photo courtesy: wwe.com
For one thing, it has been subjected to shoddy and erratic booking by WWE’s writing team, to the point that few fans can bring themselves to care about it.
Additionally, the divas’ matches on Raw and SmackDown are usually allotted a laughably short amount of time, with the women barely having time to do anything before going straight to the finish.
How can you make anyone care about a match that goes roughly 30 seconds? The sad answer is, you can't.
Layla def. Nikki Bella (New Divas Champion) - Extreme Rules 2012
WWE Extreme Rules 2012(WATCH)
To make matters even worse, talented divas like Kelly Kelly and Beth Phoenix have been the victims of frustrating stop-and-start booking, as the promotion demonstrates a deep reluctance to get behind any diva and give her a steady push for a prolonged length of time.
Unsurprisingly, many women in WWE have grown disillusioned with this terrible treatment, and some, like Gail Kim, even left over it.
WWE Divas Champion Layla def. Beth Phoenix - Over the Limit 2012
WWE Over the Limit 2012 (WATCH)
However, with the recent push of Layla, there is some (cautious) hope that WWE may be finally starting to rebuild their women’s division, with the Diva Search winner at the center of it.
Indeed, Layla has so far been the recipient of first-class treatment from WWE’s booking team. Following a year on the bench after serious knee surgery, she made her return at the Extreme Roles pay-per-view as then Divas Champion Nikki Bella’s surprise opponent.
Coming out to a strong and lively reaction, Layla soundly defeated her in a decent match to take the title, and went on to defeat both Bella twins the following night (this bout served as the pair’s swansong from the company, with the sisters getting fired by Eve later in the evening in a segment shown on the company’s official site).
Layla was also given an impressive and clean victory over the dominant Beth Phoenix at the Over the Limit pay-per-view on Sunday in a match that went fairly long by current WWE diva standards (over seven minutes).
So, it looks like the company are intending to build the division around the former Miami Heat dancer. The question is: Can it last?
As noted, WWE’s booking team have behaved erratically in the past with their women and, with this in mind, it wouldn’t be too shocking to see WWE drop Layla and her push, and speedily move their attentions onto the latest model to get called up from OVW.
There’s also the fact that, crazy at is sounds, at the ripe old age of 33, Layla is a lot older than the youth-obsessed WWE tend to prefer their women to be. While it doesn’t seem to have caused any issues with her so far—and, it has to be said, she still looks amazing and ten years younger than she actually is—it could be a potential problem for her in the future.
However, despite the possible problems, at this point things look good for the female star.
Indeed, not since Trish Stratus in her heyday has the promotion had such a great all-around diva. Layla can do it all: talk, wrestle and emanate sex appeal and charisma.
She is everything WWE brass could possibly want in a diva. It makes sense that they want to push her so strongly.
There’s also the rather bleak fact that they probably have no one else ready for the female babyface spot on Raw: Alicia Fox isn’t over one little bit and her in-ring work is spotty at best, and former Divas Champion Kelly’s profile has floundered badly after months of not being used by WWE in any meaningful manner. She no longer seems relevant anymore.
At this point, Layla is assured of a push purely because she’s one of the few truly talented, over and capable girls the company has got left.
Summarily, at present it looks like WWE intend to make Layla a cornerstone of their women’s division, no doubt imbued with faith by her considerable talents in the ring and outside of it.
Of course, knowing WWE, we probably shouldn’t get too comfortable, lest they pull the rug out from under her and she gets banished to NXT or Superstars soon.
But at the moment, we’re optimistic that Layla, with the creative team firmly behind her, can greatly help in turning around the flagging women’s division.
source: bleacherreport.com
