#GiveDivasAChance: One Year On

Hello everyone and welcome back to Talk Wrestling World, I hope you are all well and good! Last week marked one year since the #GiveDivasAChance movement. A movement that saw fans of WWE divas come together to spark a change in how women in the WWE are treated following a thirty minuet match between Brie Bella and Emma on Monday night RAW. A year later I'm back with an update blog post as I go through what has happened over the past year, if the movement worked, and what the WWE should be looking at within the next twelve months to improve the division even more. Of course I was super  passionate about this blog post and it took me so long to write after wanting it to be as good as possible so I really hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. As always I will be linking bellow any recent blog post including this weeks RAW Review and Reactions and my WWE Fastlane Review and Reactions post witch was uploaded just a couple of weeks back. And finally, this is a heavy subject so remember you can have your say by leaving a comment bellow or by tweeting me at @TezangiVictoria. I would love to know what you think about the divas division one year on from this massive movement.

Last week marked one year since the #GiveDivasAChance movement began. A movement that divas and diva fans had been fighting for plenty of years had on this night finally been put into full effect. The movement came about after Emma and Brie Bella were booked for a thirty second match up. Those thirty seconds sent the internet into full blast with fans all across the world jumping onto twitter to express their frustrations. As a strong advocate for women's wrestling I was hugely behind and supportive of the whole movement. It was a long overdue move from the WWE universe but something that made headlines around the world and united the internet wrestling community as for once we could all agree on something. For years women in the WWE have been mistreated and it was brilliant watching every single fan come together to spark a much needed change. The hash tag was trending on twitter for weeks with women all around the world and WWE divas showing their support. The likes of Natalya, Paige, AJ Lee, and Stephanie McMahon all hit to twitter to thank the WWE universe and join the movement. Even Vince McMahon who rarely addresses anything on social media tweeted out a promise that he had acknowledged #GiveDivasAChance and told us to watch this space. After fans put all their efforts into showing the WWE that they wanted more women's wrestling and respected/ and respect to be shown to its female athletes where does division stand one year on? In today's blog post we are going to be having a look back at the past twelve months looking at what the WWE have done to improve their divas division and what more they could do within the next year to keep pushing the movement forward.

Lets start off by looking at how the WWE addressed the movement. With the amount of attention and buzz the #GiveDivasAChance movement sparked the WWE had no choice but to acknowledge the whole thing and for weeks made comments about it and inserted into storyline's briefly. They continued to focus their attentions on it's top women in the division, The Bella Twins, Paige, and of course AJ Lee. The four women came together to put on what was a long but effective storyline. A month after the movement kick started the four went on to compete at Wrestlemania in a solid tag team  match that was very well received from the live crowd on the night. The match was of a decent length and all four women (Paige in particular) where able to showcase some great wrestling. This was without a doubt one of the best divas matches to be booked for a Wrestlemania event and it was just a month after the movement kick started. The Mania match up last year was a huge improvement from the mess that had been booked the year before. On the same night Stephanie McMahon had a high rated segment with Ronda Rousey sparking massive attention and buzz with everyone having something to say about it. A true Wrestlemania moment that no one will be forgetting any time soon. This was arguably one of the best Wrestlemania pay per views for women/the divas division.

In the Summer of last year we really started to see some big improvements when Sasha Banks, Charlotte, and Becky Lynch were all called up to the main roster as the WWE kick started a brand new movement; the divas revolution. The goal? To push women in the WWE and prove they re just as equal and capable as men. For months we saw team B.A.D (Naomi, Sasha Banks, and Tamina), Team Bella (the Bella Twins and Alicia Fox), and team P.C.B (Paige, Charlotte and Becky Lynch) battle it out to prove who was the dominate team. The revolution was a good idea and the WWE had

good intentions. However, in true WWE style the problem was was they dragged it out for far too long and fans grew bored of seeing the same repetitive thing week in and week out. The early days were of course really promising and a great success. The storyline was very effective and picked up a lot of positive attention. We saw all nine women perform to a high level with the likes of Nikki Bella, Brie Bella, Naomi, and Alicia Fox finally being given the opportunity to shine and show the world what they are capable of in the ring. Banks, Becky, and Charlotte all increased the competition level forcing every diva to up their game. The night the three of them arrived the was a huge nigh for women's Wrestling and the divas division. It was the highest rated segment of the night and was left trending and high talking topic for days. It was here that we started to see longer matches from given to the divas witch meant that there was more of an interest in both the wrestling and the storyline's.

Since #GiveDivasAChance we have also seen the women given more backstage interviews and in ring segments allowing us all to get to know the characters more. One thing that has always been an issue with the WWE Divas division is the lack of character. Every women was either crazy or a total diva and it didn't really go anywhere from that. Since then we have seen Paige be more her anti- diva self, we have got Sasha Banks and her fantastic Boss gimmick, the alternative Becky Lynch who has been compared to Lita for invalidity and unorthodox look, a sassy bad girl Naomi, and Charlotte has gone from the a quiet, phenomenal athlete telling everyone how much she wants it to being an arrogant champion you genuinely have a disliking for. Because of more exposer and understanding to their characters and the increased amount of mic time we have seen divas much more over than we have done in the past. The WWE have finally allowed its women to take risks and be bold with their segments. For example, Stephanie McMahon and her massive segment with Ronda Rousey at the grandest stage of them all Wrestlemania last year. This hit headlines all around the world and had sports and sports entertainment fans buzzing. We also had Paige and her controversial comments during her feud with Charlotte and most recently Brie Bella celebrating in the ring with her husband Daniel Bryan just a thew weeks back. These are all big improvements that have helped the division grow massively over the past year.

