It’s the old age tale of the WWE women’s division — ‘creative amnesia’. You know, that thing where they do something and then don’t follow it up the next week & go in a whole new direction and expect us to forget everything we saw the week before? Or if we’re lucky, they’ll expect us … Read more
Diva Dirt reader, @OohOui on Twitter attended the Raw house show last night in White Plains, NY and passed along the following live videos of the Divas match. It was the team of Gail Kim, Kelly Kelly and Mickie James in a winning effort against Alicia Fox, Beth Phoenix and Rosa Mendes.
Part 2 after the cut:
This week, former Women’s Champions Gail Kim and Beth Phoenix tell fans why they decided to become wrestlers… Beth is so cute in real life! She’s also got that fun humor that helped Trish Stratus during her career; I am convinced Beth would be a great babyface if they allowed her to speak.
To almost everyone, Melina and Michelle‘s match at Night of Champions exceeded expectations. Realistically, it would be tough to top that, and with the WWE’s tendency to follow up gold with crap, it’s pretty likely that this week’s SmackDown would disappoint. But does it? Are they continuing the Michelle/Melina feud, or are they moving on? Let’s take a look and see for ourselves:
As Melina makes her way to the ring, Michelle hightails it, demonstrating more of that “cowardly heel” shtick that I kind of wish they’d drop. Still, it’s great to see them keep up appearances and showing that things between them are far from over, with Michelle waving her title in Melina’s face like a T-bone to a cartoon pooch. Oh yeah, and Eve and Layla are there too. I couldn’t help but notice during Eve’s entrance that she got a really nice pop. Like, surprisingly good. It could just be canned cheers, but I was pretty impressed.
Layla and Melina start the match, and as they grapple for a moment, it’s clear that Melina has no interest in this opponent. She quickly disposes of Layla and turns for Michelle, who darts away. Layla takes advantage of this distraction to attack her, getting a bit of offense in before Melina takes her drown with an arm drag and tags in Eve. The two do a nice double-team move before Melina runs out of the ring at the referee’s protests (quite a change from her heel days, no?). Eve them performs quite a labored scoop slam (holding for applause?) for a two-count. Eve hits a dropkick, and some awkward exchanges later, Eve ends up on the second rope at the turnbuckle, her back to a standing Layla. Wait, what was she setting up for? Layla seems to be just as perplexed, kicking Eve and sending her to the mat. Layla tags in Michelle, who manhandles Eve a bit, a leg drop earning her a two-count.
This week on Impact provided a six-Knockout tag match, pitting Angelina Love, Velvet Sky, and Madison Rayne against the likes of ODB, Awesome Kong, and Victoria. As well as an interview with former-Knockouts champion, Victoria.
Interestingly enough, Victoria is announced to be accompanied by tarantula, Poison, which has become an entity of its own. As the commentators get a little flustered over the Beautiful People’s entrance, I have to say that I have been loving Kong’s expressions as of late. The look of disinterest on her face at the start of the match is priceless.
Victoria and Angelina start off the match with a lock up, and Victoria delivers a series of open-handed punches. A run through the ropes and Victoria knocks down the Knockouts champion. Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne attempt to make the save, but Victoria takes the fight to them, as well. Angelina takes advantage of the distraction and blindsights her opponent. Angelina opts to run the ropes, but Victoria takes her down with a powerslam. She goes for the cover until the Beautiful People break up the count. ODB and Kong clear out the ring and the action breaks loose. In the meantime, Victoria resorts to some dirty tactics against Angelina as a source of expressing her pent-up resentment. Victoria delivers a scoop slam to Angelina, who soon scurries away just in time to tag in Madison. Victoria outsmarts Madison and quickly takes her down with a drop toehold before tagging in ODB. ODB lunges Madison into the corner and slams chest-first into her. She then sets Madison up for a fallaway slam, followed by a kip-up. TNA, with their now usual tendency of cutting to break during their Knockout matches, fades to commercial.
Watch the match & more after the cut:
Last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw saw a changing of the guard, as Mickie James made her first appearance as the new Divas Champion. Also factor in that the former Divas Champ, Maryse is now on the injured list and you have a fresh new outlook for the Raw Divas division. In just 5 … Read more
After weeks and weeks of waiting, SHIMMER fans are finally treated to some SHIMMER-lite goodness on HDNet. This week the team of Neveah and Daizee Haze take on former SHIMMER Champion Sara Del Rey and current SHIMMER Champion MsChif. Check out the match below: DAIZEE/NEVEAH VS MSCHIF/DEL REY The heels enter first to a cheap … Read more
In her post-match interview last night, new Divas Champion Mickie James called out Michelle McCool for the comments she made on Friday Night SmackDown, saying she was better than Moolah and Trish Stratus, to name a couple. It seems as though a Mickie vs Michelle match could be on the cards: While this could be … Read more
This week’s Ask the Divas, sees the debut of Katie Lea, Natalya and Michelle McCool while regulars, Maria, Eve & the Bella Twins also return. The Divas discuss stealing other people’s boyfriends — notice Maria’s gurning, sounds like someone has first hand experience.
