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I hate the WWE's convention of having dumb babyfaces who stand around with their backs to their opponents and forget the awareness of being in a fight. The finish to Asuka/Carmella at Extreme Rules was awful, and I feel a rant coming on.
First of all, Carmella is not very good. I'm sure she works hard, but booking her to win the Money in the Bank was short-sighted. She was never going to be ready within that time frame. Not only that, but that's a symptom of not booking the women around their strengths and weaknesses instead of obtusely jamming them into shadows of the boys' programs. The first-ever women's Ladder Match could have been a huge deal between two rivals that had drawn you into their program. They should have been looking more to Razor/Shawn for that inspiration, and found talent that could pull off the ladder gimmick, as opposed to having the ladder gimmick and hoping women could pull it off. These gimmicks are already watered down because of how routinely and arbitrarily they're attached to the calendar, and now you want to duplicate them further to diminishing returns? Any novelty it has being the women doing it plays counterpoint to the philosophy you are trying to present that they are not afterthoughts. The WWE's women's movement has been awfully handled.
Secondly, you could be making people give a shit about women's wrestling as best they could by putting the best female workers into positions where they get to carry the belt. Asuka and Charlotte had one of the best women's matches in the company's recent history at WrestleMania. That should be on their radar again, because there is genuine interest in seeing them wrestle again. Carmella throws an unnecessary wrench into those plans. The Divas they call up throw wrenches into the build-up and the clarity of that program. You're over-complicating what could be a real simple story between two women with something to prove against each other.
They want Carmella to be a star. I get it. But when you jam women that can't work into these positions, they lose the people and then the overall interest in the division is down. They are desperately looking for the next Trish Stratus, but what they forget is that Trish was kind of special in how and when she came along. Right now you've got other forms of special -- Charlotte is that prototypical star they look for; Asuka is a fantastic worker; Ronda Rousey is a genuine star with potential to actually draw money in the right environment; Becky Lynch is over with audiences; Shayna is coming along nicely as a heel; people do genuinely care about Sasha and Bayley still. Pull your fucking heads in and get that focus right. Maybe that next Trish Stratus will come along, but you can't just wave a magic wand over someone that isn't magic and make them that way.
And what does that goddamn booking accomplish? Does anyone really believe, even in WWE's own canon, that Carmella is better than Asuka? No. Commentary went as far as to tell people that "Asuka had this match won." Does Carmella look good beating Asuka? Of course not -- "Asuka had this match won." The heel isn't good at what they do, and the babyface just lost to them. They did this with Jinder Mahal, and they've done it so often in the past. How can anyone be surprised when neither the heels nor the babyfaces are over?
Someone needs to take that finish and throw it out. No more dumb-ass babyface gets distracted and the heel scoots through the keep spinning wheels. No more of that filler. No more of that snake eating its own tail booking. That is just thrown out until you can do it in maybe three years time and it might make people genuinely upset that the babyface got "screwed." But you don't need it. If Carmella is supposed to be the champion and the best wrestler on SmackDown, then she should be able to beat Asuka. If that sounds ludicrous to you, then it's probably time to rethink your choice of her as champion.
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