This Week in Wrestling

Craig Wilson & Jamie Lithgow.

A great promo from AJ Lee on Raw but what is the end game? (Image courtesy of WWE.com)

An A.J. pipebomb or a confused promo?

Fellow internet wrestling fans have been praising A.J. Lee to the hilt for the promo she cut on Raw Monday past. But was it really deserving of all the warm words it received.

In terms of delivery and style, absolutely it is but I’m still not entire sure what the point of it was and what, if any, part it plays in a long term plan for her or the divas division more generally. Did she echo the thoughts of many of us when it comes to women’s wrestling in the WWE? Absolutely it does.

Brian wrote more eloquently on the subject the other week that divas are nothing more than a sideshow in the WWE (not necessarily their fault, I hasten to add) Total Divas has seen the company’s female performers gain an audience – one bigger than the one that TNA gets – but let’s be honest, the company and writing team don’t take anything more than a tokenistic interest in them and that’s perhaps best exemplified by A.J. Lee’s promo this week.

Some reading this might well be thinking ‘but that’s one of the best thing a WWE diva has done in a while’ and that may well be true – certainly in promo terms – but what’s the point and what is the end game. I mean, it was a sure fire heel promo yet we had the crowd cheering along with her.

It demonstrates that she is one of the few divas that fans actually care about but in a battle between her and the Bella Twins who is the face and who are the heels? On the face of it, and on the back of Total Divas, I guess we’ve to consider the Bella Twins as faces I guess through their respective relationships with the two biggest faces in the WWE at the moment – John Cena and Daniel Bryan but is that enough for you? It’s not really enough for me.

Without question, AJ Lee is the greatest thing about the divas division at the moment. Her character is quirky and more importantly the WWE seem keen to give her airtime to develop it. The problem, however, is that in terms of the division more generally the divas have had so little time to make themselves relevant that their actions generate little in the way of interest from the fans.

Basically, a hot AJ Lee – I use the term “hot” in relation to being over here – is worthless without someone also over with the fans to work with. That’s the stumbling block for the WWE. There isn’t an over face diva of note for her to feud with. So, yeah the promo was good and probably the closest thing you’ll get to a diva pipebomb but it’s purpose remains unclear.

What Wrestling Taught Us This Week

Take that! Christian sells a thumb to eye better than most superstars sell a punch.
(Image courtesy of WWE.com)

• Ratings for Raw have gone through the roof! Well, according to Triple H anyway. The reality is less dramatic, but they are steadily improving.
• Randy Orton has no-sold the grey hairs in his beard, they’ve been RKO’d!
• Big Show appears to have forgotten about his “ironclad” contract.
• Randy Orton needs to watch where he parks. How many cars is that he has had vandalised by other WWE superstars?!
• AJ Lee, a heel, expressed how we all feel about the rest of the divas. I’m not really sure where this will lead or who’s side we are meant to be on, but AJ echoed my feelings.
• Big Show and Mark Henry aren’t going after the tag titles after all, or are they?
• Mr Money In The Bank, the guy who is all but guaranteed to become World Heavyweight Champion sometime within the next year, is still doing clean jobs in the mid-card. Sandow should ask Dolph Ziggler how he coped with such contradictory booking.
• Curt Axel is completely devoid of heat. Heyman and Punk are doing their best with him, but the IC Champ is the definition of generic.
• Randy Orton has lethal thumbs. Full marks to Christian for the sell-job on Raw.
• Daniel Bryan drives a woman’s car.
• The Bella twins don’t understand the term “say it to our face”, as they used it while AJ cut a scathing promo on them, to their face.
• WWE don’t store ladders under the ring unless there is a ladder match at the next PPV. There’s always plenty of kendo sticks though, should a martial arts emergency occur.
• Josh Mathews really needs to start going to self-defence classes.

All previous ‘This Week in Wrestling’ columns can be found here.