Women in wrestling

Over the years, the Diva and Knockout divisions have had quite a roller coaster ride.

Quite a few people consider the womens matches as the "toilet break" during the PPV but for me, it has not always been this way.

Back in the day, there were some brilliant female wrestlers/ managers in the WWE/F - think back to the day when the following were on the roster:

Jacqui
Trish
Molly
Dawn Marie
Stacey Keibler
Lita
Ivory

All were involved in great storylines as actual equals. Now they are redruced to breaking wind in the WWE.

Same goes for the Knockouts. Used to be that we had a great roster and dare I say matches to watch. It went downhill for quite some time, but at least they are getting some good stories and air time to work with again.

So my question is - what went wrong. And how would you fix it?

What I want to hear is your all time favourite Womens wrestling storyline and how, if you were in charge you would book a feud now.

Who is your fantasy match up participants and how would it go down?

Over to you.

WWE
What went wrong for me is that the womens matches on TV do not go long enough, some are only a couple of minutes long.
There are also not enough women on rosters that are purely wrestlers, most are from a moddeling background. the only full blown always wrestler I can think of in WWE is Kharma at present.
Another thing I have spotted is that they all wrestle the same, kick, slap, kick. Let them change things up, throw in some more hard hitting moves
So to fix this I would begin looking at the indy promotions like shimmer who have some very good wrestlers on there and give them longer matches. If the E can get more wrestlers like Britani Knight on there books then the future will look a lot brighter.

TNA
What Went wrong for TNA was that they got rid of workers like Cheerleader Mellisa and have now gone down the same sort of route as WWE.
However they do have more pure workers than the E, but to me it seems as though they do not know how to use them.
what TNA needs is some new ideas on how to use the female wrestlers on there books.

I think the problem is the WWE decided that looks > ability.

Now it seems that's changed a bit, and the balance is a lot better in the last year. So hopefully that problem is fixing itself. Obviously there needs to be a balance as the Divas need to have a certain look, but rather than push a model into a wrestling career, just find the right woman to be both.

My favourite womens wrestling storyline was Sable v Torrie Wilson.

WWE - What Changed? The talent left. Women's wrestlers like Lita, Trish, Molly, Ivory, Jacqui all left the company to be replaced by the likes of the Bella twins, Kelly Kelly (better now than when she started) and Eve.

Another thing that led to the "downfal"l was when they actually had talent it was under utilized. Gail Kim, Katie Burchill, Mickie James never seem to be given the full amount of time or were restrained from showcasing what they could do. A lot of the women wrestling today in WWE seem to only have the same, shared generic moves and a finishing move each. Where as Lita had 3-4 moves that were recognised as hers and a finsihing move, same with Trish Stratus.

(Still enjoy watching Lita vs Trish in Trish's retirement match. One of the best Women's matches I've ever seen. Great story telling, good wrestling ability and an emotional finish.)

Would love to have the likes of Lita, Trish, Molly, Gail Kim, Velvet Sky, Nattie Neidhart, Katie Burchill, Mickie James, Victoria, Beth Phoenix, Michelle McCool and Kharma on the roster at the same time. Feel that had they had this pool of talent all at the same time then the Women's division would be more than just an after thought, Comic relief or toilet break on TV and PPV.

Who is your fantasy match up participants and how would it go down?

Am I allowed a bra and panties match, in an inflatable pool of mud?

I think that women wrestling will always struggle to get over, as, generally speaking, men watch wrestling because they want to be the guy in the ring, they wanted to be Hulk Hogan in the 90s, Steve Austin in 00s and could go some way to explaining why wrestling struggles at the moment as nobody wants to be John Cena, but I suppose Randy Orton or CM Punk is what people want to be now. It takes too much of a leap for a guy to want to be Kelly Kelly or Eve because it's too different. Then, I think a lot of women do watch wrestling for the men's looks, rather than enjoying the fighting of the women, so women's wrestling doesn't really have a target market.

Crimey wrote:I think that women wrestling will always struggle to get over, as, generally speaking, men watch wrestling because they want to be the guy in the ring, they wanted to be Hulk Hogan in the 90s, Steve Austin in 00s and could go some way to explaining why wrestling struggles at the moment as nobody wants to be John Cena, but I suppose Randy Orton or CM Punk is what people want to be now. It takes too much of a leap for a guy to want to be Kelly Kelly or Eve because it's too different. Then, I think a lot of women do watch wrestling for the men's looks, rather than enjoying the fighting of the women, so women's wrestling doesn't really have a target market.

I have to disagree Crimey, one of my favourite bits of Raw back in the 00's was the womens division when the WWE actually had good wrestlers like Trish, Victoria, Lita, Molly and Mickie, they put on excellent matches that a lot of the time would be one of the best matches on the show, the storylines were engaging especially the Trish and Lita rivalry which never got boring. Women wrestlers and the divisions can and does work when done right, WWE just need to stop being so dam caught up on looks and just go with actual ability in the ring and on the mic, the same can be and has been said for the men in the company, WWE are just far to concerned about how a wrestler looks and not what talent they have.

Its not me being sexist but i've never had time for womens wrestling. Ive never found it believable and apart from the odd exception the storylines have failed to capture my attention. Its about as good as womens rugby for me.

That being said i feel women do play a great valet and can add to a storyline. Trish Stratus in the Jericho v Christian storyline was excellent, and who can forget Queen Sherri begging The Ultimate Warrior for a match with Randy Savage. Lita was good with Edge and i enjoyed Melina's role with MNM.

Ive just never been into actual womens wrestling. Never have and probably never will.

Have to agree with Mr H. I don't know what it is but I've never been into womens matches, regardless of era or technical proficiency. They just never seem to be 'real' if you get what I mean. Maybe it's down to the WWE's presentation of it that I feel that way, but I've been to WWE live events before and the crowd completely checks out with the Divas, so much so I feel bad for them, but at least I realise it isn't just me.

Crimey wrote:Then, I think a lot of women do watch wrestling for the men's looks, rather than enjoying the fighting of the women, so women's wrestling doesn't really have a target market.

I agree with this to an extent. I love WWE and the attractiveness of certain wrestlers is a bonus. However, I would love to see the women wrestling properly as it used to be great. I like women like Beth, Natayla etc who can actually fight, I cannot abide Kelly Kelly and those like her as they are generally useless. Hopefully when Kharma returns it might get more interesting.