sek69 Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Reading Meltz's play by play of tonight's PPV and remembering the reaction the Diva Search got, I think we can offically say that the audience is tired of all these stupid broads wasting TV time for no purpose. Vince seems unwilling to understand that wrestling fans don't mind seeing women as annoucers or valets, but no one really wants to see them taking up whole segments of airtime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bruiser Chong Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Vince seems unwilling to understand that wrestling fans don't mind seeing women as annoucers or valets I do. As a rule of thumb, women have always been mediocre announcers at best and aside from the rare occassions, worthless as valets. I never got real into the T&A aspect of wrestling myself. Hey, I enjoyed it for a while, but it got old quickly, especially when they began to not even attempt to create a false use for these Divas outside of being eye candy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 It's one thing with Stacy and Torrie, but when you have these nameless Diva Search candidates, it is a waste of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 The problem with women in wrestling is that it is a male-dominated business, and whenever one of the women starts standing out from the pack and becoming a draw, she's not going to get credit for it anyway. They tried to push Sable and Chyna in the mainstream, and they both got big heads and it backfired on the company, so now, they've come to the conclusion that all women are exactly like them and none of them are level-headed enough to handle a big push. I have no qualms about using women as wrestling characters on the show. Stephanie McMahon was a wrestling character. Trish Stratus is a wrestling character. The problem comes when they start using women who have no purpose outside of being eye candy. Their shelf lives are going to be limited, and they're going to get stale very quickly. Stacy Keibler is working her first storyline in nearly two years right now with Randy Orton. They had something special with her in 2002, but it seems like after Vince took her to Australia and (most likely) fucked her, the company seemed less interested in doing anything with her or trying to make her a star. Trish Stratus is still treated as a star, but she has withstood some horrid booking and maintained her appeal somehow. She deserves all the credit in the world for doing so. Someone like Sunny was able to get over in 1996 because aside from Sable, she was the only woman on the show, but more so, because she was a great interview and had a lot of natural charisma. Trish is the closest thing to the total package since then, and she's used and abused so much of the time that I don't know that she'll ever meet her full potential. She remained one of the hottest characters on the show after turning heel, and she's really too good to be feuding with other women at this point, when she could probably be more useful in storylines with men. Put her in an expensive evening gown, get her some jewelry and make her the Woman to HHH's Flair, and you're far more likely to get something useful out of her. Molly has a truly unique appeal, but they've turned her into the type of heel that isn't even an effective heel, but more the type that people groan when they see. She's a real woman with a real body and they've taken pride in humiliating her, calling her a fatass, shaving her head and portraying her as a prude since she's a virgin. How sweet. I don't know that she still has that same appeal unless they turn her babyface, and it would take a lot of doing to make the audience buy into it. They turned Victoria babyface without much logic or build and she hasn't ever really been able to get over in that role, when she stood out as the psycho chick feuding with Trish Stratus in 2002. Torrie Wilson they've actually done a decent job with. They've done vignettes (that probably should air on Smackdown instead of Confidential) talking about her having an eating disorder as a teenager before overcoming it and becoming comfortable with her body. That's the sort of thing they could use to draw in a teen female demographic. Her posing in Playboy has been treated with a certain level of class, and I don't think most of the audience sees her as a skank. Of course, I may be wrong. Lita, of all the women, had the most opportunity to really connect with young girls, primarily because of the risks she takes in the ring and her look, but Lita has been beaten down over and over in storylines and has only rarely stood up for herself. She has a habit of stumbling over her words and they make her look stupid constantly. I think she's salvageable, but they need to do more to protect her when she returns, meaning they should probably keep her out of the ring, since she can't really execute moves or take bumps without nearly killing herself. The eye candy just hanging out backstage needs to stop for good. All it's doing is frustrating the hardcore fan base without attracting anyone new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Oh, and Sek, I added an "i" to official, since it always bugs me when there's a word spelled wrong in a thread title. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Why would Vince have banged Stacy? It just seems like Stacy would be bright enough to say "no." Then again, she has dated Test & David Flair. Trish, to me, seems like she could be everything that WWE could ever want from a woman. She can wrestle, which is what WWE used Moolah for. She's a good interview/talker, which Sunny was as well. She can also be a manager and just look good...which is what Elizabeth basically did. If WWE didn't have a women's division, Trish would probably be the most over person on the roster. Instead she has to wrestle crappy matches against other women who really aren't in her league. Then she has to defend the non-prestigious women's title against number one challengers that are picked out of the air. Of course, if WWE just had less women, Trish would probably be the most over person on the roster as well. I thought WWE could've done something when she was trying to manage Val Venis. That fell through. I guess it was a blessing in disguise though, because after that Fit taught Trish how to work. She's definitely improved over the last couple of years. Hell, she's one of the