Not so, not so, I’m thinking! There’s plenty of opportunity here for the Divas to step up and shut up their biggest detractors.

We’ve blogged here before at womenswrestlingxposed that women’s wrestling needs to tap into ‘reality TV’ to build its storylines. Now, we said this in context to SHIMMER and other indie promotions, suggesting that a ‘reality TV’ format built around a former WWE Diva (such as Lisa Marie Varon) could succeed because the cost of production and the originality of the content would allow to the show to survive in a specialty niche. Women’s wrestling should be seen as heavenly content to cable providers because it’s cheap and should appeal to young male demographics.

WWE has a style that relies on drama and storytelling to bring the audiences into what happens in the ring. The biggest failure the WWE Divas have is that in being hired at the top based on looks and not skill, the Divas can’t be trusted with airtime to sell the WWE product. The Divas are in the big times without the skills to be anything more than eye candy. Not that the Divas aren’t trying, they’re stuck in a vicious circle. Let that be a lesson kids, earn your way to the top- don’t rely on superficiality to make your way and you won’t get caught like that.

The listed ‘pros’ are hardly on their own here. It’s safe to assume that other WWE Divas and stars are going to be involved as well. You can bank on the Glamazon, LayCool, Gail Kim, Eve, Jillian and Natalya making appearances. I personally would love to see Golddust interacting with the Divas (“May I smell your hair?”). We might even see a cameo with Trish Stratus sometime during the competition!

I like what Chris B from Bleacherreport.com said regarding the Divas:

“basically, WWE isn’t expecting Diva NXT to work. Even worse, they aren’t expecting anything from Diva NXT. This brings about the question, why should the Divas themselves care then?
|Well, I think they should care because if they bring in the ratings they’ll catch WWE’s attention. If the women can keep NXT’s ratings the same as before, or increase them, WWE might want to invest more in them. They might be able to flourish once more, and a new, better era of women’s wrestling in WWE can start. It’s a good chance for these girls to get over as well”

I agree also with Chris B other points, first one that the Diva’s sex appeal will bring in male viewers. And we cannot undervalue what time given to the Divas can do for the Divas. The Divas have the chance here to show their skills and actually try to get over with the crowd through promos. Finally, Chris points out that there is a large following of women wrestling fans online- although I’m not certain we make up 30% of the WWE’s fan base (Unless Chris is referring the 30% of fans who don’t go to the washroom at a live event when the Divas are wrestling?) I kid, as Chris has a point that if the online fans do their part to pump up NXT Season 3, we could have an impact on the ratings, absolutely.

The FCW’s smaller venue will also work well for the Divas. Women’s wrestling, in my opinion, simply works better with a smaller crowd. The TNA studio’s size actually works to the Knockouts advantage. One reason I think this is because there’s no way to take the sex appeal of women who are fit out of the equation- but distance from the ring is a hindrance for ogling fans. The other reason is that large venues work with characters that are larger than life and the average women wrestler weighs in at less than 120 pounds- the big venues just eat them up. What I’m trying to say is that women wrestlers are more engaging the closer you are to them and so smaller venues are better.

So fellow women wrestling fans, here’s our chance to stand up and be proud to be a fan of women who wrestle. The Divas have a chance here to shake things up in WWE and take a more active roll- provided they prove they can get over with the fans. Tell your friends to tune in and let’s give our favorite Diva ‘pros’- and the ‘rookies’- our support.

Botchedspot.com did comment on the comic and Gail not being a part of NXT Season 3.

NXT Season 3 HAS to be a slap in the face for poor Gail Kim! While watching the pros and rookies get named for the third season of the show all I could think about was how depressed she must be! Kelly Kelly as a pro? Primo? The Bella twins? And I thought calling Zack Ryder a pro was pushing it! I understand the scripted nature of wrestling, but they’re really pushing my suspension of disbelief by telling me that the Bellas are going to be teaching anyone anything.

