Let's talk Becky Lunch and the "Divas Revolution"
 

Where do you go with the girls after SummerSlam? I, like many others, have been hoping to see the ladies in professional wrestling get more of a spotlight. The criticisms of female wrestling is out there: No one takes them seriously, the matches aren't as good, etc. I think there is enough evidence over history to dispel this though.

Women were main event attractions under Mildred Burke -- a woman who should really get a WWE Hall of Fame induction if the company is serious about pushing women's wrestling. The joshi of Japan were featured in their own wrestling promotions, and managed to have some matches that are considered critical classics. Even if the WWF, Wendi Richter was a huge part of the emergence of the Rock 'n' Wrestling era, and a match against The Fabulous Moolah drew the highest ratings MTV had experienced in its history to that point in time. Under the creative direction of Dutch Mantel/Zeb Colter, TNA's Women's Division managed to tell compelling (yet simple) stories, allow the platform for great matches and eventually managed to be the highest rated television segments of a product that included Kurt Angle, Sting and Jeff Hardy.

NXT has gone a long way to highlighting the strengths and full dimensions of its contracted female talent. Perhaps starting with, oddly enough, Summer Rae, there has been a focus on making the women of NXT important stars worthy of fan attention and an integral part of the show. Booming with Paige and Emma -- who managed to have quite a few hard-hitting strong-style matches that placed emphasis on the importance of the NXT Women's Championship -- performers like Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Bayley and Becky Lynch have grown into respectable wrestling personalities in their own right -- with clearly defined motivations and attributes for fans to latch onto.

When Stephanie McMahon announced that Lynch, Charlotte and Banks would be called up to the main roster as part of a Divas Revolution, I, again like many people, got excited. These women are known for having more depth and better matches than the female talent featured on the main roster of WWE. A lot of previously contracted female stars got signed based on their looks under the John Laurinitis era of Talent Relations. Some have grown into competent in-ring performers; some have not. But is this really fault of their own? The paradigm shift being advertised by the WWE is basically against their own hiring and firing policies, and many of the women involved just haven't been given the same attention and focus -- especially when it comes to the development of their individual gimmicks -- as the NXT women.

My interest in this angle is still piqued -- mainly because Becky Lunch is delicious -- but my excitement levels are dwindling. As the weeks go on, the format of each RAW is becoming pretty apparent. There's a singles match between two girls on opposing teams, and then there's a tag match between four girls on opposing teams. The Divas Championship receives the verbal nod from commentary, but none of the new girls have truly made a statement about intending to imminently challenge for it. We're possibly just getting warmed up, but I worry that just getting longer matches with parity shown between the three sides is not truly going to help the girls in the division find a true footing with your average fan.

As predicted by many, at SummerSlam we are going to see a 3 vs. 3 vs. 3 match between the sides -- and it's going to be an Elimination Match to boot. This will be a good chance for the ladies to show off some impressive spots in the ring, and keep things at a fast past to get the fans' adrenaline pumping. But where to after this? Am I the only one worried that this program seems to be on autopilot? You've introduced three new girls, as well as having two of the more established ones having serious intentions to go after Nikki Bella's Divas Championship. How do you filter one girl through the pipeline without leaving the others out in the dark?

I think it's time to see a horse come out strong out of the gate. It's time to see some friction between the egos that have found temporary camaraderie in the Divas Division. Whether it's Sasha Banks and Naomi clashing due to Banks' ego getting too big for Team BAD and Tamina needing to choose a size, or the two girls of second generation fame turning on Lynch when her hard work and experience has taken her to a higher level than they are at. Nikki Bella needs to find herself a challenger too.

Right now, to me anyway, it feels like the WWE is telling and not showing with this "Divas Revolution". Sure, you're having longer matches, but the development is still next-to-none. Nikki and Brie are still playing faces or heels depending on the week; I still feel like I don't really know Becky Lunch; Paige has actually lost sight of her goal to dethrone Nikki. This "revolution" appears to be more tokenistic than symbolic. How do you change that?

