WWE Diva Search

The WWE Diva Search (formerly $250,000 RAW 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.

History

In the past, there have been various talent searches by major wrestling promotions to find new female talent. The most extensive one was WWE's $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 eating pies and "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.

WWE announced another Diva Search contest for 2005. WWE reportedly emphasized the fact that potential contestants did not have 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.

From the 2004 Diva Search, Michelle McCool, Amy Weber, Candice Michelle, Maria Kanellis and Joy Giovanni all received contracts after losing the contest. Amy and Joy are no longer with the company and Michelle trained in DSW but 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.

From the 2005 Diva Search, Ashley Massaro of New York City, New York won the competition. Kristal Marshall is currently a backstage interviewer 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 are not going to be working together any time soon. The first eliminated contestant, Leilene Ondrade, is on good terms with TNA and is making appearances as a ring girl.

The Playboy Connection

Playboy Playmates and models have been participating in the Diva search from the very beginning. Starting with two Playmates participated in the inaugural 2004 Diva Search. 2004 Playmate of the Year, Carmella DeCesare advanced to become the runner-up. The other Playmate, 1998 Playmate of the Year, Karen McDougal was eliminated at the end of the live TV special on Spike TV in July, where 10 finalists eligible for online voting were chosen. 2005 Search winner Ashley Massaro (under the name Ryan McKenzie) and 2004 contestant Candice Michelle both posed for Playboy Cyber Club prior to entering the search. 2004 contestant Amy Weber was a Playboy Special Editions model prior to participating in the search. In 2006, Jennifer Walcott, having been a Playmate in 2001 and appeared in multiple special editions of Playboy as well as commercials for Wild Party Girls became one of the 8 finalists. Althrough Walcott would eventually drop out of the contest for personal reasons, the presence of Playboy Playmates and models in all Diva searches since inception help cemented the business relationship between WWE and Playboy.

Contestants

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

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

2006

• Erica Chevillar - Eliminated 2nd
• Rebecca DiPietro
• Layla El
• Jen England
• Maryse Ouellet
• Milena Roucka
• J.T. Tinney
• Amy Zidian - Eliminated 1st

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. 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 (including winner Christy Hemme, runner-up Carmella DeCesare, and Joy Giovanni) took part in a segment that was censored at several points due to foul language and obscenities from the contestants when they were asked to taunt one another verbally, live 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 same act (despite not exposing her breasts fully as her nipples were covered with pasties) was suggested by fellow contestant Leilene Ondrade to the WWE creative team, which 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. 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.

Trivia

• During the "Diva Dance Off" contest on the July 21, 2006 edition of SmackDown!, contestant Rebecca dressed as a cowgirl attempted a striptease, however, during the removal of her pants, she attempted to swing them around her head, but it didn't go as planned as the pants ended up smacking her in the face. Erica dance was really bad, when the audience had to choose the winner, there was a lot of boos.
• During the opening moments of the July 17, 2006 edition of RAW, tag team DX mocked Mizanin by attempting to promote their merchandise but continually getting the website address wrong. Triple H made direct reference by saying to Shawn Michaels "Easy Miz" which was in reference to Mizanin's appearence on RAW the previous week when he forgot the contestents names and couldn't remember the name of the WWE website.
• The contest began on the July 10, 2006 edition of RAW with eight contestants. The final three will go on to appear in a USA Network special on Thursday August 17, 2006 where the winner will be announced.
• WWE has released interviews with various divas on their website concerning the upcoming Diva Search, as well as blogs by two of the hosts, The Miz and the 2005 winner, Ashley Massaro.
• 2006 Contestant Jennifer Walcott was the first ever contestant to be confirmed and later drop out of the competition before appearing on television due to the fact that it was a conflict with other projects she was working on. She was replaced by Erica Chevillar.
• Each Diva Search has had its own theme music which later became the theme song of that year's winner. In 2004 the theme song was "Walk, Idiot, Walk" by The Hives. In 2005, "Be Yourself" by Audioslave was the theme, and this year the theme song is "Move Along" by The All-American Rejects.
• Both winners have challenged Trish Stratus for the WWE Women's Championship.
• Both winners were moved to SmackDown! the year after winning.
• WWE officals have chosen who their favorite finalist is in the Diva Search. Maryse Ouellet is the office's favorite to win the 2006 Diva Search. Also, she is said to be very intelligent to the business in that she knows the inner workings of professional wrestling to a degree.

Each Diva Search contestant will be featured on FHM's online website,(WWW.FHMUS.COM) with an exclusive interview and photo. This will continue, all the way until the winner of the competition is declared.