I read an article over from reddit that was linked to a quote from Fightful Select. The topic was on women’s wrestling, how the main rosters (not NXT) lack story lines and time, etc. and the general frustrations in those divisions. I have very mixed feelings on the subject but considering what I wrote recently regarding several reviews of various WWE shows, I figured it might be a good time to discuss the problems I perceive as a both pro/con perspective. For context, here’s the quote:
Here’s my take on the problems. On the one hand, I feel sympathetic towards the women’s division. It’s been a sensitive issue for decades and with McMahon gone, it feels as though the new regime is slowly trying to amend the past. However, the Attitude Era with the whole T&A emphasis did considerable damage to women’s wrestling on a whole because of misplaced emphasis. The Diva era was only an extension of the Attitude Era and while a few people might’ve emerged, it took a while before the women’s division could even be considered something that capable of standing on its own.
Over the years, a lot of solid talent might’ve come up through NXT that either were broken in or were found on the independent scene. So some of the women already had good experience working elsewhere and trying to learn their craft. Even so I can’t say that the quality has been truly high compared to the classes from AJW between ’85 – ’89 (which was their peak in terms of pure talent; that discounts Chigusa, Asuka, Jaguar, Crush and Bull because those women were more iconic in what they did, although Jaguar probably was the best of them all). The result of the talent that we see is more from what feels like the NXT system where people learn wrestling through a certain point of view rather than get exposure from a variety of facets (which admittedly at the moment really stinks)
I feel that the bulk of the women on the current Raw/Smackdown rosters lack certain fundamentals that very few are understanding. For the Smackdown review, I focused on Candice LaRae as one of the chief offenders. While Candice has experience from the indy scene, she doesn’t come across as having the big picture ideas of what makes wrestling great. She can’t help her height but there’s really nothing that sticks out for me. She rarely gets a chance to speak and I think that’s for a reason. Her matches are lifeless, cookie cutter, modern style wrestling that don’t get any reaction because she’s going through the motion rather than having a logical build that gets the crowd excited. She has no connection to the crowd and doesn’t make any attempts during the matches to acknowledge that the crowd even exist. So even if she can’t cut a promo, she could show some level of charisma within the match itself. But that doesn’t occur and even the simplest of things whether it’s telling the audience to shut up to get cheap heat, taking a cheap shot as a heel when the ref isn’t looking or ANYTHING for that matter which helps distinguish her from others in that division.
Like if you were to take Liv Morgan, Candice LaRae and Alexa Bliss, you honestly would not be able to visually distinguish them from one another beyond the amount of make up and costume glitter they receive. At least, with Liv she managed to get herself over in the context of pairing up with Dominic Mysterio and Alexa has her doll (for worse). Verbally, there’s nothing that convinces me these three are much different given their tone, wording, rhythm of speaking, etc. In the case of Candice, I derogatorily call her Nia Jax’s accessory because that’s all she is.
Part of wrestling is finding ones voice and learning what works and what doesn’t then making that aspect work. Having that unique sense of identity is critical. It’s like listening to a Steve Vai solo; when you hear the first few notes, you immediately know it’s him. You want to find those that can distinguish themselves whether it’s in their promo work, their style in the ring, some sort of audience connection, etc. If you go back to the 80s and early to mid 90s wrestling, the one defining characteristic especially in the WWF was how everyone was unique. Even if the gimmick stunk, you would recognize a person because that gimmick gave that wrestler some sense of life.
When it comes to the matches themselves, I’m going to be blunt here but the vast majority of wrestling sucks right now. There’s very few people who can create engaging matches from both men and women. Most “modern” matches lack any kind of build or anything that resembles what one may envision wrestling ought to be. You barely see the headlocks, arm drag take downs, the submission holds (except for Kurt Angle wannabe style submission exchanges), etc. Instead, most wrestling looks like it hurts and causes brain damage. It’s more like Jackass than anything really athletic or believable. Even during the 80s “boring” days where you had one guy put a wrestler into an armlock and stomp his foot on the ground, it looked more believable than everything going on now. I think this is a huge reason why these matches aren’t getting over; people have seen the BS and there’s not enough selling (i.e. the drama story part of the match) to allow the audience to get lost in the wrestlers themselves.
