My Take On 9.06.06: Life After Trish and a New Women’s Division
Posted by Larry Csonka on 09.06.2006
It may be a fantasy, but we can fix this!
Welcome once again kids to the return of MY TAKE ON! We have been on hiatus for a while as I finally decided it was time for a break. Let me tell you it feels good to have a small break in terms of how much I am writing. But I have had the itch for a while to pen something, and after watching Raw this week I decided that this was the time. So with that in mind, sit back, relax and welcome back to My Take On.
Life After Trish and a New Women's Division
With the announcement of Trish Stratus leaving WWE, as well as the rumors of Lita leaving as well the WWE Women's Division is certainly in limbo. If, and I stress, if WWE is serious about the division as a whole they need to do something about this problem. Now I know that you are thinking, "Csonka, they don't care about women's wrestling and neither do I." That's the problem. I am going to try and lay out a plan that will revitalize the division with out these two ladies.
The first thing we have to do is decide what happens at Unforgiven. With Trish facing Lita on this show, I feel that they should have Trish win the match and retire as champion. With here retiring as champion, you leave the belt dead for a while. With no women's division, you now take the time to rebuild the roster. You send out the agents, you sign new talent and build on what you have.
So who do we use?
Who do we got already?
Victoria (RAW): Victoria is a former 2-time WWE Women's champion, so she helps with the credibility factor. Victoria have been VERY underutilized as far as the women's division goes in the last year if not more. She has been nothing but dedicated to the company, working on a bad knee for years now. As far as a wrestler she is at the top as far as talent goes and needs to be a focal point. She also has proved that she can be a great character, and that is needed.
Mickie James (RAW): Mickie James is a former WWE Women's champion. She also has to be a focal point of this new division. She had the run with Trish and looked to be the focal point, accept for the fact that there was really no one after Trish to feud with so she had to be sacrificed to Lita for the angle. She is also at the top as far as talent goes and needs to be used.
Melina (RAW): Melina for the most part has been all character, with only small appearances in the ring. As far as talent goes she isn't bad, and could be a great heel for the division.
Beth Phoenix (RAW): Beth Phoenix had a short run on Raw before she was injured. She had spent a while in OVW, and has the tools to really help the division if given the chance.
Trinity (ECW): Trinity is basically our Lita replacement. She'll do everything she did, blown spots included, but will pop a crowd. Since she is with ECW she also adds to the whole plan of forgetting about the title being centralized on Raw.
Jazz (ECW): Jazz is a former 2-time WWE Women's champion, so she helps with the credibility factor. There is some question as to if she is under contract but for the article she is. Jazz is "THE BITCH" of the division and while she was a focal part at one point, she was great to go against the faces.
Jillian Hall (SD): Jillian Hall has been stuck on Smackdown, and in all reality hasn't wrestled a lot. No I don't count some matches with Krystal. She has the ability to add a lot to the division, and needs the chance to do so. She also has a good vibe character wise about her, which draws you in.
That is all well and good. Seven is a nice start to this venture. But that seven alone is not nearly enough to rebuild things. What I think we need to freshen things up.
Let's get some new blood in here!
Cheerleader Melissa: Cheerleader Melissa is out #1 draft pick so to speak. The lady has her own DVD, which was reviewed by 411's own JD Dunn. She is just a great worker, great look and is always putting on good matches. She could be a breakout star of given the chance.
Amber O'Neal: Amber O'Neal works regularly for SHIMMER and the UWF/TNA series of house shows. O'Neal may not be regarded as a "great" women's wrestler, but she puts on solid matches as evidence of her work on the UWF/TNA series and what I have seen of her SHIMMER work.
Mercedes Martinez: Mercedes Martinez has worked for various promotions the last 3-years. She had worked SHIMMER, ROH and WXW. She was a big part of the initial SHIMMER show, facing Sara Del Rey and gaining a standing ovation for their match. She'd be a great addition to a division that is going to focus on wrestling.
Sara Del Rey: Del Ray has worked for SHIMMER, as well as Mexico's Lucha Libre Femenil promotion. She is widely versed in differing skills and has experience with a lot of the newer women we would hire. As mentioned above, she has a great chemistry with Mercedes Martinez and they would be great to be brought into together.
Allison Danger: Allison Danger is very well known to ROH fans and has been wrestling for 6-years. She is also working SHIMMER and CHIKARA and always seems to be improving. She has a good presence about here and would easily add some character to the division, which is also very important.
Daizee Haze: Daizee Haze has been wrestling for 4-years and has done a lot of IWA:MS, ROH, CHIKARA and SHIMMER. She was trained by Delirious and Kid Kash and I find her a lot of fun to watch.
