Thursday, August 21, 2014

Top Ten Main Roster Divas

I consider myself to be a big advocate of women's wrestling. I've watched many SHIMMER volumes and do not consider the WWE Divas matches to be "piss breaks." I have a lot of respect for what they do, so I decided to do a top ten list of the main roster divas. I had to specify main roster because there are some NXT girls who I would put ahead of some of the main roster girls, including Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Bayley. We will be looking at each girl's full body of work, in ring ability, character work, promo ability and more. Also, I want to point out that there's no honorable mentions. The girls who didn't make the list are relatively useless like Cameron, Eva Marie and especially Rosa Mendes.

10. Summer Rae

We start off with a woman who entered the main roster as a valet for Fandango. He had numerous random dancers early on until one stuck and that was Summer Rae. She didn't impress me much in the ring, especially at Survivor Series 2013 where she just basically entered the ring and danced. However, She has shown some improvement in the ring and is able to play her character well. Her role on Total Divas has been fun as well. While they seemed unsure of what to do with her after the Fandango split, her stuff with Layla has been entertaining though it needs to go somewhere soon.

9. The Bella Twins

The two most marketable Divas are easily the Bella Twins. That is their strongest suit. The WWE uses them to promote the WWE Network, sends them out for appearances and they're the focal point of Total Divas. Back during their first run, I hated seeing them on my television. They were terrible workers and didn't care, but in their second run they've grown to care. Maybe it's dating John Cena and Daniel Bryan or maybe it's how high on the card they are. They still aren't great in the ring, but they're serviceable. Their biggest flaw is their terrible acting. Neither girl can cut a promo or act to save their lives. Also, I know it may be a cop out putting them together on this list, but they're pretty interchangeable.

8. Alicia Fox

One of the more under appreciated Divas on the roster is Alicia Fox. Back in 2009 or so when she got her Divas Championship run, I don't think that she was ready. She had some poor matches and looked like she could kill someone with her Scissors Kick. Over time, she's grown to be less relevant in the division but rose to a title shot earlier this year with her crazed gimmick. She played it well and we got some entertaining moments. She's become one of the better workers in the division and, while her Scissors Kick still looks bad, she doesn't seem to be much of a danger in there anymore.

7. Layla

So Layla is hot. I'm just going to get that out of the way. Now, Layla is the most successful Diva Search winner by far. She went from appearing in bikini contests to dancing with Extreme Expose and it seemed like she would not go far. Then came LayCool. By far the most entertaining Divas act in the post Lita/Trish era. They were in sync, they had comedic timing, they could go in the ring and they were must see Divas television. Layla is the only woman on this list to win both the Women's and Divas Championship, which is an impressive feat. The only reason she's not higher is that she is currently not really used for in ring work.

6. Naomi

I would like to point out that NXT Season 3 is one of the greatest things the WWE has ever produced. It's non-stop entertaining, cringe worthy at times and absolutely hilarious. The one girl that stood out from the first episode was Naomi. Easily the most athletic Diva on the roster, it's only a matter of time before she becomes a Divas Champion. When it comes to Total Divas, Naomi is by far the most likable girl. She's level headed and not bratty like the rest of the girls and her relationship with Jimmy Uso is pretty funny to watch at times. There was talk that she was scheduled to face AJ Lee at WrestleMania XXX, which would've been huge, but she suffered a vicious eye injury and the match was changed. She's currently in a feud with her former teammate Cameron and I'm glad she's done dancing and getting to compete.

5. Emma

Trained by the great Lance Storm, Emma is the most underutilized Diva on the roster in my opinion. I watched her under her real name in SHIMMER before hearing that she was signed by the WWE. She went to NXT and became one of my favorite performers there. She was saddled with a ridiculous dancing gimmick and made it into an extremely popular thing there. Her goofy awkwardness made her endearing but it hasn't translated to the main roster. I think she should have had video packages/vignettes about the dance before her debut to help get it over with the crowd. The biggest reason that she's this high though is her in ring ability. The girl can flat out go. Check out her NXT ArRival match or her NXT Women's Championship Finals against Paige for proof.

4. Natalya

If this list was based purely on in ring ability, Natalya could make a STRONG case to be number one. Due to being a member of the legendary Hart family, she's been very well trained and can put on really good matches. Her match with an unproven Charlotte at NXT TakeOver is the best Divas match that I've seen in recent memory. She took longer to get to the WWE than I expected and lost a chance to be the first Divas Champion at the 2008 Great American Bash. She moved into a managerial role for the Hart Dynasty before going back to competing and winning the Divas Title. Her tag team with Beth Phoenix was pretty good too. The only thing keeping her from moving up is that she is very bland as a character.

3. Stephanie McMahon

Let me ask you a question. Who is the best heel in the WWE? If your answer was not Stephanie McMahon then you are dead wrong. The woman got Vickie Guerrero to be a sympathetic face. Really think about that. Stephanie was good during her original run as a heel in the company, but after having three kids and returning as a member of the Authority, Stephanie has been on fire. She is outstanding in her role. Then came SummerSlam. She had to step into the ring with Brie Bella in a match that a lot of people didn't have faith in. Stephanie went out and absolutely controlled things and dominated. She looked better in the ring than 90% of the Divas roster and this is a 37 year old mom who hadn't worked a match in over a decade. The woman is amazing and would be higher if she laced the boots up more often but seriously, give Stephanie credit.

2. Paige

Down in NXT, the "Anti-Diva" was dynamite. She was a badass chick that didn't take shit from anyone and it was awesome to see. She got called up to the main roster the night after WrestleMania XXX and instantly produced a huge moment in Divas history by ending AJ Lee's record 295 day reign as Champion and becoming the youngest Divas Champion in history. What followed was a disappointing run as Champion because the role of the cheesy babyface wasn't working. AJ Lee returned and won the belt back, leading to the new "psycho/obsessive" Paige that has been fantastic. Her ability to do something heinous to AJ and then hug her and tell her that she loves her is great and their match at SummerSlam was very good. She is going to be a focal point of the Divas division for a long time considering she's only 22, so get used to this.

1. AJ Lee

Paige fans seem to hate AJ, while AJ fans seem to hate Paige. I love them both. There really could be no other choice for number one. During the awesome NXT Season 3, AJ Lee instantly became a favorite of mine. The girl loves wrestling, is adorable and could go. Check out her match with Naomi from that season because it's great. She formed a cool tag team with her best friend Kaitlyn, known as the Chickbusters before moving into a relationship with Daniel Bryan. From there, she was a focal point. She helped cost him the World Title at WrestleMania 28, so he dumped her and she was THE biggest part of Bryan's feud with CM Punk over the WWE Title. She was ending Raws by sitting in the ring Punk style or by pushing both Punk and Bryan through a table. She moved onto having a wedding at Raw 1000 before becoming the General Manager. She continued to be a big part by managing John Cena and Dolph Ziggler. Then she finally got her chance in the ring and defeated Kaitlyn in the best Divas match of 2013 at Payback. She reigned atop the division for nearly 300 days and beat every Diva put in front of her, including the entire roster at WrestleMania XXX. Even though she lost to Paige, she won it back the first night of her return and is engaged in a really good feud with her. She is the best on the current roster. 

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