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WWF Divas
If you are an ardent fan of the World
Wrestling Federation (WWF) or World Wrestling Entertainment, you
are sure to be familiar with the term Divas. Yes, they are the sexy
voluptuous women who can be seen accompanying the WWF wrestlers or
champions when they are walking down to the ring. If you are a fan
then you will also know that they are not just show pieces meant to
excite and lure the spectators who are mostly men. In fact, they
themselves are skilled wrestlers – female wrestlers that
is.
Diva is a word used by the WWE or the World Wrestling
Entertainment for a woman who is a wrestler and of course an eye
candy! Eye candy because these women are talented as well as
beautiful. Although the term diva is a new word in the world
wrestling community, the idea behind it has been there for a very
long time. The community has always promoted the woman as managers
or wrestlers for years. As wrestlers, they too have gone through
the hardship and skills training to make sure that every twist,
bend, flip and fall is executed with precision.
No body can really guess about the origin
of women and their indulgence and passion in this field, which can
be risky. Great and legendry novels like The Godfather may have
provoked some of these feelings or the wrestling valets such as
Miss Elizabeth or Medusa may have done the initial work.
Wrestling federations around the world refer to female
employees in different fashion. The Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
(TNA) uses the term ‘Knockouts’ to name their female employees who
are marketed to some extent based on their appearance. Similarly,
the WWE-produced rival brand of ECW who use the term Vixens to
refer to their female wrestlers. Just from these terms you would be
able to guess the impact of these divas.
The first female or the first Diva to enter
the professional wrestling world was Tammy Lynn Sytch. She was
better known in the WWF circuit with the performing nickname of
“Sunny”. Previously she was seen in the role of a manager of many
other wrestlers in the WWF and it was then she was famously known
as Sunny. Although the role of a female manager was not a new idea
in professional wrestling, the Sunny character brought sexuality to
the position that had hardly ever been seen in the business before.
She added the new ‘flavor’ to the role of women in the wrestling
industry.
Soon after the first female professional
wrestling Diva Tammy Lynn Sytch left the World Wrestling
Entertainment federation, a new female who had earned her position
in the mean time, Rena Mero took over Tammy’s role. Rena Mero was
known as the Sable among her World Wrestling Entertainment fans and
soon became one of the most prominent female performers in the
promotion bizz for World Wrestling Entertainment. Wrestler Marc
Mero was her manager to whom she got married to and soon took over
the popularity. The main reason for her growing popularity was her
passion for wearing increasingly revealing outfits to the wrestling
ring.
The credit of the formation of WWE Women's
Championship goes to Rena Mero. This in fact led to more female
performers being hired for the sole purpose of boosting promotion.
It was around this time at the height of her popularity that the
term "diva" was used by the WWF to identify its female
personalities. Although Sable left the WWF after several years, the
WWF still signed on many more female performers during and after
her employment with the company, who are now officially known as
"divas."
The tradition is that most of the Divas in
the World Wrestling Entertainment have not wrestled in the real
wrestling matches on a regular basis. Although Sable was engaged in
fights with other famous and sound female performers Luna Vachon
and Jacqueline, but she owes her popularity for her skin show. The
matches that are very closely associated with her character and the
other WWE divas in general are the bra and panties
match.
There
are many other different types of female wrestling matches like the
famous mud-wrestling matches and non-wrestling bikini contests.
Another common match that is associated with the female wrestlers
is the lingerie pillow fight, which is a pillow fight between divas
near a bed full of pillows inside the wrestling ring. Among all
these the most famous and most sensual one is the mud fight
matches. In fact we still can witness these types of matches
today!
As time
passed by, there were more number of females that took part in
these wrestling matches and became famous and the divas began to
wrestle real matches more often than before. The high profile Diva
coach and professional wrestler Fit Finlay was largely credited for
this new change in the World Wrestling Entertainment federation.
His most famous student was Trish Stratus, who trained under Finlay
after she suffered an ankle injury.
Like every other big sport, the World
Wrestling Entertainment federation divas have their continuous
share of controversies from time to time. The risqué matches and
storylines that were a part of the WWE divas were in actual a part
of the program that was launched against the World Wrestling
Entertainment federation by the female wrestlers throughout the
late 1990s.
Apart from the popularity of the World
Wrestling Entertainment federation for females, harassment of these
female wrestlers has also been a major issue for a long time. The
second female wrestler Rena Mero had left the federation due to
these reasons only. She claimed that she was harassed by other
performers in the campaign. Claims of harassment were also made by
former WWE wrestler Nicole Bass and former WWE Diva Search
contestant Amy Weber.
This
particular aspect of the WWE industry provokes a widespread
criticism for its biased treatment of women as mere sex objects.
The female wrestlers usually appear in either very scantily clad
clothing or provocative clothing, which is often termed as
glamorous!
The immense recognition of women in WWE has
resulted in various female wrestlers now promoting big brands
across the world. There have been a lot of cross promotions lately
involving the divas. Various divas have posed in the famous
magazine Playboy. Those who did pose for Playboy are Sable, Chyna,
Torrie Wilson, Candice Michelle and Christy Hemme. Another diva
that also posed in Playboy was Ashley Massaro but she stated in her
website, that she appeared under an alias. Others have appeared in
several advertisements for WWE and non-WWE endorsements as well as
men's interest magazines. Playboy playmates, such as Carmella
DeCesare and Karen McDougal have also appeared in Diva Search in
2004.
