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SoCal Val was recently interviewed by Just Alyx, where she spoke about the negative connotation the term "Diva" has gotten in WWE.
âI have no idea why anyone thought that was a negative term. I understand that word can be used, okay, someone comes in and demands things, theyâre a diva. A diva, to me, was always a very empowering term. I would never be in wrestling if it wasnât for the WWE Divas. And I donât mean that just in terms of matches. With all due respect [âŚ] I would have never been in wrestling if it was just serious wrestlers. With all due respect to AJ Lee and others who are just casually dressed, and theyâre not not super-sparkly and glamorousâŚall due respect, those arenât my type of girls. Theyâre just not. I wanted to be a Torrie. I wanted to be a Sunny, I wanted to do the modeling shoots, I wanted to do the interviews and managing and things like that. The fact that we canât look at that period of time and go, âthere were some great people in that.â
Even the Divas Search, look how many people⌠People forget how many great talents came out of the Divas Search. Maria, Michelle McCool, Layla, so many great ones. Now, did it get a little out-of-hand with gravy matches and jelly pool matches? Sure. But when I wanted to wrestle at all, I wanted to be in an evening gown. I wanted to be in a lingerie match. I wanted to exude this sort of powerful sexuality, this feminism, that I thought was really empowering. So itâs a shame for me to hear that people donât like it when we call them divas. Now, did I like it when the belt was a butterfly? I thought that was a little stupid personally, but the term diva to me was very empowering. So I find it very interesting that people have such a vitriolic heat against that term. That was my era! And because I didnât want to physically wrestle, I was like, these were my girls!
Trish Stratus, for example. Iâve had this conversation with her. When she was a manager, managing T&A, thatâs when I really connected. When she became a serious wrestler, and I mean this with all due respect, I was kind of like, âI canât relate as much.â Lita, I canât relate as much. I didnât want to be a very seriously taken female wrestler. I think that itâs great that they have that but that wasnât personally what I wanted to do. So, the fact that we canât have both now, I feel like is very anti-feminist in the sense that feminism, my friend, is about having a freedom of choice and if my choice wasnât to be an athletic super serious wrestler, and my choice was to be sexy, be one of the Diva types, thatâs my choice. And feminism is about supporting womenâs choices. So you canât sit there and say that if you werenât a serious wrestler, you didnât contribute to the business. Because people like Sunny, Sable, Torrie Wilson, Candice Michelle, these women were my idols. So I find it interesting that people hve such an issue about the Divas era, because if there were no Divas era, I would have lost interest immediately.â
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