Something has become clear in recent times. It is time, once and for all, to put WWE's struggling Divas Division out of its misery.
Frankly, this has been coming for a while. While women's wrestling has never been taken terribly seriously in the company, over the past year and a half, the WWE Divas Championship—and therefore, the division—has plummeted to the depths of irrelevancy.
With the exception of AJ Lee—currently serving as Raw GM—and Eve Torres, the women in the company all struggle greatly to get air-time on WWE programming, with talented athletes like Natalya, Tamina Snuka and Beth Phoenix often consigned to little-watched Internet-only shows like Superstars.
There have been no major angles for the Divas either. Any time anything interesting does come up, it's quickly swept under the rug and forgotten about. Hey, anyone remember when Pin up Strong—the team of Phoenix of Natalya—were going to take over the division and get rid of all models they despised? Or Alicia Fox claiming she was on a quest to take Phoenix’s title?
Oh, sure. The current “Who Attacked Kaitlyn at Night of Champions?” angle is intriguing, but it remains to be seen whether WWE's creative team will drop this angle before it's properly resolved, like they've done with several Diva storylines in the past.
As for in-ring time to show off what they can do? The girls barely get that either, with most women's matches on Raw and Smackdown lasting about two minutes.
When they are afforded the luxury of performing on pay-per-view, they almost always get stuck in a terrible, unenviable spot (like right after a major match), meaning the crowd in attendance is usually too distracted to care about the match taking place.
Being Divas Champion—a title which isn't exactly considered prestigious by critics and fans—doesn't help either.
Indeed, as Divas Champion, Beth Phoenix had one of the longest women's title runs in WWE history in late 2011/early 2012, but she was barely on TV and neglected by the booking team for so long many even forgot she held the title.
All this shoddy treatment is considered even worse when you remember that WWE moved to three hours in July. Yes, WWE has more airtime than they know what to do with and still won't put any time into the division.
So let’s be brutally honest: This division is going absolutely nowhere. Going by the huge amount of women exiting the company (Maryse, The Bella Twins, Gail Kim. Maxine and Kelly Kelly have all left WWE in the past year—Beth Phoenix is reportedly finishing up too), the girls know it too.
That Triple H—next in line to run the company after Vince—has, per an interview with a former writer, been a vocal critic of giving the girls airtime in booking meetings only helps to ensure that things won’t change any time in the future.
With this in mind, getting rid of Divas Championship might be the best course of action. Frankly, if you're going to have a women's title, treat it—and the people who will hold it—with a modicum of respect, or don't have one at all.
One comparison to bring up is with WWE's now-defunct Cruiserweight Championship. The title was long treated as a joke (comedy act Hornswaggle even had a lengthy run with it), and few shed any tears when management finally jettisoned the belt in 2008.
Frankly, it was a waste of the company’s time, and getting rid of the belt allowed the cruiserweights, like Chavo Guerrero and Evan Bourne, to move on and to other, better things in the mid-card and tag team ranks.
Similarly free of the hindrance of competing for a sham belt, the women in WWE would be free to do other things. The girls could still wrestle, of course, but some of them could move on to managing. Look at how great this worked out for Rosa Mendes, who went from being under-utilised and practically invisible as as a wrestler to being a valuable part of the roster as the manager to Epico and Primo.
It’s difficult to say whether WWE will take my advice and discard the floundering Divas Championship. But hopefully they change something—because what they’re doing now is not working.