Women of Honor

Last Sunday I wrote about women's wrestling being something wrestling companies should concentrate on in order to attract greater numbers of viewers. During that I touched on the fact that ROH doesn't have a women's division (read about this here). I think that's a mistake on their part. ROH would benefit greatly from the addition of a women's division.

Maria Kanellis has been a heavily featured character for a few years now.  She's over as a heel with existing fans. ODB has recently been brought in as an affiliate of the Briscoes. Maria knocking about made sense. She's married to Michael Bennett and has mostly been presented as a manager. She has a reason to be there.

Top stars of a potential women's division right here.

The same can't be said for ODB. Her previous work has always had her featured as an active wrestler. There's no reason why she'd go to work for a company that doesn't have a women's division for her to compete in. Okay, she initially came in to counteract Maria. That worked but it doesn't explain why she's stuck around.

Announcing the creation of an official women's division would create a reason for ODB to be in ROH and would give Maria more to do (yeah, more than managing the IWGP tag champs). It would allow ROH to get in on the popularity of women's wrestling and it would create roles for new stars in the company. With WWE currently turning NXT into its own indy venture ROH needs all the marketable names it can get.

One of the things in favour of an ROH women's division is that the groundwork is already there. ROH has been promoting "women of honor" matches for years. They've featured SHIMMER heavily in the past. They've just never gone the whole way and created an official women's league in the company. This wouldn't need to be a massive change for ROH. They already have ODB and Maria to play the lead face and heel respectively. Hiring three or four other women would allow them to flesh out the ranks, with other people being brought in less often to work as enhancement or lower card talent.

Taryn has proven herself a good wrestler
 in spite of her WWECW background.

Imagine a Women of Honor division built around women cherry-picked from Shine and SHIMMER, like Jayme Jameson, Su Yung, Athena and Andrea. It would easily better anything TNA are doing with the Knockouts these days (Dollhouse have failed to live up to their potential) and could, with enough time, rival the NXT division. In fact if TNA goes under they could bring in some of the better Knockouts.

This assumes that ROH haven't specifically avoided setting up a women's division for some reason. Perhaps their reasoning is that everyone else is making headway in that area and without as many top names to go around they're best off without something official. That would be understandable but it would also be a shame. The approach ROH booker Delirious has towards storylines is enjoyable and something that's not really used anywhere else in wrestling. I'd like to see it applied to a women's division. And I think other people would too.

Key to the (Alleged) Boom

When he was doing initial interviews to hype Global Force Wrestling last April (yeah, fourteen months on and they've still not run a show) Jeff Jarrett talked about how it was a good time to start a wrestling promotion. He predicted another boom period. I was sceptical of that claim. While I don't think it's come to pass on quite the level 'Double J' seemed to be expecting wrestling does seem more popular, more exciting, now than it did fourteen months ago. Or at least wrestling fans have become more feverous with their praise. That's pretty much the same thing, right?

The so-called Wednesday Night Wars are a good example of wrestling being more exciting. ROH is now the lead-in show for TNA's Impact Wrestling on Destination America, in direct competition with WWE's white hot NXT show and the weekly one hour cinematic masterpiece that is Lucha Underground. All of those shows but Impact are great. They have their own distinct tropes and identities and they feel fresh, new and exciting. Impact, despite its numerous flaws and the fact that it's just flat out not good, has a dedicated fan base who will tune in (and, perhaps more importantly, defend it) every week. It's a concentration of shows that illustrates the variety of styles and approaches that can be taken within the pro wrestling format.

Calling it a rise in popularity rather than a definitive boom period also neatly covers the issue of WWE's dominance. The phrase boom period conjures up an image of another wrestling promotion becoming successful enough to challenge WWE's status as top (big) dog. That won't happen. WWE has so much cash flowing in and so many draws and talents at their disposal that they're going to be on top until some sort of major, unpredictable catastrophe befalls them. The company best placed to challenge them, New Japan, are years away from even trying in North America, although they're comfortably smashing WWE to pieces in Japan.

No, a rise in popularity makes it clear we're discussing the status of the wrestling biz as a whole, particularly the non-WWE segment. And this finally brings me around to my point: I think the company that will do best as wrestling gets a little more popular in mainstream culture is the company that makes the best use of female talent.

Give this woman a women's division to head up. Watch the money roll in.

Looking back it's clear that the last few years have seen the status of women's wrestling progress considerably. The prominence of Ivelisse Velez and Sexy Star in Lucha Underground and the entire women's division of NXT has simply helped to highlight the point, because they're TV shows. SHIMMER has been going for ten years now and has, along with Florida-based Shine, helped to create an environment in which all-women companies are a viable option for promoters.

