NoDQ writes op-ed on Divas killing the Women's Revolution, Paige and co respond

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

That's not counting NXT where the women's division has been and easily one of the highlights of that show. A few of you need to take a step back and ask yourselves what it is you are trying to argue..

 

[Champagne Kudo]

It's "hate" to ask women to string a few moves together without botching or string some sentences together without sounding like a robot? Women's matches and talk segments get praised on here a lot more than any other board I've seen..

Just from this year Sasha/Asuka, Asuka/Charlotte, Charlotte/Becky, Ruby/Sasha all received quite a bit of credit for being good matches. Ronda has been praised for her efforts. Alexa and Carmella have been praised for their character work.

If you want to treat women as equals then that means they are also going to have to deal with a lot of the same criticisms that male wrestlers face. It's not crazy to ask them to do better.

Who's asking anybody to do better though? People are hating on divas era women like they just never tried or something. Yall forget women like Mickie, & Melina came from that era? Even alot of ones that weren't 4HW level still tried. Specifically the Bellas. Nikki isn't great but to completely shyt on her and try to ignore her contributions to this whole women's revolution thing just because she came from a certain era isn't 100% revisionist history.

Another example would be Maria who defended women who came from that era and called out the NoDQ article. She came from that era and even after she left WWE stayed in wrestling and eventually returned to WWE. Because she cared about wrestling.

Also it's nikkas itt coming after Paige like she doesn't know the whole story of the shyt much better than the rest of yall.

Idk why people are out here acting like the Bellas or whoever are just coming back taking spots from other women too. Like Trish is coming back but you know it's gonna be to put Alexa over lol. And they got Nikki probably facing Ronda but the thing is yall know she's just there to put Ronda over. It's what we all ask WWE to do with the men. You use former big stars to put over newer ones.

shyt like all this is why I say yall just wanna hate on the women because yall use ridiculous logic and revisionist history just to shyt on one's you happen to not like.

 

[Coco Brown]

My perspective is probably a little different from most b/c I'm a female fan, but *for me* women like the Bellas are the whole reason the division went to embarrassing levels of ass in the first place. Nikki and Botch...I mean Brie, are largely part of an era where WWE didn't give two damns about in ring ability (points at Rosa Mendes) and if you had "the look" not only did they hire you, you flourished. And not like in the past, like say Marlena where character work was the strength and they played to that. Nah, these women flourished In the ring. You had actual in ring success despite being unable to even run the ropes. And not just "get a lot of tv time" type of success. You could be an actual, factual champion with zero skills. I mean...we're talking a time period when Kelly Kelly had a longer title reign than Natalya. Let that sink in.

Nikki and Brie encapsulate everything that went wrong w/the division and led to Divas matches being called "pee breaks". So they can get in their feelings if they want to, but it is what it is. Them being supportive of the movement towards Divas getting a chance doesn't negate the fact that they are the literal faces of what was arguably one of the worst, if not *the worst* period of women's wrestling in the WWE which was the entire reason the Divas weren't getting chances anymore in the first place. Having them feature so prominently and so heavily is counterproductive to everything WWE claims it's trying to do. You don't "evolve" backwards. That's not how it works.

If they wanted to honor the past while keeping the focus on the present and staying on message (never forget WWE has had a heavy hand making the Diva moniker carry a negative connotation) they'd have focused on Mickie. She is not only one of the women from the Divas era who was amazing in the ring back then, but also a *current* superstar. They should have built her into a feud with someone who is the future of the division, like Ember, and let it come to a head at the PPV. An Ember/Mickie match would have given them the chance to tell a story showing where they'd been, where they are, and most importantly, where they're going.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

My perspective is probably a little different from most b/c I'm a female fan, but *for me* women like the Bellas are the whole reason the division went to embarrassing levels of ass in the first place. Nikki and Botch...I mean Brie, are largely part of an era where WWE didn't give two damns about in ring ability (points at Rosa Mendes) and if you had "the look" not only did they hire you, you flourished. And not like in the past, like say Marlena or In the ring. You had actual in ring success despite being unable to even run the ropes. And not just "get a lot of tv time" type of success. You could be an actual, factual champion with zero skills. I mean...we're talking a time period when Kelly Kelly had a longer title reign than Natalya. Let that sink in.

Nikki and Brie encapsulate everything that went wrong w/the division and led to Divas matches being called "pee breaks". So they can get in their feelings if they want to, but it is what it is. Them being supportive of the movement towards Divas getting a chance doesn't negate the fact that they are the literal faces of what was arguably one of the worst, if not *the worst* period of women's wrestling in the WWE which was the entire reason the Divas weren't getting chances anymore in the first place. Having them feature so prominently and so heavily is counterproductive to everything WWE claims it's trying to do. You don't "evolve" backwards. That's not how it works.

If they wanted to honor the past while keeping the focus on the present and staying on message (never forget WWE has had a heavy hand making the Diva moniker carry a negative connotation) they'd have focused on Mickie. She is not only one of the women from the Divas era who was amazing in the ring back then, but also a current superstar.

