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  • Career Resurrection: The show ended up providing big career boosts for some of the women involved:
    • Natalya had been acting mostly as a Jobber and was in a gimmicky storyline romance with the Great Khali. When the show premiered, she received far better treatment, won more matches and was pushed for the title. She's had more high-profile matches since the show than before. She finally won a title again in 2017.
    • The Bellas were essentially a novelty act before Total Divas. They had a few loyal fans but most viewers were indifferent to them. Needless to say, they headlined the show, managed to distinguish their characters and vastly improved their wrestling. Brie got to main event Raw and have a big match at Summer Slam with Stephanie McMahon. Nikki eventually became top of the division and the longest reigning Divas' Champion. And of course their star power was big enough to produce the Total Bellas spin-off.
    • Zig-zagged with Alicia Fox, who continues to go in and out of being used and just being a Jobber. She at least has been featured a little more on TV since joining the cast.
    • Tyson Kidd was a lower card performer who, while excellent in the ring, never got much in the way of air time. With exposure on the show, an entire storyline was started about how he resented Natalya's success compared to his own. He enjoyed a moderately successful tag team run with Cesaro, that ended abruptly due to a sudden neck injury.
  • Corpsing: Nattie and Ariane/Cameron get into an argument while out drinking. A cop approaches them and warns them they'll be arrested if they get too rowdy. They go inside and immediately burst out laughing.
  • Creator Backlash:
    • Cameron was a little annoyed at the show's Manipulative Editing, claiming it made her seem bitchier than she actually was. Part of the reason she left the show was unhappiness at how she was being portrayed.
    • Alicia Fox regrets her portrayal, claiming she was going through a bad time when she was added to the cast - and doesn't look back too fondly on all the Hard-Drinking Party Girl tendencies she had. She was however saddened to be cut from the cast.
  • Dye Hard: Eva Marie (brunette dyed red) and Ariane (black dyed caramel brown and eventually blonde). Also Rosa who is a natural brunette but is known for dyeing her hair a lot. Alicia Fox is known for dyeing her hair a lot too. Paige is a natural dark blonde but has dyed her hair black most of her life.
  • Enforced Method Acting: Summer Rae claims that Natalya didn't know she was going to get slapped in the famous Season 2 scene.
  • Fake Nationality: Subverted. Lana preserved her Russian character in a Season 3 appearance but speaks in her real voice when she becomes an actual cast member. The show marks the first time Lana has been seen out of character on network television.
  • Follow the Leader: The success of Total Divas led to WWE producing more reality shows exclusive to the WWE Network - such as Legends House, Breaking Ground, WWE 24 and others. Total Divas itself was meant to be a WWE Network show originally (see below).
  • Funny Character, Boring Actor:
    • John Cena. His character in the ring and during promos is nothing if not animated and energetic. On camera for the series behind the scenes, he comes across as very serious and reserved. Even in "fun" scenes like the pool party at his home or on dates, he's most often the quietest person in the group.
    • Nikki herself is an inversion. Known for playing an Alpha Bitch in the ring, she's far bubblier and goofier out of character.
    • Nattie too is an inversion. She's usually a serious wrestler, outside of her occasional Evil Is Hammy phases. On the show, she's far crazier and funnier.
  • Genius Bonus: For episode 2 in season 1. Anyone who knows about the inner workings of the WWE would understand why Ariane getting gear made outside is a big deal. In WWE, wrestlers can only get their gear made from the seamstresses there if they are over enough. Anyone new or working their way up has to source their own gear. So Ariane already being able to have gear personally made by one of the seamstresses and then still going behind her back to get some made from an outside source...well now you can see why Sandra is so offended.
  • Lying Creator
    • Typical of WWE but the very first episode had a glaring example, with the Funkadactyls & Tons Of Funk vs Bella Twins and Rhodes Scholars getting cut because the prior match ran too long. The cut was true but the show made it out to be CM Punk vs The Undertaker running too long when it was, of course, Triple H vs Brock Lesnar. Also, there was a P. Diddy performance, in the proud WrestleMania tradition of cutting wrestling for musical acts.