These promotions being in a position to continue running shows illustrates that there's an audience for women's wrestling. So does the reaction that the performances of the wrestlers above get on TV. Just look at the response to the Banks versus Lynch match from Takeover: Unstoppable. WWE and TNA have been letting us down for years with shoddy women's divisions booked as afterthoughts, despite each group having had a solid division at one time or another over the last fifteen years¹. Ring of Honor doesn't even have a women's division at all.

There's a gap in the market for a wrestling TV show that emphasises women's wrestling. NXT has made a lot of headway but so have LU, and it wouldn't be impossible for ROH to look at hiring some more women to go along with Maria, Veda Scott (who never seems to wrestle in ROH despite doing so elsewhere) and ODB. Global Force could theoretically launch with a fantastic women's league if Jarrett wanted to, there's enough available talent to be signed up. You can turn on any wrestling show and see guys killing it great matches. Making women min event attractions would be new and something wrestling fans are ready for. More importantly it would be a way to hook non-fans with something different. That's why I think good quality women's wrestling is going to be of increased importance in wrestling's future, whether there's another boom period coming or not.

***

¹ For TNA it was the Knockouts. In the mid-00s they, along with the X Division, were a reason to watch TNA in the mid-00s. Then the writers decided to revert to the WWE approach of focusing on the world title scene, keeping women and cruiserweights as a side attraction.

A few years earlier WWE had Trish Stratus, Molly Holy, Ivory, Lita, Victoria, Gail Kim and others in a competitive women's division that produced good matches. It's not clear why they decided to scale the division back and reduce it to the filler role it occupied for about a decade. At least the company as a whole remained profitable and had other, enjoyable things going on instead. Which can't be said for TNA.

AJ Lee's Search for (WW)Equality

On Monday 23 February Stephanie McMahon took to Twitter to congratulate Patricia Arquette¹ on striking a blow for women's rights by speaking in favour of equal pay for actresses. It was the sort of thing Steph does from time to time, designed as much to try and capitalise on the latest trending topics on social media as to express any genuine sentiment. It was a non-issue.

Two days later that changed when AJ Lee responded to Steph's tweet with the following message across two tweets:

Your female wrestlers have record selling merchandise and have starred in the highest rated segment of the show several times, and yet they receive a fraction of the wages and screen time of the majority of the male roster. #UseYourVoice

Steph acknowledged the tweet and thanked AJ for her opinion. The following RAW played host to a Nikki Bella versus Paige Divas championship match which was noticeably different to the average WWE women's offering. Both wrestlers hit harder and used a wider variety of moves than they usually would. After the match AJ Lee returned and united with Paige to clear the ring of the Bellas. Although no mention was made of AJ's tweets to Steph it looked as though the desired effect had been achieved.

Main event draws?

On the one hand AJ has a fair point. Matches featuring WWE's female performers are routinely positioned as toilet breaks before pay-per-view main events, get short TV matches, and are generally presented as inferior to their male counterparts. Companies like Shine and SHIMMER, the once great Knockouts division in TNA, and the way women's wrestling has been and continues to be appreciated in NXT show that a modern audience can appreciate women wrestlers as more than eye candy and filler material. The presentation of women on the main WWE roster is behind the times.

Unfortunately some of Lee's points are questionable. Not knowing the pay scale of WWE's main roster performers it's impossible to comment on whether or not women are paid fairly. What is known is that the majority of the women in NXT are paid more than the average male performers there (that's basically everyone who's not Owens, Zayn, Bálor, Itami or Neville). The reasoning behind this is that it's tough to maintain the "look" the company expects from its female performers on a developmental wage. It's not progressive reasoning but it is still more money.

The merchandise sales are harder to comment on. Most important to note is that (as revealed in an interview given by Nikki Bella) all WWE performers receive the same percentage of merchandise sales. It's also worth noting that there haven't been any reports of fans being unable to purchase the T-shirts of female performers at house show booths, as was the case with Randy Orton's shirts last year. That indicates that WWE are managing to keep up with whatever demand there is. It's also worth noting that no wrestling shows ever see an overwhelming number of T-shirts for female wrestlers in the crowd. Bullet Club's dominance in that field is safe for the time being. Basically, any deficiencies AJ detects in her merchandise cut can be attributed to her not being as popular as she thinks she is.

The biggest question regarding Lee's comments can be levied at her claim that female wrestlers have "starred in the highest rated segment of the show several times." This is true but put into context it's a far lesser deal than Lee would like it to be. First of all there are only two women currently under contract who have been in these segments: Stephanie McMahon and AJ Lee herself. In Stephanie's case she is almost always interacting with male performers. While this doesn't disprove Steph herself is an effective, believable character it doesn't prove she is either. People are just as likely watching because Triple H or John Cena or Seth Rollins are also involved, or because she generally appears in the opening and closing of the show, which are always positioned as the most important parts of WWE television shows.

