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Submitted by Chris Dailey on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 at 6:53 PM EST
Breaking The Walls DownHello and welcome back to another edition of Breaking The Walls Down. GO EAGLES! Anway, once again, news has been fleeting, so I will forgo Bits and Pieces this week. Reader FeedbackNow is the time for everyone to sit back and see if their e-mails made the column. Now, I did not post all of them (for varied reasons), but I took the ones that seemed to have a resonating theme. And now, onto your feedback. GTP Wrote: In response to your wish for reader feedback: Of course women have a place in professional wrestling. Women can do almost everything the men can, although some moves to a lesser extent. But the fact remains that women's matches can be as entertaining, if not more, as the men's. The problem today is not that women are wrestling, but the way they are presented in wrestling. Most do not consider the Women's Division a serious division, and it all boils down to the way it has been treated. First, the Women's Division has been treated as if it's nothing more than a haven for T&A. If the WWE wants women's matches to mean something, they have to begin acting like the participants are more than slabs of meat hung up for public view. Lawler has to stop screaming about puppies, the camera people have got to stop attempting to show every cleavage shot possible, and JR needs to try and put over these women as legitimate athletes. Second, the Women's Division needs to build up its champion. Molly Holly is the current champion, but they don't allow her to successfully defend it. Instead, they have her continually in tag matches. Nobody is ever going to see the champion as a threat unless she proves she can beat some opponents one on one. Finally, if you're serious about having a women's divsion, then put together a whole division. 6-8 women do not make up a complete division, especially when at least half of them are seen as valets (Stacy Kiebler) or only once a month Jacqueline). Recruit more women, and more importantly, women with actual wrestling talent. They don't all have to look like Trish Stratus. Make the division large enough to create variety in the matches and the title more credibility. If the WWE would simply do this, then I would bet others beside yourself would have a change of heart towards women's wrestling in general. Eric Wrote: I agree to a certain extent that there is a much improved women's division... mainly because of Trish, Molly, Ivory, and even Jazz (who I think is one of the best). Do I enjoy watching their matches? Not at all. But, I am biased because I grew up on the notion that women make great eye candy and managers... with the rare cat fight during a match.... Sensational Sherri was one of the best at this. I miss the days of quality managers who always posed an eminent threat to the top face.... Gotta love Teddy Long, playa. I miss the days when you could rely on Jimmy Hart screaming into his megaphone or hopping onto the apron only to get knocked off. Okay, back to the women's division... Yes, there is a place for them... it's called Sunday Night Heat! Keep up the good writing. D.P. aka Stinko Malenko Wrote: Personally, I think the women have actually improved, while the much of the rest of the show has sort of went down the shitter. I think Vince forgoes the shock in womens wrestling b/c he feels the T and A is enough to catch the horny male demographic. This has inadvertently(sp?) given more credibility to the womens division. Thats not to say that its well booked all the time, and I definitely think the title means nothing (seriously, if you have boobs and can do a move even resembling a headlock you get the title... well Flair has moobs but that doesn't count). But the womens division has sort of avoided the whole McMahonification of things in a way, slipping under the radar. All the while, since it's a small division, they have (esp. Trish and Molly) only improved with all the experience and match time they get, and they are very used to each other in the ring. Molly is a very solid wrestler, and pound for pound better than quite a few of the guys in the WWE. Trish has improved by leaps and bounds. Victoria was a great addition, she is a great wrestler and plays her character better than anyone in the division, hands down. Lita is charasmatic, has some fun spots, and can be carried. Jazz, while just barely qualifying as a woman, plays the she-hoss well. Ivory is a good wrestler, and wrestles with a hell of a lot of intensity. All in all, I don't mind the womens division. With the growing roster it should only improve in time. I was not a fan of the womens division for a while, but I must admit it has been cool watching it improve. Although the matches aren't always great and sometimes I think that RAW should rotate between a womens match one week and a cruiser match the next (i'm a huge CW mark), maybe