Seth Rollins Heel Turn - A Success?

Mr. MITB, Seth Rollins was once a part of one of the most dominant and popular factions in WWE history – The Shield. Debuting at Survivor Series 2012, they were viewed as major players from the get go, carrying a nearly 7 month undefeated streak along with all 3 members going on to win gold at the Extreme Rules PPV in 2013. Continually depicting brotherhood and domination, they were viewed as a strong, indestructible unit - until the so called “Architect” turned on his former Shield brothers, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns back in early June, that is (breaking a lot of hearts while he was at it). Siding with The Authority, he is now under the wing of the big man himself, Triple H and is also working alongside Randy Orton and Corporate Kane.

So, how has his heel run been so far? Has he succeeded in this major turn, in going from being 1/3 of one of the most loved groups to one of the most hated men in the company? Or has not stepped up or lived up to the hype and simply been an underwhelming sellout? Let’s take a look…

Seth Rollins is undeniably a natural babyface, from his high-flying move-set, to his mic-work to the way he presents himself; they are all traits of a major face and someone that fans can get behind and genuinely root for. Now due to this, I know he has been compared to Jeff Hardy and CM Punk in the past, but I see beyond that. To me, he is different; I wouldn’t exactly call him an established “high-flyer”, he does hold typical traits of a high-flyer, but he is more technical than that and ever since his heel turn where he has had to calm down on all the visual showcases of his moves, Rollins has really shown what exactly he is capable of, even with his feet firmly on the mat. Just look at his matches over the past few months against Dean Ambrose, to Big E, to RVD, to Chris Jericho, to understand this. Whenever he is in the ring, despite whom his opponent may be, I pay attention; he draws me in simply from his ring-work and he has been able to hold that whilst being both a face and a heel. Another factor is his mic-work, which has really surprised me; I have never understood the criticism and hate towards Seth Rollins’ promo-cutting abilities, and there have been a lot of it. I’ve read a lot of people stating he does not come across as genuine, they don’t like his voice (come on…really?…) and he overall is unable to cut a good promo. Which is just ridiculous… everyone has the right to an opinion but complaining about a guy’s voice?! It’s just petty and unnecessary hate. Imo, his best promos and where he comes across as genuinely comfortable and in his element, have come post-Shield. His most recent promo at Night of Champions after Roman Reigns was announced to be out for a while due to hernia surgery, to put it simply, was a great arrogant, heel promo.  “Emergency surgery is no excuse for not showing up tonight…I know you’re disappointed I understand you all wanted to see me compete here tonight, I get it, I’m disappointed too, I’m disappointed in Roman Reigns” – yet, it is less about what he says rather, more about how he says it; his smug facial expressions, arrogant laughter, his body language of seeming above everyone else and simply, his delivery of his discourse are all so annoying, which is what makes it all so great.

Overall, I am genuinely shocked at how well he plays the role of a heel.

Being a major fan of his, I knew he wouldn’t play the role in any way underwhelming but Mr. MITB leaning more towards the arrogant, self-obsessed, conceited heel has been perfect for him imo and he has done it well. Especially considering the situation in which he turned; he had to portray himself as the greater, more dominant guy of the 3 former Shield members.

Prior to Seth’s heel turn, The Shield were one of the biggest, if not THE biggest faces in WWE at the time (bar Cena and Bryan) so whoever was the one to turn, it was sure as hell going to make an impact. Rollins turning on Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose (the fan favourites, who fans have now come to love and root for) shot him right to the top of the heel list and putting it quite simply, the most hated guy in WWE. I mean, you did see the response from fans to his turn, right? “It’s still real to me damn it!” would be the most appropriate term to use. Yet, it upmost reflected how invested fans were. As he was the least likely to turn, I was very interested, eager and anxious to see the type of heel he would be and if the correct choice to pick him out of the 3 was made, considering Ambrose was the obvious choice. 

Nearly 4 months in, from what I have seen so far, I can confidently say that the right choice was indeed made.