But while we want to get some of these new ladies over, especially if we sign them, we can't put them all over our established talent. Some of them will have to but not all right away. I got an idea.
Let's reach to the past!
Ivory: Ivory is a former 3-time WWE Women's champion, so she helps with the credibility factor. She can still go from all accounts I have heard from the Indies she has done, and would be a familiar face that could draw in some interest. And as former champion she is here to job to some of our new talent.
Jacqueline: Jacqueline is a former 2-time WWE Women's champion, so she helps with the credibility factor. She is a fine worker and as a familiar face and former champion is here to job to some of our new talent.
Molly Holly: Molly is a former 2-time WWE Women's champion, so she helps with the credibility factor. Molly is a phenomenal worker and can have a good match with about anyone. She was a great heel and would be a great addition to the tournament and I would love to see her back full time.
You sign these ladies to 3-month deals, as we don't need them for long. Now we move on.
That is all well and good, but what is next?
The second thing we have to do is abolish the idea that the Women's Division is exclusive to Raw. That is an antiquated idea and is not working whatsoever. Allowing the title to be defended on all the shows opens up some avenues that aren't being used, and could help out a lot. There have been several brand only PPV's that could have used an extra 5-8 minute match on them; spreading out the division to all the shows would allow them to add a match onto a PPV and not worry about the "Brands," as if they do now.
Now that the title is "retired" and we have all of this new talent we can move on. On the first Raw on January you announce that there will be a 16-Woman Tournament for the NEW WWE Women's Championship. This week and next week through Raw, ECW and Smackdown you unveil the 16-ladies that we are using. The third Raw of January, you hold a "Royal Rumble Hype" match with the ladies. All 16-ladies will main event Raw in a Royal Rumble style match on Raw, to determine the brackets:
1st Eliminated vs. Winner
2nd vs. 15th
3rd vs. 14th
4th vs. 13th
5th vs. 12th
6th vs. 11th
7th vs. 10th
8th vs. 9th
This is hardly a new concept, but one WWE has never used so it will seem innovative. You run the matches on Raw, ECW and Smackdown. You then run this tournament up until WrestleMania and have the finals there. Make it special, have Sensational Sherri as the special ring announcer, Moolah as bell ringer and Mae Young as timekeeper. You design a brand new women's title to give the winner. Play up the history of the WWE Women's Title and try to make it as important as possible.
Finally you have the new champion crowned at WrestleMania, the biggest show of the year and if it is done correctly it looks important. The other good news is that you now have a 12-women roster to work with plus the Dive Search Whores for all of the T&A shit you want to have and to job regularly to the real wrestlers. Through the tournament you should have already made feuds to start with. It's simple and yet very effective if the time has been taken to carefully plan it out.
What if Trish comes back?
Now this is a valid question, with a very simple answer. Trish is leaving, but there I that chance that she will come back down the line. She is getting married and wants to have kids. But let's say that she comes back in the next year or so. You need a big angle to bring her back, something that makes sense and will once again, draws interest to the division.
The Real Women's Champion
Now we are going to take two of my favorite storylines and make something special for the women's division. Trish Stratus returns, as a heel, with the original title she retired with. You have Trish attack whoever is champion at the time. For our argument we are going to select one of the ladies above that could benefit from a big time program, Cheerleader Melissa. And I don't mean a little beat down, we're going full monty here. A beat down of epic proportions as far as the ladies go, enough to have her believably out for 3-4 weeks. So Trish attacks her and declares that she is back, and since she was never defeated that she is the REAL women's champion. She refuses to recognize this new "fake" champion and vows to defend her title with "honor."
The following weeks you have Trish "defending" her title against lesser opponents, the Diva Whores, and belittling Melissa all along the way. Finally our real champion return and tries to get back at Trish. We allow them to play cay and mouse for a bit, with Melissa not getting any advantage on her, but getting close. Finally, management is forced to make the match. The match you ask? A Ladder Match for the "Undisputed WWE Women's Title." Damn skippy. Let them loose, let them do what they can and again, give them a chance to shine and make the title and division seem like it matters! You lose nothing by trying, you have the money, you have the TV and all you have to do is try.
My Take On:
In the end I know that this will not happen. I mean, never will they do anything like this. But the fact of the matter is that it IS possible for them to do this and do it well. I for one love hot chicks, and I like watching hot chicks wrestling on my wrestling show. I would love to see the women used the right way, a way in which it will matter and add to the programming with good feuds, good matches and overall, one that makes me care. Ah well, at least I care about these things.
