The Pro-wrestling Curve of Attractiveness

[Mad Dog]

They are trying really hard to fuck up Ronda.

[Boss Rock]

I'd have her beat Nia in just a few minutes, but every single babyface working underneath for minutes at a time seems to be their MO.

[Victator]

 

And I understand fully judging on a look as far as booking them. I think Alexa Bliss has been booked badly for over two years. I think she should be a weaselly heel who gets by on guile and cheating. I don't think she should be winning by knock out or working even with Nia Jax for ten minutes.

 

Also I was not passing judgment on anyone else. Their are ladies I think are very pretty. Heck there are dudes I find handsome on a platonic level. It could be I'm more prudish and have a mentality to keep stuff like that private. But that is my hang up.

It's been my running theory that she gets booked the way she does because someone in creative wants to have sex with her. It's the only thing that makes any sense to me as they just continually sacrifice better talent at her feet. Bayley, Sasha, Becky and Nia have all taken serious hits because of programs with her.

 

I try not to think like that if I can help it. I do think she is a Hunter or Vince project. More likely Hunter, because Vince can't keep his projects over.

[Boss Rock]

 

 

And I understand fully judging on a look as far as booking them. I think Alexa Bliss has been booked badly for over two years. I think she should be a weaselly heel who gets by on guile and cheating. I don't think she should be winning by knock out or working even with Nia Jax for ten minutes.

 

Also I was not passing judgment on anyone else. Their are ladies I think are very pretty. Heck there are dudes I find handsome on a platonic level. It could be I'm more prudish and have a mentality to keep stuff like that private. But that is my hang up.

It's been my running theory that she gets booked the way she does because someone in creative wants to have sex with her. It's the only thing that makes any sense to me as they just continually sacrifice better talent at her feet. Bayley, Sasha, Becky and Nia have all taken serious hits because of programs with her.

 

I try not to think like that if I can help it. I do think she is a Hunter or Vince project. More likely Hunter, because Vince can't keep his projects over.

 

 

I'd say Vince considering she never even got a Takeover singles match. The Horsewomen were always Trips' favorites. Although Trips always seemed to favor Bayley and Sasha over Charlotte, who seems like another Vince favorite.

[Mad Dog]

I think whoever decided on Charlotte was right. She has starpower and that covers some of her faults in the ring. The problem with Alexa is they book her like a star and she isn't one. You can job people to Charlotte and it doesn't hurt them because they just lost to a star. You do the same thing with Alexa and they just got chumped out to a mid-carder cosplaying as a star.

[Boss Rock]

My issue with Charlotte is that she's a good asskicker and heel, but a terrible babyface and promo. Alexa isn't a great wrestler, but is loads more charismatic and a better talker. I personally would have given the rocket to Sasha as she's always seemed to be the most popular and can play face and heel well.

[Boss Rock]

I do agree that wrestlers usually lost more in losing to Alexa than to Charlotte, but I think that had more to do with Alexa being a bully and her taunts being proven true by beating them cleanly. Charlotte was more "I'm the best" as opposed to "You're a loser who won't amount to anything".

[Mad Dog]

I would have built around Bayley and Sasha for sure. I think Charlotte's problem as a face is they don't have good heels for her to work off of. I think her only interesting program was with Ruby but I never thought she was going to lose.

 

Alexa is a good promo but she says the same shit every time out. They overexposed her. I think she would have been fine with a transitional reign to get from point A to point B. Giving her a year and a half dominating both belts was a really bad idea and ruined a lot of people in the process.

[Mad Dog]

I do agree that wrestlers usually lost more in losing to Alexa than to Charlotte, but I think that had more to do with Alexa being a bully and her taunts being proven true by beating them cleanly. Charlotte was more "I'm the best" as opposed to "You're a loser who won't amount to anything".

I think you would still be okay. The match would have been good and you would have lost to a physical specimen who is a good worker. Alexa means you just had a shitty match and did a clean job to someone you had no business losing to.

