Re: The Official WWE Thread - Part 26

[M99]

Bubba Ray at the Manchester house show.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CgaleK6UkAEAJtl.jpg

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

LMAO.

I have really enjoyed Bubba Ray in the last couple of months, been really entertaining imo.

[M99]

https://twitter.com/DaveOCKOP/status/722571451979722752

[M99]

https://vimeo.com/163220758

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

[Onyx]

Only thing is people don't actually hate Reigns as a person. Their actual beef is with the WWE management for putting him in the spot.

Yet here we have Reigns getting all proud about how he's getting a reaction. He probably thinks they hate him for what he stands for or who he is as a person, when it's nothing to do that.

Cena on the other hand, yes, a lot of people dislike him because of his kiddy character and what he stands for.

[RealGunner]

Hmm. Can totally see Reigns retaining the title at payback after gallows and anderson backstabbing AJ.

[Onyx]

I really don't understand the hate for the term 'divas'. Womens wrestling has never been about purely putting on 5* matches.

You look at all the greats like Sunny, Sable, Trish, Lita etc, they were renown for their glamour, their look and the whole flashy aspect. They were posing in shoots and were eye candy. Heck, Sable was doing strip offs on RAW in the attitude era.

Yet this current NXT generation of females think that calling themselves 'wrestlers' makes seem more legit. Yeh, to the internet fans they might seem more legit, but the majority really couldn't care less imo.

[Pedram]

Most divas were former models who got into this business because they looked good but had no actual in ring skills. WWE has moved on from that era, sex appeal is no longer important to them.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

MT do you mean hate from fans or the women themselves? because i imagine it's quite a degrading term for the women

Besides you are wrong, it's not just the internet fans otherwise they wouldn't be doing this. The most popular ones like Sasha get bigger pops than the men and sell more merch than a lot of the men. ( hell most of the good reactions at Mania came from the women)

This isn't just a small demographic of fans, it's quite significant.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Anyway speaking of divas, Chyna has died.

[Onyx]

RIP, hope she gets into the Hall of Fame next year.

[Onyx]

MT do you mean hate from fans or the women themselves? because i imagine it's quite a degrading term for the women

Besides you are wrong, it's not just the internet fans otherwise they wouldn't be doing this. The most popular ones like Sasha get bigger pops than the men and sell more merch than a lot of the men. ( hell most of the good reactions at Mania came from the women)

This isn't just a small demographic of fans, it's quite significant.

I mean in general. To me diva means a female who is larger than life. Someone who's glamorous, a superstar and a celebrity. It's basically a female term for 'superstar', which is what the men are called. And men don't have a problem being called that.

At the end of the day WWE isn't a wrestling company who's only goal is to put on 5* matches. It's a sports entertainment spectacle. And the term diva fits in very well to describe the females.

Sasha imo is the embodiment of a diva with what her character is.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Considering Sasha's negativity towards the term i think she'd disagree with you

That's one of the reasons it's gone away, not because the fans don't like it but because a lot of the women ( Sasha included) have been championing for a while to be known as superstars not Divas.

Divas on the whole, when you speak in general terms and not just WWE isn't usually a favorable term to describe someone.

[Casciavit]

RIP Chyna

[Onyx]

I don't think there's anything negative about the term. It's basically the female equivalent of 'superstar'.

It's just diva like I said means someone who is larger than life, good looking, glamorous etc. While the NXT females would prefer to be called 'women' because they care more about the wrestling aspect.

But all the legends of the business were all divas anyway imo. Chyna, Trish, Lita, Sunny, Sable etc were all glamorous models.

Calling themselves 'women' and focusing more on wrestling doesn't improve the division imo. Everybody can see right now that they haven't made the same impact as they did on NXT. Casuals don't care about 5* matches like the NXT crowd do.