Ultimately, the turn was unexpected, no one saw Rollins being the one to turn and not only this, but he has fully stepped up to the role and embraced the dark-side. He gets a reaction from fans and by playing the remorseless heel by attacking both his former partners, he garners a strong response from fans, for example, the use of cinder blocks on Raw a few weeks ago that Rollins used to curbstomp Ambrose’s head into, resulted in not only face sympathy for Ambrose but strong heel heat for Rollins.  

Now, due to all of this, when one day in the future he turns face again, it will be BIG and undeniably, impactful.

Also, consider the fact that HHH could have picked ANYONE on the roster to be under his wing, to side with him and be apart of The Authority, and who did he choose? He went with Rollins to be that guy. That says a lot about how highly he thinks of him and what he believes the future holds. Also, Triple H runs NXT and well, guess who the first NXT Champion was? Oh yeah that’s right, the man himself, Seth Rollins. It seems like he has had his guy all along.

He could potentially be holding the WWE World Heavyweight Championship within under a year. Just let that sink in… I myself can’t predict how or when that will go down, with Lesnar being the champ and Reigns being groomed as the no.1 guy in time for WM31 (if he is back by the Rumble), it certainly makes for a very interesting, unpredictable situation.

We also cant’ forget that Rollins could potentially fail to cash in… which would be disastrous for him imo. But if it happens in the right situation, NOT a Damien Sandow type of situation, then it potentially could not be as bad as it seems upon first look… e.g. Ambrose having some sort of part and furthering their feud into literal resentment for one another…but how long could that go on for? Also, there then needs to be the pay off for that; for Rollins failing his cash in and in turn having a BIG Ambrose match but also having a steadily, successful future.

Some may disagree, but I do see the future being very, very bright for Seth Rollins. He deserves all the success he is getting and will receive. His heel turn has definitely been impactful and his babyface run down the road will be even better.

- Zara

Night of Champions & Raw Review (21,22/09/14)

Both these shows were entirely hit and miss with me; I won’t go into detail about every single match/segment, simply the moments that I believe need to be talked about.

I thought this image was appropriate after NOC + Raw

The one thing that really frustrated/annoyed me about NOC were the IC/Divas/US title matches.; the way they were booked was nothing less than ridiculous.

The IC Title match between The Miz/Ziggler was an absolute mess and this is solely down to the commentary team and having a country band that no wrestling fan cares about also calling the match and ultimately taking away from two guys attempting to put on a solid match in the ring. I’ll be honest, I stopped paying attention to the match because of how annoying the commentary was coming across; they were all talking over one another, not paying attention to the action in the ring and overall not calling this as if it were a title match (I guess that’s nothing new but it reached another level on Sunday). The Miz getting the victory with a roll-up was unnecessary and made no sense, fast-forward 24 hours to last night’s Raw, Ziggler won the strap back… I just do not get it. WHAT IS THE POINT? If someone can provide me with a decent explanation of what the point of throwing the tile around like that is for, then fine but until then, I hate it. The IC Title is meant to be the second most important title in WWE, yet this is how they handle and disrespect it. Well, at least last night on Raw, the commentators actually attempted to call the match… If anything, I just want WWE to move away from Miz/Ziggler and give Ziggler a legitimate feud for the strap that fans can be invested in e.g. Bray Wyatt. Which then leads me to my next point… what have WWE done to the masterpiece that was Bray Wyatt?! And the Wyatt Family overall; all their momentum has disappeared and it’s clear that the company has no idea what to do with them which is ridiculous. Wyatt needs to be put in a legitimate feud looking STRONG and well, Harper/Rowan should have won the tag titles a long time ago.

The Divas title match at NOC, was surprisingly pretty decent, considering it was a Triple Threat match; I did have a pre-conceived idea that it would be a slight car-crash but I was wrong. One thing I took away from this match is that Nikki has improved heavily and I have to applaud her for that… Anyone see that bump she took off the ring-apron towards the end of the match? Kudos to her. I once again, like the IC match, did not understand the outcome of it; why was the belt put back on AJ?! They need to stop throwing the belts around; it’s unnecessary and destroys credibility. After last night’s Raw, I don’t understand where exactly they’re going with the Divas title now. WWE ruined the potential great feud that could have been, between AJ/Paige. Paige needs to bring back the anti-diva gimmick, it worked perfectly for her.

