(Pic thanks to @WWEReaper!)
On RAW, the only Divas match was a ~30second bout with Paige & Emma vs the Bellas. Women usually get short matches on TV (regarded as the “piss break” match) but 30 seconds in a 3 hour show got wrestling fans to protest with #GiveDivasAChance on twitter, which started trending and got attention by the big wigs.
AJ Lee decided to take Stephanie to task after she praised Patty Arquette for her women’s rights speech at the Oscars:
@StephMcMahon Your female wrestlers have record selling merchandise & have starred in the highest rated segment of the show several times,
— AJ Mendez (@TheAJMendez) February 25, 2015
@StephMcMahon And yet they receive a fraction of the wages & screen time of the majority of the male roster. #UseYourVoice
— AJ Mendez (@TheAJMendez) February 25, 2015
And a couple hours later Vince, and then Steph responded
We hear you. Keep watching. #GiveDivasAChance
— Vince McMahon (@VinceMcMahon) February 25, 2015
Thank you @WWEAJLee, I appreciate your opinion. #UseYourVoice
— Stephanie McMahon (@StephMcMahon) February 25, 2015
The #GiveDivasAChance trend is definitely due to the female division on NXT, where it’s treated like a men’s division; they’re given far more time to showcase their wrestling talent (the women got 12 minutes at the last 2 NXT specials). That said, NXT has a lot of “wrestler first, diva second” women, as opposed to RAW with models taught how to wrestle (Bellas, Alicia Fox, Cameron, Eva Marie, Rosa, Eva, Summer Rae). I imagine people are standing up for the actual wrestlers (eg Nattie, Paige, AJ) who they know can actually wrestle. “Diva” is a pejorative term though, it means female storyline “I wish you died in the womb!” garbage and little emphasis on wrestling. #GiveFemaleWrestlersAChance isn’t half as catchy! It’s a lovely idea though, but I don’t expect anything to change – how can it, Vince & Kevin Dunn are still running the show and they hate women – but it does give us some hope for when Vince leaves, even if Steph & Aitch are just telling us what we want to hear. That Steph tweet looks like it was dripping with sarcasm, to the wife of the guy WWE are suing over a podcast! In the end, I am happy to see a push by fans to more serious, competitive women’s wrestling, although I worry it’s a bit bandwaggony as I’ve seen tweets referencing Sable, Chyna and other awful female wrestlers being referenced. When Patricia Arquette was asked to comment, she simply replied “Shuuuuut uppp!”
Question: how long the divas match will be on RAW monday?
They got 3 minutes on Main Event but let’s assume that was already timed out. I’m saying under a minute. YOU DON’T LIKE…