Total Divas Season 1 Episode 1 Recap: “Welcome to the WWE”

Total Divas season 1 recap: episode 1, “Welcome to the WWE”

Total Divas is an E! reality series that follows the personal and professional lives of WWE’s female performers, then known as Divas, with behind-the-scenes footage of their work. The first season ran for fourteen episodes between July 28 and December 15, 2013, and the show would eventually run for nine seasons and 120 episodes. Its debut focused on a single stretch of time, the lead-up to WrestleMania 29 on April 7, 2013, which gave the premiere a clear structure and a natural climax.

The main cast of season one was the Bella Twins, Brie and Nikki, Naomi and Cameron, Natalya, Eva Marie and JoJo. The episode introduces them through short profiles and then lets the countdown to WrestleMania do the storytelling. The new arrivals matter: according to the series’ production history, Eva Marie was cast within 72 hours of auditioning and sent straight to WrestleMania 29 to begin filming.

Meet the Divas

The episode begins with Brie and Nikki Bella, twins who dress alike but, as the opening reminds viewers, are different. Nikki calls Brie more passive, Brie calls Nikki louder, and the show promises friction between them. They say they left WWE for eleven months, that the other Divas are jealous of them, and that they came back wanting more.

Trinity and Ariane, better known as Naomi and Cameron, explain how they formed the Funkadactyls and became fan favorites while the Bellas were away. They admit that in the Divas pyramid, with the top tier at the top, then the midcard and veterans, they are still midcard. Natalya is introduced as WWE royalty: the niece of Bret “The Hitman” Hart and the daughter of Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. She has trained for almost thirteen years and sees this as her turn to shine.

Ten days before WrestleMania: Tampa

In Tampa, Florida, ten days before WrestleMania, Nikki says the eleven months away left her mentally and physically exhausted, and that she missed wrestling. Trinity and Ariane are in a gym preparing to wrestle for the first time on the show, though they spend more time on dance moves than on holds. Trinity’s fiancé, Jon, who wrestles as Jimmy Uso, coaches them with obvious enjoyment. Natalya trains in the ring with trainer Bill DeMott and her father, noting that there is only one Divas match on the WrestleMania card and that she wants to be in it. She says doors have been slammed in her face despite her family name, and that she had more success abroad than in the United States.

Nikki’s boyfriend, John Cena, takes her out on a date. She calls him the most amazing man ever to walk the earth. They go fishing and catch nothing. They kiss in the rain, and Nikki compares the moment to The Notebook, convincing Cena to re-create the famous scene even though she does not seem to know the dialogue. Brie, meanwhile, lives with Bryan Danielson, who wrestles as Daniel Bryan, and the pair have been together two and a half years. Brie is jealous when Cena buys Nikki a Range Rover. Bryan laughs that Cena bought a car before an engagement ring, and Nikki admits the gift may be a way to put off buying one for a while.

New York: Nattie, the rookies and the red hair

On the first day of WrestleMania week in New York, Natalya compares the event to the Super Bowl. She is called into a meeting with Jane Geddes and Mark Carrano of WWE Talent Relations and told she is not on the card. There is a mixed tag match, and it will feature the Bellas and the Funkadactyls instead. Natalya complains that the Bellas took a year off and walked right back in, which is especially upsetting because she helped teach them to wrestle.

The assignment she receives instead is to show two new arrivals from the Los Angeles training camp around. Eva Marie, from the Bay Area, and JoJo have been training for about a month. JoJo admits she is scared to be away from home for the first time. Natalya, who has been told to teach them everything she knows so they can take her spot, puts on a smile that does not reach her eyes.

Then comes the hair. Eva Marie arrives with red highlights, and Geddes tells her to dye it blonde. In the salon Eva Marie, hating the color, decides on fire-engine red. When Geddes sees it she is stunned, concedes that she likes it, and tells Eva Marie that next time she should follow instructions. The Bellas, who have heard that one of the rookies looks like them, are offended and later say they are glad Eva Marie’s hair color will keep the two apart.

Backstage trouble for the Funkadactyls

Ariane’s boyfriend, Vincent, flies in. She is nervous because he has never seen her wrestle. At the dress rehearsal Ariane’s tag partner Brodus Clay tells her that she and Trinity were not good, and she cries. Vincent, hearing about it, wants Brodus to step outside. Trinity worries that if he hurts Brodus, her career will suffer, since the Funkadactyls are sold as a duo. Natalya steps in for damage control and calms him down. Jimmy, who was backstage but did not speak up, sides with Vincent’s instinct, and Trinity says work is less fun with this kind of tension.

The next day, Trinity takes Ariane to lunch and presses her about it. Trinity says Brodus was wrong but Vincent should not have wanted a fight. Ariane says she is over it. Later, with a day to go, Trinity wants Ariane to talk to Vincent, they snap at each other, and Trinity concludes that Ariane has deep-rooted issues that everyone else can see.

The day of WrestleMania 29

On the night before the show, Brie goes ring shopping and hints that Cena may not want to marry Nikki, since he has been married before. Over a romantic dinner, Nikki asks him directly whether marriage is possible. Cena says he has already tried marriage, that Nikki has changed him, and that he is not sure about it, but that he loves the small things, such as random Thursday dinners and the fishing trip.

On the day itself, every Diva announces that 80,000 people are watching. The twins wear red outfits with sequined canes and top hats, and the Funkadactyls’ costumes are still being sewn when the match is called. The seamstress hands them over just in time. Then the Bellas’ entrance music is cut off by Cena’s: the main event with The Rock is going on, and the Divas match has been dropped. It is the Bellas’ first WrestleMania match, so the loss is a blow. The Divas hug it out and decide to try again next year. The show ends with fireworks over the stadium.

Total Divas episode 1 at a glance

• Network and date: E!, July 28, 2013; episode title “Welcome to the WWE.”
• Timeline: the ten days leading up to WrestleMania 29 on April 7, 2013.
• Season one cast: Brie and Nikki Bella, Naomi, Cameron, Natalya, Eva Marie and JoJo.
• Main storylines: Natalya left off the card, the rookies’ arrival, the Funkadactyls’ backstage clash and Nikki’s relationship with John Cena.
• Outcome: the Divas match is cut when the main event moves ahead.

Review: a solid start for a reality format

For a Total Divas season 1 premiere, the episode has a clear backbone. The countdown structure lets viewers sort out a large cast quickly, and each storyline has a small arc: Natalya’s frustration, Eva Marie’s hair, Ariane’s argument with Trinity, Nikki’s question about marriage. The jokes land because the people involved know how to play to a camera.

The show is also open about how the business works. Divas are expected to follow the look that Talent Relations asks for, and the episode shows how little say they have in match placement or ring time. Watching Natalya take the news that she has been left out is the hour’s most honest moment.

The weaker parts are the stretches that look staged for reality television, and the edit that makes the cut match look like a pure matter of time. Even so, as a first episode, it sets up the cast, the stakes and the tone, and leaves reasons to come back. It also leaves open the question the series would spend its first season answering: how the Divas balance a shared career with very separate lives.

Viewers who want the context for the rest of Total Divas season 1 will find the episode useful as a primer: it establishes the rivalries, the couples and the running theme of who gets airtime in a company whose main event is always elsewhere.

Sources

• Total Divas season 1, Wikipedia — Checked against: episode list, cast and premiere date.