Kaitlyn reveals Total Divas influenced WWE creative decisions despite Vince McMahon’s promise
Kaitlyn revealed the influence Total Divas had on WWE’s creative decisions despite initial assurances that it would remain separate from on-screen storylines.
During her interview with TMZ’s Inside The Ring, Kaitlyn talked about Total Divas’ influence on WWE storylines and booking decisions despite Vince McMahon informing them it would remain unaffected. She cited her reserved nature may have limited opportunities in the company.
“And Vince promised us, promised the women’s division Total Divas is not going to have any influence on storylines. And then WrestleMania comes around and that’s when they were debuting the show. They were introducing the concept of Total Divas and it literally took the place of a women’s title match on Wrestlemania. So it kind of set the tone for it. And so after that happened, I was just like ‘Okay, the title doesn’t mean anything, I don’t mean, like what do I represent?’ And so it was I think that was actually a big part of this downhill slope that I was on that led to me asking for my release. I just didn’t feel I was just, I guess I don’t matter in this scheme of things.”
The former Divas Champion iterated that there did not seem to be any mitigation of the tension among the women’s division at the time. She named Fit Finlay as the one producer who assisted in the situation but after he left it fell apart.
“Not that I know of. Like I don’t think there was really any mitigation of drama at any point.”
“Back in the day when I was there, it didn’t really seem like it was, nobody wanted to be the one that had to try to smooth situations out with the women. Fit Finley was the one who helped us, was the agent and producer of all of our matches. And then when Fit unfortunately had to leave the company for a year, during that year it was, the producer that got our matches were, it’s almost like it was a punishment for them.”
“So nobody wanted to agent our matches number one because we were all trying to get over and be the one that was on top and so we all had five minutes for matches. And so it was not a lot of fun to try to put together a match for the women and they didn’t know how to, nobody knew how to handle it and so it was kind of just like you know it was. So I never noticed any type of mitigation of the tension.”
“And I never experienced it. So if it was happening, I wasn’t involved in it, but what I noticed is that everybody was just like ‘you know, you’re lucky and you’re on Total Divas or you’re not and that kind of sucks.’ That’s kind of how it felt.”
Total Divas premiered on E! in 2013 to give fans a behind-the-scenes preview of the professional and personal ongoing events in the lives of WWE’s female talent. The show ran for nine seasons before the Total Bellas spin-off.
Rosanne Raphael is a wrestling writer with over three and a half years of experience covering all things related to the industry. From a kindergarten teacher to PR Associate to turning her lifelong passion for the industry into a career, Rosanne is currently writing for F4W Online where she focuses on wrestling news, analysis, and storytelling.
Rosanne previously contributed to Sportskeeda as an Assistant Content Manager.
When not consumed by wrestling, Rosanne is a musician and an aspiring artist.