To find proof of AJ's history in high rated segments you have to go back to 2012. At the time she was one of the most over performers of either gender in the company. She'd gained this popularity through a combination of having a character that was different from the norm and by being involved in a storyline with the supremely over Daniel Bryan and WWE champion CM Punk². It's entirely accurate to say she was involved in the highest rated segments of RAW at this time, but anyone in her spot would have been because they were in segments with Bryan and Punk. The success was only partially attributable to her. I think it's fair to say it was primarily attributable to Punk and Bryan: Punk remained popular until he left WWE while D-Bry remains popular to this day.

AJ herself was over at this time. I'm not claiming that she had no effect on the success of the storylines or segments she was involved with. But I don't think they would have been any less well received without her involvement. At the time I saw it as a forward-thinking move by WWE, getting audiences used to female performers associating with the male main event stars. Looking back I still see it that way, it's just a move they failed to follow through on (hardly a surprise as they fail to follow through on so much).

"Come on, Nikki. Let's practice our staring!"

On the issue of screen time Lee has a point. The main roster is (very) roughly twenty-five per cent female. Based on this it could be argued that a quarter of every show could be dedicated to women's wrestling. In practical terms this simply wouldn't work because of the fourteen women on the main roster only four definitely have characters that the majority of people care about: the Bella twins, Paige and AJ Lee (and even Paige is a shaky claim outside of Britain). Beyond them only Natalya, Summer Rae and Naomi have a semblance of character. These aren't enough names to construct a division around.

WWE's programming is currently structured around the guys who headline pay-per-views. As the success of any pay-per-view not named WrestleMania generally rests on the popularity of the wrestlers in its top one or two matches this is a sound approach. There is an argument to be made in favour of fleshing out the women's division with more interesting characters and giving them more screen time but that's a gradual process that rushing won't help with.

Lee is right in her sentiment. WWE doesn't treat its female performers as fairly as it could. Looking back to the early naughties³ and seeing the way in which Trish Stratus, Lita, Mickie James and Victoria were booked shows us that it can, which only makes the current situation even more frustrating. But her view that the current batch of female wrestlers are proven draws is incorrect. They can be, and should be given the chance to prove it, but they're not there yet.

***

¹ She's an actress. I mention this because I've never heard of her and I'm assuming other people may be in the same position. Maybe she's related to the former WCW champion...

² Kane was also involved.

³ Do we have a better term for this yet? No? Okay, can someone just shoot me, please? Thanks.

Special K

Last week WWE released Celeste 'Kaitlyn' Bonin from her contract. I could write about how it's another talented performer WWE have let slip through their fingers but it would be stating the obvious. It would also imply that Kaitlyn had the potential to bring about significant change in the Divas division and she didn't.

It's not that Kaitlyn's not got what it takes to be the primary focus of a female division. She has. What she lacks is the capability to be the figurehead and create interest in a division that has been struggling for years and seems destined to forever be associated with giving live crowds a bathroom break. AJ Lee, easily the greatest all-rounder WWE's women's league has had in years, has struggled so Kaitlyn, who is just as good a wrestler as AJ but lacks her character and presence, didn't stand a chance.

Early last year, while WWE were still trying to figure out what to do with the hot commodity that was Ms Lee, Kaitlyn had her crack at reviving the division. She had a few decent matches, most notably with with Eve Torres, but nothing in the division changed. It's been the same for AJ. The writing team doesn't consider the ladies’ division a priority and so it's not going to get the attention it needs to mean something. Good wrestling can only get wrestlers so far. Sooner or later they need a good storyline and varied characters and WWE don't seem bothered about penning any for the Divas.

Kaitlyn intends to return to working in the fitness industry and will start her on fitness clothing line (the punningly named Celstial Bodiez). There has been no indication that she wants to wrestle elsewhere. There's a no compete clause that would put a stop to it anyway, for a while at least. If she did choose to wrestle elsewhere I think she could make a difference. If the new company were willing to support her of course.

Kaitlyn really used to nail that "point at the ceiling" entrance pose

SHIMMER is the company that some people will probably expect to be mentioned at this point. I can't see it happening, nor do I think Kaitlyn should lower herself to that level. There's nothing wrong with SHIMMER, they're a consistently enjoyable promotion that has a talented roster. But Kaitlyn left that level behind years ago. Working for SHIMMER exclusively would be a step back, and a big one. More than that, Kaitlyn should be beyond their price range.

