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WWE Diva Search

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File:2006 WWE Diva Search.jpg
WWE Diva Search Logo 2006 - present.

The WWE Diva Search (formerly $250,000 RAW Diva Search) is a talent competition held by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The aim of the contest is to find the newest female performer (or "Diva") for the WWE roster.

History

In the past, there have been various talent searches by major wrestling promotions to find new female talent. The most extensive one was WWE's $250,000 Diva Search contest in 2004 which was held on RAW. Despite reported claims by the company that the contest would be handled in a classy manner, the contest involved prospective divas performing such suggestive acts on live TV as eating pies and "seducing" a male wrestler. Fans were allowed to vote for the winners, but the outcomes of the voting process were questioned by media outlets. The eventual winner of the competition was Christy Hemme, who went on to pose in Playboy magazine and then compete at WrestleMania 21.

Despite only one winner being crowned in the competition each year, WWE has hired a large number of the contestants from past contests and immediately placed them in on-camera, non-wrestling roles.

From the 2004 Diva Search, Michelle McCool, Amy Weber, Candice Michelle, Maria Kanellis and Joy Giovanni all received contracts after losing the contest. Amy and Joy are no longer with the company and Michelle trained in Deep South Wrestling and re-debuted on SmackDown! on the June 2, 2006 while Maria is a backstage interviewer on RAW and is down in OVW weekly. The winner, Christy Hemme was released in December 2005, shortly after being traded from RAW to SmackDown! but now is working with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

WWE announced another Diva Search contest for 2005. WWE reportedly emphasized the fact that potential contestants did not have to have any wrestling experience or even a desire to wrestle. Ashley Massaro was declared the winner on August 15, 2005 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.

From the 2005 Diva Search, Ashley Massaro of New York City, New York won the competition. Kristal Marshall is currently a backstage interviewer and part-time wrestler on SmackDown! and Elisabeth Rouffaer was in OVW training to wrestle, but decided to leave the wrestling business as it wasn't for her. Leyla Milani was rumored to have received a contract, but confirmed that she and WWE are not going to be working together any time soon. The first eliminated contestant, Leilene Ondrade, subsequently made appearances as a ring girl for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

As for the 2006 contestants, the WWE has already hired one of the eliminated diva hopefuls, Rebecca DiPietro. Also, Maryse Ouellet and Brooke Adams have been invited to observe the workouts and training facilities, although they understand there is no guarantee that this will lead to full time employment with WWE.

The Playboy Connection

Playboy Playmates and models have been participating in the Diva search from the very beginning. Starting with two Playmates participated in the inaugural 2004 Diva Search. 2004 Playmate of the Year, Carmella DeCesare advanced to become the runner-up. The other Playmate, 1998 Playmate of the Year, Karen McDougal was eliminated at the end of the live TV special on Spike TV in July, where 10 finalists eligible for online voting were chosen. 2005 Search winner Ashley Massaro (under the name Ryan McKenzie) and 2004 contestant Candice Michelle both posed for Playboy Cyber Club prior to entering the search. 2004 contestant Amy Weber was a Playboy Special Editions model prior to participating in the search. In 2006, Jennifer Walcott, having been a Playmate in 2001 and appeared in multiple special editions of Playboy as well as commercials for Wild Party Girls became one of the 8 finalists. Although Walcott would eventually drop out of the contest for personal reasons, the presence of Playboy Playmates and models in all Diva searches since inception helped to cement the business relationship between WWE and Playboy.

Contestants

2004

2005

2006

The contest began on the July 10, 2006 edition of RAW with eight contestants. The final three will go on to appear in a USA Network special on Wednesday August 16, 2006 where the winner will be announced. 2006 Contestant Jennifer Walcott was the first ever contestant to be confirmed and later drop out of the competition before appearing on television due to the fact that it was a conflict with other projects. She was replaced by Erica Chevillar.

It has almost been announced that This years winner will be on Smackdown. In an interview, Ashley said that she will personally have the winner give us a treat and Ashley is a Smackdown diva which indicates the diva will be Smackdown!

Criticism

Despite offering WWE fans sexy women in revealing outfits week after week (as sex has been a chief selling point of WWE programming since the Attitude Era of the late 90s), each year the Diva Search is overwhelmingly unpopular with the Internet Wrestling Community due to the fact that the lengthy weekly segments rarely have anything to do with wrestling and advancing storylines as well as having no form of creativity. WWE higher-ups, however, see the contest as a way to attract casual fans while increasing mainstream media exposure, revenue, and ratings, hence the decision to continue the Diva Search as an annual happening on WWE television. Despite its criticisms, the Diva Search often boasts some of Raw's highest quarter-hour ratings for the shows it is a part of.

The segments appear to be mostly ad-libbed and forced, many times leading to "train-wreck" style television. Due to the apparent lack of preparation, the women (and sometimes the emcees as well) come off looking quite foolish and stereotypically "dumb."

  • In 2004, finalists (winner Christy Hemme, runner-up Carmella DeCesare, Amy Weber and Joy Giovanni) took part in a segment titled "Diss the Diva" that was censored at several points due to foul language and obscenities from the contestants when they were asked to taunt one another verbally, live on RAW.
  • In 2005, contestant Leyla Milani unintentionally exposed herself by falling out of her top while attempting to navigate an obstacle course on the July 4 edition of RAW, leading to a "disqualification" in the contest. The exact same stunt (despite not exposing her breasts fully as her nipples were covered with pasties) was proposed by fellow contestant Leilene Ondrade to the WWE creative team earlier that day, who quickly squashed the idea.
  • In 2006, the Diva Search had another awkward beginning on July 10 with an introductory segment on RAW featuring new host Mike Mizanin. During the segment, Mizanin appeared to have forgotten his lines and stammered on for several minutes when trying to explain the voting procedures for the contest. When introducing the contestants, Mizanin mispronounced names and looked uncomfortable in his new role as Diva Search emcee. (The constant mistakes by Mizanin have become the subject of numerous jokes on RAW, most notably by Jim Ross, Triple H, and Shawn Michaels) Less than a week later on the July 14 edition of SmackDown!, during the "Diva Boot Camp" section, Mizanin again mispronounced the contestants names. The contest did little to shake its awkward beginning as most of the contestants didn't do the task correctly, including the winner Layla who jumped over the tire hop section of the assault course, and both her feet didn't cross the line because she did the splits at the end.

Another criticism is that winning the competition is not related to being hired by WWE or even your stability of employment in the company. In the 2004 search, including the winner Christy Hemme, six of the top ten finalists were hired to employment for varying lengths, some to the main roster and others to development, with Maria Kanellis and Michelle McCool still currently employed by the WWE even though neither won while the winner Christy Hemme was released. In the 2005 search, including the winner Ashley Massaro, three of the top eight finalists were hired with Kristal Marshall and Ashley Massaro still currently employed. In the 2006 search, just four days after her elimination, Rebecca DiPietro was signed to a developmental contract with WWE.

Another criticism comes from WWE's editing of the audience heat after Smackdown! tapings to make them sound more intrested in the search, although this does little to actually boost the audience's audible interest in the competition on the broadcasts.

Wrestlecrap, a popular site which highlights bad and infamous moments in pro wrestling, gave it's 2004 Gooker Award for worst wrestling moment of the year to the 2004 Diva Search. The 2005 edition was nominated for the award the next year, but lost to the Jim Ross firing angle.

However, not all Internet Wrestling Community figures criticize the Diva Search. Columnist Brad Blaze has expressed his interest in the diva search and his thoughts on who should win. [1] [2]

Theme songs

Each Diva Search has had its own theme music which later became the theme song of that year's winner.

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