[Strummer]

I'm not completely discounting other reasons but I think Alexa is pushed so strong because she can talk. I think it's that simple. Bayley and Sasha have really struggled with promos since being called up. But maybe we are at a point when the ability to cut promos has never meant less.

 

If I had to guess I'd bet she is a Vince project

[Cap]

I'm not completely discounting other reasons but I think Alexa is pushed so strong because she can talk. I think it's that simple. Bayley and Sasha have really struggled with promos since being called up. But maybe we are at a point when the ability to cut promos has never meant less.

 

If I had to guess I'd bet she is a Vince project

Seems like a combination of the two to me. I am guessing if she isn't a "Vince Project" she is someone Vince prefers to the majority of other women on the roster (just guessing from his track record). That and the fact that she can cut a promo and more or less give some personality to whatever feud they put her in is probably enough to secure the spot she has had to this point.

[Strummer]

yeah and I don't think her push is ending any time soon. She'll probably always be in the title picture no matter what because she can cut promos. If I had to make a comparison it's probably Michelle McCool from around a decade ago. McCool was always in the title picture regardless of who the champion was. Alexa is the better talker of the two but they have similar characters that you can see Vince liking

[Victator]

I don't think she is a particularly good promo. Or noticeably better than the other women. I think Mickie is way better on the mic without doing the same promo every week.

[Strummer]

repetitive promos is a big problem for pretty much everyone in WWE. Especially heels. Stephanie has basically cut the same promo for five years straight just with some different verbiage added in

[Victator]

Change five to eighteen and you are on to something.

[Strummer]

I was trying to be nice

[Mad Dog]

I don't think she is that good of a promo either. It never hampered Sasha or Bayley before they ran into that Alexa wrecking ball. You would think after they ruined two of their best workers in back to back programs with her that they might have reconsidered the Alexa push. I shudder to think of how awful it's going to be when they finally pair Ronda up with her.

[Loss]

What Dave says about Miz's promos (not the type of thing that effectively builds matches) is BS, but that would be a fair criticism of Alexa's sarcasm.

[Alucard]

What killed Sasha was being portrayed as Bayley's sidekick for the past 2 years. Completely the opposite of what her NXT character was. The whole never getting a real run with the title was being done before Alexa too.

 

I don't see much different about Alexa's feuds vs. any other feud. She won the feud vs. Becky (almost always cheating or a fluke), then transitioned the title to Naomi, losing clean to her like 3 straight times. Then she was sent to Raw and won the title from Bayley (who had a long reign and had gone over literally everyone else on Raw at that point, so it was fair time). Then she traded back and forth with Sasha (exactly as Charlotte had done before her). After that she had the little Mickie feud and didn't do a whole lot until Mania time. Don't see how she is responsible for in any way hurting Nia in this feud. She doesn't lay out the matches and can't control the size difference but I thought both matches were quite good. As far as her overall matches and promos, I thought her first few Becky matches, the Sasha series, and the Asuka match in January were all very good, with the Nia matches far exceeding expectations. Her late 2016 promos with Becky remain my favorites of hers.

[NintendoLogic]

I was actually going to say that Alexa is a good promo in the Miz sense of having good delivery of the bullshit they script for her but not saying anything that makes you more interested in her upcoming match. Come to think of it, that is pretty unfair to Miz.

[Matt D]

What killed Sasha was being portrayed as Bayley's sidekick for the past 2 years. Completely the opposite of what her NXT character was. The whole never getting a real run with the title was being done before Alexa too.

 

I don't see much different about Alexa's feuds vs. any other feud. She won the feud vs. Becky (almost always cheating or a fluke), then transitioned the title to Naomi, losing clean to her like 3 straight times. Then she was sent to Raw and won the title from Bayley (who had a long reign and had gone over literally everyone else on Raw at that point, so it was fair time). Then she traded back and forth with Sasha (exactly as Charlotte had done before her). After that she had the little Mickie feud and didn't do a whole lot until Mania time. Don't see how she is responsible for in any way hurting Nia in this feud. She doesn't lay out the matches and can't control the size difference but I thought both matches were quite good. As far as her overall matches and promos, I thought her first few Becky matches, the Sasha series, and the Asuka match in January were all very good, with the Nia matches far exceeding expectations. Her late 2016 promos with Becky remain my favorites of hers.

