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.

Daniel Bryan, John Cena, and the Divas

Ten years ago, I'd have said John Cena was a punk. I am not a fan of white rappers, especially ones who do it part time as a hobby, and Cena was one of the worst wrestling rappers of all time. Like Brock Lesnar, Cena came at the end of my time watching the WWE, when I came back, I wasn't really surprised that Cena was still around, but I wasn't happy about it.

When I came back to the WWE universe, I took an immediately liking to Daniel Bryan. He was just so different than the old style wrestlers, his in-ring skills were impressive and while his beard is pretty nasty, it was unique. Much like Mick Foley, Daniel Bryan had that 'everyman' vibe, that he was just like one us, but his hard work and perseverance took him right to the top of Wrestlemania 30. Every time I heard a story or rumor that Vince McMahon didn't like Bryan, the more I wanted to support him. His work with ROH was phenomenal, whereas Cena has been a WWE company boy from day 1.

Monday Night Raw: The Day the Divas Division was Born

If you were watching Monday Night Raw last week, you might have noticed a groundbreaking event occur: The WWE Divas division was officially born.

Now I know what you are thinking, the Divas have been around for like twenty years! Well that's true, but the WWE  Divas division was never really a wrestling division, was it?
I mean we had bikini matches. . .

Mud wrestling. . .

And a never ending parade of valets, AKA, girlfriends.

Nikki Bella and the Divas

I'll admit it, I have never really been a fan of Divas. Women's wrestling throughout the 80's, at least as I remember it, was a lot of cheap hair pulling and body slams. I pretty much ignored women's wrestling through the 80's, I never really paid much attention to what was going on in WCW back then, and I never had any interest in any of the female wrestlers of that era. 

Then the 90's came, and women's wrestling got much better, and so much worse. On one hand you had Chyna, a woman with the skills and the talent to stand toe to toe with the men. You also had Lita, who was the exact opposite of Chyna; small, fast and athletic. 

Both women were more than capable of holding their own in the ring, in some cases even better than the men. In fact at one point Chyna was a serious contender for the men's title. Chyna was the first woman to qualify for the King of the Ring tournament (Queen of the Ring?), the first female contender for the WWF title, until Mankind came around to knock her out of the spot, and eventually became the first and only female Intercontinental Champion. Had she not done such terrible porn, she would be in the hall of fame already.

Lita had the same level of success, but in different ways, and also carried the same amount of baggage, although not from porn. No, Lita's legacy was tarnished by cheating on her boyfriend Matt Hardy with Edge and turning it into a painful storyline. Seeing her relationship and hearing Matt's moaning and groaning was painful to watch, I think they were the first pair of entertainers to make the entire WWE Universe feel uncomfortable. 

Lita and the Hardy Boyz were groundbreaking in their own way and Lita had no problem keeping pace with her crazy male partners. Lita was a "dancer", who decided she wanted to become a wrestler after watching Rey Mysterio Jr. on an episode of WCW. From there, Lita met the right men at the right time, including Paul Heyman who was in charge of ECW and worked her way up to a WWF spot. Her high-flying moves and perfectly executed hurricanrada made her one of the top stars of the day.

Later on, Trish Stratus joined the mix. I actually met Trish a few years before her debut with the WWE. She was manning a table at Fan Expo. I asked her what she did and she told me she was a fitness model. I felt kind of bad for her because there was no one interested in buying the calendar of a local girl they'd never heard of. It was almost embarassing, because the cute anime girl across from her was surrounded by an entourage of men and women. Trish was the link between the great divas and the not-so-great, which I will get to soon. Trish could wrestle AND looked sexy, which essentially makes her the first real DIVA, a wrestler and model who could pose in swimsuits and also close matches. Unfortunately the Divas division never really got the serious push it needed, because whenever fans asked for a match, there was always some other woman willing to take her clothes off instead. Which brings me to the bad side of the Divas division: Sable.

I never found Sable attractive. She looked like someone's mother who thought she was hot but really didn't get what hot was. Her boobs were too fake, her body too tall and lanky, for me to personally find her attractive. However, she pushed the envelope on what was acceptable on television. Her bikini matches and constant slutty behavior crippled the Divas division and turned it into a joke. When every Diva was willing to do the swimsuit issue and was forced to promote THAT over their own skills in ring, your going to have problems. No one took the Divas division seriously. Until now.

I'll give Sable credit for trying, and she must be tough, she sleeps with the Beast Brock Lesnar every night, but I never considered her a wrestler.

Which brings us to the greatest Divas champion of all time: Nikki Bella.

As far as I am concerned, AJ Lee, Chris Benoit and CM Punk no longer exist in the WWE timeline. They've been retconned out and good riddance. 

When I first came back and saw the reinvigorated Divas division, both in the WWE and in NXT, I was surprised by the talent and skills of the women wrestlers. It seems creative isn't as sharp with using them as they are with the men, but still they've managed to carve out a nice spot for themselves.

I knew Nikki was with John Cena and Brie was with Daniel Bryan, but I didn't know much else about them. I assumed that Brie, with her natural body and more laid back attitude, was the one I'd support. Nikki seemed superficial and a bit of a valley girl. Until I discovered Total Divas, I thought for sure I'd be a Brie fan.