The US Title match between Cesaro/Sheamus was, like I had predicted on my previous post, an all out fight. There were so many incredible spots and near-falls; these guys just have great chemistry, because they’re both brawlers. The one match I really want to see, is Sheamus Vs. Cesaro Vs. Barrett – now that would be something to see; all three men are flat out fighters. Hopefully one day in the future when Barrett is back we’ll have the opportunity to see it.

Yet, once again, I was not happy with the outcome; Cesaro HAD to win imo, he needed it, especially after all his momentum post-WM30 has been lost. A loss for Sheamus would not have hurt him. The way Cesaro has been booked lately has been awful, the guy is a future STAR and booking like this is hurting him; fans have lost interest. Also, isn’t it hilarious that WWE can throw around the IC/Divas Title, yet the one title that fans WANTED to see change hands, didn’t happen? The US title is probably the least cared for title in WWE.

My favourite moment of the entire show was when Dean Ambrose finally made his long-awaited return. 5 weeks felt like 5 months and the show definitely felt the lack of his presence. With Roman Reigns out for a few months due to having hernia surgery (which really does suck), the match with he and Rollins was off, so myself, along with a lot of others knew that Rollins would most likely come out and cut a arrogant, conceited promo, which is exactly what he did! (Can I just say, I am really loving Rollins right now, he’s playing the role of a heel incredibly well). With Seth getting the ref to count to 10 and having Justin Roberts announce him as the winner due to forfeit, everyone was anxiously waiting to see if Ambrose would be back. I genuinely thought that on the 10 count, Ambrose’s music would hit; but I was wrong. With Seth putting out an open challenge…a taxi pulls up and guess who gets out of it? Dean Ambrose of course! The crowd erupted as he ran out from the back to attack Rollins. I loved the brawl throughout the crowd whilst security came out to attempt to drag Ambrose away. Overall, I loved this segment; Dean was definitely needed back at NOC especially after we found out that Reigns will be out for a while, although I am curious to know how it would have gone down if Reigns were still in the picture. The Rollins/Ambrose feud is not over and that is one thing that is keeping me invested in the WWE right now; both of them together have incredible chemistry and can translate that into great matches/segments, in turn, providing us with some entertaining TV. – You can check out here, why I think the Ambrose/Rollins feud will usher in a new era in the WWE http://thewrestlingmenu.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/ambroserollins-feud-will-usher-in-new.html

I have mixed emotions about the Cena/Lesnar match for the WWE World Title. On one hand, I knew that this match was not going to end cleanly, since SummerSlam had Cena completely beat down; it was clear that Vince wouldn’t allow that kind of beat-down for Cena two PPV’s in a row, because you know, they have to protect Cena, right?... I did not like the fact that Cena got in as much offence as he did, I knew he would but not as much as that… the fact that the commentators, especially Michael Cole (who is so far up Cena’s ass, it’s unreal) were basically saying that Cena had the match won if Rollins did not interfere and then Cole saying that exact thing the next night on Raw, is RIDICULOUS. In an ideal world, Lesnar would have looked completely dominant once again but I guess that’s asking for a bit too much, isn’t it? The fact that Lesnar had 3 matches prior to NOC and 100% dominated in all and demolished his opponents, yet suddenly in this match, Cena was able to get in so much offence makes no sense. All it is, is to cater to fans, fans who think Cena is some superman, fans who think this is completely REAL, fans who won’t be able to hack it if Cena is destroyed two PPV’s in a row and well, because Vince wants to protect him. Rollins also attacking Cena, instead of Lesnar also showed that as well. Can I also just add that Lesnar took and sold that curbstomp like a champ. Overall, I’m okay with a DQ finish because WWE would unfortunately never let their goldenboy get destroyed twice but I was not okay with the booking of the match and how they destroyed a lot of Lesnar’s momentum. Is anyone genuinely surprised though?

