Former and (hopefully) future WWE Diva's Champion Paige turned heel last Monday on RAW, as expected, but I'm hoping that my dread will be unfounded and her feud with AJ Lee will yield good fruit. Lee has a good rival in Paige even if the move was predictable. Paige served as a strong champion while AJ was on hiatus, getting married to CM Punk and side stepping rumors about being pregnant by making her surprise return to the ring the very night she came back to WWE. I just hope that she gets another honest title shot within the next 3-6 months.
As I've said before, audiences don't need a swerve every segment, or even every week or every month. The true art of pro wrestling is in the long con. Yet my heart still sank when Paige turned heel on AJ last week. Everyone could see it coming (via Bleacher Report):
"AJ comes back out of nowhere, they do what appears to be a double turn without much explanation, and Paige loses the title. The next week, again without explanation, they were partners. Paige was acting like a babyface again, but it seemed like the conceit was that Paige was a heel pretending to be a babyface."
My problem with that angle is that I felt they had a much more compelling story in the "frienemy" angle (as much as I hate that word).
I find solace, however, in the fact that this angle works. Paige and AJ have a great chemistry together, and they work great as adversaries as well as allies. If the beauty of the "respect" plotline was cool because it was conventional, maybe this classic babyface/heel alignment is ironically unconventional because it affords these two women the respect of acknowledging their ability to entertain in the ring, the same as the guys. And perhaps, finally, WWE is taking a chance on writing better angles for the Divas and not simply treating them like eye candy (via Daily DDT):
"Usually relegated to the middle of the show, the Divas are often victims of short-shrift booking which culminates in short matches requiring little to no skill and silly spots where degradation and exploitation is the star of the show."
If AJ and Paige can pull off a convincing feud that doesn't revolve around hair flipping, evening gowns, bikinis, or fighting over a man, it could signal a new era for the Diva's Division at WWE.
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