The
Divas of the World Wrestling Entertainment federation normally go
for a yearly annual Photo shoot every October, usually to a
distinctive special place each time. The photo shoot is followed by
a magazine featuring photos from the shoot as well as a video
release or television special of highlights from the shoot. In the
year 2000, the World Wrestling Entertainment federation had
launched its Divas home video franchise with Postcard From The
Caribbean.
In 2001, a World Wrestling Entertainment
federation female wrestler Lita earned the cover of the well-known
magazine. Also every Diva made it on the DVD cover including Trish
Stratus, Debra Marshall, & Lita. In 2002, WWE decided to launch
a UPN special entitled WWF Divas: Sex on the Beach. It was
then later released on VHS and DVD format as WWF Divas: Tropical
Pleasure. However, the home video was lacking in many of the
mainstream music and was also missing a diva - Molly
Holly.
Soon in
the year 2002, World Wrestling Entertainment federation organized
its first lingerie shoot, which was called as the WWE Divas
Undressed and was aired on special program on TNN,
which
has changed its name to Spike TV. The
program was a competition or "Thong-a-thon" as Jerry Lawler called
it. All of the divas, except the two main Divas of World Wrestling
Entertainment federation Jazz and Lita, were involved in the photo
shoot. It was later released on VHS and DVD with behind the scenes
photo shoot sessions. Jazz participated in the photo shoot session
despite being injured.
Then the next year of 2003, these women
traveled to Arizona to take part in a number of outdoor activities.
Trish Stratus, Stacy Keibler and Terri Runnels went on a Jeep tour
and also used a gun. While Victoria and Nidia opted for river
rafting, Jazz, Ivory and others took after a huge rattlesnake! In
the consecutive year, the divas approached the beaches of Mexico as
part of South of the Border.
In
2005, the divas went again back to Mexico to attend the grand Viva
Las Divas of the World Wrestling Entertainment federation. During
this trip, two different photo shoots took place. The divas that
were more mature and experienced traveled to the beaches of the
Grand Xcaret and Grand Cozumel, along with the 2004
Diva Search winner, Christy Hemme and Lilian Garcia who was a
longtime WWE ring announcer. This was the first photo shoot for
Lilian Garcia.
On the other hand the new divas like Amy
Weber, Michelle McCool and Maria Kanellis visited the Grand
Cozumel. In between the events, there were some controversies
that had arisen. It was due to a DVD tape, in which Molly Holly did
not shoot and this had made her fans outrageous and they had
started sending complaints to WWE. However, a few pictures of her
did appear in the magazine. This was the second time she had been
removed from the yearly divas video. Conversely, Amy Weber (she had
left the company before the DVD and magazine became available) was
in the DVD and not the magazine.
Apart from the regular World Wrestling
Entertainment federation events these Divas continued to take part
in this photo shoots which made them very famous and that too in a
very short time frame. In 2006 again these ladies took part in
another lingerie shoot that was held in New York. In this photo
shoot, a DVD entitled WWE Divas Do New York was made which
included Lilian Garcia, Trish Stratus, Stacy Keibler and Terri
Runnels. This was very much alike that of what the fans wanted
since 2004. This time the WWE federation had allowed the fans to
decide whom they wanted on the magazine cover. They chose Trish
Stratus to be the one to appear on her third divas magazine cover
that hit newsstands on Valentine's Day. Candice Michelle originally
landed on the DVD cover that was released just a week later, but
for some reason or another it was replaced with a multi-diva
cover.
The
yearly contest for the WWE Babe is a contest where fans get to vote
on who they choose as their famous and most favorite WWE Diva for
that year. This result depended a lot on the photo shoot reviews
that each of the girls got.
Finally it was Trish Stratus who won the
first inaugural Babe of the Year competition, which was held in
2001. Trish Stratus winning prize was a complete mini site by the
World Wrestling Entertainment federation on WWE.com and her photo
shoot of choice for this website was a space-type theme. This site
of Trish Stratus corresponding mini-site was pet- named as "The
Stratusphere." Stratus took her title as the Babe of the year in
2002 and received another mini-site on WWE.com. Surprisingly
enough, the 2003 contest was again won by Stratus. This time
Stratus declared that she would let her fans decide the winner.
While picking out her outfits, Trish ran into a fan who said that
they would decide everything for her.
Soon
this race came to an end. In the year 2004, Stacy Keibler put a
stop to Stratus's long reign. She won the title, receiving her own
mini-site and a photo shoot for every month in the year. This photo
shoot sometimes increased to two. These photo shoots were usually
themed from the special holiday of that month. However, Stacy
Keibler was not a regular at the wrestling matches but these photo
shoots gave her what she wanted- advertising.
All these Divas tried to enter the main
stream of World Wrestling Entertainment federation with the help of
promotion bizz, but only some of them could succeed. But you would
also notice that there is always someone new to the game and no
matter how tough or how challenging the industry may be the lure of
fame, money and recognition always takes precedence. Therefore the
divas will always be part of the world wrestling
federation!
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