best bumpers on the roster. I don't know if I'd stick her with H? because he's over enough. She wouldn't bring anything to the table in that scenario. However, she'd be good at getting over an Intercontinental champion. Especially if they were heel. They could run some beauty and the beast BS. Trish's mouth gets her in trouble, and her "man" gets her out of it. It could've worked with Tomko if he wasn't so shitty. Especially because he doesn't talk a lot and he's a huge dude. It could all build up to someone finally getting to Trish when Tomko wasn't around. Something like that. Actually, I think Trish Stratus and Maven could work in a Stunning Steve Austin & Miss Blossom type of role. Except Trish would do more than stand there and clap. She'd talk and cheat. They could work it into Maven's current losing streak storyline even. Just have Trish seen talking to him or something. Give Maven a robe. He'd stand out just for having the robe. Have him win the IC belt or whatever thanks to Trish, then he could become really cocky (as if he's not now). If he keeps using that new knee move as his finisher, I could see it working. It'd also get Trish away from the women's division. She could tell Maven that she "knows about winning gold" or something simple like that. Couldn't hurt to try, right? Trish is aimlessly wondering around since Lita got hurt, and Maven isn't doing shit. I could probably write about Trish and the WWE women all day. WWE seemed like they had a good thing going, then they dropped the ball. They do it over and over again. It's not like they couldn't have made the women's division work. Loss, your Molly example is a good one. What about the other women though? You mentioned Victoria, but didn't really go in-depth with it. She had one of the best characters on Raw. It got Stevie Richards TV time even. She was crazy and booked as a threat. A great finisher too. She was different. Not just another blonde. Now she dances and jiggles to crappy hip-hop music and barely gets TV time. What happened? She's just another generic woman on the roster now. Right down to the T&A. Gail Kim? She got video vignettes for her debut. She was hyped up, even moreso online by people calling her "the female Rey Mysterio." Then she debuts...in a battle royal. *slaps head* Then she randomly turned heel for no apparent reason. There at the end, before she was fired, she was working better matches. Instead of trying to fly around and have women support her with their strength, she started doing submission moves. It worked a lot better. Just a lot of missed opportunities. If WWE isn't careful, Trish will become bland. She'll always be hot, but if they don't do something with her.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 I think releasing Gail Kim was a big mistake, since she had the look and the work ethic, and was rapidly improving. She probably should have stayed a babyface, because by the time Trish turned heel, she would have been super over and they could have done a feud. Instead, they had to go back to Trish/Lita, which was admittedly well-booked and built up strongly in advance, but again, Lita needs a lot of pick-me-ups and feel good moments for a while. She's taken abuse a little too much. With Victoria, I think you pretty much summed it up. She had a character that worked and was over and she was half of what was probably the best in-ring feud of the division in this era. I guess they were trying to turn her babyface to even out the talent pool, but they ruined a good thing. Kim and Vicky really should have been in opposite roles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TheShawshankRudotion Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 I am just going to point out that Torrie Wilson was at her hottest when she was covered up and in Iraq. A pretty face and a nice smile does go a long way, but the WWE doesn't seem to realize that. If they didn't have the divas skank around all the time and only had them do it on PPV, they could actually *gasp* make some money off it. I remember when the Sunny Video came out. Sunny in a bikini, Sunny in cut-offs, Sunny looking mighty fucking fuckable. It was hot. Something like that nowadays is tame. The WWE doesn't realize that they are competing with the Internet, so guys can look at women in bikinis all the time if they want (or if they're really scandalous... naked women.) Maybe Vince should take some time and actually go on the internet, now that he's laid up in the hospital, and see exactly what he's competing against. They also don't seem to get that once a chick prances around in a bikini, seeing her do it again and again and again doesn't exactly have the same appeal. The key is to limit exposure, create some mystery and interest, and then payoff. Unfortunately that means giving the women characters, and they tend to hire women whose only talent is walking around in a bikini and sucking on a lolipop (but don't have them do both at the same time, they might misstep and choke). The WWE, in their supreme brilliance, gave these women roles rather than characters. One was helping Booker T and Eddie stretch, another was a stylist, another was... Big Shows girl friend? And they all acted the same! And none of them lasted in those roles, because the fans still couldn't identify them (or identify _with_ them) and Vince saw that as failure on their part and rolled them out in those shitty NWO skits. Is there any woman in the WWE you'd like to have conversation with? I'd say just Trish, and she just happens to be the only one with an existing character. And all of this is funny because the head of creative in the WWE is a woman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted February 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Why would Vince have banged Stacy? It just seems like Stacy would be bright enough to say "no." Then again, she has dated Test & David Flair. Because Stacy fucks whoever it takes to get/keep her position. She fucked David Flair to be able to graduate from Random Nitro Girl #4 to so-hot--we-stop-the-show Miss Hancock, then she fucked Test (who just happened to be friends with Shane McMahon) to make sure she had a chance in WWF/E when all the WCW rejects were being dropped left and right. Now she's a superstar and she didn't exactly go to bat for her man when they cut Test did they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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