The Road to Summerslam

First, there is something I want to say about last week's RAW. Seth Rollins came out, gloating about messing up John Cena's face, before issuing an open challenge to the locker room. Of course since he's a major heel, he had a few stipulations: The wrestler had to be under six feet tall and weigh under 200 pounds.

The first person that came to mind was that little guy that runs around dressed like a bull. It was not him that came out, however, it was the man that gravity forgot, Neville.

Now, Neville is a great entertainer and they put on a fantastic match, but I could not help but think the WWE had a perfect opportunity to push the DIVAS division and they blew it.

Because the wrestler that should have come out, should have been Nikki Bella. We've seen the Divas do a lot of stuff over the years, but I do not recall one time that a Diva ever challenged the World Heavyweight Champion on Raw. From a story perspective, everything would have fallen together. The people watching Total Divas know how close John and Nikki are and those fans would have loved to see Nikki come out to defend her boyfriend. Also, given the damage done to John's face, it would make sense that his woman might want some payback. Also, having her lose to Seth would have given Cena even more fuel for his champion vs champion match at SummerSlam.

It would have shown that the Divas division is not just a girl's title, that the women of the WWE are just as capable as the men. I am not saying the girls should be in the ring with the guys every week, but if you want to have true equality, you need to show equality in the ring.

Seth Rollins is one of the smallest guys on the roster, so it isn't like Nikki would have had to take bumps from Brock Lesnar. If a guy like Rey Mysterio can face a man the size of the Big Show, why can't the women wrestle against men of equal skill? Wrestling has come a long way since Chyna was Intercontinental Champion and I think giving women an opportunity to win those other titles is more important that "not promoting violence against women".

You can't bring Ronda Rousey out to the ring and then pretend to be against violence against women. Ronda brings the violence, she's the toughest woman in the world! What WWE doesn't want to promote is men hurting women, which I totally agree with. How women are depicted is very important, they should not be used as baby carriers, assault victims or prostitutes the way they often were in the past. People do want to see women participate in violent sports, Ronda's fame proves it.
So instead of being afraid of showing women superstars in the ring with men, the WWE should be showing the world how its done. The WWE is always trying to remind us that they are an entertainment company, can you imagine a movie studio saying women can't fight against men in movies? Especially in movies that they STAR in? Ronda can't fight against men in real life, but wrestling isn't real life. We are living in a very unique time, one where women are becoming the heroes of their own stories. How can we tell stories about women heroes overcoming the odds, when the biggest opponent they face, the alpha male, isn't allowed to compete against women? It shouldn't be frequent, it shouldn't even be commonplace, but the idea of male vs female superstars shouldn't be off the table either.

 If the WWE wants to take their Divas division to the next and more fully integrate them with the other superstars, you need to have them beat the biggest challenge they face; the patriarchy. Even if Nikki Bella beats every Diva that crosses her path, at the end of the day she is just a woman beating up other women. If she beat Seth Rollins, she'd be a legend.

If the girls never fight the boys, how are we ever going to have a female WWE champion? Or a women's tag team division? Or a transgender wrestler, for that matter?


THE SWERVE IS ALIVE


I have to admit, I didn't see the Rollins VS Cena feud coming. Cena put more guys over as the US champion than I think he ever did before in his career. Cena, along with Cesaro, Kevin Owens and a few others, created a second tier in the WWE, something we haven't seen in a long time. Even during the Attitude Era, there was a huge gap between the top stars and the mid-carders. I haven't seen a WWE roster this stacked with talent since the 80s. And with all the great wrestlers on the roster today, I never expected Cena to rise back to the top. Either this is the biggest put over in history, and Cena is going to lose to Rollins, or Cena is going to become the greatest WWE superstar of all time.

Ironically, there have been wrestlers in the past who have held two titles, but they always left one title vacant (The Ultimate Warrior beat Hulk Hogan and was both Intercontinental and World Heavyweight Champion.)