A few weeks ago, Charlotte Flair cut a promo on Carmella, calling her ‘A Diva in a Woman’s World’. Many fans applauded the snub, citing that Carmella would’ve done much better in the Divas Division days, when the emphasis was on women’s looks than their actual athletic skills, rather than the much more athletic Women’s Division of the present day.

Is that really fair? Never mind that Charlotte Flair herself was the last Divas Champion, does the Divas Division deserve the reputation of being awful that many fans want to give it?

Let’s get something straight here: The term ‘Diva’ was used by WWE to describe all on-air female talent, regardless of whether or not they wrestled, long before there was a Divas Championship and that the title encompassed many women in the history of WWE, many of whom are Hall of Famers.

And would we even be headed to WWE Evolution without the foundation laid by the Divas Division?

The Divas

This is a list of the women who have competed in WWF/E that were called ‘Divas’:

• Trish Stratus *+
• Lita *+
• Beth Phoenix *^+
• Mickie James *^
• Maryse ^
• Michelle McCool *^
• Layla*^
• Fabulous Moolah*+
• Mae Young+
• Jillian Hall^
• Victoria*
• Molly Holly*
• Melina*^
• Ivory*+
• Chyna*
• Debra*
• Sable*
• Sunny+
• Kelly Kelly^
• Eve Torres^
• Lilian Garcia
• AJ Lee^
• Nikki Bella^
• Brie Bella^
• Torrie Wilson
• Candice Michelle*
• Ashley Massaro
• Christy Hemme
• Stacy Kiebler
• The Kat*
• Jacqueline*
• Terri Runnels
• Stephanie McMahon*
• Charlotte Flair^
• Sasha Banks
• Becky Lynch
• Alicia Fox^
• Natalya Neidhart*^
• Naomi
• Cameron
• Eva Marie
• Cherry
• Tiffany
• Nidia
• Kaitlyn^
• Tori
• Gail Kim*
• Awesome Kong/Kharma
• Paige^

*-WWF/E Women’s Champion. ^-WWF/E Divas Champion. +-Hall of Fame Member

The above isn’t a complete list, but it was as complete a list as I could come up with off the top of my head and with some research. By my count, there are seven Hall of Fame members in this group, along with many very likely ones, and they were all referred to as Divas and/or competed in the Divas Division. Many of them were either Women’s Champions, Divas Champions, or both, in a few cases. All of them put their bodies in the same danger as the boys, but without getting the same respect.

The sad part about fan dismissal of the Divas Division is that that there were really good matches during those days, but they’ve been forgotten or dismissed due to fan bias against the Divas and the development of Total Divas and Total Bellas, despite showcasing how hard all the women work, hasn’t helped things that much. Though the people griping about Total Divas/Bellas also seem to be the same people going on about how great ‘Miz and Mrs’ is, which is a whole different article.

Now, I don’t deny that the Divas Division days weren’t always great for fans of women’s wrestling, but it was more a lack of interest by WWE and fans in developing interesting stories or giving the women time for their matches, than lack of skill by the women themselves. Yes, there were clunkers, but there are clunkers in the current Women’s Division and to pretend that the Divas division was full of women who were only there to look good and couldn’t wrestle is to dismiss a lot of superstars that fans still love and cheer for. Let’s stop pretending that Women’s Wrestling suddenly became good with the advent of NXT, because doing that dismisses way too many hard-working women who deserve more credit that to be dismissed as a ‘Diva’.