But Nikki Bella is one of the coolest women I've ever seen on television. She is open with her feelings and not afraid of her passions. She whipped out a box of dildos on television and didn't think twice about it. Her attitudes toward her career, her sex life and her relationships is completely normal and healthy, something you almost NEVER see on television. Nikki loves her life and she is not afraid to show it, she has goals that she works toward and is not distracted with trying to life a certain lifestyle, the way her sister is. Brie seems like an annoying hipster who doesn't know how to shine her light out, instead holding back. Nikki burns bright and shines in the ring. She has all the skills needed to remain champion and most women aren't working hard enough to take it from her. While Nikki builds a second career as a real estate agent, Brie is worried about farming vegetables from her own feces. Yeah, you read that right. Nikki Bella is the first real woman champion, the first real Diva, and I hope John Cena stops acting like a jackass and realizes what Nikki has to offer as a mother and wife. 

TOTAL DIVAS offers a unique glimpse at the wrestling industry from the perspective of the women who are lucky enough to work there. I really think it would be worthwhile to unite the two Divas divisions and create a tag team title, everyone loves the current women but Nikki needs more challenging opponents in the WWE. Paige's constant complaining is boring. Brie doesn't seem to want anything, other than what she doesn't want, apparently Brie would rather fight for chicken's rights than be women's champion. 

I hope the Bellas have many more years of wrestling ahead of them and I hope Nikki beats the old Divas record for longest run with the women's title. She totally deserves it. Nikki Bella is my Divas champion and I am not afraid to say it. I'd love to see her matched up against Becky Lynch or Charlotte Flair. Make it happen, WWE!

Brock is Back!

So I just discovered the Total Divas TV show, luckily the wife is enjoying it too. I am going to be posting about it later when we've finished the first season. But I will say this: Eva Marie is a piece of garbage. She is the perfect example of all that I hate about people. I honestly can't believe they let her work there. I haven't even seen her wrestle yet but I doubt she can, she can't really do anything but start shit and bat her eyelashes. I feel bad for Fandango, who kept getting dragged into her shit in Season 1. Great show if you love to see a bit of what life is like backstage.

On Kevin Owens. . .

The John Cena, Kevin Owens feud continues, with Owens letting loose this week with a little bit of French, just to make the crowd boo him a little more. I was very impressed with John Cena's comeback, not only could he speak a little French, but he busted out some Chinese as well. Seeing John in Total Divas and comparing that to his in-ring performances and you can tell he is a born wrestler, he never shows as much emotion in front of the reality show cameras as he does in that ring.
Meanwhile, Kevin Owens talked about how, unlike Cena, he doesn't care what people think about him. Well Kevin, I call bullshit on that.

See, I remember what it was I said to him to get banned on Twitter. I sent him a tweet when I heard he was moving to the WWE roster, at that time I hadn't watched much NXT. I told Kevin something like: It's time to hit the gym, dude. Your moving to the big time now!

He obviously cares what people think, because he blocked me. I guess his tough guy, I don't care attitude is a facade, because clearly he can't take a little criticism online from a humble writer of books.

On a side note, apparently Hulk Hogan is a big fan of Kevin Owens. Here is the quote from Hogan, who I guess watches NXT.

Kevin actually reminds me of one of the older wrestlers of the late Seventies, some of those guys that didn't have the build, but they would scare you if you met them at a bar. What hooked me about him was that I was watching a match of his on NXT and I found myself disassociated with being in the moment, all of a sudden I started watching him and he made me believe again. I watched real close, and there were no holes in his boat - his punches, his kicks, everything he did looked like it was killing the guy, which it probably was. He caught me with my guard down and he made me a believer again, he hooked me. He's got that look, man; that demeanor and that swagger.

On Bray Wyatt, Roman Reigns

I am not a big fans of Roman being dragged away from the main event for the summer and forced into a silly stunt. I like Wyatt, although I disagree with him being a face, and I totally agree with my Wrestling Weekday partner in thinking the Wyatt Family should be reunited. Hell I'd love to see Reigns take them all on, but I don't think they need to go so far with the games and manipulation. Let the in-ring action sell the feud, not pre-taped promo bits. I hate the idea that a wrestler is just going to stop in the middle of a match and run out of the ring because of something on-screen, the guys have more respect for the game than that.

I personally never saw the Wyatt family in more than one or two matches, so I have no problem with them getting more exposure. Speaking of which, I was glad to see Adam Rose getting some air time. I cheer for the dirty pirate because I don't think many people do and I think he deserves to be there, far more than some other people on the roster.

The big news of the week is, of course, the return of Brock Lesnar. Nice to see Seth Rollins get laid out a couple times with some powerful suplexes. I respect Rollins, but creatively I don't see how far they can take him as champ of the Authority. I'd rather see Brock VS Kane or Seth vs Triple H, Seth and Brock can only end with Brock winning, or Seth doing what seems unlikely and impossible. Seth Rollins defeating Brock Lesnar would make Seth the smallest guy to do so. It took the whole gang to take him down on RAW, does this mean Brock just turned face?

This weekend I'll be checking out Smackdown and watching the Dusty Rhodes story, so I should have a post Monday about it. I'm excited to see NXT matches coming out of Japan, not sure when that is.

AND we got our tickets for the WWE show at the Ricoh Coliseum here in Toronto! Not sure if it is live or not, but we've got seats at the base of the stage, on the floor. First time ever seeing a live wrestling event!

Keep reading and keep body slamming!