Raw last night was very, very lacklustre. I’ll put it simply, Dean Ambrose saved the show; without him I would have been much more critical about it. Ambrose opening the show was a nice change, although I was hoping for a promo of him explaining what exactly he had been doing for the past 5 weeks and I doubt we’re going to get that now. Once Cena appeared, my attitude towards this segment completely changed. I understand why Cena was involved but imo, Ambrose should be kept AWAY from Cena; he’s fine on his own and doesn’t need to mix with him. I find it funny how paranoid fans get whenever Cena mixes with a younger guy or a guy that is talented and has a bright future… I mean, we’re allowed to be…look at past examples of Ryder/Bray Wyatt for proof of what can happen. Overall, I enjoyed the opening segment, it did set up the rest of the show (not saying it was a good show) and I loved the closing moments of Ambrose jumping into the moving car when Rollins was attempting to get away; he is just pure entertainment. You wouldn’t see that from anyone else.

There was nothing that stuck out to me as absolutely incredible on this show, which is why I will not go through anything that I didn’t enjoy. You could call it the "Dean Ambrose show" as it overall did revolve around him. The main-event of Cena Vs. Orton (for the millionth time) had me intrigued simply because of the prior events of Ambrose being locked up in a room by The Authority and Rollins telling Orton he had a “surprise” for him – that “surprise” being cinder blocks again... or were they? Dean Ambrose was revealed to be under there for all that time, which I think most people called! But nonetheless I still enjoyed. I would have loved to see a segment prior where they opened the door that Ambrose was meant to be locked in to find him missing and a ceiling tile left open to show that he had escaped… that would have seriously been amazing and made for better TV but I was still content with what we got. Next week, there has to be some kind of explanation for how he actually escaped and made his way under that box. As I have said many times before, Ambrose Vs. Rollins rematch needs to happen and it needs to happen inside HIAC. I know I may be asking for too much but I will be majorly disappointed if we don’t get that match. There needs to be a major pay off for Ambrose and also, as we are unsure of whether or not the WWE WHC will be defended at HIAC then this makes the most sense. However, with Rollins/Cena now butting heads, how will this play out for Dean and how will he be involved? There are a lot of questions surrounding this but all I want to see is an Ambrose/Rollins rematch and Cena FAR away from it all.  

I try not to be overly critical about the WWE but that was a very, very weak Raw and it has been weak for a long time now. I don’t know how they themselves, can watch that show and believe they are doing or even trying their best to put on the greatest possible wrestling show. WWE are HEAVILY lacking stars and they are the only ones to blame for that. The amount of talent on the roster and in NXT has been the best in arguably 10 years, yet the company is failing to build MULTIPLE guys up as big time stars and players. Cesaro and The Wyatt Family are major examples of that. It has been done in the past where MULTIPLE guys have been at the top yet they seem to be unable to do the same now. It is not as if these guys can not get over, Cesaro/Wyatt, for example were both gaining major momentum and fans were beginning to show interest and be invested, yet WWE put a stop to that. As a fan, its frustrating seeing how weak the product has gotten, especially when the roster is heavily improving. You can check out where I think WWE are going wrong, here - http://thewrestlingmenu.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/where-are-wwe-going-wrong.html

Fix up, WWE.

- Zara 

Night of Champions 2014 Predictions

WWE, Night of Champions will take place on the 21^st of September 2014 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.

There are 8 matches announced. The following is the match card:

- Brock Lesnar Vs. John Cena – WWE World Heavyweight Championship

- Seth Rollins Vs. Roman Reigns

- AJ Lee Vs. Nikki Bella Vs. Paige – Diva’s Championship

- Chris Jericho Vs. Randy Orton

- Mark Henry Vs. Rusev

- The Usos Vs. Stardust/Goldust – Tag Team Championship

- Cesaro Vs. Sheamus – US Championship

- The Miz Vs. Dolph Ziggler – Intercontinental Championship

As every single title is on the line, there are multiple potential title changes.

