Total Divas is canon, Brie is a face there because her and Daniel Bryan like enviromental thingies.
You also can't say the Total Divas cast is a face on the show, because AJ was actually the face, as in, being booked in an awfully unfair match and coming out on top, who then did her heel turn by being mean to Paige, and then disappeared.
The notion that AJ is a heel comes from a sexist point of view where an independent, outspoken woman who have a true friend that is loyal to her without being her lover is somehow evil, because it's weird, women should hate each other and love boys. smh.
Now Paige is the face and when/if she retains against Tamina, who is a heel after ditching her friend babyface, she will probably feud with the Total Divas cast who will, again, be the old fashioned divas, the ones who only exist for the creation of gifs in 18-35 male forums, against a proper woman's champion, who says, and is not wrong to say, that she builds up the division.
See, the whole AJ vs Total Divas feud is about progressive women versus conservative women, with the more feminist half of the feud being the babyface; other ways to make you a babyface is by being progressive in another area, i.e., enviromentalism or by being victim of slut shaming and religious parents, like Eva Marie.
Like when people believed that Triple H and Stephanie believed what they were saying during their heel act, I don't really fault people for believing the narrative that these old fashioned women are somehow more babyfaces than our new, progressive, pro-feminist heroines like AJ and Paige. Lack of critical thinking and the hability to discern the sociopolitical metanarrative speaking out against the heteronormativity of a busisness still on the hands of known old mysoginists is comprehensible due to the fact that the message has to be subtle enough so those still in power doesn't shut them down.
But Total Divas is a step beyond the old black hat, white had mode of thinking that highlights the humanity of the female characters of the show, even if mainly to point out their flaws in order to create contrast with the characters who speak not on that WWE show, but on the others, more wrestling-related, WWE shows.
Natalya is human because she is a catholic old lady discovering her sexual side; Eva Marie is human because she is growing from someone hungry for the spotlight to someone who values the concept of marriage and family, even if that concept differs from the previous generation; by contrast, AJ is human as she refused to take part on the reality show because wrestling is more important to her and she passed the torch to a Paige who is also human because her ferocity on the ring, her passionate shrieks, her flow of emotions that emanate from having that title, all of that is a direct contrast from a Nikki worried about being a power couple with Cena, Naomi worried about magazine covers and the fact that the title is so important to Paige would not matter if we couldn't look at the life of those women who, sometimes for reasons we approve, sometimes for reasons we disapprove, values other things.
Why Daniel Bryan is the champion when he doesn't even like to use twitter while Zack Ryder is doomed on the undercard despiste success with a youtube series? Because WWE understands that what truly makes you a babyface is not having a camera in your face, but having passion for what you do. And so they branched without making it explicit to us: The Miz make movies, the Total Divas do reality shows, people who like to show off (poor Ziggler) get to show off while the ring, oh the squared circle, the ring is for the champions.
And right now, Paige is the champion. Because she is the face. And the Total Divas star a reality show because they are not.
I thank you all for your attention.
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