WWE News: Creative Plans For Eva Marie’s Return to SmackDown Revealed
Before she violated WWE’s Wellness Policy and was suspended for thirty days, Eva Marie was amidst a huge push on SmackDown that could have seen her become the first SmackDown Women’s Champion. During her suspension, her character is said to be “on vacation,” and Becky Lynch became Women’s Champion.
Eva Marie made many attempts to make her in-ring return to SmackDown, but there was always an excuse to stop it from actually happening. She’d run into injury issues, a wardrobe malfunction, or even traffic that prevented her from wrestling. It was a good storyline that would have resulted in a great return for Eva on WWE programming. After a month away, her return storyline has more or less hit the reset button.
Her suspension is over, and she is set to return to WWE television as early as Tuesday night’s edition of SmackDown. However, there are a lot of question about how WWE officials are going to bring Eva Marie back creatively now that SmackDown has a Women’s title. At some point, she’s going to need to wrestle too.
For the majority of her WWE career, Eva Marie’s strength has been what she can do for WWE outside of the company rather than what she can do in the squared circle. She has been a major selling point for “Total Divas” and she is one of the most marketable women WWE has on the roster. Hollywood seems to feel the same way because Eva Marie recently landed a huge movie role that could be a game changer for her career.
“All Red Everything” will co-star in the new thriller film “Inconceivable” alongside Nicolas Cage and Faye Dunaway. Eva Marie will be playing the character of Angela, who will be Cage’s wife in the film. The chance to share the screen with Nic Cage will likely launch her into several more movie roles if she does well.
It’s a huge role for Eva Marie’s career, which could mean great things for WWE in the near future. Because of that, it is being reported that WWE is expected to keep Eva Marie out of the ring and off WWE television until filming has wrapped on her movie. Filming is beginning in October, so the odds of Eva Marie risking the opportunity to gain momentum in Hollywood by getting into the WWE ring seem slim to none.
Obviously, there is a lot of speculation about Eva Marie using WWE as a launching pad to gain this kind of opportunity in the entertainment industry, but WWE also makes a lot of money off Eva Marie’s name in the short term. It becomes more and more apparent that Eva is not a long term start for the WWE product.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing because her association with WWE will always be there, so she’ll always be a by-product of the WWE machine. The Women’s Division is stronger and has a deeper roster than it ever has, but Eva Marie wasn’t an essential part of that fact. It seemed like WWE was trying to build her into the fold before her suspension halted her push and her movie role will keep her off TV until later this year.
Whenever Eva Marie returns to WWE programming, she’s obviously going to be pushed very strongly by the WWE machine based on pushing her into Hollywood. The WWE Universe may not like that, especially if she wins the SmackDown Women’s title off a WWE Superstar like Becky Lynch. However, it seems the time to strike on Eva Marie is now. WWE knows that, and “All Red Everything” is going to be everywhere soon.
[Image via WWE.com]
