Rob Bonnette is back with a look at the WWE use of Naomi. Is she the most misused talent on the roster for the past decade?

It may seem like it was 10 years ago now, but you remember the 2020 Royal Rumble don’t you?  I sure do, and I remember that the most talked about moment of the Women’s Royal Rumble was when Naomi came back after a five month absence and set the place on fire, hitting the ring and going toe to toe for a few minutes with eventual winner Charlotte Flair.  The sequence, where Naomi showed off her athletic skills to a T, went viral and got a ton of views across all kinds of platforms.  Minutes later she avoided elimination in spectacular fashion by leaping to the barricade and using the announce table cover as a bridge to get back in the ring.  Her long suffering fans were hopeful that maybe now she would get the push she’d earned and hadn’t seen since 2017 when she won the Smackdown Women’s Title at WrestleMania.  Then the following Friday she confronted Bayley on Smackdown to set up an eventual Women’s Title match at the upcoming Super Showdown in Saudi Arabia.  That match, which was a good one that Bayley won by cheating, came and went followed by that sinking feeling that that was it.  And it was.

WrestleMania saw her get eliminated second in the 5 way elimination match for that same title, but after that……nothing.  She lost a Money in the Bank qualifying match, and since then has lost two matches to Dana Brooke and this past Friday to Lacey Evans.  Which led to the hashtag #Naomideservesbetter that is trending around 14 as I’m typing this out.  My Twitter timeline is ablaze with people rightfully pissed off that such a great return in January has turned into this debacle in July.  With Bayley set to take on (and I’m guessing beat) Nikki Cross at Extreme Rules, Bayley is going to need another challenger between then and when the inevitable post-split confrontation with Sasha Banks goes down.  And yet the best possible option on that roster is out here losing to the likes of Brooke and Evans.  And that’s disgusting.  Brooke to her credit has gotten much better than she was when she first came to the main roster but she is who she is, good for tag or multi-woman matches but that’s it.  Evans is marginally better than she was a year ago but at this point any objective observer would tell you that she’s plateaued in the ring at a level that’s passable but not very good.

YUP!#NaomiDeservesBetter https://t.co/cFnnUZZAY3

— Charlotte Flair (@MsCharlotteWWE) July 18, 2020

This strikes a really raw nerve in her very devoted fanbase, and that nerve is one of race.  For the past two years she’s been used to job to white women like Brooke, Evans, and Mandy Rose and to spice up matches like the Money in the Bank in 2018 and 2019 and the 2020 Rumble.  But she goes in those matches with zero chance of winning and in between them her TV time is sporadic, much less than someone of her ability and personality should be getting.  And when she was champion in 2017 she got to defend the title one time over three pay per views, against Lana of all people, before inexplicably losing it to Natalya at SummerSlam that year.  As questionable as that was at least Nattie is actually good in the ring and not some a load to be carried by her opponent.  Which is what Naomi has gotten stuck with too many times.  She is better than that and should not constantly be stuck in these places.

If you want the black woman fan experience summed up in one match look no further than the 2018 Women’s Money in the Bank match.  The match was great and a very large portion of what made it great was all the athletic highspots that were done by three black women – Naomi, Ember Moon, and Sasha Banks.  Meanwhile, who wins that match but Alexa Bliss who did literally less than five things the entire match.  Now in the grand scheme of the existing storylines and her character yes it made sense for her to win the match but man that was not a good look at all for three black woman to do that much to electrify a match that was won by a blonde haired white woman who did very little in it.  And for dare I say most black women watching that felt like the BS they deal with at work every day.  Now take and add two more years of a lot of the same not just for Naomi but Sasha, Ember and Bianca Belair over in NXT.  Houston, we do have a problem here.

Now no matter how she feels about it personally, her fans are rightfully disgusted about all this.  Her career in WWE has been way too reminiscent of what Black women have to deal with in their own lives and careers every day, where showing that you are extremely skilled and talented leads to years of putting over less talented white counterparts and being asked to add personality and yes, color to some otherwise bland situations.  And when they dare to speak up about it, or someone speaks on their behalf, the response is to downgrade their abilities and call them ungrateful.  There’s no reason Naomi shouldn’t be a perennial contender for one of the Women’s singles championships and a regular match winner on TV.  Do you honestly think that the Lacey Evans or Dana Brooke are championship material in 2020?  Did you think Mandy Rose was in 2019 (or is now for that matter?)  Can you honestly tell me that you’ve wanted to see any of those three actually wrestle in an important match once the bell rang?  I can’t think of one match that’s been made better by adding any of them to it, and I can’t think of a single time Naomi has been in the ring where I wish one of them was there instead.

“But everyone can’t be a champion Rob; don’t you say that all the time?”

Yeah I do.  But the examples of men that I saw people throw around as guys who are supposedly in the same position as her were Cesaro, he of the seven month US title reign and six tag team title reigns and Sami Zayn, who for a year has gotten free reign on the mic every week and beaten both Braun Strowman and Daniel Bryan on pay per view in 2020.  Zayn would still be Intercontinental Champion had he not gone home because of the pandemic.  Meanwhile since 2017 Naomi has……won the Women’s Battle Royal at WrestleMania 34.  So yeah, they aren’t the same.  Why is she not in the mix for the Smackdown Women’s Title?  Or if not that, why isn’t she teamed up with somebody (she mentioned Bianca Belair and Ember Moon as partners she’d like to work with) to go after the tag titles?  Why is she being used to prop up opponents who are not likely to even sniff any titles in the near future?  Why do I have to keep writing this story again and again?  Is me or someone else gonna be writing this about Bianca Belair in a year or two (I could have written about her last year in NXT to be honest)?

Now look, anyone who knows me knows that I am not one to shout ‘bad booking!’ or ‘misused!’ but this is a case where even I am breaking my normal routine.  Wake up, WWE.  You have someone who is a great athlete, can go in the ring, has a devoted fanbase who will buy stuff with her name on it if you put out more of it, who looks good (yes that’s important), and lights up (both figuratively and literally) every match she’s in.  If all you see her as is a good hand then you’re continuing to fumble the ball.  And if you’re one of these ‘fans’ who insist on well actually-ing one of her fans who speaks up for her, you need to take a hard look in the mirror and be honest about why you feel the need to keep doing that.  Not being a fan is fine, you don’t have to be a fan of anyone.  But failing, or should I say choosing not to see what she brings to the table is a choice that looks real funny in the light to me.