#3 The Divas of Doom
Long before the Women’s revolution took hold of the WWE, the Divas division was about two things: good looking women in 2-minute matches wearing next to nothing, and escorting the male competitors down to the ring.
Every now and then, however, you would get a genuine talent in the midst of it all.
In the Attitude Era you had Lita and Trish Stratus, who weren’t exactly immune to the aforementioned tasks of a female wrestler themselves, and later you had Beth Pheonix. There’s a reason Beth was a signature part of this year’s Hall of Fame ceremony, the woman could wrestle as well as the guys, and had a physique to make her stand out from the rest.
A little later, Natalya Neidhart joined the company and it wasn’t long before she and Beth joined forces to become ‘The Divas of Doom’. In a time where you’d rarely see matches that lasted longer than a toilet break, it was a real novelty to see a tag team form that had a real purpose and the ability to grab your attention through promo work.
The basic idea of the DoD was to show the other women in the division that they were nothing compared to the strong, athletic pro wrestlers standing across the locker room from them.
They had short feuds with Kelly Kelly and Eve Torres, but again were never really allowed the time and space to grow. The point of a dominant heel faction is partly to build convincing babyface characters around them. Instead, the WWE just relied on the same faces that hadn't proved themselves worthy of facing the pair in the first place.
This could have been an early precursor to the women's revolution, perhaps bringing in names from other companies to feud with Beth and Natalya. Sadly, however, we had to wait another few years before the McMahon family decided they really did care about women's wrestling.