This is what Sasha said anyway:

"Honestly I hope [they do]," Banks admitted. "I have no problem with it being called Divas, but to me, I am a women's wrestler and that's what I grew up watching. I think that would be really cool, and just to know that we're part of history of maybe [the name] changing again. But there's always going to be the pretty type and there's going to be the gritty wrestler that I am trying to be. But we are trying to be part of history and I'm lucky to be a part of growing with it."

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Chyna, Lita and Trish were all more known for what they did in the ring

Anyway ask RWO next time we are in chat without mentioning WWE what she thinks of when you bring up the term " Diva "

I guarantee she won't think of it positively, usually it's not a term describe someone in a positive light and most people who watch it casually without knowing what it means from a WWE perspective will feel the same way.

The fact they have been constantly trashing the Divas belt since getting rid of it should tell you all you need to know about it really.

[Onyx]

They were good in the ring, but that wasn't their only focus. Trish and Chyna were former models. Lita was eye candy and had a live sex celebration on RAW.

My point is these NXT females only care about putting on 5* matches and that's why they want to be known as 'female wrestlers' and not divas. I don't really care what the females are called, but if they're getting rid of the term diva just to put on 5* matches, then that's a problem imo. Because that's not what the WWE is about.

[Jay29]

I don't know why you have such a problem with the attempts to legitimise the Woman's division. If it's eye candy you're after it's not like WWE are short of attractive women, but come on, it's not 2002 and WWE isn't a TV-14 show or whatever it was anymore. WWE has to change with the times and it reflected poorly on them as a business to only sign women based on their looks and not their ability to entertain. It's even worse when they put a label on them that immediately differentiates them from the men.

If male wrestlers can get over by the quality of their ring-work, then why can't female wrestlers? Why shouldn't they have the opportunity to do so? The reason few people cared about them before wasn't because they weren't involved in major storyline as you keep saying, but because they never appeared for any decent length of time. More promos, more screentime, longer matches = better developed characters, more chances to entertain and get over = profit for WWE.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Besides times have changed, the reason the attitude era worked was because there wasn't much popular sport going on at the time in terms of world wide setting and there certainly wasn't many HBO production shows that there is today.

The whole no competition is true when it comes to wrestling but when it comes to drama and entertainment it couldn't be further from the truth. Rip the Attitude era into todays world and i can pretty much guarantee you wouldn't get anywhere near the same views, things like the NBA and NFL are massively more popular as is shows like the Walking Dead and Game of Thrones etc etc.

You can't do what you did back then and this is one of many examples.

[Onyx]

Eye candy isn't the issue here. It's that being a female wrestler is much more than just putting on good matches. The same goes for males.

The NXT divas ONLY care about putting on good matches and that why they want to be known as 'womens wrestlers'. But it's just the NXT fans who only care about wrestling ability.

The casual fans don't just care about wrestling ability. I remember a few months ago a Sasha/Becky match on RAW got boring chants and deservedly so.

[Jay29]

Yet they're not just putting on good matches. They're getting more backstage segments and promo time in the ring. They're getting opportunities to develop their characters so people care about them more.

If you treat them like a joke by giving them 2 minute matches where they botch everything nobody will care, regardless of how good they look. And to bring this discussion back to where it started, the term "diva" came with a lot of negative connotations. It did not mean "superstar" or "glamour model", it meant piss break and poor entertainment. If they're trying to start things fresh and elevate the division, the first thing to do would be to remove the term "diva" so that the new talent aren't negatively associated with such a bad part of the product. It's basic business.

[Onyx]

Like I said, I don't really care what they're called. But the actual definition of a diva is what a female wrestler should be.

It's not about only putting on 5* star matches. I get the impression these NXT women only care about putting on good matches.

They have to be larger than life, spectacular and glamorous superstars. Being beautiful is an added bonus. That's my definition of a diva anyway.

WWE has never been about being just good in the ring. The indy's are there if people just want good wrestling matches.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Bray out for 4-6 weeks apparently, not sure if it's from the time of injury or from now though.

[M99]

RIP Chyna.

[Onyx]

Superstars4lyf confirmed.

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