Ah, 2004, what was I doing in 2004? Well, at 8 years old I definitely wasn’t watching WWE’s Diva Search at that time because my mother would’ve shut off the television so fast I wouldn’t have had time to truly soak in all the misogynistic ideals the show would spew.
Now, viewing it as a 21-year-old woman…there’s some stuff I have to comment on.
According to Brian Zane from the “Wrestling with Wregret” YouTube show, The Diva Search (created by WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and WWE Vice President Kevin Dunn) was a “talent” “competition” WWE held from 2003-2007. I use those words lightly because there was nothing very competitive about the Diva Search, and the lack of any actual talent was an appalling distraction from a WRESTLING SHOW. Trying to sell ice cream, in a rather sexualized way, is apparently a “challenge”? Trashing a manager’s office and getting yelled at by him is also a “challenge”? A pie eating contest with a little too much whip cream is a “challenge”? Give me a break WWE. Come on Vince and Kevin, really? It was for the ratings, it was for the men to have their slice of eye-candy and for the male demographic to skyrocket off the charts.
I get it, ratings for a T.V. show is important, I understand that. However, there was a huge problem that the Diva Search was doing and it was pitting these Divas against the women wrestlers. It wasn’t that WWE was blurting that out either, but in a sense, that’s what it was doing. $250,000 dollars was supposed to be given to the winner of The Diva Search and here is the big issue: they were focusing on something that had nothing to do with the actual product of wrestling and it was an insult to the women who already worked there, and worked very hard to be there.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure some women in this ridiculous concept tried, but that’s what it was: ridiculous. These challenges were weird and stigmatizing, there wasn’t any actual point to them. The T.V. time used for the Diva Search could’ve been used more on women wrestling segments seeing as there wasn’t much T.V. time for them anyway, and better creative content and thought (not bras and panties matches that take up time).
Not only that, but while analyzing these matches and learning about them, it seems as if it was another plot to not only further divide women from other women, but it caused a gender inequality gap. When you think of it, the men aren’t quite affected by it, in fact, the male demographic just got a little bit closer seeing all these “challenges” on T.V. and laughing over it or being straight up gross over it. Not cool. These challenges belittle women in so many ways, so of course, guys feel better watching it, because it is mostly for their eyes, their entertainment. They’re not doing it. So while their views and ratings caused a divide between some of the women wrestlers and Divas, inequality between male and females still stood on the rise because of the misogyny that is riddled throughout WWE.
So, in the end, yes, some Diva’s from the Diva search did make some successful careers in WWE as women wrestlers, but was this entire “competition” worth it? In my opinion, no, it wasn’t. Watching clips/episodes of the Diva Search made me cringe because of how messed up it was to see women become, to put it kindly, a laughing stock all for the entertainment of men. I am extremely glad that they did not end up bringing back the show in 2015 like they planned to do, it would just be another waste of T.V. time.