 

[Kinguno]

Hot take they gave the women more time because of the rise of injuries to top stars and it worked too well because that TV show started which I've been thinking about for a long time a lot of that stuff was already filmed if you watch WWE's docs on the network or even older ones so I think they film extra things at their homes then make money on it from first time airings, repeat airings, and merch while building an outside fan base

 

[reigun]

I don't like the Bellas, but you know what? I'll concede that they probably deserve a little more credit than they get. They've been in the company forever (partly because they couldn't hack it anywhere else in Hol-no, no. I'm being nice to them), and have been nothing but supportive to the current crop of women. Nikki has improved in the ring, and Brie....well she seems lovely and she tries. Their reality shows have no doubt brought in new fans, many of whom were interested in seeing the women get more time. They have their place in history.

The larger problem, I think, is that WWE can't keep its story straight. When I started back watching wrestling again in 2016, it was after about 6-7 years of completely falling out on the product. I followed a few wrestlers on twitter, but that was about it. Anyway, when I got back into it, wrestling fans seems to be in agreement that the Diva's/Women's Revolution started in NXT with the 4HW. The company seemed to agree with them given 3/4 of that group were who they highlighted in the main card Mania match.

Since then, WWE keeps changing up when the shyt actually started. "It was the 4HW!" "No it was Paige!" "No it was #GiveDivasAChance!" On top of that, they keep trying to spread the credit around. It's gone from Sasha and them, to now The Bellas, Stephanie, Paige, Alexa, even going all the way back Trish and Lita. They've done what they always do: taken something that was organic and co-opted it to the point it's nothing but a hollow coporate solgan that doesn't mean anything.

The fans sense that. I sense it, and I haven't even been there for the whole ride. I think that some of the harsher critiques are a result of losing that organic feel and instead shyt feeling like it's starting to slip back into that Diva's era. Which is helped by the fact that so many of the faces of that era are being booked for this first Women's PPV while we still have no idea what the current roster is gonna be doing at the show.

 

[Vice Queen]

Lol

 

[R=G]

Paige is wrong. The Bellas didnt start shyt. It was AJ Lee that kicked all that off and it was Sasha vs Becky where Becky got a standing ovation summer 2015 after the match at NXT Takeover and the two Sasha/Bayley matches that everyone praised to no end. Not anything Charlotte..the Nattie match with Charlotte got praised but not on the same level.

 

[R=G]

The Bellas were treated like escorts..during the Raw host era, they came out on arms of the dudes and werent allowed to say shyt. Lol. They came out to dead reactions until Daniel Bryan blew up in 2013 and could do no wrong. So fans went easy on his wife and even then, AJ Lee was getting cheered putting face CM Punk through a table. Whole different level..they even booed in Bryan's hometown at the 2013 slammys for winning Diva of the year over AJ Lee.

 

[R=G]

 

[R=G]

So true. The Bellas are so awful its embarrassing. Always have been. Nikki has improved a ton since she started, but that's like comparing a huge pile of shyt to some turds.

Both smell, both disgusting, one is just a little more tolerable then the other.

@Kidd Dibiase is gonna hate this post..lol

 

[R=G]

This roster stays in their feelings about dumb shyt

Of course they are in their feelings...the two women who kicked things off ate on Raw in a circle jerk tag team gimmick borrowing from the Rock and Sock connection name...lol

 

[Norrin Radd]

Yeah I can't off the top of my head think of a Nikki or Brie match that was fire or stood out in any way.

 

[Playaz Eyez]

My perspective is probably a little different from most b/c I'm a female fan, but *for me* women like the Bellas are the whole reason the division went to embarrassing levels of ass in the first place. Nikki and Botch...I mean Brie, are largely part of an era where WWE didn't give two damns about in ring ability (points at Rosa Mendes) and if you had "the look" not only did they hire you, you flourished. And not like in the past, like say Marlena where character work was the strength and they played to that. Nah, these women flourished In the ring. You had actual in ring success despite being unable to even run the ropes. And not just "get a lot of tv time" type of success. You could be an actual, factual champion with zero skills. I mean...we're talking a time period when Kelly Kelly had a longer title reign than Natalya. Let that sink in.

Nikki and Brie encapsulate everything that went wrong w/the division and led to Divas matches being called "pee breaks". So they can get in their feelings if they want to, but it is what it is. Them being supportive of the movement towards Divas getting a chance doesn't negate the fact that they are the literal faces of what was arguably one of the worst, if not *the worst* period of women's wrestling in the WWE which was the entire reason the Divas weren't getting chances anymore in the first place. Having them feature so prominently and so heavily is counterproductive to everything WWE claims it's trying to do. You don't "evolve" backwards. That's not how it works.

If they wanted to honor the past while keeping the focus on the present and staying on message (never forget WWE has had a heavy hand making the Diva moniker carry a negative connotation) they'd have focused on Mickie. She is not only one of the women from the Divas era who was amazing in the ring back then, but also a *current* superstar. They should have built her into a feud with someone who is the future of the division, like Ember, and let it come to a head at the PPV. An Ember/Mickie match would have given them the chance to tell a story showing where they'd been, where they are, and most importantly, where they're going.

You are 100% correct. The Bellas a cancer to the division, and the revisionist history for them is disgusting.

 

[Scholar]

You know AJ kicked it off because so many of those chicks hated her for being everything they weren't/couldn't be