One angle I am pretty keen to see, is Sasha Banks vs. Naomi. Team BAD seem the most fragile of all the alliances. Banks has got major star potential, and it's established that she will use anyone to get to the top. I think one of the first personal rivalries of this "new era" of female wrestling is to have Banks and Naomi split, with Tamina at ringside for their eventual match. Tamina ends up siding with Banks, and becomes the Diesel to her Shawn Michaels, and Naomi has more of a gripe against Banks. Naomi, with her athleticism and show-boating personality (see: jiggling), works better as a babyface anyway.

Best thing about it? It's away from the title. I think a key to getting a lot of these girls over long-term is to develop those three-dimensional personalities that can survive outside the "you have the title, I want the title" cycle the company has for a long-time put its women through.

Becky Lynch beats Rollins, Brock Lesnar and Undertaker on the same night to become world champion.

Break her neck beforehand so the crowd thinks those guys have a shot.

I like that idea. Except call her "Becky Lunch" officially for it. "Lunch is ready to launch, and I'm going to eat you for lunch, Brock."

I've seen nothing so far in this "divas revolution" to give me hope. All that's happened is Stephanie basically proclaiming a "revolution" and us getting one extra ultimately meaningless divas match per show.

The only way there is gonna be a true revolution is if someone stands out of the pack. Someone needs to dominate the division and become the standard bearer to bring other divas up from the muddled mess they're in now. Either A) You sign an unknown diva to be your "Brock Lesnar" type. You can even have Heyman manage her. Tired of JUST dominating the men's division, he decided to go out and find the most dominant diva of all time. She crushes everyone in her path of her way to the title and every divas has to step up her game to compete with her. Or B) You introduce the Four Horsewomen. And you don't just have them all trade wins on a weekly basis. You put the title on Charlotte and you keep it on her. If anyone wants to take it, they're gonna have to go through Becky, Sasha and Bailey.

In both these situations, you're building a standard. Taking the title from them will be impossible. If you even come close, you've set yourself apart as a diva with tons of potential. If you succeed, you've set yourself up as a bonafide star.

As it stands now, no diva is credible and all this trading wins back and forth without any personality coming out only serves to showcase parity within the division. Nothing matters because everyone's pretty much the same.

Her stable should be called the Lunch Ladies and they can wear hair nets, rubber gloves and serve sloppy joes.

Wrestlicious did it!

http://i.imgur.com/bAxt8GQ.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/rKOOPhJ.jpg

Gert and Fran. Good lunchlady names. Legit, the most credible tag team in divas wrestling today.

<font color=goldenrod>This whole divas stable thing has felt so disjointed. While I'm happy Becky, Charlotte, and Sasha are on the roster...I'd have preferred if they all just came in gunning for the title. Or even have just one of them gun for the title and the other two get called up later.

I can't see how this 9-woman triple threat tag team match at SummerSlam isn't going to be a total clusterfuck. And the skeptic inside of me thinks that they're only doing this to artificially extend Nikki Bella's title reign another month because they don't want to put her over one of the new divas right away but don't want her to drop the belt either.

A few months ago, Nikki went on and on about how her goal was to be the longest reigning Divas champion ever. Now in the last few weeks, they've made it a point to bring up AJ's record on commentary and Nikki's stated goal has now changed from just being the longest reigning champ to "hold the title for more than 300 days". Seems clear the idea will be for her to keep the belt til NOC (which breaks the record by a day) but then one of the new girls takes the belt off of her, so the announcers can bring up that they stopped Nikki from reaching their goal.

Vince seems insane enough to think who the longest reigning Divas champion is actually matters, and I could totally see him thinking he's somehow getting one over on Punk by having his wife's record get topped by the person who is currently fucking Cena lol.</font>

The revolution has been meh. Teaming the girls up for no reason, especially Sasha Banks with Naomi and Tamina, made little sense and in reality is just lazy booking. The only reason you're seeing three teams of three is because it gets 9girls into one angle and creates matches out of them that are a synch to book. There's literally no other reason to think otherwise.

Not to mention, instead of giving these girls time to develop their own independent personalities,like in NXT, they've been clumped together to be "friends", though I don't get what Sasha Banks has in common with her team, and team PCB is just "hey, we're faces".