Overall I like the concept of an all-diva season, mostly because I’m curious about how they’re going to pull it off considering the divas on Raw and Smackdown already get so little time. I thought it was just going to be used as a format to build up Aloisia, but apparently Vickie Guerrero has just “fired” according to wwe.com, so who knows. Like most people, I hated the diva search segments that used to fill up Raw a few years back, but considering these rookies have a little more background and have a hour long show to fill, I’m interested to see what it’ll be like.

Check out the rest of the article and botchedspot.com by clicking here.

This is too good not to pass on…

“After I wound down with TNA, I took a nice long vacation with my family in California.

“I noticed that I am back on the WWE.com Alumni page. I had a long run with them, and it’s always nice to be recognized along side of some of wrestling’s all time greats. I heard that I’m supposedly talking to WWE about a return. There are a lot of things that I loved about working with WWE. But at this point, there are other things that I’m trying to do while I still have the opportunity. I think we all feel that Victoria ran her course at WWE.

“I also noticed that the wrestling websites picked up the fact that I had some money stolen while working at the Philly Comic-Con. I probably shouldn’t have posted that on my twitter account, but I was letting people know that I was staying around an extra day. It was actually the second time I was robbed in two weeks. Shortly before that, I had a set of $3000 wheels stolen off a car outside my house. Then I had the money stolen at the show. It wasn’t so much the lost money, but it doesn’t feel good to be the victim of a crime. But get this…about a week after I got back from the show, I get a call from the guys at Black Widow Customs. Apparantly a customer had come in asking how to get a set of wheels on his vehicle that weren’t made for his vehicle. The Wheel Tech went to his car to look at the wheel. Guess what ?! You got it…it was my wheel !!! The tech played it cool, took the wheel in the back, and found the markings that we put inside our wheels for just such an occasion. They then called the police, and “politely requested” that the customer wait for the police. He confessed to the police to taking the wheels. He was arrested, and I got my wheels back

“I will be going to the Bellator MMA show on Thursday Night. Don’t read too much into that. I’m going with my coach, who will be cornering the Main Event. But I do have a meeting with their matchmaker before the show. We’ll see what he has to say.

“After that I’m going to visit Michelle McCool, Torrie Wilson, and Sharmell in Texas for the weekend. Lookout Texas, it’s gonna be a girls night out.

“At Black Widow Customs we are currently building a vehicle that is unlike anything on the road today. I don’t want to overhype it, but we are very excited about it. I will put the first pics on my MySpace page.”

Lisa Marie Varon training for MMA

Alicia defeated Eve Torres, Maryse and Gail Kim in a fatal 4-Way this Sunday, by pinning Maryse after throwing Eve out of the ring.

Thanks goes to ajsemprini.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

One Dirty B

ODB has twitted her departure from TNA on Monday, saying it was her decision. This isn’t much of a surprise, as ODB had been benched for several months after publically making negative comments about a Knockout match. ODB has suggested she is interested in working in movies. We wish ODB the best of luck in whatever she chooses to do next.

What is surprising is Roxxi’s departure (again) from TNA after wrestling a match against Madison Rayne Sunday at TNA’s Slammiversary. The rumour about backstage is that Roxxi was only  told about the stipulation her career would be on the line when she arrived before the show Sunday.

Since the start of 2010, Awesome Kong, Alissa Flash, ODB, Roxxi, Tara and Traci Brooks have  left TNA. Taylor Wilde and Hamada are all MIA. Daffney and Angelina Love are just getting back after being sidelined with injuries.

TNA has hired Lotta Love to fill the void. Now, Lotta Love is big, but its like the women wrestling talent in TNA is hissing out the ruptured hull of a direlect spaceship in the cold void of space.  Lotta Love isn’t going to plug this hole.

Ninja's Creed out July 20!

How could we not promote the July 20th DVD release of “Royal Kill”- uh, “Ninja’s Creed”- starring Gail Kim as the unstoppable killing machine Nadia? You can preorder your copy of “Ninja’s Creed” at Amazon.com by following this link to Ninja’s Creed! 

