AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

It was an anomaly – an angle no one ever saw coming.

At least, not anytime soon. Perhaps not even in their lifetime. Nobody expected it to come out from a women’s division that was, by this point, generally accepted to be nothing but an afterthought. Despite that, or maybe even because of that, though, everyone already knows it by now: it was Beth Phoenix, both standing tall and taking a stand for the Divas on the roster who could actually work – the Divas on the roster who were actually wrestlers, not models, before they were Divas.

Never mind the fact that the storyline probably pushed through in the first place because of Beth’s alleged relationship with CM Punk. Never mind the fact that Punk was in the middle of pushing through his own similar personal agenda of putting himself, whom he classifies as the “Best [Wrestler] in the World,” over corporate stalwarts such as John Cena and Randy Orton. Even though this angle is both indirectly (on-screen) and directly (off-screen) related to Punk’s initial outburst, that’s beside the point now.

The truth of the matter is, people were expecting the Divas Championship scene to carry on centering around people like Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres, and the Bella Twins, women who were pretty faces but, quite honestly, not all there when it comes to in-ring skill. (I personally respect the hard work and effort these girls put in to learning the craft, but at the end of the day, it would still be a bold-faced lie to call them the best of the game right now.) The division still sort of does revolve around those people, but most of them have been relegated to supporting acts after Beth and Natalya have come in to inject some much-needed direction not just to the championship and the champion, but to the whole division as well.

Now, while the intent to push the Pin-Up Strong girls back into relevance has been nothing less than admirable, the trajectory of the entire storyline has left quite a bit to be desired. At least, at first glance. For those not keeping track, Kelly’s had Beth’s number two PPVs in a row now via cheap roll-ups, so the Barbie doll gets to be champion for a little while longer.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with the way Kelly’s been retaining her championship; after all, the narrative has clearly established that Beth is the better wrestler, and the wrath of a million angry wrestling nerds will be felt by the bookers if they ever tried to claim otherwise. No bones are made about who is superior. What is unusual, however, is the fact that Beth didn’t win the second time around.

“Traditional” booking logic would normally dictate that the second encounter would have been a good time for Beth to win. In fact, the concurrent Randy Orton/Mark Henry feud walks closer to the wall, modelling their own narrative closer to tradition by at least having the dominant villain, who is portrayed as somebody who is hard to strategize for and fight, hold the championship so far. But no, Beth is still falling to roll-ups when it’s clear that she makes her money throwing Kelly around like a rag doll, and that constitutes another anomaly.

So given that we know there’s something fishy going on with this storyline, the burning question in fans’ minds now is: why is Kelly Kelly still champion? What is the purpose of her still continuing to hold the title?

A burial, the simplest explanation most smarks will give you because of some dumb form of Occam’s Razor exclusive only to internet wrestling fans, is out of the question. Consider the fact that the Divas of Doom are still going around RAW and SmackDown, winning against the likes of the Chickbusters (go ahead, you have a minute to look them up) and Eve and Kelly herself. That means effort is still being made to retain their heat, meaning effort is still being made to ensure that they are some sort of threats to the other women.

No, I believe the answer is a little more subtle than what we’re seeing so far, but I also believe it’s an answer that heavily depends on how the storyline plays out. The following paragraphs would only be justified if Beth (or Natalya, even) does end up winning the championship eventually, and keeps it, at that. I hit a home run with the two Sin Caras prediction, so I might as well go out on a limb here.

The answer is that Kelly has to be champion in order for this feud to continue to do what CM Punk no longer is right now – that is, drawing attention to the plight of the overskilled and underutilized workers, such as Punk himself and Beth. Now we see that the two storylines are more similar than previously thought. It’s just that Punk’s storyline with Cena could not have dragged it out this long due to its sudden necessity to climax early with Punk’s title win. It was not Punk’s fault that he won prematurely, stemming the unfolding of the chase, but even then, for him it had been a long enough journey to the top anyway.

Kelly Kelly is the Diva version of John Cena – somewhat bland when it comes to personality, always ragged on for a perceived lack of in-ring skill, but is actually physically capable of putting on a decent match (see their SummerSlam match, for veritable proof). While she is not an exact analogue of Cena, her purpose is served. She is actually the implied antagonist in this story, much like Cena was (or always is), because by being champion, she, like Cena, is the current embodiment of the “best in the business” right now. And Beth, like Punk, takes issue with that idea.

And Beth, like Punk was, is being molded into a strange new archetype, one that was created and classified thanks to the vocal contributions of the smarks and the IWC – that of the overskilled underdog, overlooked by management because they don’t meet some invisible criteria. And little by little, if you would look closely and notice, Beth briefly exposes herself in sympathetic moments during her losses.

Much like Punk, Beth and Natalya are the categorized antagonists, but really the implied protagonists. In fact, again, like Punk, they had been the protagonist ever since the angle started. All Kelly Kelly needed to do was to just be there and be their target; it was much less a story of Kelly overcoming opponents much better than her, but a story of Beth coming to take back what she feels is deservingly hers. And this, again, is all way too similar to what Punk and Cena went through.

And again, the difference is that Cena didn’t have to, or didn’t choose to hold on to the championship for longer when Punk was chasing him for it. This difference is what makes Kelly’s continued reign a glaring anomaly in the eyes of an ordinary fan. It does make a bit of sense, but it’s also won’t deny that something has to change soon.

So again, patience is the key – clearly, the story has not yet finished unfolding, and such is the propensity of the IWC to quickly rally against storylines that have only begun to blossom. That said, though, many anomalies do indeed go unaddressed in the WWE, but the way this has been playing out gives me a little faith in its final outcome.

***

I've totally got social media!

Add me on Facebook (if you’re going to add me, please say if you arrived from LOP, for my information), follow me on Twitter, send me an email at pepseeh@gmail.com, or ask me something on Formspring. I'd love to hear from you.

Also, for my fellow Filipinos, please tune in to my buddy Stan’s radio show S&M: The Morning After every weekend from 6 to 9 am (10 am on Sundays) on Mellow 94.7. There’s something in store for you wrestling fans because he plays a game where you have to say you’re awesome the longest, and if you win you get a prize!

Source: lordsofpain.net