moving some of the greener ladies to heat and tag team only matches (cough Gail Kim!). Also, I think that the Smackdown ladies, such as Nidia or Linda Miles, should be moved to RAW. Getting rid of the womens division entirely would be a mistake. There's no reason that womens wrestling can't be as good as men's wrestling. The problem is that the ladies are green when compared to the elite male wrestlers (Jericho, Angle, Rey, Benoit, Eddie), and there weren't as many aspiring female wrestlers as male wrestlers in the indies in the past. But I think things will change in years to come. This new generation of ladies are sure to inspire, much in the same way that women's surfing has evolved (which was also knocked on at first as being inferior to male surfing, but there are some SICK ladies out there these days). Mark my words, there will be a 'female Benoit' someday. All in all, I think that the WWE is SO fucked right now in terms of inconsistency, bad writing, misusing talent, too many McMahons, poop trucks, ect. ect. that the ladies taking up a couple minutes of my time a week is the last of WWE's problems. In fact, (and I never thought I'd say this) its one of few bright spots. Luch Wrote: I agree Chris, the women's division has been getting better. The matches seemed more improved. The angles, and feuds seem to have more thought put behind them. And outside of Lita's and Gail's sloppy, spotfest type of wrestling...the other women have got some real skill. Trish has it all, and is definitely a fan favorite. Jazz and Victoria are very talented and play the heels roles nicely. Molly seems to be the best wrestler of them all, though I'm not quite sure what her "gimmick" is suppose to be. Ivory is good, though I feel she's like the Spike or the Hurricane of the women's division. Just around to take a beating, and make the heels look good. Heck, Jacquelyn (sp?) wasn't all that bad herself. The problem is...quanity! There's only so many times you can put these girls in the ring together before it gets old. Hell, I think every combination has been thought up already, except for Jazz/Victoria as faces and Lita as a heel (which will never happen.) I think they need to get Nidia and Shaniqua over to Raw somehow (forget Torrie and Dawn, they can't wrestle and the Smackdown fans need their eye candy.) Also, get Jackie Gayda in the ring soon. I know it's best to build her as a heel manager first, that's how Trish came along. Don't let her showcase her skills yet, until the perfect timing. Then boom! Suddenly you have a dozen women going at it. You can have plenty of feud/angle ideas evolve from there. But 7 women just won't cut it. I have to say that I was a big hater of the women's division. I felt it had no place on WWE television. Especially when it meant guys like Hurricane, Storm, Goldust, and a handful of other guys...didn't get their chance to be on live television, and perform like a real "wrestler" should. However, it's grown on me a bit. And Lita's return has a lot to do with that. It gave the crowd a second face to cheer for, outside of Trish. But they need more women if it's ever going to work. If they don't plan to bring any of them over, or just plan to add 1-2 more within the next year...then scrap it! Because bottom line, it will get old after awhile. We don't need to see the women on EVERY SINGLE SHOW either! C'monn now! Hurricane and SHIT can't get on TV, Goldust and Rico are rare apperances on the Raw. But women manage to get on the show at least once every week, if not twice! It's ok to keep them off a week or two every month WWE, that way things won't get too stale. At least that's my thoughts on it. I still don't see them higher than WWE midcarders, but they're ok. This doesn't mean I want to see them EVER Main Event a Pay Per View, or even a Raw for that matter. In fact, I was disgusted when the women's match followed Rock vs. Hogan at Wrestlemania 18! It's one of the reasons I started to hate the division. Anyhow, I'm ok with women's wrestling. Sometimes they're sloppy, but then again, so are the hosses and they're still on every week. They just need more competition in order to make things work. You could only see the intergender matches, the 3-on-3 women's matches, and the same old repeated title feuds so many times. Simon Wrote: I acctually started looking more closely at the womens division abround the time of last years PWI500 list being brought out. The reason was because my wife asked me how many women were in the list. When i told her the answer she was disgusted. And i have to agree. In my opinion the PWI 500 should be open to all wrestlers. OK the women very rarely wrestle against the men, but the list isn't about that. PWI themselves say the criteria are (in order of importance) Win Loss Record Tecnical Ability Influence on the sport Success against the highest grade of competition Success against the most diverse competition Activity. Now if you look at those criteria, can you