David Harding
Kaine JacobsWomen's Wrestling
February 23rd 2010 19:05
World Wrestling Entertainment has never been overly high on their Women's division. In fact, the only real notoriety it recieved was in 1995, and that's only because Alundra Blayze (Madusa) took it to then-rival, World Championship Wrestling and promptly dropped the title, to a trash can.
Upon it's reactivation in 1998, Sable and Jacqueline effectively carried the title, with the division including the not-so-talented Debra McMichael-Williams-Whatever, Ivory, who was severely underrated and Tori. But even then, the title was seen as nothing more as a joke, which was highlighted on January 31, 2000 when Harvey Whippleman (under the guise of Hervina) won the title.
After that terrible blight on the status of the then-WWF Women's title, things slowly began to turn around for the title. And a lot of that revolution had to do with Amy Dumas, better known as Lita. Though, it has to be said that the reason that the title became a serious one is due to the background behind Lita's desire to win the Women's title. At the time, Stephanie McMahon was the Women's Champion, and seemed to have an allergic reaction to defending it. McMahon won the title on March 30, 2000, and defended it three times between then and August 21, 2000, all times against Lita, with the help of outside interference, would manage to walk away victorious, until the August 21 edition of Raw which for the first time ever, Lita would finally capture the title, beat the Billion Dollar Princess and send the fans home happy.
While, Lita would go on to hold the title for a couple of months before ultimately dropping it to Ivory, it had sparked an interest in a title that was nothing more than a background prop. Chyna raised the profile of the Women's title even further, becoming the only woman in history to become a WWF Intercontinental and WWF Women's Champion. However, Chyna vacate the title after not being successful in renewing her contract, which would lead to the era of Trish Stratus.
Between 2001 and 2006 when Stratus retired, Trish would hold the WWE Women's title a record 7 times. Two months later, Lita would also draw the curtain on her career, which by that stage had become a controversial one. And while the WWE still had the likes of Mickie James, Melina, Beth Phoenix and in more recent times Michelle McCool to effectively carry the division, they are no longer the leader in women's wrestling.
As the WWE women's division began to lose it's big name stars, it's biggest rivals, TNA created the TNA Women's World Championship. The first champion ironically would be former WWE Women's Champion, Gail Kim. But the TNA division did something different to the WWE, and gave their women a chance to wrestle and usually gave them time to make the match meaningful, rather than a filler spot between two big matches. TNA then took their Women's division one step further, becoming the first North American promotion with national TV exposure to create and actually push an all women's tag team division.
But now, there is every chance that even the TNA Women's division is under threat, thanks largely to Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan running the company, while the WWE have effectively made Michelle McCool the sole focus of their division. A major indicator of this is that for weeks, the WWE hyped Maryse versus Gail Kim for the vacant Diva's Championship, only for Michelle and her lackey, Layla to face both Maryse and Gail Kim in an inter-brand Tag Team match. While there can be comparisons between Michelle and Trish Stratus, in terms of their in ring development at comparable times of their career, there is no need for Michelle to be on every single PPV, especially considering as she is not the most popular or most talented diva in the WWE.
The seemingly never-ending storyline between Mickie James and McCool, should have ended at the Royal Rumble, where Mickie, after months of taunting from Michelle and Layla, finally got the ultimate revenge. On Smackdown, Mickie has potential feud options in Beth Phoenix and Natalya Neidhart, not to mention the Straight Edge Society 'anti-diva', Serena. But apparently, Natalya has some backstage heat with Michelle, and as such, is unlikely to go anywhere near the Women's title so long as Michelle is on Smackdown, while Beth will remain popular, even as a heel without the title. But at Wrestlemania, I for one would prefer to watch Mickie against either of the two mentioned, instead of match number 3258114 between Mickie and Michelle, that's assuming the Women's title will even make it to the grandest stage of them all.
Ultimately, while the women of the wrestling world work just as, if not harder than the men, there reward in the WWE is generally nothing more than a 5 or 6 minute match stuck between two high profile matches, in which the fans would rather head to the bathroom or concession stands. If the rumours about TNA getting an all women's show is legitimate, then maybe, just maybe the likes of Mickie James and co. can give the WWE a big kiss my ass, and head to the Impact Zone, where they might get a chance to be in the spotlight for more than a fleeting second.