How many characters survive the jump from NXT unscathed? Alexa did. Maybe Asuka. But every other female from Paige on lost 2/3rds of what made them work in NXT.

[Coffey]

I kinda wish they would have pulled the trigger with putting Alexa and Braun together on-air after the Mixed Match Challenge. And I wish they would build the women's division around babyface Becky.

[Victator]

I think you can look at it like this. Who has come out of a feud with Alexa better off than before? I think she is a Hunter project because her feuds seem a lot like Hunter's biggest run in 02/05.

Its not her fault the Nia matches were bad. Nia is really bad, but Alexa is not good enough to go that long in a match without someone leading her. I think that is why they did not do the feud the first time.

Her promos are scripted similar to Miz, where she gets to say things to bury the face and the face is not allowed to retaliate. Both also win way too many matches cleanly. I don't know who has the mentality heels should win matches cleanly. But its one of the worst things WWE does.

Heels like Miz and Alexa should not be winning matches cleanly. Alexa having a knock out punch feels like Alexa fan fiction.

[With Coil]

I'm quite attracted to Sexy Star. Even without the mask. The only put off is, even when I was following AAA years ago, everything about her behind the scenes was a negative. Always find it funny she was portrayed the way she was on LU. I wondered how long it would be before the negatives began to leak out and all her new fans would find out about her.

 

 

 

It's been my running theory that she gets booked the way she does because someone in creative wants to have sex with her. It's the only thing that makes any sense to me as they just continually sacrifice better talent at her feet. Bayley, Sasha, Becky and Nia have all taken serious hits because of programs with her.

 

Agreed. I like her more than any other woman on the roster so I'm not too bothered.

 

Agreed on whoever said she and Braun should've been put together on tv.

[Cap]

I think you can look at it like this. Who has come out of a feud with Alexa better off than before? I think she is a Hunter project because her feuds seem a lot like Hunter's biggest run in 02/05.

 

Its not her fault the Nia matches were bad. Nia is really bad, but Alexa is not good enough to go that long in a match without someone leading her. I think that is why they did not do the feud the first time.

 

Her promos are scripted similar to Miz, where she gets to say things to bury the face and the face is not allowed to retaliate. Both also win way too many matches cleanly. I don't know who has the mentality heels should win matches cleanly. But its one of the worst things WWE does.

 

Heels like Miz and Alexa should not be winning matches cleanly. Alexa having a knock out punch feels like Alexa fan fiction.

I actually absolutely believe that heels should win cleanly (at least sometimes). It drives me absolutely crazy when someone turns and all the sudden they can't win matches cleanly, like overnight. It also gives the faces a challenge to overcome other than cheating, which alleviates some of the intuition to start putting gimmicks around the match that should "even" the odds. I also draw a distinction between bending the rules a bit throughout the match to get an advantage or maybe even going past the line of sportsmanship and cheating to get the actual decision. The former is something that should be built into a heels DNA, the latter should be used fairly strategically. Heels shouldn't win clean ALL the time, but I find the pattern of heels only (or even the vast majority of the time) cheating to win super irritating.

 

Spot on about the nature of Alexa's promos and who has come out stronger (or more accurately not) from her feuds, but I really attribute that to them not sticking with much long term for her (aside from Nia). To me, the Sasha feud left a lot on the table. Sasha and maybe even Bayley came out worse for feuding with her because it felt - at least to me - like things moved forward unresolved ultimately. I also think both of those two at least have been the product of waffling booking for a long time now so I am hard pressed to pinpoint a single thing that caused their decline in standing. Both were overdetermined in my mind. Bayley did get buried in those promos though, but that was at least part on her for not being ready for that.