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On the day following Monday Night RAW, I full expected the Internet Wrestling Community (IWC) to be creaming all over themselves after NXT Divas Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, and Charlotte made their RAW debuts (or return for Charlotte). All I've heard for months was how much better the NXT Divas were than any WWE Diva. Then, they made their debut and unleashed a fury on the WWE Divas with all 3 hitting big spots, locking in nasty submission holds, and getting multiple THIS IS AWESOME chants by the RAW crowd. Seriously, multiple THIS IS AWESOME chants... When have you EVER heard that from a WWE crowd regarding the Divas. So I checked Twitter, Message Boards, my own emails, and even other columns... I was baffled... Instead of PRAISE for the HUGE moment for the NXT Divas, I saw utter disgust by the Internet Wrestling Community? Why? Because of Stephanie McMahon. Say what? If you watch actual RAW segment, you'll see Stephanie heavily praising each of the 3 NXT Divas as if they were a big deal. So what's with the hate? You have a WWE Executive Vice President who has normally talked down multiple wrestlers, including Divas, praising 3 new debuting (or returning) NXT stars. Isn't that what you want? Don't you want a bigger spotlight for their debuts? I guess you didn't appreciate the 3 on 3 on 3 BRAWL between the 3 trios of Divas afterward. I was highly entertained... Why the hate on Stephanie this time around, Internet Fans? And before you call me PRO-STEPHANIE, you need to go back and READ MY PAST COLUMNS (which you can do so by clicking here or here). That's right, old man Tito has longevity on his side... I've been writing about Stephanie McMahon since she ramped up her appearances as a WWE character during 1999. I've been around THAT long, folks... But I've hammered her for her work as the lead writer of the WWE Creative Team since late 2000. Lots of columns mocking her as a Communications major being clueless on how to creatively write storylines and also letting her boyfriend/husband using his conflict-of-interest as a wrestler to poorly book RAW. In addition, I've been critical of her on-screen character particularly when she tries to actually bully male wrestlers. She destroyed Daniel Bryan before and after his "big" Wrestlemania 30 moment when he became WWE Champion. You heard nothing but "B+ Player" over and over again... Longevity is on my side... I have been critical of Stephanie McMahon as a WWE official and manager... That said, I honestly don't understand the Internet's hatred of her in this NXT Divas segment. As much as you want to hate Stephanie McMahon, the Triple H and Stephanie's Authority storyline actually improved ratings and stopped the Pay Per View buyrate slide seen through 2012-2013. Yep, I covered that in another column (although Brock Lesnar has helped things too, which I covered in yet another column). In case you haven't noticed, RAW following Wrestlemania 31 has declined significantly in the ratings without Triple H and Stephanie McMahon leading the Authority. I guess fans aren't overly excited about Seth Rollins as WWE Champion squabbling with Kane as the top Authority guys. But what Internet Fans are completely missing is how much they overrate NXT's presence in professional wrestling. Consider the numbers... (a) RAW receives between 3.5 to 4 million viewers per week plus, give or take, 500,000 to 1 million more from DVR/Hulu, maybe slightly more... Being very conservative, we'll just go with 4 million viewers of RAW each week. (b) WWE Network has close to or just over 1,000,000 domestic subscribers. (c) When WWE Network posted the Top 10 shows based on viewership per week, NXT's weekly show didn't break the Top 5. Therefore, it can be easily assumed that a good portion of the WWE Network subscriber base doesn't watch NXT. Just doing simple mathematics, if RAW has 4 million viewers and WWE Network (not all watching NXT) has 1 million subscribers... That's quite a gap on who were WWE fans versus NXT fans. HUGE gap, in fact... Thus, more than 3 out of 4 people have no idea who any of the NXT debuting wrestlers are. It might be why Kevin Owens isn't popping ratings. Though I figure fans have appreciated him as a wrestler, he's still new and unknown to the MAJORITY of wrestling fans. That's what the Internet has to realize... The wrestling world does NOT and I repeat DOES NOT revolve around NXT. It revolves around the main WWE roster which has lots of fans who just watch the main WWE product only. You can't just let NXT wrestlers appear and expect them to instantly get over. Remember that Charlotte match against Natalya during late 2014? Wasn't that impressive... Not much hype for Charlotte even if she is the daughter of "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. But... If you spend weeks building up Paige being repeatedly outnumbered against Team Bella (Nikki & Brie Bella, Alicia Fox) and then use a bigtime character in Stephanie McMahon to positively introduce each of the NXT Divas as if they are each big deals... That's money. You