Get out while you can.

So last night on RAW was apparently Eve Torres last night in the WWE.  She lost her Diva's title to Kaitlyn, which looked like it was bound to happen soon to anyone who's been watching for as long as I have.  Over the last few weeks she went from beating Kaitlyn and others clean to the cowardly lion running for the hills to save her title.  That the match was in the challenger's hometown was another tip.  And then word came down on the internet earlier yesterday that she'd be leaving and that title switch was a foregone conclusion.  You can count me among her fanbase, and it will kinda suck not having one of your favorite wrestlers on television anymore.  The Divas division is much maligned by the internet crowd, and not without merit, but it's nowhere as bad as the whiners say it is.  The biggest problems to me are that they don't give the ladies enough time to have a good match on television and don't do much in the way of character development beyond a few of them (AJ, Eve).  Their tv matches are often two and three minute affairs that end abruptly.  The match last night went about six minutes, which is an ironman match by diva standards, and was better than what we usually get out of them.

So now what happens with Eve?  I'm assuming she has some other projects or something lined up to pursue. And good for her and everyone else who took advantage of some other opportunity and decided to leave the business.  Despite the prearranged endings, wrestling is a grueling business to be in and it takes its toll on everyone that participates.  Travel, injuries, you name it.  So if you can leverage a few years in the ring into something less daunting on your body and personal life, go for it.   That goes the same for actors/actresses, models, and  other professional athletes. Yes, I count wrestlers as pro athletes.  They are professionals at what they do and it is athletic.  You go out there and try it if you think otherwise.  They get the same injuries as football players.  Concussions, torn ACLs, you name it.  But I digress.  Spending twenty years tearing your body up and then trying to live off of your rep when you're pushing 50 and can't do what you used to isn't a good look.  For a woman, who is unfairly judged on her appearance every time she steps in front of a camera, it's worse.  So if you can shut it down early and live well you do it.  They don't owe us anything beyond a good effort when they're performing in front of us, and the necessary work to ensure that they're capable of putting in said effort.  That's it.

People still love the Rock, and he straight bailed in 2002/2003 to do movies.  He didn't come back until 2011, and even that's been part time.  But he's made it work.  We like most of his movies, and we still enjoy him when he shows up on WWE television.  If Eve comes back we'll enjoy her return, and if she does well in whatever she does next we'll enjoy that, too.  So good luck to her, and everyone else in the future who chooses to make the most of what life offers them.  They're not our property so we wouldn't act like it.