    • On episode four, Natalya claimed Naomi had blown up, in a one minute match, where her supposed error was moving too quickly and overshooting her target. Because dammit, we need to justify the Funkadactyls staying together, even if doesn't make sense.
    • The Natalya TLC/ nose fiasco. Natalya refers to TLC as "WWE's version of the Golden Globes" when it's really considered a B-level PPV. And something that's even more blatantly obvious - apparently the week before the show, Natalya has a match with Summer and supposedly suffers more damage to her nose. But the match shown is obviously from the week of Old School Raw - which took place in January, while TLC is a December PPV.
    • Rosa Mendes's introduction in season 3 says she's been away for personal problems. While that is true, she returned to WWE in mid 2013 and had been appearing semi regularly enough on television since then.
    • Eva Marie is apparently in the middle of a huge push when she suffers damage to her implants. A clip is shown of her apparently beating the Divas' Champion. Of course this win was via DQ and the show doesn't show this. Eva was being used mostly as a Jobber because of how green she is in the ring. This is later revisited with the "Eva starts training seriously and everybody hates her now" story of season 4, which treats her as if she's been getting this massive push for 2½ years across three WrestleManias despite her lack of in-ring talent while other Divas have been struggling to get on TV, and apparently expects to become Divas Champion after six weeks of training with Brian Kendrick. Again, she's been used a jobber—and that's when she wasn't either out with injury or simply not being used. She wasn signed weeks after WrestleMania 29, meaning she'd been there for just under two years. And with the soaring popularity of the NXT developmental brand, no one could seriously believe she'd be going straight back to the main roster after her training with Kendrick—especially those who've been keeping up with the product, who've seen her on NXT building up her re-debut before the season 4 drama started airing.
    • There's a good 6 month gap between the Bellas apparently "deciding to leave" (the week Nikki won the title), and Nikki deciding to stay (the week of WrestleMania). Despite this, Nikki is STILL the divas champion as of the date of the original airing of that episode. Are we seriously supposed to believe WWE would allow such a sustained push to someone who is planning to leave, especially given that the length of her reign seems to be intended to spite AJ Lee's rapidly approaching record AND that they were given their new contracts to sign over 6 months in advance?
    • Nikki vs Paige apparently gets "This is awesome" chants, and seems to end with Nikki winning fairly clean. Neither of these things are true. The Bella Twins feud vs Paige and AJLee is quite edited in the Bellas favor. All televised matches show Nikki/Brie winning clean and the fans cheering the then-heel twins massively.
  • Missing Trailer Scene: Previews for Season 1 featured a clip from a tag match on Superstars where Cameron gets annoyed and slaps Natalya, with a confessional from Brie saying "that wasn't supposed to happen". The match itself (Cameron and Naomi vs Natalya and Layla) looks like it was taped as part of a planned storyline between Cameron and Nattie that never aired.
  • Real Life Writes the Plot: The E! Network didn't know that Nikki was dating John Cena when they approached the Bellas with the show's concept. Their relationship, and several John-centered stories, became a major focus of the series.
  • Star-Making Role: Eva Marie has become famous and infamous in circles since the show premiered.
  • Urban Legend of Zelda: No one has any definitive answer for the reason JoJo got removed from the cast. A rumor went around that she willingly had herself removed to focus on her training in NXT (though she ended up as a ring announcer, despite her natural athleticism). Other sources say WWE were uncomfortable featuring a nineteen-year-old on reality TV - as their policy now forbids anyone under 21 getting called to TV. The Bella Twins suggest that she was much shyer on camera and E! were the ones who removed her for that reason.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • The concept was originally planned back in 2011 and would have been titled "WWE Divas: Heels on Wheels" and followed other Divas such as Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres, Beth Phoenix and Alicia Fox, focusing more on the girls' lives on the road. It was dropped when plans for the WWE Network fell through.
    • A.J. Lee claims that after JoJo's departure was announced, she was approached and asked if she wanted to be the cast member that replaced her. When she turned it down, Vince McMahon apparently gave her a live mic to cut her 'Pipe Bombshell' promo on Raw. Ultimately Summer Rae became the newest cast member.
    • Layla was a huge fan of reality TV and kept asking to be part of the show. Although she did make some appearances, most notably causing Rosa's Wardrobe Malfunction, she was turned down.

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