Welcome to the Turnbuckle Bandwagon, MFR’s semi regular column on professional wrestling and sports entertainment. Today, we are going to discuss one of the most divisive talents in the WWE, Natalie Marie Coyle, better known as Eva Marie.
photo: WWE
Debuting in 2013 alongside the Bella Twins, Eva Marie quickly gained notoriety as being a fairly inadequate wrestler. So much to the point where the WWE was forced to remove her from the main roster and has sent her down to the Performance Center twice since her 2013 debut. Her most recent tenure in NXT has shown very little in-ring improvement but a small change in her already heel character. Embracing the boos and the chants of “You Can’t Wrestle”, Eva Marie would thank the crowd for their support and pledge to “do her best” to make them proud of her. She would train with Brian Kendrick aside from her Performance Center regimen in an attempt to get her in-ring performance to an acceptable level, it did not work all that well, but after some mediocre matches, Eva Marie would take some “me time” and share her vacation videos with the NXT crowd, much to their chagrin, and upon her return would gently call her dissenters, which is 99 percent of the NXT audience, “jealous”..but in the nicest way possible.
Here’s the thing, the NXT and WWE audience doesn’t WANT to like Eva Marie, and while that viewpoint is definitely justifiable, there is every reason to embrace it. Eva doesn’t wrestle all that often, not as much as a Bayley, Asuka, or Sasha Banks. She wrestles just enough to keep the crowd invested, because even when a crowd sounds like they are about to break out torches and pitchforks, they are involved. If there was nothing there to work with, the crowd would go silent, much like they do when Dana Brooke performs, but the fans WANT to hate her, so having her play the “nice” card is easily the best way to go about it. She could show up tomorrow, have a 5 star Match Of The Year candidate, and the WWE and NXT audience would still hate her guts, so why not embrace it.
Starring on E!’s Total Divas has raised her profile, her recent tenure on NXT and possible return to the main roster has incensed the WWE Universe, so use it, and make her worthy of the boos and vitriol with her perfect smile and blazing red hair.
Agree? Disagree? Think I should be put through a table?
Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @MatPDouglas
