WWE rebrands Divas into Superstars and Divas Championship into Women's Championship

Post Reply
NYBuckeye96
SEOPS H
Posts: 7404
Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2004 6:49 pm

WWE rebrands Divas into Superstars and Divas Championship into Women's Championship

Post by NYBuckeye96 »

WWE is finally starting to get serious about women's wrestling after years of neglect.

Between the current WWE roster and the women in NXT, this is probably the strongest the women's division has ever been in the history of WWE. Granted, there are a handful that are more T&A instead of "wrestlers", but the vast majority are highly talented.




http://www.gq.com/story/wrestlemania-32-best-match

The Night Women Won

The standout match of the WWE's big night didn't involve names like the Undertaker or Triple H. It was, in fact, a high-velocity triple threat between the trio of Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte.


Last night in Dallas I met a young man, maybe 23-years old. Let's call him Chris. I had actually seen Chris earlier in the day, as I was roaming outside AT&T Stadium before WrestleMania. He was showing off a large, hand-drawn oil painting of Sasha Banks to a group of fans, smiling widely at their adulation beneath a pair of signature Sasha Banks shutter shades and golden rings that read LEGIT BOSS. Maybe eight hours later, there was Chris again, still clutching his poster and wearing his shutter shades while pacing in little circles close to an emergency exit in one of the stadium's concourses. Except this time he wasn’t smiling. He was sobbing.

Women’s wrestling is an interesting thing. There was The Fabulous Moolah who won her first championship belt in 1956, at a time when women’s wrestling was outlawed by the state of New York, and kept a stronghold on it for the next 30 years or so. In the 1980s, Joshi classics featuring the likes of Bull Nakano and Jaguar Nakoto set a new standard over in Japan.

But then, the dark ages. After the WWE realized there was a lot of money to be made off of T&A, the talent pool shifted away from women who could actually wrestle to fitness models with improbable breast implants who would compete in chocolate pudding matches (goal: roll around in chocolate pudding) or bra and panties matches (goal: strip your opponent down to their underwear). Sure, some athletes were outliers: Lita and Victoria and Gail Kim and Mickie James. But for every Trish Stratus, who was a fitness model that transitioned into one of the greatest female wrestlers of the past 20 years, there were five more who prioritized Playboy and Maxim above learning how to actually wrestle. Throughout the '90s and early 2000s, we were trained to treat women’s wrestling as a joke.

Then came along WWE’s developmental property, NXT, which decided to treat female wrestlers like competitors rather than strictly eye candy. A fever spread. Women’s matches were no longer the de facto bathroom break, but a must-see highlight. Not only were the women main eventing the show, they were stealing the show. Bayley versus Sasha Banks at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn was considered by many to be the match of the year in 2015. They followed that up with with the first ever women’s Iron Man match in WWE history (it was also the first time two women headlined a WWE pay-per-view). But when the trio of Banks, Charlotte, and Becky Lynch made the jump from NXT to the WWE’s main roster this past July, it felt like a step back. Whereas before they were women, now they were branded by WWE as “Divas,” all vying for a pink championship belt shaped like a butterfly.

But last night at WrestleMania, something shifted. WWE announced that they would be dropping the term “Diva” completely for their female talent. To coincide with that change in branding, the WWE Women’s Championship was revealed, replacing the aforementioned travesty of a belt. It was an impactful moment that held true weight. Here, in front of 100,000 of the most impassioned wrestling fans in the world, a true revolution was unfurling—one that many wrestling fans have been asking for long before that night in June. And to cap it all off, the trio of Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte did what female wrestlers have been doing for the past year on NXT—they stole the show. As of this writing, 49 percent of people voted the women’s triple threat bout as the match of the night on Cageside Seats. Chants of “This is awesome,” “Women’s wrestling,” and, in what is one of the greatest signs of respect that a crowd can bestow upon match, “This is wrestling,” poured down from all across the arena.

And then, there was Chris, sobbing in the concourse.

I was genuinely curious as to what Chris could be so upset about. He very clearly was a fan and we had just witnessed the women put on the best match of the night. We watched as Charlotte made her way to the top of the stage holding the WWE Women’s Championship high above her head for all to see, leaving the Diva’s Championship behind for good. This was a victory.

Hey, what’s going on? I asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Chris replied, trying to cover his tears. “I’m just a little sad right now.”

The match was incredible, though! Why are you so sad?

“I really thought that this was the night that Sasha would win the title,” he explained. “I just couldn’t think of a better moment for her to win the belt than here at ‘Mania. It would have been so meaningful.”