Nikki Bella in particular has been extremely impressive throughout the past year. Whether you love her or hate her, the Total Divas star went on to have one of the most dominate years any divas has ever had in WWE history. One of the biggest storyline's of the year was without a doubt Nikki Bella and her divas championship reign. The heat and attention this story alone generated was huge for women on the main roster. Going to enter the record books by becoming the longest reigning divas champion of all time she went on to become a worthy winner of the slammy award for diva of the year. She worked her butt off to prove all the neigh sayers wrong putting on several fantastic matches against the likes of Paige, Sasha Banks, and Charlotte, all of witch have featured in previous top twenty matches of the month blog post as you would have seen throughout the year. We saw developments in her character and her fan base only continued to grow more and more as she proved she really could hack it in the ring. I have to admit, I can actually call myself a Nikki Bella fan. Brie Bella was also a stand out last year. During the divas revolution she showed the world that she had improved greatly as an in ring competitor. Not only did she look strong in plenty of matches but she was also able to make her opponents look amazingly well throughout matches. Naomi had a much better year also. She may not have become divas champion but she has fitted in some fantastic matches and since turning heel has been much more entertaining to watch. The same can be said for veterans Natalya and Alicia Fox who have also continued to have great performances however are still very much underutilised. I also need to quickly mention Summer Rae. You guys know that I'm a massive Summer Rae fan. I think she has so much potential and has throughout the past year has not been given enough opportunity showcase that in the ring. She has played the mange very well over the past twelve months and has been apart of some great segments while at the side of Tyler Breeze, Dolph Ziggler, and Rusev but it's one hundred percent time for her to step in the ring.

NXT continues to be the best place for women's wrestling. Last year the women of NXT took the f**k over. The four horsewomen remained the true driving force in the divas revolution setting the bar for both the women on the main roster and the NXT divas to follow them. All four of them had matches against one another that were noted as some of the best of the entire year. The biggest storyline in all of women's wrestling this year was without a doubt Sasha Banks VS Bayley. These two women worked extremely hard to change the way women's wrestling would be viewed forever. At NXT Takeover Brooklyn they had the match of the night setting the bar fro everyone to follow after them and gave the male superstars a run for their money. These two girls put men and women in the WWE all on hold as they showed everyone how it should be done. They went on to not only win NXT Match of the year and the overall match of the year in the eyes of many fans but they also made history twice in one night when they became the first divas to main event a WWE live show and the first two women to compete in a iron match in the WWE. After three of the four horsewomen were called up the main roster the female talent in NXT carried on impressing. We saw the biggest female signing in WWE history when Asuka made her way to NXT stopping everyone in their tracks. She very quickly became a force to be reckoned with coming across just as intimidating as the male roster. The likes of Nia Jax, Billie Kay, Eva Marie Peyton Royce, Carmella, Alexa Bliss, Emma, and Dana Brooke have all continued to keep the standards and expectations of the NXT women's division very very high. The main event NXT Women's championship match also saw between Bayley and Eva Marie was one of the most talked about NXT matches of the entire year receiving one of the biggest reactions we saw all year round.

We have seen NXT make huge developments with it's female talent and the way they are used and exposed. They no longer refer to the division as the "divas division" and instead now it is referred to as the women's division with every match being introduced a women's division match up. The championship remains respectful and nowhere near as sexiest and patronising as the main roster divas championship. We are regularly seeing women main event episodes of NXT to the point where it is the norm for both men and women to be the main event showing that the female athletes and their storyline's are just as important and of a big deal. Talking of storyline's we also seeing NXT continue to put on strong, gripping, interesting and entertaining storyline's that are easy for fans to be invested in.

There is no denying that the WWE have come a long way with the divas division over the past year since the start of the #GiveDivasAChance movement but there is plenty more to work on. The first is longer matches. Yes, divas matches on the main roster  have gotten longer but only by a couple of minuets or so. I want to see divas matches much much longer, hitting the fifteen minuet mark, especially at pay per view events. The championship is still a big problem for me as well. I hate the divas championship belt. It's extremely dated and is in serious need of being re-designed and made more appropriate and less insulting to the talent. In all honesty, the WWE need to look at what they are doing with the NXT women's division and copy that. Referring to the talent as the women's division instead of the vision would be a small change but one that would show a lot more respect

and a huge development in the direction the WWE are willing to go with their female talent. Penultimately, I really want to see more divas matches and segments on Monday night RAW. It's a weekly three hour show and if NXT can give us up to three diva segments/matches a night in the space of one hour than the WWE don't have any excuses as to why they can't do the same for a three hour Monday night RAW. Finally, main eventing. I know I keep saying it, but NXT provide us with women main eventing every other week or so. I'm not expecting to start seeing divas main event Monday night RAW because that's pretty much like asking for a miracle but they could at least start looking at putting divas in the main event on Thursday night Smackdown as a starting point and to see how it goes down with fans.

Like I said we have seen some big changes and developments in the divas division over the past year and while there is plenty more work to be made we are getting closer to a better more equal and respected divas divsion. The WWE are heading in the right direction with storyline's massively improving over the past month and with the biggest and most anticipated Wrestlemania divas match on the way with Charlotte set to defend her championship against either Sasha Banks or Becky Lynch things are on the way up for women's wrestling in the WWE. As always you can let me know what your opinions are by leaving a comment bellow or by tweeting me at @TezangiVictoria.

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