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

So I realized I haven't ranted in a few days and it needed to be done. There is something I've noticed among the fans of WWE, and honestly I've been guilty of this too. You see the fans of WWE seem to think that WWE holds the most talented wrestlers in the business.

This is where you're wrong. Of COURSE a lot of the WWE wrestlers are extremely talented I won't take that away from them, but there is so much more talent out in the rest of the professional wrestling world.

WWE focuses on who they'll be able to market the best, not who is better in the ring and this is one of the major down falls of their divisions, mainly the female division. Now I can say that a lot of the women on the independent circuit bash WWE and claim that they will never be apart of a promotion that thinks so little of their women's division and what can I say but I agree. WWE used to be about women's wrestling, it used to be able breaking down walls of stereotypes, then we come into when the Kat, when Debra and women like that showed up. They started to give the word "diva" a bad name. They brought in the image that being sexual is the only way to be a female wrestler, and they clung on to a stereotype.

Go to youtube and watch a match between MsChif and Amazing Kong or Daizee Haze and Sara Del Rey and tell me honestly that any women in the WWE right now could match up to that. HONESTLY. See Beth Phoenix, maybe, Mickie, maybe, because those women have fought with those two. Beth was in Shimmer, she was wrestling against real female wrestlers and Mickie was participating in Clockwork Orange house of fun matches in TNA. Then the second they get into the WWE they have to dumb down their talents for women like Maria and Candice Michelle.

See what sparked this was someone calling Lita the best high flying female wrestler. As much as i LOVE Lita and believe me I do, she was my hero growing up and the reason I watched wresting in the first place. I simply cannot agree with that statement. However I can see how most would because they have narrowed their minds into thinking that WWE and TNA are the only promotions out there. Of course people KNOW of ROH and perhaps Shimmer. However the REAL high flying women are over in Japan and Mexico.

Japanese female wrestlers in fact are probably the most hardcore, amazing, both technically and high flying sound females you'll ever watch. Those women are just as respected, just as good as the men over there in professional wrestling. Not all of their female wrestlers are 110lbs and they don't look like models. They're REAL wrestlers. They're not just about marketability they're about doing what they love and it pays off because they are some of the most entertaining women I've ever watched.

I fully respect the WWE as a business, don't get me wrong. I think that Vince is smart in many ways, but I just beg of you expand your minds when it comes to wrestling. If you REALLY love the SPORT, then you should go on youtube and look up all the japanese wrestling that you can and realize that outside of the WWE there is far more talent than inside. Too bad you'll never see that because they don't fit the WWE mold.

rants away,

Heather

I have always been a true, die-hard hardy fan from the second I started watching wrestling some 8 or so years ago. He is the reason that I watched it every week, and I stopped watching it for the few years that he was no longer apart of the WWE simply because he was what I wanted to watch. Ironically I flipped through channels one day and landed on RAW at the exact moment Jeff Hardy was returning for a second time and I got hooked once again.

I realize that Hardy has done things that aren't good. I realize that he has messed up a few opportunities in his life, but when are things going to change?

When are we going to be able to see someone besides Triple H, besides John Cena, besides the rest of the cookie cutter WWE superstars on top? When are they going to let superstars like Jeff Hardy have his day. He has put just as much into the company that people like Triple H have. He is one of the most loved superstars and he sells a ton of merchandise. When are they going to let people like CM Punk have a REAL title reign, instead of one that is looked down upon constantly.

I know that this has always been what WWE is about, it's never been about the underdog winning unless it's Rey Mysterio. But PLEASE tell me how Rey as world heavyweight champion makes more sense than Jeff Hardy being WWE champion. Rey is probably better Technically and he sure as hell brings in the crowd, but Hardy has all those things and he has the stature that makes sense.

When I was watching No Mercy I knew going into the Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy match that Hardy wasn't going to walk out the champion, because I know how the WWE works, but that doesn't change the fact that every single time a ppv rolls around there is one match on the card that you always know but you hope that you're wrong.

I hoped for once that they wouldn't have every single match be so obvious. Sure the ending was unpredictable, but it was almost worse than just seeing Hardy get his butt handed to him. It almost for a second gave me so much hope that I actually thought the WWE was changing some things around, and of course I was wrong.

This is truly a rant of passion, because I want to see Jeff Hardy get his chance, and WWE simply refuses. It's obvious that Jeff is going to be out of the title picture now and they're going to once again give it to a guy that is new a guy that just throws his opponents around in the ring and doesn't entertain anyone. Koslov is a good wrestler, don't get me wrong. FOR ME though it's just about as good as giving Kahli the title. It's going to be boring, pointless, and no one is going to care.

Triple H's title reign is boring, anyone can agree with me on that, so why can't the wwe? Why can't they for once give Hardy a chance? I suppose that I will never understand how they work, how they figure out their storylines or anything of those sorts. Until Hardy gets the title though, I will feel robbed as a fan.

rants away,

Heather

P.S. don't comment and start an argument, you're allowed to voice your opinions but don't do it in a rude manor. Or hell just keep your mouth shut and write a counter blog if you feel you need to.