Ring of Honor is a more interesting choice. An ROH women's division is something that gets talked about every now and then and if it were seriously looked into then Kaitlyn would be an obvious person to bring in. But that seems unlikely to happen. I think ROH could make use of Kaitlyn as a valet. Put with the right guy I think she could be entertaining there. Who is the right guy? Well, Rhett Titus wouldn't look out of place alongside Kaitlyn and he's due a comeback sooner than later.

Alternatively she could be repackaged in the smart businesswoman mould and paired with Adam Cole as a legal aide that helps him avoid title defences. Think that treads on RD Evans' toes? I'd disagree. He's too comedic for a role alongside the world champion.

The company that could really benefit from signing her is, of course, TNA. The knockouts division used to be one of the best things about Impact. If the promotion wants to continue existing despite all the downsizing and cutting they've had to do an obvious direction to take us accentuating the things they do that WWE don't. That means women's wrestling and the X Division. It's clear from the fact that they adhere to the rotten WWE Lite approach instead of acting on this that the change isn't coming. With the support of TNA's writers, one or two other fresh names, and some time Kaitlyn could make a difference to the KO league. But it won't happen because TNA's management are content in their tailspin.

I enjoyed Kaitlyn's work in WWE a great deal. I wish she'd had more chances to succeed and make a difference. Had the Divas division been more prominent during her time in the company I think we’d be looking back on a significant number of good matches and memorable moments. But that’s not the world we live in, so we’re looking back at just another forgettable WWE career.

GlamaKong

Nikki Bella is the WWE Divas champion.

That’s not a sentence likely to fill any wrestling fan with joy. Nikki and her sister Brie are good looking young ladies and have improved greatly in the ring over the last several years but they’re nowhere near as good as TNA’s Knockouts or the women that comprise the SHIMMER roster (generally considered to be the best female only promotion outside of Japan). WWE simply isn’t seen as company that takes women’s wrestling seriously and Nikki’s victory is a perfect example of why.

But it should be pointed out that there’s a plan in place.   

Beth Phoenix, the woman Nikki toppled for the gold, is said to be injured. This isn’t true. Phoenix is as healthy as any active wrestler can hope to be. The reason that WWE are claiming she’s injured, with ‘The Glamazon’ helping the story along on Twitter, is that they wanted to take the title off of her because they are about to embark on their highest profile women’s feud in years.

Kia Stevens, formerly known as Amazing Kong and now billed as Kharma, is about to make her full time return to WWE. She is regarded as one of the best female wrestlers in the world and was considered a big signing for WWE back at the start of 2011. The most notable work in her career so far came during her stint in TNA, where she worked incredibly enjoyable matches with many of that company’s top names, including a stellar series with Gail Kim. She has wrestled extensively in Japan and across the US indies too, including the aforementioned SHIMMER.

WWE quite rightly believes that a programme between Kharma and Phoenix could be their hottest Divas feud in years. The decision to relieve ‘The Glamazon’ of the belt was made so that the company can bring Kharma back to television and immediately start building her up as the most dominant woman in the division without rushing into her clash with ‘The Glamazon’.

Presumably this will start with her crushing Nikki Bella and then ploughing through every other female performer on the roster. Once she’s established as a powerful force in WWE (and replays of her hitting the move formally known as the Implant Buster on Dolph Ziggler during this year’s Royal Rumble should help there) expect Phoenix to be brought back to begin chasing her for the title.

Can Kharma help revive the WWE Divas division?

I think if the two women are given substantial time and leeway to put on the best matches possible on pay-per-view and their feud is booked logically on RAW and SmackDown they could help to reinvigorate WWE’s knackered Divas scene and make the butterfly belt mean something. Phoenix has been WWE’s best female worker over the last year and a rivalry with Kharma should finally give her something to do beyond beat up expendable models each week.

If WWE handle this correctly they could set themselves on the path to having a competitive and enjoyable women’s division again. Natalya could be brought in after a couple of months to add a fresh dynamic to matches and perhaps enjoy a surprise title reign. Tamina Snuka keeps getting better and would be an interesting opponent for Kharma, Phoenix or Natalya. Meanwhile Kelly Kelly and Alicia Fox can keep improving and work as outmatched babyfaces against the division’s top string of stars.

It will all start with Kharma obliterating Nikki Bella, and possibly Brie too. Rumours have been going around that the Bellas are leaving WWE very soon so I’d expect that to happen sooner rather than later, possibly as early as this evening’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view. It will likely be WWE’s way of writing the twins off of TV. I will take an admittedly sadistic pleasure in watching them get squashed and I imagine others will too. I hope in six months’ time we can look back on Kharma’s return and see it as a turning point for WWE’s female performers and the starting point of a resurgence of their division.