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WWE Showed Why “#GiveDivasAChance” Was Temporary

By Rob Wolkenbrod

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WWE’s handling of the Divas division reached a new low this past Monday. Can anything be done to save it?

The WWE Divas Championship match between Nikki Bella and Paige on Monday Night Raw received the 10 pm ET slot, which looked to be great. WWE usually puts their most meaningful segments at the top of each hour.

Prior to the match, we saw a decent exchange between the two backstage to set up this match. However, it showed signs of the aggressive, heel side of Nikki. She had turned face weeks earlier to feud with Naomi (more on her later).

So the match starts and the inconsistencies are seen immediately. Paige and Nikki played to their heel tendencies they showed in the past. It didn’t make much sense but they were putting on decent action in the ring.

Then the ending happened.

After Paige took Nikki down, the latter rolled out of the ring and swapped places with her twin sister Brie for “Twin Magic.”

So are The Bella’s suddenly heel again? At this point, who cares.

We saw Brie turn heel last summer for no logical reason given after taking months of abuse from Nikki. The logical storyline would have been Brie turning face on Nikki and setting up a Divas Championship match at WrestleMania 31. Unfortunately, WWE missed that opportunity.

Then the sisters suddenly turned face after Naomi turned heel and attacked Paige. WWE realized they had no more babyface Divas so they turned the Bella’s with no explanation given on the following episode of Raw when Nikki was on commentary.

Speaking of Naomi, her use by WWE Creative has been almost as head-scratching. She’s been on the cusp of a push multiple times but has been held back by taking critical losses in title matches.

So WWE decides to turn Naomi heel and give her the push she’s been inches from for months.

The former Funkadactyl would receive a new look, entrance music and bring out her aggressive side. She even added Tamina, a cousin of her husband Jimmy Uso, as her bodyguard. Big things should have been in store for Naomi, right?

Naomi received a one-on-one match at WWE Extreme Rules against Nikki for the Divas Championship. It seemed to be her time to shine but would end up taking a clean loss. She would then team up with Tamina to defeat The Bella Twins at WWE Payback.

Then came WWE Elimination Chamber, which featured Nikki defending her title against Naomi and Paige. The three women put on a solid match. However, Naomi took the clean loss, again. How many opportunities will WWE give her only to yank it away?

The next night on Raw during the exchange noted above between Paige and Nikki, the former noted that Naomi is “out of the picture.” We aren’t going to see her in the title picture for a long time, if ever again.

These women are a product of WWE failing to live up to the “#GiveDivasAChance” phrase that made big waves on Twitter after a 30-second Divas segment earlier this year. WWE gave these women extra match time but that’s about it.

That hashtag wasn’t only about match time. The booking of the Divas needed to become logical. WWE Creative simply needed to show they cared. They did for a time but these heel and face turns out of nowhere showed “#GiveDivasAChance” was temporary.

Many fans say that calling up NXT Divas like Charlotte and Sasha Banks will “save” the WWE Divas division. While these women have talent, so do the ones on the main roster. The big difference is the NXT women are cared for in storyline and in the ring, which is why fans love them.

Many thought Paige would bring life to the division last year, and she did for a brief time. Unfortunately WWE’s booking of the British Diva caused fans to lose interest in her character.

Emma was another big call-up from NXT. She put on terrific matches in the developmental brand with women like Paige. Then she got poorly paired with comedic wrestler Santino Marella upon arrival, which wasted all her talent away. Dozens of losses, added jobber status and one arrest later, she’s back floundering in NXT.

It’s not like The Bella Twins don’t have talent, either. They have made strides in the ring to become solid wrestlers. WWE simply doesn’t know what to do with them, so people don’t care about their characters.

The Divas division is a mess and may be irreparable. Fans have no expectations for the main roster women anymore because of how they’ve been handled. If WWE isn’t going to care about them, why should we?

Next: WrestleMania 32 Card Projections 2.0

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