Starting with Dolph Ziggler Vs. The Miz for the IC title, I do see Ziggler retaining. I’m guessing there’ll be some type of involvement from their “stunt doubles”, but nevertheless I see it being a solid match. Ziggler can never really have a bad match and his past few against The Miz have been pretty good imo; Ziggler is just a fun guy to watch, despite where he is on the card, he’s one of those performers that I will always pay attention to. The Miz and Damien Sandow (Mizdow) paired together has really surprised me, it’s worked pretty well imo considering the fact that I’ve never had an interest in The Miz; I’ve just never been a fan of his. The fact that the IC title is meant to be the second most important title in WWE is pretty disheartening however; they have the talent and potential there to make it much more important and to have fans invested in the storyline but they are simply not doing that. Overall, I don’t think the majority of fans really care too much about this feud, yet for me, it is Ziggler that is keeping me interested in this match and the outcome of it.

Sheamus Vs. Cesaro for the US title should be really good and imo, will surprise everyone. I see it being a hard-hitting match and to put it simply; just an all out FIGHT. I hope that the belt is put on Cesaro, at this point I think he needs it, but I don’t know if I see it happening… Post WM30, Cesaro was on top of the world, he was over with fans, his popularity in general was growing and fans saw him as the one to keep their eyes on who could potentially be World Champ soon but then… it all suddenly took a massive hit and the spiral started falling downwards. He has been booked pretty weak as of late and as a fan of his, I would love if he won the belt here in order to slowly elevate him back up; this loss would not hurt Sheamus imo. Cesaro has shown great charisma on the mic recently; check out his post-match interview with Renee Young on Main Event 2 weeks back, he came across as highly witty and self-centered, but in the best of ways. Both Sheamus and Cesaro have great chemistry together and if any of you watched the WWE 2K15 Panel last August you would have been able to have seen what I exactly mean; the way they feed off of each other is great. All in all, I am really looking forward to this being just a great wrestling match featuring two big, strong, egoistical guys.

Mark Henry Vs. Rusev… okay, let me just say it; I do not care. This whole nationalistic storyline is so over-done and outdated. Besides, if you’re not from the USA (which I’m not), do you even care? To make it worse, I’ve even seen that a lot of US fans are not interested, aren’t invested and couldn’t care less. I don’t’ even remember what exactly happened in the main event segment between the two on this past week’s Raw… that’s how much I was not paying attention. I see Rusev picking up the win here, his undefeated streak will probably last quite a long time, before someone “worthy” comes along to end that.

The Usos Vs. Goldust/Stardust for the Tag Titles should be a good, solid match. Despite being, to put it plainly, bored, of The Usos and their title reign - on PPV matches, these guys step their game up and constantly deliver; their past few matches against Rowan/Harper were insanely good (although the titles should have been dropped to them). I have an odd feeling that The Usos may retain once again, even though, imo they should not. The Tag Team division is completely stale at the moment, there needs to be some type of change and mix up, to keep fans invested, which at the moment they really are not. The titles should have been dropped to Harper/Rowan, for them to then feud with Stardust/Goldust; however, who would the babyfaces be? The mix up of turning Stardust/Goldust heel has been a well needed change so under those circumstances, I guess that feud would not work well. In an ideal world, I want to see the titles change here, for The Ascension (from NXT) to then debut on Raw and confront the Dust brothers.

Chris Jericho Vs. Randy Orton is a very random match, but hey, I’m not complaining. These are two future hall of famers who have done it all in the WWE; they KNOW how to put on a good match and this will be must see. Despite it being weirdly rushed, I am looking forward to it. I do see Orton going over here, with this putting Jericho out for the end of his current WWE run. I initially thought Jericho would be leaving after his cage match on Raw against Bray Wyatt, so I could potentially be wrong here but it does make sense in this situation, plus Jericho has himself said that he will not be at HIAC.

