WWE Diva Search

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The WWE 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. The 2006 edition of the Diva Search played on the USA Network in the United States and FOX8 in Australia.

Contents 1 History 2 Contestants 2.1 2004 2.2 2005 2.3 2006 3 Criticism 4 Winners 5 Trivia 6 Theme songs

[edit] History

In the past, there have been various talent searches by major wrestling promotions to find new female talent. After a smaller-scale contest in 2003 in which Jaime Koeppe was named the first WWE Diva Search winner (but not given a contract), WWE created an extensive talent search: the $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 "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 is 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. Carmella, who was the runner up, didn't receive a contract, but made several appearances on RAW and even had a match against Diva Search winner Christy Hemme at Taboo Tuesday 2004, in which Christy won. Candice Michelle is currently a Raw Diva. Joy was released along with 20+ other on July 2005, but recently, it has been reported that WWE was looking to hire back Giovanni. This was officially confirmed by Joy herself on her Myspace on October 2006.

WWE announced another Diva Search contest for 2005. WWE reportedly emphasized the fact that potential contestants did not need 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. However, Massaro wanted to train to wrestle, due to her athletic background, and her family's involvement in wrestling.

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 were not going to be working together any time soon. She opted to be one of the girls on the hit TV program, Deal or No Deal on NBC. The first eliminated contestant, Leilene Ondrade, subsequently made appearances as a ring girl for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. She also went on the reality shot Flavor of Love known as "Smiley".

As for the 2006 contestants, the Diva Search winner was Layla El and the WWE has already hired one of the eliminated diva hopefuls, Rebecca DiPietro. Who is currently looking for an apartment in Atlanta, Georgia and preparing to move there to train in DSW immediately. 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. Maryse Ouellet, Milena Roucka, and Amy Zidian have all signed WWE developmental contracts and reported to OVW in September. Maryse Ouellet debuted of SmackDown!'s debut on the CW Network welcoming fans back after a commercial break. Rebecca DiPietro debuted on ECW as a backstage interviewer on October 17, 2006. On November 3, 2006 Amy Zidian debuted on Smackdown as a valet of Jimmy Wang Yang, she was released from her contract with the WWE in December 2006.

[edit] Contestants

[edit] 2004

• Christy Hemme - Winner
• Carmella DeCesare -Runner-Up
• Joy Giovanni - Eliminated 8th
• Amy Weber - Eliminated 7th
• Maria Kanellis - Eliminated 6th
• Tracie Wright - Eliminated 5th
• Michelle McCool - Eliminated 4th
• Chandra Costello - Eliminated 3rd
• Camille Anderson - Eliminated 2nd
• Julia Costello - Eliminated 1st

[edit] 2005

• Ashley Massaro - Winner
• Leyla Milani - Runner-up
• Elisabeth Rouffaer - Eliminated 6th
• Kristal Marshall - Eliminated 5th
• Summer DeLin - Eliminated 4th
• Cameron Haven - Eliminated 3rd
• Simona Fusco - Eliminated 2nd
• Alexis - Eliminated 1st

[edit] 2006

• Layla El - Winner
• Jen England - Runner-up
• J.T. Tinney - Eliminated 6th
• Erica Chevillar - Eliminated 5th
• Milena Roucka - Eliminated 4th
• Rebecca DiPietro - Eliminated 3rd
• Maryse Ouellet - Eliminated 2nd
• Amy Zidian - Eliminated 1st

The final three appeared on a special that aired on Wednesday August 16, 2006 on the USA Network in the USA and Saturday August 19, 2006 on FOX8 in Australia where the winner was announced.

Jennifer Walcott was also a contestant, but would later drop out due to project conflicts and was replaced by Erica Chevillar. The final show got a 1.9 cable rating with a 3.0 share.

[edit] 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. 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, on RAW.
• In 2005, contestant Leyla Milani intentionally 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, Michelle McCool and even Candice Michelle (who didn't even make the final ten) still currently employed by the WWE even though none of them 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. On August 24, 2006, it was announced that Maryse Ouellet, Milena Roucka, and Amy Zidian had also signed developmental contracts.

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

[edit] Winners

Year Won	Name	Notes
2003	Jaime Koeppe	Never signed a WWE contract, just a photoshoot for RAW magazine.
2004	Christy Hemme	Wrestled Trish Stratus for the Women's Title at WrestleMania 21, Playboy Cover Girl, later released by WWE in December 2005. Now working for TNA Wrestling.
2005	Ashley Massaro	SmackDown! Diva after breaking her ankle. Valet for Paul London and Brian Kendrick.
2006	Layla El	First ever WWE Diva Search Winner to go straight to SmackDown! She debuted on the September 22 edition of SmackDown! in Montréal.

[edit] Trivia

• The Rock made his last WWE appearance to date in a diva search skit back on August 23, 2004.
• All contracted Diva Search winners have gone and wrestled on Smackdown.
• Ashley Massaro's career, so far, has been very similar to 2004 Diva Search Winner, Christy Hemme: Both ladies have wrestled Trish Stratus for the WWE Women's Championship, both of them have been escorted to Smackdown, and before managing a male tag team, both Ashley & Christy have been in a short feud with another Diva. Christy also posed for playboy in 2005, while Ashley is due to pose for the magazine in 2007.

[edit] Theme songs

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

• 2004 WWE Diva Search - "Walk, Idiot, Walk" by The Hives
• 2005 WWE Diva Search - "Be Yourself" by Audioslave
• 2006 WWE Diva Search - "Move Along" by The All-American Rejects