honestly say that some of the women out there shouldn't be in the list. Can you tell me that Not one of the women on raw has a good win loss record, or has no technical ability above the likes of Billy K (this years pwi500 number 500). Did Crusher Hanson (no. 462), Cheetah Master (no. 377) or Mike Quackenbush (202) have had a bigger influence on wrestling than Trish, or Victoria, or Molly or Jazz, Or Lita. No. The womens division on raw is getting better and better. In my opinion at the moment it has the best fully developed character in wrestling in Victoria. along with maven i think Trish is the most improved person in The wwe. Molly can do whatever she wants in or out of the ring, face or heel molly is queen. Lita may be the second best high spot wrestler on raw right now, Jackie allways looks more at home in the ring to me than even chris benoit. (ok thats maybe pushing the point a little bit.) Gail kim is an exciting prospect, and Jazz is as intense as anyone. Oh i missed the wwe's two greatest ever bumpers Mai young and moolah. But on a whole i don't think the womens division gets the props it deserves, and lack of tv time hurts it as too many women have to be stuffed into one feud. But if i want to watch wrestling and it was an all woman show, i'd defiantly look forward to it. I'd love to think its a division waiting to explode. Ozznfruitloops Wrote: Ozznfruitloops here from LOP Forums. First time giving feedback to any columnist, so bear with me. With that being said, I definately have seen a big improvement in the Womens Wrestling. Always being a strong supporter of the Division, I looked at it as any other division. Back when Stratus was Fueding with Victoria, I noticed that it wasnt the Women that were wrestling that was Stale, Boring, and Repetative, it was the Booking, and how it was handled was very careless. When trying to get anything over in Wrestling, you have to show a level of sensativity to it, making sure the fans get enough of it each week without ramming it down our throats. The fans want T&A...a good majority dont look at the women for their in ring ability, so the WWE had to make them care. What do they do most of the time? Book the same thing, Over and Over again. Example being how its Trish Stratus vs. The World. Personally, After the Victoria fued, I was really into it, then enters Jazz. Now, She did Have teddy long, and Teddy long makes mark henry interesting, but Jazz is to the Womens Wrestling as what Big Show (in ring) is to the Mens Division. Its Powermove-Rest-Powermove-Rest-Powermove. To quote homestar runner..."Boooooowing". I bring this up, because Jazz wasnt getting any heat. Fans didnt care...however...the WWE carelessly tried to shove her down our throats. It killed the division for alot of people. Now that the title is around someone who can carry a fued properly, in Molly Holly, Now things are going easier. And Thats the point im trying to make. Having the Belt on a Heel that is Established, and still can draw heat, and work the mic is always a good thing. Molly Holly is what the belt needs. It needs a nice run with someone who knows how to work every aspect. This reign, will make people say "wait...this is actually good". Why are they saying it? Cuz this is how a division is suppose to be. Theres a Fued with Lita, with supporting characters. I think the division can improve even more. Its going to take some time. The same hope that I had when I saw trish and Victoria go at it in the street fight is starting to come back to me. Now, if only the WWE will notice that things are starting to change. The women are pretty good for a division that was based around pillow matches. Trish had turned into quite a wrestler, Victoria still amazes me with her creativity, Gail Kim has to work on her spots, however...shes coming along and will make a great character in time, Molly Holly is a nice Vet who the fans still care about (Ivory and Jackie..well...no one cares...even though I still think Ivory should be pushed), and Lita who is arguablly the most over Woman right now. ---------------------- Now, that will do it for your feedback on women’s wrestling. I will give my opinion in my next columns. I must admit all of these readers brought up good points. I especially like the one about women not being in the PWI 500 (but, hey, I went to high school with Mike Quakenbush)! Before I end this column, if anyone knows of a company in need of a software/hardware documentation specialist, software/hardware trainer, and/or QA Specialist for software, please let me know. My office is capable of telecommuting to work if necessary. Thanks. Well, that will do it for this week. I hope you all have a safe and happy week. And, as always, join me as I try to “educate people on the realness of the fakeness of professional wrestling” ©. Later, Chris Dailey *NEW GALLERY* AMAZING Recent Pix of Candice Michelle Soaking Herself for Diggnation! WOW!
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