Quite honestly, I’d prefer if the matches in the WWE are cut down to 5-8 minutes max where people get in and get out asap. I like long matches but I want those reserved for the people who can pull them off. The rest should focus on tightening up what they can do and work on psychology. Even if the matches would be shortened to 5-8 minutes, that would mean more matches in general. If you eliminate the long entrances and BS crap, get these people into the ring quickly and have them do “basic” wrestling that lead to an exciting final 1 minute where the mini story comes out, it would be more engaging than what we see. Not to mention, you’d be able to show more people more often. This is advice for both AEW and WWE because both companies have too unwieldy of a roster with people who can’t put together a decent match that is gripping.
But going back specifically to the women in the WWE, I would be more compelled to lean towards them if their matches and/or gimmicks were better. I just don’t feel engaged when they go out and it’s clear that the audience doesn’t either. To be fair again, it’s not just them but everyone except the top stars. Everything below is filler and it feels like filler.
Let me take another example in Chelsea Green. I don’t hate her but in my brain she’s doing what one would expect someone in that position to do correctly. But she feels really generic because she tries too hard. It’s too contrived in the way she acts over the top. I get that you want to stand out and she probably understands that too but I think when it’s overdone it becomes obvious and people don’t want to buy it. The real problem though I see with Chelsea is that she’s been treated as a joke since coming in and she continues to act like a joke with no one ever buying her gimmick. Usually, when someone gets that chance to finally receive a push, there’s a small turning point to embrace a more serious side so that person can be moved to the next level. Comedy is death though unless you have serious credibility. Like Kurt Angle was comedic at times but everyone also knew he was legitimate and had real athletic and wrestling ability. So his over the top personality at times worked still in that context. With the case of Chelsea Green, she doesn’t change the base gimmick for people to take her seriously, which means she’s locked in a bad gimmick and in purgatory. It doesn’t help that she moves awkwardly and she’s skinny compared to the real top echelon women in the WWE.
Contrast Chelsea Green with Becky Lynch. I will stand by Becky Lynch ever since that post Summerslam interview where she was supposed to turn on Charlotte. The key for Becky Lynch to me is that she made me take notice of her. She became serious, showed her grievances and I related. Becky might be small but that bit of personality made her the top star in the WWE at one point. The last person I took notice was Tiffany Stratton only because of her athleticism. But she’s missing a lot in terms of being an all around wrestler that convinces me she can be the top star. Once the athleticism starts to decline whether it’s due to injury, age, etc., you have to rely on something else intangible to main that spot.
Now, I don’t want to blame individuals or just plain say they suck but the bar is really low in general. Some fans might be generous towards them here but I find it impossible not to compare what I see to Shinobu Kandori vs Akira Hokuto at Dream Slam I. If you want to go to something more recent on US surface, then look at Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong in TNA. What I do blame though is that someone in the back isn’t telling them how to think about the business correctly. I know some wrestlers feel “wrestling is anything you want it to be.” No, you need rules and things to keep things in check. You can’t allow wrestling to go overboard and let people do whatever they please freely because eventually you lose the audience. That’s why really bad gimmicks like Bray Wyatt or Alexa Bliss with her doll does tremendous harm to wrestling.
But making what you do look good, realistic and logical is slowly disappearing for stupidity. Heck, I blasted the horrible Kevin Owens/Sami Zayne stuff recently and both guys are considered near the top with “a good story line.” But the execution is god awful and missing details that treat the subject matter as indy. I think the WWE is emphasizing selling more but the drama isn’t there where the selling is meaningful. I watched Tiffany Stratton and she can sell okay but it doesn’t add to anything when there’s no other back and forth drama to give that selling meaning. Like I would’ve preferred seeing Tiffany Stratton demolish Candice LaRae in 2 minutes where Candice had offense for 30 seconds, maybe Nia Jax temporarily interfering and Tiffany getting a strong comeback than allowing Candice to do anything for that long. Why should people take Candice as a threat? Even if Tiffany didn’t face Candice, I would like to see Tiffany just do some basic wrestling moves. Not just perform the same handspring reverse somersault a la Muta because she can.
So again, it’s not really the fault of the wrestlers but the current way its being presented. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to correct the various bad habits that have been developed over the years.
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