Fan has got it right. They need a dominant force, like Awesome Kong to come in and just obliterate everyone for a year or so, building her up as this unstoppable monster. Give each girl a chance to flesh out their characters, and when you find the clear stand out who the crowd can get behind, build her up to put her with the monster.

As of right now, none of that's happening. Nikki loses semi regularly, which makes her title reign look meaningless. Everyone is as good as each other. Nobody gains the upper hand. It's boring. You can pull off parity when it's between two rivals specifically, like Charlotte and Sasha for instance, but the whole division being even Steven is uninteresting.

I also have little faith the cluster fuck they have scheduled for Sunday is going to get any significant time.

And one final note, the whole "longest reigning champ" gimmick is great, when it's actually your gimmick. Mentioning it in passing or using it as a stat to shoot off during commentary isn't going to get it over. Part of the reason Punk had that great run was knowing and rubbing it in, constantly, that he was champ as long as he was. That's how it's supposed to work.

So which of the Bella twins' got fake boobs?

Nikki.

Mick Foley wrote an interesting article on the piece:

“WE NEED A WOMEN’S PIPEBOMB

Stephanie McMahon did a great job of kicking off the #DivaRevolution on July 13. Really, she did. She gave a great, heartfelt introduction to three of the brightest stars on the WWE horizon – #Charlotte #BeckyLynch and #SashaBanks. It was a night that literally brought tears of joy to my eyes. So why, just five weeks later, have those tears of joy been replaced by the anger and embarrassment of hearing “we want Lesnar” chants during the Banks/Nikki Bella match?

Quite simply, we need a women’s pipebomb. Stephanie may have kicked off the #DivaRevolution on WWE Raw – but we need a Diva/woman/female competitor to take that ball and run with it. We can’t just gradually be SHOWN the revolution. WE can’t have the revolution EXPLAINED to us. We need one of the participants to make us FEEL it. We NEED that promo that perfectly captures the time and place, the pride and passion of this revolution. We NEED a CM Punk pipebomb. We NEED that “Austin 3;16 says I just whipped your ass” moment, that Dusty Rhodes “Hard Times” promo – something that hammers home the point to even the densest, drunkest members of the #WWEUniverse that times have changed – and chanting for anyone – even if it is a returning hometown hero like Brock Lesnar – while women are working their asses off to entertain them is not just disrespectful, but unacceptable.

As a wrestling fan, I was embarrassed. As a friend of both participants in the match, I was hurt. In my wrestling days, I would have tapped into those feelings of embarrassment and hurt and let it out in a promo. Often, those promos were effective; in a few cases, they even became iconic. Not once did I feel that one of those promos would have been better served by committee. I know that times have changed, and that the days of sending a superstar out to the ring with just a microphone and a deep-seeded belief in the importance of their message are largely over. But why not take a chance and let one of the women walk out to the ring with that same opportunity I was given? The same opportunity Punk was given…and Austin…and Dusty…and Flair…and Funk – and so many of the masters of the microphone who won us over with their passion, while not giving a damn about grammar, sentence structure, witty retorts and back and forth banter. John Cena was given the ball last night, and took it in for that figurative touchdown. Heyman is almost other-worldly in his conversion ratio. I honestly don’t know if any of the women can deliver on the microphone with the effectiveness of a Cena or a Heyman. But they deserve the chance to try. All I am saying, is#GiveDivasaChance.

To this day, I count the lyrics to a 1983 David Allen Coe song “The Ride” as one of the driving forces of my career. Dean Ambrose even quoted it a couple of years ago. I get goosebumps each time I hear it or even read it.

He said, “Drifter can ya make folks cry when you play and sing?
Have you paid your dues, can you moan the blues?
Can you bend them, guitar strings?”
He said, “Boy can you make folks feel what you feel inside?
‘Cause if you’re big star bound let me warn ya, it’s a long, hard ride.”

Maybe early-80’s outlaw country isn’t going to inspire every wrestler the way it inspired me…or Ambrose…and possibly a few others along the way. If not, I urge the women to find whatever it is out there that inspires them; that will allow them to be ready when asked to explain the significance of this moment in time. Do whatever it is that allows you to keep your “pipebomb” at your disposal. In the end, making folks feel what you feel inside is what this business is all about.

