Total Divas is currently filming their 8th season and the women on WWE’s tentpole reality television show are having a wonderful time.
But if you remember back to the show’s beginning there was a sentiment which is still held by a certain segment of fans that the show is categorized as niche programming and not actually a WWE product. The fact is Total Divas is part of WWE canon at this point whether critical fans like it or not and it’s likely not going away due to the resiliency of the show’s formula where stars can be changed out to freshen up the show.
Mike Johnson spoke about Total Divas recently during a PW Insider Elite audio update and one question in his mailbag concerned whether or not there was any backstage heat on WWE Superstars who were chosen to be on the popular E! reality television show.
As it turns out there could have been an issue starting out because stars of Total Divas might not have been looked at as real professional wrestlers. But as time continued and the show became a mainstay in the WWE Universe it sounds like it’s all water under the bridge at this point.
However, you can never rule out the power of the almighty dollar because a guest spot on the show can still hand someone an extremely pretty penny (via Ringside News).
“There is definitely extra income. There are some people who guest star on that show and they get $10,000 an episode. There’s definite income on that show. I’ve never heard anyone can request to be on [Total Divas]. Usually the producers of that show Bunim/Murray and WWE they get together and decide, ‘hey who can we put on this?'”
“Is there jealousy? You know in the beginning there was a difference of, ‘well they aren’t real wrestlers they’re reality stars not like me.’ And you know AJ Lee kinda crapped on The Bellas during a talking segment about all that. I don’t think now you know it’s been on so long now and the turnover and the latent pool has been so great that it’s just seen as another way to get over and then promote the Women’s Division.”
It’s nice to know what the reality television aspect of WWE programming isn’t too much of a big deal. After all most WWE Superstars have ended up being a part of some type of reality tv programming at this point from Ride Along to either show in WWE’s “Total” franchise.