The Triple Threat match between Paige, AJ Lee & Nikki Bella for the Diva’s Title is…meh. Remember all those months ago when Paige was down in NXT and everyone was going on about how incredible an AJ Lee/Paige feud would be? Erm, yeah, about that… Could WWE have messed it up any more if they tried?! I try SO hard to not be critical about the WWE but man they really dropped the ball here. Being a female myself, it annoys me even more how they treat their women wrestlers who CAN legitimately wrestle; it’s an insult to all female WWE fans.

We FINALLY get this feud that I had been anxiously awaiting for, for MONTHS and what has it turned in to… some weird unnecessary sexual, “frenemy”, mixing with Total Diva’s rubbish. AJ/Paige can genuinely WRESTLE, they can go in the ring; I’m not going to lie, their match at Battleground was weak and an odd match overall but their SummerSlam match, they stepped up and it had potential, had WWE given them the time that they deserved. Had they been given even 8 minutes, they could have proved why they deserved to be respected and called women’s wrestlers but nope, WWE could not provide that to them. Absolutely ridiculous. The story-telling aspect of it has not been great either. Why can’t it be an angle concerning two females in the WWE who are fighting to be the no.1 in the company? Where they have legitimate resentment towards each other? Where they just want to beat the hell out of one another? This “frenemy”/sexual tension is unnecessary, makes no sense and something that I personally find insulting. The involvement of Nikki (which is 100% a way to promote Total Divas) is also ridiculous; no one cares for the Brie/Nikki storyline and there was no need to involve Total Divas, into a Divas Title feud. Anyway, I think I’m ranting now, but I see Paige retaining (hopefully, anyway).

Roman Reigns Vs. Seth Rollins… again… oh yeah, we got it for FREE last week on Raw. Makes sense, doesn’t it?...Anyway, I’m still confused as to why WWE had this match on Raw, I genuinely did not think it was going to take place, as did a lot of other people, yet, the bell rang, the match started AND ended clean…odd. It was a decent match but throughout it I was questioning why this match was happening so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I could have. Roman winning clean on Raw was unnecessary imo; especially since Dean Ambrose has NEVER had a clean victory over Rollins…yet.

I do see Ambrose returning at NoC (fingers crossed), I do think it would make the show that much more must-see and interesting if he shows up and interrupts this match, costing Rollins the victory. I have read that Ambrose could return and potentially turn on Reigns, turning heel in the process but I really hope that does NOT happen. Ambrose has been shining as a babyface recently and there needs to be an Ambrose/Rollins re-match with Dean going over cleanly. Dean could also potentially return when Seth is attempting to cash in; I would be happy with either. He is confirmed for Raw but imo, NoC is where the return NEEDS to happen.

Also, anyone else find it pretty hilarious that now WWE are realising that Roman was part of The Shield? 3 months later.

Finally, the big one…Cena Vs. Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship…Lesnar has to retain, end of. I do not see Cena going over and he should not. Lesnar has to, for months, be seen as a complete and utter beast that cannot be stopped. The build to this match has been solid and overall, I’ve enjoyed Paul Heyman’s promos the most and have loved how we have seen him talk Cena into questioning his beliefs, teasing a heel turn, but we all know it won’t happen. What I do see however, is Cena getting a lot more offence in this match, compared to SummerSlam where he had nothing… at all (which was great).  Overall, this match will be a fight, no doubt about that and I do see Lesnar retaining but not without Cena going down fighting. If Cena somehow manages to get the victory…I’ll be pretty speechless, that’s all I’ll say.

The fact that this was originally meant to be Bryan Vs. Lesnar is SO disappointing; the matches between those two would have been something incredible to see… but overall, I’m still happy with what we’re getting.

