The contest’s theme song was titled “Walk idiot walk.”
I wish I could make stuff up that was this good.
Great-ing Gimmicks of the Past: Let’s Get Reality! – The Diva Search, Part 1
History
After a trial run in 2003 which crowned Jamie Koeppe the winner (and gave her a photoshoot in Raw magazine), the WWE decided to expand the Diva Search for 2004. Now the winner would receive a $250,000 contract, and eliminations would take place on Raw, where the segments would be “classy.â€
The show opened on July 10 with a casting special. The contestants were named as Amy Weber, Camille Anderson, Carmella DeCesare, Chandra Costello, Christy Hemme, Joy Giovanni, Julia Costello, Maria Kanellis, Michelle McCool, and Tracie Wright.
On Raw, we had a bikini contest where the crowd was introduced the contestants.
The next week we found out that Julia had been eliminated. Later that night, the women were told to seduce a WWE superstar, who turned out to be Kamala. “Hilarity†ensued.
Camille was the next to go and each of the contestants got 20 seconds to tell the crowd why she deserved to be voted for.
Julia’s twin sister Chandra was eliminated the next week and we got to see the hopefuls try to sell ice cream cones for 20 seconds each. Afterward, Trish Stratus came out to announce that she and the WWE divas would take on the hopefuls at Summerslam in Diva Dodgeball.
At Summerslam, the hopefuls (minus Carmella, who apparently forgot to show up) won the dodgeball game. Afterward, Trish Stratus and Victoria started shoving each other.
The next night Michelle was eliminated. The hopefuls got 20 seconds to talk about who they least wanted to see win. Each of them chose Carmella as their target.
The next week Jonathan Coachman brought out the contestants and eliminated Tracy. Then he told them they each had five minutes to tell him how great he was. That brought the Rock out, who ran Coachman off and then introduced a pie-eating contest. Classy doesn’t describe the women’s antics that included Christy sitting in a pie and scooting around.
Stacy Keibler brought the remaining five out the next week and eliminated Maria. The four remaining then got to play Dis the Diva. Classy was redefined yet again as the women cursed like sailors at each other, resulting in some hurried bleeping by the network censors.
The next week’s segment was an arm wrestling contest. Amy legitimately injured her arm, was eliminated, and then driven to the hospital.
Julia was the next eliminated and Coachman announced a Seattle Slugfest between the two remaining contestants (who were wearing oversized boxing gloves). That brought Vince McMahon out who changed the rules – instead of hitting each other, they’d hit the Coach. Christy was chosen as the winner by the crowd.
The next week saw Trish Stratus coming out to verbally bash the two remaining contestants before Christy was crowned the winner.
Analysis
The first Diva Search soon became notable for the complete boredom showed by the crowd. Take the pie-eating contest, for example. You have the Rock, who is one of the WWE’s biggest superstars of all time (and one who wasn’t regularly appearing). You add in beautiful women in bikinis and the crowd still doesn’t care. Normally, that would mean that something was going very wrong. However, in the always classy WWE, that just means that they need to give the crowd more of it so they’ll learn to like it.
Where are they now?
Much like the final Tough Enough, WWE contracts were passed out like candy to the losers.
Amy Weber was signed and assigned to Smackdown, where she became part of JBL’s cabinet. She left the company in February of 2005 following several pranks on her, the majority of which were reportedly played by Randy Orton. Today she still works as a model.
Camille left wrestling after her elimination and focused on her acting career.
Carmella was arrested later in 2004 after a bar fight with another woman. She was acquitted and has since married Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jeff Garcia. She has recently appeared in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue and is also trying to become a sideline reporter for the Buccaneers.
Christy Hemme remained with the WWE on Raw and appeared for Playboy in the April 2005 issue. In August of 2005, she was sent to Smackdown before being sent to OVW in November for further training. She was released in December and jumped to TNA the following April. Christy remains with TNA today as the manager of Lance Hoyt and Jimmy Rave.
Joy Giovanni received a WWE contract and became Big Show’s onscreen girlfriend. She was released in July of 2005. Today she works as a model.
Maria also received a WWE contact and began working as an interviewer on Raw and OVW television. She remains on Raw today and will appear in the April issue of Playboy.
Michelle also received a WWE contract and began appearing on Smackdown as a personal trainer. In 2005 she was sent to Deep South for further training where she remained for almost a year. She returned to Smackdown in 2006, where she remains today.
