I'd be the first one to bash Candice Michelle in a thread but I have actually come to a conclusion. Candice is a hard worker, I will no longer take any of that away from her because I know that even if you aren't great when you get out in front of a crowd doesn't mean you haven't worked your ass off. I can't say she's my new favorite or that I won't cringe every time she steps into the ring but I can say that I will cut her some slack.

Which really brings me to why I'm blogging, I have figured out my mind set when it comes to who I think is good in the ring and who isn't and I'll add that while I LOVE Maria to death and think that she is so adorable that I could never hate her.

The diva search divas, there is an obvious reason for not liking these girls. The didn't work hard to GET IN to this business and it seems the only ones that started out with any type of training in diva search didn't get chosen (i.e. Talia Madison). Now that being said there are a few of the diva search girls that actually make it past the first year after diva search and actually become successful mainly because they're marketable. Candice Michelle was extremely marketable and it showed, she was good as a heel and she was a good babyface as well. Now here is where the WWE went south, see as a heel Candice didn't have to be good in the ring, she just had to rip off that robe to her music and poor buckets of water on her white shirt. As a face though she should've been good because they weren't playing her as the underdog they were playing her as a solid competitor and it's hard to buy into that when the girl botches a move every time she gets into the ring. I will admit that before her injury from Beth just around the time that they were making her the underdog she was good, she was improving so much and I was actually starting to think "Hey she could definitely live up to her hype." Then of course she got injured and was out for awhile then got re-injured and was out for awhile and then she came back and everyone was excited and what happens? A botchfest, thank goodness they weren't live right? Now you can claim it was ring rust, that's fine with me maybe it was, I've never wrestled but to me it just seemed like normal Candice. Which I might add she hasn't been near as good since getting back as she was when she left and maybe that is partly due to her not wanting to injure herself again which is perfectly understandable.

Next on the diva search list, Maryse. She didn't win but the WWE took her on anyways. Maryse has been successful if you ask me, and why? For a few reasons, first off she has SOOO much charisma when she steps into the ring and that is one thing that 
I love in a competitor, especially now since there is nothing to a female heel anymore but jobbing. They used to actually have gimmicks for women back when Trish and Lita were around and Mickie was starting. Why? Because those girls could pull it off, with the WWE they don't have as many charismatic females and when they do they make them babyfaces or they kill their charisma by making them jobbing heels. My second reason for her success is training. Maryse took a ton of time to train. With the girls like Kelly and Candice they were just thrown into the ring and they had training but only a little bit and they were going to improve over time but with Maryse, before truly competing she trained with OVW and FCW for almost two years before competing in her first REAL match (no I don't count bikini contests and wet and wild bullcrap) Maryse still isn't GREAT when it comes to in-ring talent but she exudes confidence with her persona in the ring and she is improving every week.

Now for Maria, who I love dearly. She is okay in the ring at best. She works extremely hard and it shows, but her main downfall is her inability to look strong in the ring. Each of her moves just look weak, when she hits someone it looks like she stopped mid-way and changed her mind. Maria is successful in the obvious ways, she is a great babyface and in my opinion the WWE's new Torrie Wilson with an edgy twist. She is the perfect face for WWE and does a lot of press for them. Another reason I can really believe in Maria is the fact that she did like wrestling before diva search and such, she was a wrestling fan when she was younger and although that probably wasn't her first though when doing diva search you can tell she has a passion for the actual sport not the perks that come with it...like playboy.

Now done with the diva searches moving on to just plain models. Kelly Kelly, who I really think should've still been called Barbie Blank as a sidenote, it's way cuter and funner to say. ANYWAYS...Kelly is not my favorite wrestler I won't make you think differently, but lately I've started to like her and I think it has something to do with me starting to respect her because of her comments on playboy, something like "I don't wanna do playboy because I want to focus on being a wrestler not a model." It was like music to my ears...or eyes because up till then the other women that had done it probably hadn't though about it, or cared rather. Not only that comment but the fact that there is drastic improvement in Kelly's in-ring skill. She's doing a lot more moves that are "show off" moves and they're fun to watch in the ring. However I get sick of her beating women like Jillian and Beth who are obviously better than her. Kelly is of course marketable, but outside of doing fun moves in the ring doesn't have a gimmick of any sorts any longer and she's got zero charisma. Speaking of gimmicks for Kelly I still despise her for her ECW gimmick of stripping at 18, however she's come a long way from that.

Speaking of coming a long way, Mickie James, again not my favorite but she is probably one of the best female WRESTLERS the WWE has right now aside from Beth and Nattie. Mickie has been in the business for longer than the diva search girls have been thinking about making it a semi-career. I have to wonder if the girls who actually went through training feel like it's a slap in the fact to get beat by a diva search girl? Anyways...Mickie has gone through a lot of stuff to perfect her career wrestling since 1999 in the indies. Mickie wrestled in ROH and TNA before coming to the WWE it took her 2 years TWO YEARS of sending in tapes to get into OVW. Finally in 2005 after being the business for 6 years she made it to the actual WWE and has shown to be not just a good wrestler but a good entertainer with her storyline with Trish. Now here is where I draw the difference between a women that wants to wrestle and poses nude and a women that wants to pose nude and wrestles for it. Mickie has posed nude, that's not a news flash, but she didn't get into wrestling to do it. I respect Mickie more than the other girls that have done playboy because she worked her ass off to get to the WWE and didn't JUST come for the modeling. If Mickie was the next up for Playboy I wouldn't care because I know that she's not going to stop trying after that, and I know that she's going to get things she deserves for it.

Melina: I love her, that's obvious she's one of my favorite female competitors, Melina is considered overrated now for some reason and I don't really understand it. How is a women that has charisma, can wrestle, and looks good be overrated? I mean Trish Stratus is overrated, because despite being a 7 time women's champion she botched moves quite often. So how is Melina now overrated because she botched one move but Trish and Candice aren't and they are the queens of botch? Okay now that that is out of the way, lets talk about why Melina is successful. She is talent, she worked hard to get where she is and she took enough time off after injury to get better. She came back looking almost better than when she left (until that last move ;]) and with a killer new finisher. Do you people even realize how completely amazing the yoshi tonic (last call) is? Very! Now Melina didn't go through a whole ton of training to get to the WWE but she went through a little show called tough enough to get her foot in the door and I'm pretty sure that show means more to the wrestling world than the diva search, mainly because it's really about wrestling and not how sexy you are. Melina is a good competitor in the ring and improves a lot from week to week and she's a good entertainer. Although I will add I don't like her as a face, she plays a much better heel and is losing her charisma due to her faceness.

Well that's about it for my rant. I'll leave now and let you think about this, let it brew. Feel free to comment but no arguments if I wanted that I would be on the forums still.

rants away,

Heather