Ultimately, this card could surprise us. There are a few matches here that have the potential to be 5* which people will not be expecting, e.g. Cesaro/Sheamus. However, I can’t help but notice that the Wyatt Family are not on the card, although, a pre-show match has not been announced as of YET, so they could potentially be on that. Nevertheless, they deserve to be on the card and deserve to be at much better places in the company right now, but hopefully there is a new direction for them on Raw the following night…hopefully…

What matches are you guys looking forward to at NoC? What do you think of the card? What’re your predictions? – You can tweet me and let me know at: @WrestlingMenu

- Zara 

WWE Need To Bring Back the Women’s Title

I respect and adore women’s wrestling; I’ll just put that out there. Being a female myself, seeing a minority of women step up in an industry that is completely dominated by males fills me with joy and pride. What men can do, women can do 10x better, right?

Well, in the wrestling world and in the year 2014, I hate to say it, but that is now arguable. Since it’s inception in 2008, the Divas title, unfortunately, has represented femininity and prettiness (don’t get me wrong, I’m all for being pink and girly, but that’s not what I want for them in the wrestling world). I also understand that WWE want to brand everything, therefore they can sell everything but naturally it seems as if the respect of women’s wrestling as a whole was lost with the unification of the Women’s and Diva’s title in 2010, hence retiring the WWE Women’s Championship.

Visually, the butterfly belt in itself is tacky, embarrassing and well, ugly. The women’s title was timeless; it represented female empowerment and the fact that they could kick ass hard, as hard as any man could. How many people genuinely believe that the butterfly belt suit Paige or AJ’s style? The women’s title complemented any female who carried it.

If you go back in history and look at all of the names who have held the women’s strap, from Lita to Moolah to Ivory to Chyna and the list goes on, undeniably these women were respected and proved it in the ring as to why they were. Trish Stratus went on to be a record-setting 7x Women’s Champion, but records to me, are made in order to be broken and if you look at the Undertaker’s streak, I’m sure we can all agree on that. Now, there is no one to step up to that and there is nothing for these women to beat or aim for, in order to be the best. Indeed AJ is the longest reigning Divas champ but in all seriousness, is the Divas title even taken seriously nowadays?

Total Divas has only advanced the marketing of the term “Diva”, it is no longer about the in-ring skills, more about how you present yourself and what you do outside of the ring. Brining back the Women’s title, would bring back respect to the division, it would show that it is not simply about being pretty or looking good but about kicking ass for the gold and fighting to be at the top.

This may be a minor detail, but the fact that there is zero gold on the belt says it all. A champion NEEDS to hold gold imo, not pink and silver simply because they’re women. It’s disrespectful.

Am I ranting? Possibly. But am I passionate about women’s wrestling being respected? I damn sure am. Bring back the Women’s Title WWE and let all these women fight to be the no.1 woman on the roster and prove that they can still kick ass, and compete on the level that a man can.

Yet, despite all of this, it can still be argued that bringing the women’s title back would not necessarily improve the quality of wrestling that these women in 2014 bring. It’s no secret, women’s wrestling in WWE today is heavily lacking, they just do not have the ability to GO, in the way that those prior to them could, e.g. in The Attitude Era. However, that burden can be put on the back of the WWE; for they are the ones that have chosen to push female wrestling to the bottom and now, promote Total Divas.

NXT is where you will find the real deal, which is partially why I love it so much. The respect for women and what they can bring is 100% there. A few days ago, Charlotte and Bayley were provided with the opportunity to main-event an NXT live event, which instantly shows you the difference in the treatment of women there and on the main roster. I have read a whole load of comments from guys who do not watch “Diva” matches, they change the channel or use it as a bathroom-break, I would tell all of those guys to watch Charlotte Vs. Natalya at NXT Takeover and Paige Vs. Emma at NXT Arrival. The main roster may be lacking, but the NXT roster sure as hell is not. They are legitimately female WRESTLERS, not Divas. When these women get called up, they could bring prestige back to the division. Although, then again, look at Paige… she can wrestle, she has the look and she had a character down in NXT (the anti-diva) but she hasn’t been able to transcend that on the main roster and fully shine in the way that she was able to on NXT.

Being a female who grew up watching and loving such incredible women wrestle their way to respect, I guess I am possibly too attached to what the women’s title symbolises and maybe, just maybe it’s time for me to move on with the times and let it go…

- Zara