Just remember, it’s a long, hard ride.“

To be fair, the match between Sasha and Nikki sucked doodle.

I think they just need to go with a very simple structure of having a heel champion, a face challenger, whilst you build up some other performers in the division. Nikki Bella is obviously your current heel champion. For God's sake, let her play a fucking heel. Stop this flip-flopping; it's not helping her any.

Best face moving forward? I'd go with Becky Lynch. She's one of the new girls, she can work and she's got spunk. Let the girls promo on each other, then have Becky win the title and Charlotte turn on her out of jealousy. Maybe she puts Paige on the shelf to build heat? Sasha feuds with Naomi with Tamina in the middle. Easy.

But the biggest thing I agree with from #1-wwf-fan's post is that one girl needs to break away at this point. I'd go with Lunch, but it doesn't matter if it's Lunch, Charlotte or Banks. I'd have one girl score both falls at SummerSlam, to be honest.

AJ Lee could cut some good promos, and did cut a "pipebomb" once...

women wrestling fucking sucks, get over it. valets are fine if used at a minimum

no one is going to take the divas division seriously when they have got Total Divas still running

Last two posts are spot on.

No one cares about women wrestling. As valets/managers they're fine. I don't even know anything about this revolution/team BAD/whatever... I haven't really cared about a women's match/segment since the days of Lita and Trish etc.

<font color=goldenrod>I'm inclined to say to find a way to put the belt on Sasha just because being a heel will give her more intriguing options to work with. Let her work a couple of title defenses against Becky and then Charlotte on Raw. She tore the house down with both girls on NXT.

Give the matches a good 15 minutes and maybe the casuals who have long since tuned out women's wrestling since the Trish/Lita or even Trish/Mickie days will realize, oh shit, they're actually good and start paying some attention to the division again instead of using it like a piss break. I'd like to think that people aren't so far in the camp of "I don't care about women's wrestling" that they can't enjoy it once something good is on the table. If you can't sit down and watch some of those NXT women's matches particularly from the Takeover specials and actually enjoy them, that's really fucking sad.

Problem is once you get the viewer interested again they need to then avoid doing retarded storylines with them. And I don't really know how much faith I have in WWE writers in doing it especially with Dunn supposedly being firmly in Vince's ear about how womens' purpose on the show is to show skin and not much else.</font>

I'm more inclined to appreciate their wrestling in the NXT format for some reason. The presence of the Total Divas/established women kind of water down the whole thing. Fans aren't that stupid these days, they literally bounce ideas/trends and the current one that is hard to miss is the non-overness of Naomi. All she does is throw her butt around with neon light boots and we get it, we already had Jacqueline back in the day.


That being said, I'm sitting back and giving them a chance to progress the story. It is weird that one of the groups haven't started the eventual "turn on themselves" arc.


Paige and Becky Lynch should form a tag team after Charlotte branches off and call themselves the European Buttresses of New York(EBONY) and run roughshod on the newly thought up Divas Tag Team Championship tournament.

You really should watch the NXT match with Sasha Banks defending against Becky Lynch at R: Evolution (I think it was?).

Amazing. They, at least those two together, already rival that of Lita/Trish. They have the ability to "go" in the ring, it really will come down to how stupid the writers make their "story".

I agree with Mic Foley. We need that diva that doesn't need a team. Feel like Becky would make a good heel and Sasha should have never teamed with Naomi and Stamina, Cameron could have been the third member. The teams make it seem forced and not a true revolution. The NXT girls are a lot more talented than the main roster divas in the ring. Also as long as its the "Divas" division its not going to be taken serious. We need that woman that's going to take over and reintroduce the women's divisions. Total Divas is to blame forthis mESS, Raw gets beat out by Basketball wives and WWE needs a women's reality show that ruined their Divas division.

Agree but would rather see Lei'D Tapa than Kong. Something about Tapa that just turns me on.