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Click here to view the embedded video.

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TNA posted on tnawrestling.com, “Effective immediately, TNA Wrestling has elected to terminate the services of Todd Clem p/k/a Bubba the Love Sponge.”

TNA’s decision to release Bubba came after another incident with former TNA Knockout Awesome Kong this past week. Kong appeared on the Cowhead radio show and was “ambushed” by Bubba the Love Sponge. Bubba yelled and swore at Kong and then offered to donate $5000 to Haiti if Kong would come down his station for a rematch. Bubba was referring to an incident in January where his remarks to f*ck Haiti led to a one-sided confrontation where an upset Kong apparently beat the hell out of Bubba. We guess this has been hard to Bubba to deal with…

Kong response to the news of Bubba’s release on Twitter: “Kongfucious says: Karma is a bitch… named Kong!!!!”

We have decided to post the incident on our site, but we want to warn you that the language and content of this interview is both shocking and offensive. Your life will not be enriched listening to Bubba’s tirade.

Slam! Wrestling reports that it was changes on the creative side, including the departures of Dutch Mantell and Scott D’Amore, that contributed significantly to the move.

“It was the changes behind the scenes, and nothing more. It was a very mutual split and it was time to move on. TNA is going forward with their direction as a whole, as a company, and I saw all the other opportunities.”

Cheerleader Melissa has set her sights on Lucha Libra.

“I’m in light talks with Mexico, and that’s something that I would really love just to add to my career. I spent a lot of time in Japan, the United States, Canada, a lot of time in Europe. I never really gave Mexico a shot, so that’s a personal goal for myself right now.”

Another project in the works is a working agreement between the various promotions worldwide that showcase women’s wrestling.

“The new project I’ve been working on is the Female Fight League, which the announcement was just made during the Cauliflower Alley convention, the Baloney Blowout. Basically, it’s going to be a female version of the NWA. The details are still being worked out. We really want to do something to boost female wrestling as a whole throughout the world, and, mainly, the United States.”

Slam! Wrestling asked Melissa if the Female Fight League perhaps a reaction to the state of women’s wrestling at the moment?

“There’s a lot of people that have been coming up to me that are a little bit frustrated with the state right now. Is it going up? Is it going down? I can’t really speak on that. But there’s a lot of frustration, and there are a lot of wrestling fans that are big fans of female wrestling.”

Slam! Wrestling lists off Femmes Fatales in Montreal, ChickFight in California, SHIMMER out of Chicago, WSU in New England, and Pro Wrestling EVE in England and says that not all of the companies are on board yet with the Female Fight League.

Melissa explains, “It’s very, very good that we have those companies out there, and we hope for, with the Female Fight League, that these companies are able to work together to make it bigger in the United States. Our companies, they’re so spread out, we’re not really in competition with each other, so we need to find a way to work together to put a lot more focus on it.”

You can read the whole article at Slam! Wrestling.

In our opinion, Cheerleader Melissa is in the right track in regards to women wrestling. Women’s wrestling is in a niche market within wrestling. The best company models for women wrestling are going to be small, lean and mean, and no one company is going to threaten the market share of another company. There’s only so much growth for women wrestling and that limits the threat of new promotions popping up to steal market share for any established company. An alliance, then, with each company taking a region and working together to promote all women wrestling makes sense.

We just posted up our thoughts on what Lisa Marie Varon should be doing next. In our opinion, Lisa Marie Varon could up her game and work more on the business side of wrestling. Lisa doesn’t have anything else to prove in-ring. Her rub and her connections in the industry, including ex-divas like Trish Stratus, Stacy Keibler and now Mickie James, could make a tremendous difference in getting a time slot for independent women wrestling on TV. A show where creative control isn’t in the hands of Jimmy Hart, or Vince McMahon, and there’s adequate funding for a quality product.