Self-Aware WWE: Dot Com Article about the Divas of Doom

WWE.com is taking notice
Photo Credit: WWE.com

WWE.com by Katie Raymond

The self-awareness of WWE is reaching the website. Katie Raymond, known most for her work on WWE live blogs, wrote about the Divas of Doom and how their cause may just be legit. The quality of the article is a bit sketchy, but that's probably by design, because WWE.com is never going to be known for hard-hitting journalism. That being said, the fact that this topic is being broached speaks to the paradigm shift within the company. I figure if you're going to go in a direction, you might as well go all the way. Blur the lines not only on screen, but on the site too. Then again, that definitely speaks to K. Sawyer Paul's point that the website is now the driving force in the narrative of the company.

Truth, Heels and Gender Roles: Why Kelly Kelly Is the Real Diva Villain

The actions of an honorable woman?
Photo Credit: WWE.com

All Beth Phoenix wants is to be taken seriously. It's hard for her to do so when she's one of the few in a division who strive for that. When most of the Divas base their offense on how hot they are, or how well they can shake their asses, it can be hard for a legitimate female wrestler to ply her trade when all she wants to do is bust skulls. What was her repayment? She's painted as the villain, and furthermore, Kelly Kelly, the most egregious of the ass shakers and stink-facers, gave her the waylaying of a lifetime.

Coincidentally, K2 is considered the face of the Divas division.

While this may not seem "right", it has been the status quo in WWF/E for a long time to some degree. The heels were the ones who told the truth, often times uncomfortable, while the faces spun propaganda to some degree. This was no more evident than in the broadcast booth in the '80s and '90s, when Bobby Heenan and Jesse "The Body" Ventura would point out flaws in Hulk Hogan's or the Ultimate Warrior's games. Obviously, they were bad for a reason; they'd often ignore the misgivings of their bad guy counterparts, but this is nothing new for WWE.

However, the level at which this attacking of the truth, at least from an institutional level, seems to be a bit excessive from where I sit. Let's switch the narrative around a little bit. Instead of Beth wanting to turn the Divas away from looks, splits and booty-shaking, what if she came out and wanted to rid the Divas of politics and ass-kissing? She'd be CM Punk, right? CM Punk's a good guy, or at the very least, he's a fan favorite (which may still yet make him a bad guy if the fans are into that kind of thing), correct?

So, basically what the WWE is saying is that it's okay for the men to have real competition, but the ladies should be there to shake their asses. I'm no feminist, and believe me, I've gotten my fair share of erections looking at sexy photo shoots, but that's not kosher from where I sit, ESPECIALLY when the one company that does nearly everything WWE tries to do, only worse, gets it better than they do in this instance, even now when their women's division is at its worst. When Impact books women better than you, you have problems.

Even more troubling are the demographics for WWE. Apparently, 36% of the audience is female. That's not a trivial number, and it's one that needs to be catered to. That begs the question, what caters to women? Do you assume they're all vain and easily fooled by platitudes like being called "smart, sexy and powerful" without any evidence of that being the case, or do you assume they're real people who like real, three-dimensional characters, or at the very least, two-dimensional characters who can actually wrestle? The WWE thinks it's the former, but I'm going to make the not-so-wild assumption that 36% of their audience would like to see more of the latter.

So you can very much agree on why I feel like positioning Beth as a heel is a bad thing, right? Especially when the thing she's been fighting against was so expertly personified as a bad girl trait during LayCool's epic run on Smackdown. Strong women are good role models. Conversely, the woman with minimal wrestling skills maybe shouldn't be held as the paradigm. I mean, K2 uses the Stink Face, a move that was used by someone 300 lbs. her heavier. The girth was the efficacy, but now, it's reduced to lesbian homoerotica. While I'm not exactly going to argue that I dislike that kind of thing, I don't think it should be used in something that is being staged as legitimate competition. Then, in response, she Pearl Harbors Beth, partially out of retaliation for last week, but you could assume she was a bit miffed at the criticism. Then again, when did the good guy sneak attack someone? Oh yeah, that's right, it's SOP in WWE. No one fights with honor anymore. But I digress.

