Twenty-first century kayfabe is a tricky thing. Especially for the men & women who are featured on WWE's wrestling programs and their 'reality' shows like Total Divas.
It's probably only going to get more convoluted with more shows like Breaking Ground coming down the pipe, and guys like Xavier Woods getting over online with different names and variations on their WWE gimmick.
So, I'm just going to have get over the fact that Nikki Bella, a brand unto herself beyond the scripted world of Raw and SmackDown, is never going to be the mega-heel I want her to be, when she also has to work the red carpet at charity events, and inspire her millions of social media followers who idolize her .
But because I believe it would greatly help the cause of women's wrestling to actually have villains we despise pursued by heroes we rally behind, I'm likely not going to stop whining about it.
The latest thing to get under my skin on this topic are a couple of Tweets the longest reigning Divas champ in history sent out last night, after losing her rematch for the butterfly belt to the woman who ended her run as champ, Charlotte:
I always hear me and I on "change" in what we do. It takes we and us to truly have that. Be selfless. Be humble. The ladder can be lonely.
— Nikki & Brie (@BellaTwins) October 26, 2015
You put up a tough fight @MsCharlotteWWE Hold on 2 that title bc my journey isn't over I feel as if I lost it all Time 2 regroup I'll b back
— Nikki & Brie (@BellaTwins) October 26, 2015
Again, it's minor, and something like 90% of the folks who watch Nikki and the rest of the division bust their asses on Raw will probably never see these messages.
But even a couple of Tweets that cast Charlotte (and/or the other participants in the #DivasRevolution) as self-centered and Nik as the "humble" veteran directly contradicts the story they worked hard to present in the build to Night of Champions - the time in the last few months when it really felt like there were good girls to support and bad girls to dislike on the main roster of WWE. And they're emblematic of the muddled storytelling that lead a lot of people to not care about what turned out to be a good match at Hell in a Cell.
Feel free to tell me I'm taking this too seriously. But the women have enough challenges to overcome on the main roster on the way to be taken seriously...they don't need add to them.