WWE Superstar Tamina Snuka is grateful for her lengthy career in the promotion but believes much of her tenure failed to reflect who she is.
Tamina, the daughter of ‘Superfly’ Jimmy Snuka, debuted on WWE’s main roster in 2010, alongside the Usos, and would immediately feud with the Hart Dynasty.
It wouldn’t be until WWE Hell in a Cell 2019 that Tamina would win her first championship, capturing her first of nine reigns as 24/7 Champion.
Not Me
Before 2016, WWE’s female Superstars were branded ‘Divas,’ and the term continues to have a negative stigma.
Many still see the ‘Divas Era’ as a time when women’s wrestling was little more than titillation for male viewers, despite the multiple accomplished women wrestling at the time.
Speaking about her tenure as a ‘Diva’ Tamina told PW Mania that she appreciates how long she’s been with WWE, but never quite fit with the previous era.
“I would look around and think that’s not me. These women were model types of women, and I’m Tamina. I’m a tomboy, and I’m a wrestler.”
Tamina Snuka.
It wouldn’t be until 2015’s Women’s Revolution that WWE would try and drop the more harmful aspects of the Divas era, and the term was dropped entirely following WrestleMania 32 in April 2016.
Reflecting on wrestling today, Tamina said that the idea of women entering wrestling is met with much more support given how the attitude to women’s wrestling has changed.
“I have two daughters. They could very well go to college, come back and tell me they want to get into wrestling. You want a good change for everyone and want something great. Right now, I do feel like that’s where we’re at. We evolved and got better. You want good things for these women. You want to have change. You want to evolve. You want to break even more barriers.”