But last night at WrestleMania, something shifted. WWE announced that they would be dropping the term “Diva” completely for their female talent. To coincide with that change in branding, the WWE Women’s Championship was revealed, replacing the aforementioned travesty of a belt. It was an impactful moment that held true weight. Here, in front of 100,000 of the most impassioned wrestling fans in the world, a true revolution was unfurling—one that many wrestling fans have been asking for long before that night in June. And to cap it all off, the trio of Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte did what female wrestlers have been doing for the past year on NXT—they stole the show. As of this writing, 49 percent of people voted the women’s triple threat bout as the match of the night on Cageside Seats. Chants of “This is awesome,” “Women’s wrestling,” and, in what is one of the greatest signs of respect that a crowd can bestow upon match, “This is wrestling,” poured down from all across the arena.

And then, there was Chris, sobbing in the concourse.

I was genuinely curious as to what Chris could be so upset about. He very clearly was a fan and we had just witnessed the women put on the best match of the night. We watched as Charlotte made her way to the top of the stage holding the WWE Women’s Championship high above her head for all to see, leaving the Diva’s Championship behind for good. This was a victory.

Hey, what’s going on? I asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Chris replied, trying to cover his tears. “I’m just a little sad right now.”

The match was incredible, though! Why are you so sad?

“I really thought that this was the night that Sasha would win the title,” he explained. “I just couldn’t think of a better moment for her to win the belt than here at ‘Mania. It would have been so meaningful.”

As someone who grew up on wrestling in the '90s, during those dark days, it seems almost improbable that the word “meaningful” could ever be used in context to women’s wrestling. But in the wake of WrestleMania, it could not be more obvious that women’s wrestling means something to a lot of people. Chris is not an aberration, nor is he an oddity. It’s 2016, and in 2016 being a wrestling fan means being a fan of women’s wrestling. Sure, he may have been one of the few actually crying over the fact that his favorite wrestler didn’t walk away victorious, but he was not the only person emotionally invested in the story those three women told us in the ring last night.

Just think how cool it’s going to be when Sasha finally does win the championship, I told Chris.

“I can’t wait,” he said as he walked away, clutching his sign with his shutter shades and rings proudly displayed for all to see. “I can’t wait to see what happens next.”

I can't either.



NYBuckeye96
SEOPS H
Posts: 7404
Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2004 6:49 pm

Re: WWE rebrands Divas into Superstars and Divas Championship into Women's Championship

Post by NYBuckeye96 »

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/ ... rm=nprnews


From 'Divas' To 'Superstars': WWE Embraces Women's Sports Revolution

April 4, 2016·6:58 PM ET

In July 2015, World Wrestling Entertainment executive Stephanie McMahon called for better, more important roles for women in professional wrestling.

Invoking the success of the U.S. women's soccer team, Ronda Rousey, Holly Holm and Miesha Tate in the UFC and tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams as proof of the growing clout of women's sports, McMahon called for changing the "Divas" (women's) division of pro wrestling. She said, "there is a revolution in women sports happening right now. ... I want this revolution here in WWE."

The video below picks up right after McMahon announced her envisioned revolution. In it, she introduces new female characters — which means more camera time for the women and more attention for their storylines.

Nearly eight months later, during Sunday night's WrestleMania, WWE took another step in the revolution by announcing a new championship — well, a new name anyhow. With much fanfare, WWE unveiled the rebranded "divas" championship as the women's championship.

"The term 'divas' fit their female characters back in the day when the product was not as child-friendly, with women competing in matches such as bra and panties matches," Jack White, a London-based TV reviewer and reporter for the website Diva Dirt, told NPR in an email. He said WWE's changes are "absolutely huge."

In an article for the Players Tribune, a website that gives sports insiders a platform to tell their stories in their own words, McMahon explained the significance of the changes:

"Our female performers are world-class athletes, actors, public speakers and philanthropists. They're role models, inspiring and empowering women and girls to be confident and strong. They dedicate themselves to WWE, achieve great success and earn the same respect as their male counterparts.

"Therefore, from this point forward, all of our performers – male and female – will be known as 'Superstars.' "


This shift is the latest step in a social-media movement created by pro wrestling fans called #GiveDivasAChance, which demanded dynamic, more developed roles for female performers in the dramas of pro wrestling. The movement has been gaining momentum — in February #GiveDivasAChance trended on Twitter for three days — and the WWE has been paying attention. Female performers are no longer just decorations for the men's matches.