The point is, if the gender here was inverted, Beth Phoenix probably would be a folk hero. Instead, she's used as a monster to get over the paradigm that you need to be PRETTY PRETTY OH SO PRETTY to be a good girl in WWE (completely oblivious to the fact that there are people in the fandom, of which I'm a member, that think Beth is way hotter than Kelly). When you have a significant portion of women in the audience, especially impressionable youths, maybe it's time you start portraying the fairer sex as more than just pretty faces, fake tits and shrinking waistlines.

I Am Beth Phoenix, Bringer of War

BETH SMASH PUNY HAWAIIAN TROPIC MODEL
Photo Credit: WWE.com

When Beth Phoenix won the Divas Battle Royale on RAW, I was excited as a fan. She is my favorite among the current crop of women's wrestlers in WWE, and really, even though she'd probably be offered up as a sacrifice to the ultimate underdog in Kelly Kelly, I'm glad she's getting a shot at SummerSlam.

Then, she turned heel.

I have to admit, I got a bit giddy when I saw her destroy K2, except when she rolled out the Impact Wrestling Knockout party line of destroying her because she was a bimbo. But it was forgivable in this one instance. Either way, it was a welcome change. I like her as someone I can root for as a simpler fan, but she's at her best when she's a wrecking machine. For me, this also gives some hope to the direction of the women's division in WWE.

When Beth was in the Superstars Zone as a good girl, she worked good matches and had fun with the crowd, but she was an asset that really wasted away while Divas like the Bella Twins and Eve Torres drove the narrative. In the context of traditional WWF/E women's wrestling, it's an improvement, at least macrohistorically (it was better when Beth as a heel feuded with Mickie James), but in terms of what it can be? It's still woefully lacking.

However, one of the criticisms levied by CM Punk towards WWE in his current build has been the treatment of the Divas. There was an upturn for a little while when Kharma was doing her thing, and they've spent more time giving the Divas more time to do their thing. While that's nice, and while the models-turned-wrestlers do turn out slightly better results when they're given more time and care, well, let's face it, it's still not anything close to what the men can produce on their average day.

So, maybe they are turning Beth loose in an attempt to give their female fans more respectable heroines to hang their hats on. Maybe they're going to phase out the ones who can't go and focus more in on Beth, Nattie Neidhart, AJ, Tamina, Layla (when she returns from injury), Naomi and the newest developmental signee and SHIMMER alumna Tenille. Or maybe I'm just putting too much stock in a front office that has rarely ever cared about women.

Meanwhile, at least I can bask in Beth's return to her natural state. She should be throwing barbie dolls around. She should be splitting wigs. Hell, she should be wrestling men... okay, maybe I'm getting too ahead of myself in that regard. But I'll take her as she is now, because as she is now? She's one of the best.

Hey, the Divas CAN Work (Kinda)

It wasn't bad, which for them is like saying "IT WAS FIVE STAR!!!1"
Photo Credit: WWE.com

So, as I mentioned before, I thoroughly enjoyed the entire episode of RAW last night. That included an extended match featuring Eve Torres, Kelly Kelly and the Bella Twins. Yes, I enjoyed that too. No, I'm not high on peyote. Please, stop laughing at me, it was a decent match. No, seriously, for them it was okay. Please, put the straitjacket down.

In all seriousness, it was the best Divas match that I've seen in awhile that didn't involve Michelle McCool, Mickie James, Beth Phoenix or Nattie Neidhart. I was surprised at the levels of competency in it, but I can bet that there was someone out there who wasn't. Razor of House Kick-Out!! said on The Wrestling Podcast last week (have you listened to it yet and have you left feedback? DO IT) that all he thought the Divas needed was just a little more time and a little more effort. I disagreed with it slightly, because really, there are only a few women in WWE right now who can give you a good match without being carried.

