedication to the sport.
These women are not DIVAS. They are SUPERSTARS under a name for their inferior fellow competitors.
AJ said give divas a chance. She meant women like her. The real wrestlers. Not the thirty-second match, botching a simple move, reality star, fake wrestlers. The REAL wrestlers. The women superstars.
Divas No More
On the night of Wrestle Mania 32, the WWE Divas Championship would retire. A brand new WWE Women’s Championship was fought for in a Triple Threat match and won by Charlotte Flair. As seen in a segment on Total Divas, Stephanie McMahon declared the term “Divas” dead that night. She now called the WWE female talent “Superstars”.
Finally, after decades of hard work, the WWE gave the women the respect they deserve. Was it because of good looks, bikini contests, thirty-second matches that were 90% hair pulling? No. It was because of hard work, dedication, in-ring skill, and is plain and simple bad asses.
Superstars, Not Divas
To say that divas deserve the same credibility as women superstars is disrespectful. It was not people like Nikki Bella, Torrie Wilson, and Maria Kanellis (the less talented “pretty faces”) that gave “Divas” a chance. It was their talented counterparts in the likes of Trish Stratus, AJ Lee, and Natalya.
There is no debate when it comes to the difference between superstars and divas.
Divas are hurting the women’s division.
Women superstars are the people that gave women wrestlers the chance.
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