So it has come to my attention...well it came to my attention many years ago but it seems like an even bigger issue now in the WWE. They dumb down the talent of most of their superstars. If you don't know what I mean then I'll explain. It seems to me that when you watch matches every week each superstar has a very limited amount of moves that they use in a match, I realize that this is what happens a lot of the time but when I watch matches from places like TNA, ROH, and other indie federations you see much wider varieties from move sets. So I have to wonder do they say "you need to make sure you do these moves every week" or what.

I think the best example of this is how they use the divas. Women like Beth Phoenix and Natalya are amazing female wrestlers, they were both apart of Shimmer; Women's athletics and they have been wrestling for longer than a lot of the women that are employed by the WWE today. These women, if you look back, had amazing matches in Shimmer, matches that last longer than a now typical four minute women's match, a match that didn't just include an elbow hit, submission try, and a bulldog. They were REAL matches and they could hold their own in these matches against even better wrestlers like Sara Del Ray and MsChif.

Then they get to WWE and they have to limit their move list and dumb down their actual talent to put people like Candice Michelle and Michelle McCool over. They have to sit back and watch while women like Kelly Kelly and Maryse get praised for the "improvement" in the ring. They have to sit back and job when really they could completely kill each of them with their skills in the ring. It almost seems like all the WWE wants is the cookie cutter diva. Which is obvious, but it has gotten far worse from the days of Trish Stratus.

The women that the wwe are bringing in are simply models, they get trained by the same people and they have the same exact move set, then they make the girls that have been training and wrestling for over 8 years limit themselves to the same move set as the cookie cutter models that they call divas so that those other girls will look fine too.

It isn't just happening in the women's division either. It happens plenty in the male division. CM Punk is a good example. If you ever watched him in ROH and IWA he was great, he is still AMAZING in the WWE but he had a much wider move set in the other federations he's been in. He used to do more high flying moves, and I think the exact same could be said for Matt Sydal (Evan Bourne). Not only has the WWE dumbed down their talent, and for Punk his charisma. I beg you to go to youtube and look up Punk in IWA or ROH or just look up a Punk shoot, he's amazing and WWE lets his mic skills and his heel abilities go to waste.

The WWE has great wrestlers like Victoria and Charlie Haas playing the fool on their respective shows. I love Charlie's new gimmick because it's entertaining but honestly no one is going to take him seriously in title contention or anything of those sorts. As for Victoria, you see all the other women in these sexy outfits when they have novelty matches such as the halloween costumes or the bikini matches, victoria wore a sumo suit and floaties. Then she has to job to Brie and Nicole Bella? She should've been the first diva's champion not a fool that gets to job to the new talent. She is all that is left of a great era for the WWE women's division, and it's sad how much they dumb down her talent.

All and all I think it's pretty obvious, it has always been. The WWE is more interested in who they can market and less interested in what talent they possess. Sad really, but we've all gotten used to it ever since Trish Stratus entered the WWE. They need to start letting the true talent shine and they need to quit limiting people.

rants away,

Heather 

It was asked of me to answer this question, by big Al. "With all the recent tag team action in the DIVA divison should the WWE reactivate the LADIES TAG TEAM TITLE?"

In my opinion this would be a bad move by WWE for a few reasons. First off, the reason that wwe is having so many tag team matches for the women is to get more women active on the shows. WWE wouldn't dare let there be more than one singles match between divas, which I can understand because many people don't respect women's wrestling.

Second there are no legit female tag teams in the WWE right now. Victoria and Natalya are the only thing that are close to it and perhaps Melina and Jillian before Melina's face turn and obvious injury. Now I can't say that a feud between the two tag teams wouldn't be great, because it would be, but it would be very much unlikely. In order to have a decent tag team division there needs to be a plethora of tag teams that can actually wrestle and with the women's division as it is now, that is also unlikely.

As a woman I would love to see more happen with the women's division but what I would like to see more is a women's tag team win the tag team titles for the first time. Hell even an inter-gender team would do. That would make things interesting instead of keeping it all within the women's division.

Not to mention the fact that the women just got a new title, which I believe was deserved. WWE doesn't just bring in titles for no reason and I think them bringing in a Female tag title just wouldn't make any sense at all.

Also to give you a sense of how much the WWE (then WWF) cared about the titles in the first place, they just allowed another person to take one of the champions places in 1984 which tells you right there that when they had them there probably wasn't that great of a female tag team division then either, which I can't confirm but I assume. Not to mention the fact that the titles were handed to the first champions due to the fact that NWA had closed and those girls were the champions there.

Having women's tag team championships in the first place just makes absolutely no sense to me in the least. It instead just once again belittles females into thinking that they can't compete in the actual tag team division when tag teams like Victoria and Natalya definitely could, and I'm sure that Beth Phoenix would be great to tag with either of those women as well. WWE just needs to smarten up when it comes to things like that and instead of continually putting out titles just for female competition they need to start mixing the sexes and stop trying to make it seem like all these girls are damsels in distress that run from guys whenever they step into the ring against them.

So basically I say no to the Women's tag titles and YES to females competing in the tag team division. I think it could be done but WWE will never let it happen.

Rants away,

Heather

If anyone wants to know my opinion on anything else feel free to comment, or feel free to comment and tell me what you agree with or disagree with. :)