They need to stay on Nxt or get a few hours a week on the Network to do some real work and not some watered down bullshit to fill a spot. They need to give fans a reason to care, to suspend belief that these people honestly want to hurt each other. The women need to kick the stuff out of each other and the ones that are currently able to make this believable are not really being used properly. There is a reason why Gail Kim walked and the question we need to ask is whether or not that issue has been fixed

I've said it before and Ill say it again....They were going to do this 3v3v3 match at SS but had no idea how to get there or where it goes after. What have they done? Added an extra divas match because they expanded the roster. Lots of tag matches which get no one over. The division is in the exact same place it was 6 months ago save that the matches are marginally better executed.

This whole thing is going to fizzle really fast after SS unless they do something to make someone (One of the NxT callups) stand out and challenge Nikki for the title by SS or the night after.

Nikki will drop the title after she surpasses AJ Lee's record because ponies.

THAT is when things will hopefully improve, "story progression" wise or w/e you wanna label it. They have all been tremendous in NXT.

"Workers" get over in NxT much better than Raw. Now they need something more. So far....meh. Sasha doesn't even get to lead her group or come out to her own theme half the time. Got a fucking jobber entrance this week even.

any1 get hard to Becky?

eating Becky Lunch rn

The revolution is a sham. They just brought up a bunch of talented workers and clumped them into teams for no reason. Nothing has changed. They now just have more interchangeable parts to feed into title matches.

The best thing they could do would be after Summerslam to drop all of the alliances, with the exception of Tamina being with someone as she sucks so very hard.

Then they need to have a single elimination tournament to basically figure out who is going to be the "big challenge" standing between Nikki Bella and her record breaking title reign.

But basically use the tournament to build up all the new Divas and give them personality outside of a group setting. Also bring in Bailey for the tournament. So have it be Bailey, Brie, Alicia, Paige, Naomi (w/ Tamina), Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks.

Charlotte or Paige could turn heel near the end, cost someone the final against Bailey. It would create two solid feuds,Becky vs a heel Paige or Charlotte, and Bailey, the happy go-lucker runt of the bunch, vs the unstoppable Nikki Bella who is about to become a record holding Divas champion.

This isn't hard to book people.

Sasha > Becky

Haha

That's your Penis decision

Queen of the Ring network special, where the divas battle for the right to wrestle Nikki at the next big ppv show, maybe even Mania. Make being given a title chance mean something and winning mean more.

Biggest problem with the Revolution so far is the WWE is too stubborn to do anything with the Divas title until after Nikki beats AJ's record because of petty reasons. Turned a whole movement that was meant to bring in big changes to something on a holding pattern because the WWE never had any real plans besides cheaply riding on Ronda Rousey's and the NXT women's popularity.

Should have delayed the whole movement until after Nikki beat AJ's record just so that baggage didn't carry over for the storyline. Then have Team Bellas fight for their lives to keep a stranglehold on the division while the other teams try to topple them instead of them trading meaningless wins.

Could of easily had this year be the "Summer of Divas" but almost like every other big "Summer" movement, WWE found a way to mess it up really quickly.

Smeat with the win.

I said months ago that all of this would happen and no one bought it. #JumpingBombAngels4Lyfe

RIP Crazy Edgar.

No one ever believed his prophecies.

I like what they have done so far.

I think at this stage, they are just trying to get over the 9 girls as one package for lack of a better term. Having them in groups of 3, just helps get more of them on TV at once. If one member of the BAD is fighting a Bella, then you have 6 divas on the screen.

Over time, the key will be to focus on one or two key feuds with the top tier girls and get them over to the next level. The problem with having 9 girls on the screen all at once is its much tougher for one person to stand out. The key will be picking the right girls to focus on. Ideally you want to pick girls who can be the total package or look, talk, and work. Thats a rare find in the Divas division. Really in the history of WWE only 4 or 5 girls fit that bill.

The other problem with the division as a whole, is that its treated similar to the tag division, where you generally only have one program at a time, and its focused on the belt. So if you're not in the title program, you're lost in the shuffle. I would like to see them slowly start to develop multiple angles for the girls on each show. The factions will help that, because you can have turns and stuff, that will result in more stories.