"Now the WWE measure their female athletes on their skill in the ring, rather than their looks," White said. "The girls are now given the chance to prove that their matches aren't blink-and-you'll-miss-it bathroom breaks, they are unmissable events."

The A.V. Club described Sunday night's WrestleMania women's championship match as "urgent, exciting, and relevant," calling it "the type of match that has the potential to singlehandedly change the course of women's wrestling."

While the WWE women are still scantily clad (so are the men) the programming is no longer geared as heavily toward the male gaze. The idea is to put less focus on the women's bodies and more focus on their abilities, character storylines and charisma.

CBS said the women's championship may have been "the match of the night" and that the wrestlers "put together a tremendous performance with awesome near falls, great spots outside the ring and some interesting submission combinations."


But as Vocativ wrote earlier this year, WWE is still struggling to reconcile its history of portraying woman in primarily sexual contexts, as evidenced by a recent appearance from one of WWE's biggest stars, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The article read:

"Part of Johnson's appearance involved an extended bit with Lana, another of the company's young female talents, which consisted of a rambling monologue about an apparent sexual encounter the two had last year. Even when Rusev, Lana's fiancee both in storyline and reality, arrived on the scene The Rock continued to gleefully recall their X-rated antics, despite her obvious discomfort."

WWE's decisions to add more female performers to its roster and strike "diva" from its vernacular helps put male and female WWE performers on more equal footing, but it's also good for business.

In an interview last week with ESPN's Hannah Storm, McMahon said, "Our fans want to see our female athletes positioned the same as our men."


Tigercannon71
SEOPS Hippo
Posts: 28648
Joined: Tue Nov 16, 2004 5:14 pm

Re: WWE rebrands Divas into Superstars and Divas Championship into Women's Championship

Post by Tigercannon71 »

You know they had the womens championship back when Trish and Lita wrestled. This new group has some pretty good wrestlers, but they still need some help. The match at Wrestlemania was decent not match of the night by no means. I really havent been that impressed by those three yet. They botch a lot of moves if you really watch them wrestle.


NYBuckeye96
SEOPS H
Posts: 7404
Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2004 6:49 pm

Re: WWE rebrands Divas into Superstars and Divas Championship into Women's Championship

Post by NYBuckeye96 »

Bayley made her main roster debut at Battleground last night. Check out the pop she got from fans.......


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_EiTIsEHhs


Had the match included Becky Lynch instead of Dana Brooke, it would have reunited The Four Horsewomen from NXT.



danicalifornia
SEOPS HOF
Posts: 10525
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2006 4:09 pm
Location: Chillicothe

Re: WWE rebrands Divas into Superstars and Divas Championship into Women's Championship

Post by danicalifornia »

Sasha Banks is insanely over for barely being apart of the show since Wrestlemania, glad she got the title on Monday. She's super passionate and has a very good character.

I feel like the strongest way to get these women over is backstage interviews and let them go in the ring. The in-ring promos are a struggle for most of the roster as is. I also think that they need the champion to float between the shows, because a 6 woman roster for Smackdown isn't enough to justify a title, maybe enough to justify getting a title shot at their PPV's though.

With Nikki Bella and Emma returning soon, Bayley debuting, and likely Asuka soon, the Women's Division will be the strongest it has ever been, in-ring wise. I hope that they don't screw this up lol


NYBuckeye96
SEOPS H
Posts: 7404
Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2004 6:49 pm

Re: WWE rebrands Divas into Superstars and Divas Championship into Women's Championship

Post by NYBuckeye96 »

Asuka is an amazing wrestler. Too bad she can barely speak English. If I were WWE, when I called up Asuka, I would give her a manager to speak on her behalf, like Paul Heyman. Brock Lesnar isn't too good on the mic, but Heyman more than makes up for that. Put Heyman with Asuka and you got a breakout superstar right there.


danicalifornia
SEOPS HOF
Posts: 10525
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2006 4:09 pm
Location: Chillicothe

Re: WWE rebrands Divas into Superstars and Divas Championship into Women's Championship

Post by danicalifornia »

NYBuckeye96 wrote:Asuka is an amazing wrestler. Too bad she can barely speak English. If I were WWE, when I called up Asuka, I would give her a manager to speak on her behalf, like Paul Heyman. Brock Lesnar isn't too good on the mic, but Heyman more than makes up for that. Put Heyman with Asuka and you got a breakout superstar right there.
The WWE needs more managers as a whole. It wouldn't be anything perfect, but I'd like to see a Japanese-American manager who could do the talking for Asuka, Nakamura, and Itami whenever they all get called up.


Post Reply

Return to “Pro Sports”