Who is the ‘Future’ of the WWE Women’s Division?
With the Diva reshuffle now complete, WWE is pushing ahead with it’s new vision for the women’s division. As mentioned in today’s Maryse article, the Diva Trade is being seen by management as a ‘do-over’. One Diva perhaps with more to gain from the move than any other is Eve Torres.
The Diva was moved to Raw after nearly two years on SmackDown, where she had shown great improvement in the ring since the WWE Draft in April. Eve’s move to Raw is very much a promotion from WWE management, we have been told that WWE considers her the ‘future of the division’. The hope is to have her eventually take over as the top babyface Diva in the compan, now that both Mickie James and Melina are ‘deep into their tenures’.
The Los Angeles native was expected to be pushed for the Women’s Championship against Michelle McCool before the move to Raw. That has been scrapped in favour of a more long term plan to ensure longevity for the Diva — Eve will be a ‘pet project’ for management going forward.
As well as making great strides in the ring, management believe that Torres has a ‘great disposition’ and is ‘extremely likable’, which they feel comes across on screen. This, of course, bodes well for pushing her as a top babyface in future; higher-ups feel that the audience will catch on with her because of her easily pleasant nature, thus Raw is the best place for her to be because it’s live.
There’s definitely a feeling that Eve will be a long term investment as long as management remain high on her. As we all know, Vince and co. are prone to change their minds at the drop of a hat, but the love for Eve right now is massive.
As revealed earlier today, she may feud with Maryse (another WWE favourite) upon the former Divas Champion’s return.
Not to toot our own horn, but we predicted this may happen earlier this year
Maryse’s Return
As first reported last week by the Wrestling Observer website, it’s expected that former WWE Divas Champion Maryse will return to television imminently. With last week’s Diva Trade, this sets the stage for her comeback even further as the Trade is being considered a ‘do-over’ for the women’s division, setting up brand new feuds etc.
Maryse’s return, we’re told, will likely happen in the next few weeks but she may not wrestle right away. The plan at the current time is to bring her back as a character first and wrestler later, allowing her knee injury to fully heal but will also allow WWE to utilise her again.
The former Divas Champion will likely be relinquishing her crown as top heel Diva on Raw, at least for now. Those that we’ve spoken to have corroborated earlier reports that there’s big support backstage for Jillian. The plan as of just a few days ago was to have Jillian feud with Melina over the Divas Title.
Upon her return, Maryse may once again become involved with The Miz in backstage segments but the other name being thrown around for a possible feud is Eve Torres, who joined Raw just last week. If that’s the case, this will also likely be made up of backstage skits until Maryse is ready to wrestle.
Armchair Creative Team: Earning Bragging Rights
Armchair Creative Team is back! This time, we are booking Bragging Rights, the brand vs. brand PPV that takes place a week from this Sunday. This event offers rare opportunities for Raw and SmackDown Divas to go toe-to-toe, and the landscape is even more completed given this past Monday’s drafts. We’ll try and sort that out and offer you some interesting options. As always, read our match ideas & vote for your favourite!
Melanie’s Ideas
Jillian & Melina vs Michelle McCool & Mickie James — This match would pit the Divas Champion & Women’s Champion against each other, but just to make things a little interesting also team them up with their rivals on their respective brands. It’s all but a given that Mickie will likely be Michelle’s next challenger for the Women’s Title while we have heard that Jillian will receive a push for Melina’s Divas Title. This match would force the unlikely teams to work together to represent their brand but also could serve some storyline progression in their individual feuds.
Beth Phoenix vs. Melina — Giving us another match between these two former rivals, this could be an unexpected surprise match for the Bragging Rights pay per view. To set the scene: Beth Phoenix, the Glamazon, comes to SmackDown and doesn’t want to play second fiddle to the Women’s Champion. Thus she takes the pay per view spot to prove that she’s the alpha female on SmackDown, going against the Divas Champion, Melina. If Beth wins, it sets her up nicely, giving her something to brag about on her new home and brings her out of Michelle’s shadow as a co-#1 heel rather than #2 heel.
Melina vs. Mickie James — Melina vs Mickie would be a battle of the babyfaces. There’s a lot of brand pride at stake for the Divas, but there’s also the chance to establish either one as the top babyface Diva in the entire WWE. They could it explain it as WWE’s two most popular Divas battling it out to determine who is the best Diva in the company as well as fighting for their brand. This one would likely draw a big reaction also, as both Divas have proven to be highly popular with the crowd — put them together in front of a live crowd, and they may just tear down the house.
Diva Trade Rumours: Beth Phoenix, Bella Twins & Melina
More rumours on each of the Diva trades has circulated. This time, NoDQ.com reports why Beth Phoenix, the Bella Twins and Melina were moved:
Beth Phoenix was moved to Smackdown because it was felt that she lost momentum on RAW. It’s been rumored that she could be paired up with Dolph Ziggler.
The Bella Twins were moved to RAW because Vince McMahon was said to have “fallen in love with them” following their guest host skits on RAW several weeks back. They are expected to be featured in guest host segments on a regular basis now.
WWE is said to be high on both Jilian Hall (McMahon likes her act) and Melina (which is why she was moved to RAW).
In the case of Beth possibly being united with Dolph Ziggler, we can somewhat corroborate. Not to say WWE will go that route, but if they do it falls in line with what we’ve heard. As expected, it doesn’t sound like the Bella Twins will be wrestling much.
Diva Trade Analysis: Looking at Each Individual Trade
Just under 24 hours removed from last night’s Diva Trade, what do the moves mean for each of the 7 Divas that have changed homes? We aim to offer our insight into what they could be getting up to:
The Bella Twins
Returning to Monday Night Raw, the Bella Twins’ brief excursion to ECW seems to be over… unfortunately. That said, given the fact they have been making trips to Raw over the past month or two anyway, it only seems fitting to make it official, right? I don’t expect the Bellas will be doing much in the way of wrestling on Raw, nor will they probably have much part in the women’s division at all — except at house shows. If they do wrestle, it will likely be as rarely as they did on ECW. So what does that leave them to do? What they’ve been doing already — backstage segments with the Guest Host for the week, maybe even a few skits here and there with Santino. It looks to me as though they were brought back to Raw for that reason, to serve as characters rather than wrestlers which I guess, is okay.
Beth Phoenix
I’m not entirely happy with this move for Beth, I truly feel not all of the avenues of the Beth Phoenix character were explored and there was more that she could have offered to Raw; feuding with Gail Kim, Kelly Kelly and possibly even Melina again. On SmackDown, while there is the possibility [technically] that she could go toe-to-toe with Michelle McCool or Natalya — both of which are salivating prospects — it just doesn’t seem likely with all three as heels. That just leaves two Divas: Maria and Mickie James. One of those feuds we’ve seen already and would be like beating a dead horse, the other of those feuds seems like an extremely mismatched affair. Nonetheless, it seems like Maria vs Beth could be the only avenue they explore in a singles situation. There is always the chance of a three-way feud with Michelle McCool and Mickie James also. Beyond those two storylines, I don’t see there being much for Beth to accomplish on SmackDown.
More after the cut: More after the cut »