But then I watched the match. Granted, it wasn't Savage vs. Steamboat good, or even Masters vs. Ryder on Superstars good. Eve's shimmy before her standing moonsault was lulz-inducing in a bad way, and as my newest blogging Bromar Garciaparra (Mitch, we have another brother!) Brandon Stroud points out in his latest Best and Worst of RAW column at With Leather, Kelly Kelly's offensive output should be limited to an inside cradle after selling for the entire match, and maybe that stinkface she does, because that's hot and I get at least one pervy reference per blog post about women in WWE. The Bellas are works in progress too, although (and this should make Jason Mann happy) they are a bit further progressed than their babyface counterparts are in the match last night. So while quality-wise, it wasn't great, for them, it was like their Savage/Steamboat moment. If that makes sense.

What I hope happens is that next week, they get a little bit better, and with each week, the same. Then, maybe in a year, after some seasoning, some advice from agents who know the business and the like, we have some fine Divas wrestlers who can work a 8-12 minute free TV match with a goal that's more lofty than "not botch the shit out of the simplest things". It worked with Trish Stratus, who started out as a fitness model and left WWE as a bona fide wrestler. With Kharma coming back in less than a year and the spry and more-than-capable AJ being groomed on Smackdown, Beth, Nattie and I guess Gail Kim will have more "aces" to help them along with the maturation of the Kelly Kellies and Bella Twins of the world.

At the end of the day, that's all any of us really want. I honestly don't care if your women's division is full of vapid model types or full of gals like Sara del Rey, Madison Eagles, Cheerleader Melissa and the like. Just as long as they're competent and can do wrestling, most sensible wrestling fans will be happy. The Divas tag from last night was a step in the right direction for them, and hopefully, they'll keep getting it right more and more until hey, they're actual wrestlers.

Instant Feedback: John Cena, a Real American Hero

Usually, whenever they tape two RAWs at the same time, the second show is flat, the crowd sucks and nothing really ever happens. Reading some of the spoilers for this show, my hopes weren't high. But that's the thing about spoilers; usually, they only tell part of the story. Verily, tonight's RAW was awesome from top to bottom. How fitting that in this year of upside-down and inside-out that the show that was taped after one two-hour show was among the best of the year, eh?

A lot of that comes from John Cena. He is counted on as WWE's workhorse and their top star, but sometimes, he can come off as trite or insincere. When he does, it makes for bad television. Tonight, he sounded sincere. His promo to kick the show off was about as good as I remember him being. When he's out there, standing up for Hustle, Loyalty and Respect, he is a tremendous, must-see character. Him standing up for his rival, for free speech and for the integrity of the match was riveting and the perfect way to kick off RAW. Even more stunning was his faceoff with Vince McMahon at the end of the show. Let's not get it twisted. McMahon was good in that segment, but Cena carried it. So much forceful emotion... when he feels genuine, I see why he's the top guy in WWE. IT didn't matter to me that they teased another firing, even if they teased and followed through with it to rushed results (even if I thought the story they told with him and Nexus/Wade Barrett was good in theory). The tension of the segment would have sold me on the PPV if I wasn't already sold on it before any match was announced.

And the bookends weren't the only things that sold this show on me. The wrestling was good, even if it wasn't spectacular. The segment with Evan Bourne, Sgt. Slaughter and Jack SWAGGAH~! was epic, especially with Swagger bringing up Sarge's early '90s defection to Iraq. R-Truth on the phone with Flo and plugging the wrong insurance company was epic. Alex Riley winning with a backslide and then Miz doing everything but teabagging him was fitting. Hell, even the Divas got time and had a decent match, which for them was akin to Savage/Steamboat from WM III.

And hey... ZACK RYDER SIGHTING! Here's hoping he and Curt Hawkins, or Chris Masters, or even his father get a shot at the Tag Pennies and more exposure on my RAW program.

For whatever reason, RAW clicked tonight, all 125 minutes of it. Looks like summer is heating up for WWE.