Upon it's reactivation in 1998, Sable and Jacqueline effectively carried the title, with the division including the not-so-talented Debra McMichael-Williams-Whatever, Ivory, who was severely underrated and Tori. But even then, the title was seen as nothing more as a joke, which was highlighted on January 31, 2000 when Harvey Whippleman (under the guise of Hervina) won the title.
After that terrible blight on the status of the then-WWF Women's title, things slowly began to turn around for the title. And a lot of that revolution had to do with Amy Dumas, better known as Lita. Though, it has to be said that the reason that the title became a serious one is due to the background behind Lita's desire to win the Women's title. At the time, Stephanie McMahon was the Women's Champion, and seemed to have an allergic reaction to defending it. McMahon won the title on March 30, 2000, and defended it three times between then and August 21, 2000, all times against Lita, with the help of outside interference, would manage to walk away victorious, until the August 21 edition of Raw which for the first time ever, Lita would finally capture the title, beat the Billion Dollar Princess and send the fans home happy.
While, Lita would go on to hold the title for a couple of months before ultimately dropping it to Ivory, it had sparked an interest in a title that was nothing more than a background prop. Chyna raised the profile of the Women's title even further, becoming the only woman in history to become a WWF Intercontinental and WWF Women's Champion. However, Chyna vacate the title after not being successful in renewing her contract, which would lead to the era of Trish Stratus.
Between 2001 and 2006 when Stratus retired, Trish would hold the WWE Women's title a record 7 times. Two months later, Lita would also draw the curtain on her career, which by that stage had become a controversial one. And while the WWE still had the likes of Mickie James, Melina, Beth Phoenix and in more recent times Michelle McCool to effectively carry the division, they are no longer the leader in women's wrestling.
As the WWE women's division began to lose it's big name stars, it's biggest rivals, TNA created the TNA Women's World Championship. The first champion ironically would be former WWE Women's Champion, Gail Kim. But the TNA division did something different to the WWE, and gave their women a chance to wrestle and usually gave them time to make the match meaningful, rather than a filler spot between two big matches. TNA then took their Women's division one step further, becoming the first North American promotion with national TV exposure to create and actually push an all women's tag team division.
But now, there is every chance that even the TNA Women's division is under threat, thanks largely to Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan running the company, while the WWE have effectively made Michelle McCool the sole focus of their division. A major indicator of this is that for weeks, the WWE hyped Maryse versus Gail Kim for the vacant Diva's Championship, only for Michelle and her lackey, Layla to face both Maryse and Gail Kim in an inter-brand Tag Team match. While there can be comparisons between Michelle and Trish Stratus, in terms of their in ring development at comparable times of their career, there is no need for Michelle to be on every single PPV, especially considering as she is not the most popular or most talented diva in the WWE.
The seemingly never-ending storyline between Mickie James and McCool, should have ended at the Royal Rumble, where Mickie, after months of taunting from Michelle and Layla, finally got the ultimate revenge. On Smackdown, Mickie has potential feud options in Beth Phoenix and Natalya Neidhart, not to mention the Straight Edge Society 'anti-diva', Serena. But apparently, Natalya has some backstage heat with Michelle, and as such, is unlikely to go anywhere near the Women's title so long as Michelle is on Smackdown, while Beth will remain popular, even as a heel without the title. But at Wrestlemania, I for one would prefer to watch Mickie against either of the two mentioned, instead of match number 3258114 between Mickie and Michelle, that's assuming the Women's title will even make it to the grandest stage of them all.
Ultimately, while the women of the wrestling world work just as, if not harder than the men, there reward in the WWE is generally nothing more than a 5 or 6 minute match stuck between two high profile matches, in which the fans would rather head to the bathroom or concession stands. If the rumours about TNA getting an all women's show is legitimate, then maybe, just maybe the likes of Mickie James and co. can give the WWE a big kiss my ass, and head to the Impact Zone, where they might get a chance to be in the spotlight for more than a fleeting second.
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I hope the TNA never does away with their air time, there are so many awesome workers in TNA.