can't just randomly debut people in the WWE... Ever wrestler has a purpose and a story in the WWE, that's what WWE main roster fans expect. Paige had a need for help, WWE sold that story for weeks, and then they pulled the trigger on debuting (or returning) those wrestlers to help Paige (and Sasha Banks joined Tamina and Naomi). Stephanie McMahon used her starpower to put over the debuting NXT Divas. What is so wrong with that? Many of the critics were suggesting that Naomi, herself, should have brought in the help instead. Right, like Paige herself is able to make farm system (that's what NXT is!) call-ups. No, you need a WWE Executive to make changes to the roster and Stephanie can do that credibly. Again, she positively put over all 3 NXT Divas. Better yet, she introduced each of the three and was able to tell a quick story on each. Everybody knows to call Sasha Banks as "the boss". Everybody fully knows that Charlotte is the daughter of the Nature Boy Ric Flair. Just watch in the upcoming weeks when the WHOOOOO chants get louder and louder following this RAW. Again, WWE fans in attendance repeatedly chanted THIS IS AWESOME during this DIVAS segment. Divas segment! Who else would you want out there? Stephanie McMahon is a great speaker and generates lots of heat towards her character. But what makes her further credible to even speak on the WWE Divas division is the fact that on any given night, she can actually wrestle with them. Go watch her SummerSlam 2014 match with Brie Bella. She's not bad and back in the day during 2001, she had a good wrestling match with Trish Stratus before Stratus became the elite wrestler. The nice thing about the Divas division is Stephanie can appear credible because she's not exactly facing Amazon women. She couldn't defeat someone tough like Alundra Blayze or Chyna but she looks tougher than Brie Bella, an actual wrestler. But again, when Stephanie wrestled, she looked good in the ring. If needed, she could wrestle Charlotte, Becky, or Sasha... But the BEST part about Stephanie McMahon being involved with the Divas division is that if she tries to meddle with the division, the Divas can HIT HER BACK. If Stephanie pisses off any of the Divas, they can attack her... This contrasts with Stephanie's previous role with the Authority. She was able to repeatedly talk down male wrestlers, notably Daniel "B+ Player" Bryan, but the male wrestlers couldn't do a thing in return. We're in the PG Era where Comcast/NBC/Universal are shoving "standards and practices" stuff down WWE management's throats. NO domestic abuse allowed in today's modern WWE. Just not happening... But, if she were to talk down Charlotte, Sasha, or Becky, they can make her life miserable. THEY CAN HIT BACK. I've argued this before with AJ Lee. In my opinion, the WWE missed out on a major money feud between a babyface AJ Lee going up against a heel executive Stephanie McMahon. Stephanie has the heat and character to pull off the Authority figure overseeing the Divas. Again, there is a major difference between how males and females can react to Stephanie's heel trolling. Stephanie McMahon is a star and a proven commodity as an on-screen character. The NXT Divas are lucky to be using her star power to shine a bigger spotlight on their debuts. Again, watch the reaction of the LIVE crowd... Repeat THIS IS AWESOME chants... For a DIVAS segment?!?!? Do they get those chants without Stephanie? I honestly don't think so... Again, not everybody watches NXT and I proved that with simple mathematics above. Stephanie put much needed attention on the Divas segment and then she positively introduced all 3 NXT Divas wrestlers. Again, repeat THIS IS AWESOME chants! She connected the many loyal main roster WWE fans to the NXT fans in ONE segment by just using a microphone. There is some talent there... Better watch out with your anti-Stephanie comments, Internet... If you bash this segment heavily, someone like Vince McMahon will see it and quickly abandon the angle. Remember, he's CRAZY HIGH on the non-wrestling Lana and wants to spotlight her as the star Diva. But if the NXT Divas become popular and Stephanie McMahon is excited for the NXT Divas because of her participation, then that might fend off some of Vince McMahon's resistance. What Internet Wrestling Fans need to understand is that the WWE roster and environment is FAR DIFFERENT than the NXT one. In addition to dealing directly with Vince McMahon, WWE has an army of Executives, Senior Vice Presidents, Vice Presidents, and lots of influence from corporate forces such as Comcast/NBC/Universal. In fact, many of those forces dislike WWE as just a wrestling product... However, if you involve Stephanie McMahon, who is an Executive herself and carries lots of influence, those NXT Divas can be accepted more easily than without Stephanie. Don't believe me? Look at how many times that the WWE has tried to have a serious Divas division for the past 10 years... Bombs upon bombs... Stephanie McMahon will help the NXT Divas and the existing WWE Divas... Timing is everything, too... The USA Women's Soccer Team winning the Women's