Last night, Nikki Bella became the longest reigning WWE Divas champion of all time, surpassing AJ Lee’s original title run.
This should not be a big deal.
Afterall, Nikki Bella and AJ Lee barely defended their titles. They pretty much had them as props. Neither of them elevated the belts to anything more important than what Beth Phoenix or Michelle McCool did with the same belt. Neither of them have made the belt more important than the TNA Knockouts championship either.
AJ Lee was really great at tapping into the hardcore wrestling audience and making them believe she was something more than what she was. Lee’s favourite wrestler growing up was Lita and it’s no surprise. There’s a sunshine and rainbows viewpoint on Lita’s WWE career when in actuality she was incredibly dangerous to herself and her opponent in almost every match. Lita was incredibly sloppy. She was a one move (“Litasault”) wonder who was lucky to be Trish Stratus’ most common opponent around the time Trish became a credible worker. Watching Lita in the ring was like watching some lost teenager accidentally wandering into a mosh pit.
AJ Lee wasn’t much different. Sure, she was a bit better worker than Lita, but she wasn’t the kind of pro wrestler the hardcore base now craves from the NXT competition. Lee was extremely sloppy, messing up more than a few moves every match and commonly making Botchamania videos when she did wrestle. She was quite good at emoting pain or anger and made her octopus hold “Black Widow” look exciting but she didn’t do much otherwise. It’d be like if Tajiri only had the Tarantula. One can’t really come up with many examples of matches where AJ Lee shined beyond other competitors on a card. What she did do was have a better personality and handle of her character than anyone in the WWE at one point, which is why she shined herself straight into being one of the most focused upon characters during her tenure. AJ Lee wasn’t a great wrestler or a great Diva’s champion. She was a great character.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Nikki Bella. Bella never had much of a personality aside from what she shows on Total Divas (she’s a walking dumb girl stereotype, her only solace is that she isn’t Eva Marie) and spent a lot of time originally in the WWE as the person they had pose around a celebrity. When she finally got serious about wrestling she certainly improved, but not by much. Interestingly, comparing a Nikki Bella match to an AJ Lee match from when she was Divas champ, the two are pretty comparable. I’d say Nikki knows her fundamentals a little better than AJ Lee. That’s still not much of a compliment. Neither of these women should have been Divas champions if they couldn’t compare to the worst of the men’s WWE roster (I mean, they are better than Alex Riley, but who isn’t?)
The distortion is the fact that people have considered it a travesty that Nikki Bella would break AJ Lee’s Divas championship reign length. They have their viewpoints distorted as to how pro wrestling works. Wrestling is an ebb and flow and records are meant to be broken. If the Undertaker Wrestlemania streak didn’t teach you this I guess nothing will. While some records won’t be broken merely due to the time they were set (Bruno Sammartino’s title reign, Goldberg’s winning streak, etc.) the WWE loves to have records broken. It makes the company look stronger when current Superstars can break the records of previous Superstars. That’s why John Cena is nearing Ric Flair’s artificially set title win record (a record that ignores some of Flair’s reigns, as he fumbles around mentioning during the Hulkamania tour), why Roman Reigns broke Kane’s Royal Rumble elimination record, why the Streak was broken and why AJ Lee’s reign was broken.
What confuses me is why people are holding this up with importance, as I mentioned earlier. Lee and Bella are long reigning champions for the same reason Dean Ambrose was the longest reigning United States champion since Rick Rude in 1991: they never defended the belt! They weren’t playing to the Jack Tunney 30 day rule, nor were they defending the title each week they had a chance to. Lee and Bella’s reigns sound impressive, but they pale in comparison to Gail Kim’s 210 day reign for the TNA Knockouts championship in 2011, where she defended the title every month (and on Impact) until finally dropping it at Slammiversary 10. Every time Gail Kim wears the Knockouts championship, it feels like one of the best wrestlers in TNA is wearing a title. Not best woman, best wrestler. AJ Lee and Nikki Bella couldn’t say that, and that’s why the Divas division has always been treated like a punchline.
With the NXT talent coming up to the roster, shouldn’t the belt go to them? Eventually. Nikki Bella is the perfect champion for the division at the moment because she represents the old guard. She’s a Total Diva, not a pro wrestler. It’s too bad I think she’ll drop the title at Night of Champions because if the fans could wait to see a story play out, someone like Sasha Banks beating Nikki Bella at Wrestlemania would feel like a real Wrestlemania moment. The moment when the “Total Diva” lost to the B.O.S.S., the representative of women’s wrestling currently in the WWE (since Nattie Neidhart isn’t really allowed to do much anymore) would actually feel like a revolution instead of a way to sell NXT. You should be angry at Nikki Bella being champion in story. Stop being legitimately angry about it and blaming John Cena.
When AJ Lee told Nikki Bella she can, “walk in her $4,000 ridiculous heels” because, “you will never be able to lace up my Chuck Taylor’s”, she was celebrated. The problem is that neither can lace up Gail Kim’s wrestling boots. And when the likes of Charlotte and Bayley get their chance at a belt which could be a championship, but is constantly treated like a prop? They too will be able to say, “When I hold a wrestling championship, I don’t wear heels or Chuck Taylor’s. I wear wrestling boots because I’m a pro wrestler.”
