Bitches Be Crazy

[Hanley!]

Just thought I'd make an observation about the Diva division. This is something that just occurred to me the other day, and I found it pretty funny. Kinda sad in some ways but still funny.

So it's not any big secret that the WWE has a couple of tried and tested ways to get their female performers over. For years their favourite way to get the audience behind a Diva was to have her act a little slutty and not wear much. This worked really well for a lot of their female stars: Sunny, Sable, The Kat, Stacey Kiebler, Torrie Wilson. It's becoming a little less prominent in recent years though because of the PG era.

But there's another formula that they apply to a lot of their Divas when they want to get them really over with the crowd or pursue some major angle with them: they make them crazy.

Think about it: how many of their biggest female stars in recent years have been nutters? Victoria, Mickie James, AJ Lee ... and more recently Paige and Alicia Fox. I'm not complaining about all of these characters either, as Victoria, Mickie James and AJ Lee are among my favourite female wrestlers from their respective runs. Though the Paige/AJ stuff has been pretty insufferable recently.

It's just a little ... bizarre. Crazy chicks, who are crazy in some weirdly sexual way, preferably with heavy lesbonic undertones are severely over-represented in the wrestling world.

It doesn't really speak too highly of the work they're putting into the division when so many of their recent stars have been cut from this very specific mold. It might be time to put the crazy to rest for a while and explore some new personality traits in their women for a while.

[Str8Shooter]

They have no clue how to book female characters and pretty much never have.

One example. The other day there was a backstage segment with the Bellas. Nikki mouthed off to Brie as you'd expect a heel to do. So how does Brie respond, by making a not so subtle jab at Nikki's weight and her being fat. That was their go-to retort from their babyface in the storyline.

Nobody watching that would possibly consider Nikki Bella to be in anything but amazing shape, it just looked dumb as hell.

[The Legend]

They have no clue how to book female characters and pretty much never have.

One example. The other day there was a backstage segment with the Bellas. Nikki mouthed off to Brie as you'd expect a heel to do. So how does Brie respond, by making a not so subtle jab at Nikki's weight and her being fat. That was their go-to retort from their babyface in the storyline.

Nobody watching that would possibly consider Nikki Bella to be in anything but amazing shape, it just looked dumb as hell.

Sisters fighting usually does look dumb as hell in real life though as well. So they have that going for them.

[Hanley!]

They have no clue how to book female characters and pretty much never have.

One example. The other day there was a backstage segment with the Bellas. Nikki mouthed off to Brie as you'd expect a heel to do. So how does Brie respond, by making a not so subtle jab at Nikki's weight and her being fat. That was their go-to retort from their babyface in the storyline.

Nobody watching that would possibly consider Nikki Bella to be in anything but amazing shape, it just looked dumb as hell.

Yeah. I didn't see that segment, but shit like that always bothers me. Having your face acting the bully and throwing around completely shallow, petty and completely untrue insults is just bad booking. It endears her to nobody. And the heel loses heat if they become more sympathetic.

[The Legend]

Also, I feel like I wanted to clear something up, or ask an opinion. Is Paige really crazy? By that I mean are we actually supposed to think the character is crazy because I've never seen it that way. I feel like she is completely normal, but mocks AJ by spoofing her crazy mannerisms and behavior (i.e. skipping), more so than her actually being a crazy character. She's just doing a good job of getting under AJ's skin.

[Hanley!]

Also, I feel like I wanted to clear something up, or ask an opinion. Is Paige really crazy? By that I mean are we actually supposed to think the character is crazy because I've never seen it that way. I feel like she is completely normal, but mocks AJ by spoofing her crazy mannerisms and behavior (i.e. skipping), more so than her actually being a crazy character. She's just doing a good job of getting under AJ's skin.

I don't really know if she is or not. To be honest, I haven't gotten the Paige story. To me, they both just seem to be doing random crap and none of it has made any sense. I think what we're supposed to think is that Paige is playing mind games with AJ, but to me those mind games rarely seemed to make any sense and weren't particularly effective. I think the whole story has been pretty bungled. It seemed at all times as if WWE just didn't know what to do with the characters.

Paige has been (or at least was ... I can't speak to the last few weeks) acting crazy on television for weeks though, so I still included her as a recent example. She was floundering as a character so they made her act crazy to try and get her over again. Which is basically what they did with Alicia Fox too, except she wasn't so much floundering as completely irrelevant.