World Cup is a huge deal and their championship game did crazy numbers. There is some good momentum on women's sports right now. Furthermore, it doesn't hurt that Stephanie is becoming decent friends with Ronda Rousey... Right now, Rousey is the #1 female athlete in America... In addition to that, she could be the biggest star in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) because she's allowed to make a name for herself and has some freedom to hype herself. Unless you follow UFC closely, many of the male fighters are unknowns because of how protective UFC is of its brand and not the fighters. Rousey was at Wrestlemania 31 in a big segment that involved Stephanie, Rock, and Triple H. Could you imagine if Stephanie could deliver Ronda Rousey to the WWE, even for one night only? Fans would pay top dollar to see Rousey destroy Stephanie. See what I mean? Stephanie attracts attention but better yet, females can HIT BACK on Stephanie. You'll never be able to see Daniel Bryan having a match against Stephanie McMahon but Ronda Rousey can happen. If Stephanie can deliver that match-up, all of the haters from Monday Night RAW will drop what they're doing to see that match. Guaranteed. Settle down... Go re-watch the actual RAW segment and turn your Stephanie hating sensors off. Listen to how she's putting over each NXT Divas. Then, watch as 3 teams of trios beat the crap out of each other. Enjoy the ride... I sure as hell am looking forward to 9 women tag matches involving 3 separate teams. I'm excited to see actual DEPTH in that division and so should you. It's a great time for the WWE and the Divas division could be on the verge of a breakout... Involving Stephanie McMahon won't hurt it, either... ----------------------------------------------------- PHAT QUESTIONS Question #1: What did you think of the Nintendo 3DS game "WWE All Stars"? Yuck, wasn't a fan... Felt too much like a bad arcade game and that's a shame because that roster is STACKED with current WWE roster guys and many all-time greats. The moveset is too comical. Not sure how it played on the bigger console, but it just wasn't fun on the 3DS. I'll say it again... WWE needs to make a N64 port of one of their past games, Wrestlemania 2000 or WWE No Mercy, for the Nintendo 3DS. Just update the roster and give us that sweet AKI wrestling engine. I'm a guy in my 30's with kids, and who knows, they might have 3DS (or 2DS) systems to play in the future. It would be fun for myself to play and introduce a very simple wrestling engine to a kid and I believe this could be a major hit for the WWE. I would go with "WWE No Mercy" as the title, too... That's name recognition. Nintendo 3DS just has 52 million handheld units sold as of March 2015. Do the math... If WWE is able to move at least 1,000,000 games, that's $39.99 per game and about $40 million in new revenue. Porting the N64 games will cut production costs down drastically. -------------------------------------------------------- Question #2: What happened to the recent return of the Anonymous General Manager? I thought someone stopped that nonsense on-screen... I think WWE quickly dropped it when they wanted to bring back the Authority when ratings started to tank last year. I'm guessing that the WWE read much of the negative feedback by fans, too. ---------------------------------------------------------- Question #3: Do you have any insider WWE sources? Not at the moment... WWE has clamped down on leaks outside of a few news outlets that I believe upper management allows... Back in the day during the mid-2000's, I had a road agent and a midcard wrestler sending me a few backstage notes. Both individuals followed my column when the with either ECW or WCW and continued sending me notes when they joined the WWE. Both are no longer with the WWE. The best I have now are a few Florida independent contacts that hear things on TNA and the NXT developmental system for WWE. For example, one of Florida based wrestler told me that he heard a bunch of guys wearing suits began attending TNA events and that the way they were talking, they sounded like accountants of some sort. That was 3 years ago and here we are today. The best stories that I ever heard from those WWE sources were as followed, and I have written a few columns on these: (1) Brock Lesnar's growing unhappiness not just regarding the tough WWE schedule, but the open dislike of former WCW wrestlers getting special treatment (no houseshows). (2) Edge and Triple H do not like each other and were purposely kept away from each other with a few exceptions on television. They told me that Vince McMahon was a big fan of Edge and thus any HHH influence couldn't affect Edge. (3) Randy Orton's personal demons and how many backstage were upset the feeling of preferential treatment for him. But nobody from the WWE speaks to me now... Oh well. SO JUST CHILL... 'TIL THE NEXT EPISODE! Comments and feedback are welcome. Follow and Tweet me @titowrestling or login in below to post comments. © Mr. Tito and LordsofPain.net/WrestlingHeadlines.com - 1998-2015
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