[SortaCreative]

It's just a little ... bizarre. Crazy chicks, who are crazy in some weirdly sexual way, preferably with heavy lesbonic undertones are severely over-represented in the wrestling world.

Bizarre?

Really?... I wouldn't say it's bizarre. Fits the demo.

[Westcoastvibes]

But who doesn't like the hot crazy chick?

Sure they are crazy, but it's sexy as hell in short doses.

[Hanley!]

It's just a little ... bizarre. Crazy chicks, who are crazy in some weirdly sexual way, preferably with heavy lesbonic undertones are severely over-represented in the wrestling world.

Bizarre?

Really?... I wouldn't say it's bizarre. Fits the demo.

Why does the demo specifically respond to women who are crazy? Not saying you're wrong, but if you're right then that is pretty bizarre in my mind.

And I guess I partially meant it from a kayfabe point of view as well. It just seems weird that such a high percentage of their female wrestlers would be sexy lesbians just recently escaped from the loony bin. Makes you wonder if WWE should be vetting their new female employees a little more thoroughly.

[The Legend]

It's just a little ... bizarre. Crazy chicks, who are crazy in some weirdly sexual way, preferably with heavy lesbonic undertones are severely over-represented in the wrestling world.

Bizarre?

Really?... I wouldn't say it's bizarre. Fits the demo.

Why does the demo specifically respond to women who are crazy? Not saying you're wrong, but if you're right then that is pretty bizarre in my mind.

And I guess I partially meant it from a kayfabe point of view as well. It just seems weird that such a high percentage of their female wrestlers would be sexy lesbians just recently escaped from the loony bin. Makes you wonder if WWE should be vetting their new female employees a little more thoroughly.

You are talking about a company that currently employs: A guy who parties with a giant bunny, a family of backwoods "prophets", the world's worst motivational speaker, A guy who dances around the outside of the ring like he's fighting imaginary opponents, A lunatic fringe - whatever the hell that is, A pair of fake matadors that run around with a little person in a bull costume that actually thinks he's a bull, Two brothers that wear gold body paint and make eccentric look normal, A guy from Parma, Ohio that thinks he's a Hollywood movie star, A psychotic assailant with rage issues, A guy that used to talk to an imaginary friend, a guy that thinks he's a dead man and a Zeb Coulter.

Trust me, crazy isn't just left for their female employees.

[Hanley!]

^^ You make a good point. But being crazy is not actually the gimmick of those guys (with the exception of Wyatt). They all just have gimmicks that came from the mind of a crazy individual.

[The Legend]

^^ You make a good point. But being crazy is not actually the gimmick of those guys (with the exception of Wyatt). They all just have gimmicks that came from the mind of a crazy individual.

I would argue that in addition to the Wyatts, to at least some considerable degree the gimmick of Dean Ambrose, the Rhodes Brothers, Randy Orton, R-Truth and Zeb Coulter are all designed to be portrayed as crazy and that craziness being central to their characters - or has been in the case of R-Truth.

[Hanley!]

You have a point with the Rhodes brothers alright. And R-Truth used to be, but isn't anymore. The others aren't specifically crazy though. Orton's gimmick is that he has anger issues, which isn't really the same thing. And while Dean Ambrose is referred to as the "lunatic fringe", his gimmick seems to be more based around him being unpredictable and an odd character. Not specifically crazy.

We definitely have had plenty of crazy male characters over the years too, but not as high a percentage of the roster as with the women. Also, there seems to have been more variation between those characters.

[The Legend]

You have a point with the Rhodes brothers alright. And R-Truth used to be, but isn't anymore. The others aren't specifically crazy though. Orton's gimmick is that he has anger issues, which isn't really the same thing. And while Dean Ambrose is referred to as the "lunatic fringe", his gimmick seems to be more based around him being unpredictable and an odd character. Not specifically crazy.

We definitely have had plenty of crazy male characters over the years too, but not as high a percentage of the roster as with the women. Also, there seems to have been more variation between those characters.

Yeah, they definitely don't do a great job of indivualizing their women so to speak. I think the biggest reason is that they give their women so little time on a week to week basis that in order to get over they need something that grabs people's attention quickly. Crazy definitely grabs people's attention quickly.

EDIT: Also, how could we have forgotten Kane in all of this.

[Stvtayl]

Also, I feel like I wanted to clear something up, or ask an opinion. Is Paige really crazy?

I guess we'll have to wait for her appearance on Total Diva's to find out what she's REALLY like.