Everyone’s favourite Londoner turned Miami Heat dancer turned WWE Diva, Layla also made an appearance as part of last night’s SmackDown — well the online edition anyway, in “SmackDown After the Bell.” This week’s After the Bell saw Layla confront Ricky Ortiz for interrupting her last week and shows off some of her comedy chops: … Read more
We’re kickin’ it old school this week! For one week only, Melanie’s back, kids! Erin is off on her holidays this week but will return to the SmackDown Redux next week. Let’s hope I haven’t lost my touch…
This week’s SmackDown saw the final push into Night of Champions this Sunday, as Melina vs Michelle McCool was the final match announced for the card. For storyline purposes we have Melina ‘invoking’ her rematch clause for the Women’s Championship. Check out their segment below:
‘Monotone McCool’ is back this week — that’s what happens when you get rid of an amazing could-be mouthpiece. Yes, the scripting was kind of standard but I enjoyed the jibes: calling the make-up artist ‘historic’, forgetting Trish’s name. It could have come across well, but Monotone McCool strikes again. There’s no inflection in Michelle’s speech, there’s no emphasis on the words, I wouldn’t be surprised if Michelle flunked Drama in high school. It probably makes matters worse that I watched this segment after watching a promo by the Beautiful People on last night’s Impact. I watched this and in my head, I pictured how Velvet Sky would say it and how she’d hit the mark and have the right tone. Promos aren’t Michelle’s strongest suit granted, but the execution came off extremely flat & the truth is, this was one of the better scripted promos she’s received from the writers.
Melina on the other hand has always had great promo skills and we saw that here, I would say that Melina is the closest to Trish Stratus who was a master of the delivering humorous promos and interviews [click here for an example]. Melina’s promo called for humour, “Congratulate you… on being the biggest phony in WWE history,” and she pulled it off well. As a heel, Melina’s promos were awesome but as a face, it needs to be toned down so it doesn’t come off as bitchy and I think she found the right balance here. Melina’s the complete opposite of Michelle, she had the perfect inflection in her voice: “You know what that means.” My only advice to her would be to dial it up a little more on the humour a la Trish, using her hands and her face to match to kind of sell that comedy.
So on Raw we had the hairspray and on SmackDown we have the foundation, anyone sensing a pattern? The little punch line “I also tone hair,” was cute. Michelle walking away didn’t really work for me, isn’t she supposed to be aggressive and no-nonsense? Wouldn’t she turn right around and left-hook Melina? It was okay but I thought it was unrealistic for Michelle to walk away.
Anyway that sets up their match for Night of Champions, a match that hasn’t really been pushed until now which sucks. There was a lot they could have explored between The Bash and this PPV. But Melina has been set up as a strong contender and a ‘thorn in Michelle’s side’.
Thoughts on Eve vs Natalya after the cut:
This week on Impact, the entire active Knockout roster competed in a battle royal for the prize of $50,000 and a chance to be part of the Main Event Mafia. Why the need of a referee for a battle royal, I’m not sure, but a recurrent Traci Brooks fills that quota.
At the first sound of the bell, the most glaring thing is that there is so much going on. I even had flashbacks of the Miss WrestleMania match with the absurdity and lack of entrances. Daffney gets eliminated first, and Awesome Kong tosses Madison Rayne out onto Daffney. In a bit of an overeaction, referee Slick Johnson cradles Madison and calls for help, shadows of their “interaction” last week.
The Beautiful People, Angelina Love and Velvet Sky throw ODB over the top rope, but Cody Deaner breaks her fall. Shady Slick Johnson takes heed of this and sends him to the back. Sojourner Bolt is eliminated by Taylor Wilde, next. Velvet Sky makes an unsuccessful attempt at Victoria, who eliminates her with a kick to the face. Kevin Nash is spotted making his way to commentary as TNA cuts to commercial.
Read more and watch match after the cut:
You can never have too much of your favourite Divas and especially when one of them happens to be the legendary Trish Stratus! Trish was a guest on The Surf in Canada last week, swapping stories, answering questions and teaching host Jason Agnew yoga and let’s just say, it gets a tad creepy! The episode is now available online and is a real score for any Trish fan — 40 interrupted minutes of the former 7 time Women’s Champion:
As we all know, Trish was not just a great performer but she had so much personality too and that is fully on show in this really humorous interview. No one can do it like Trish! Sporting a new more conservative look, Trish is seen in a dress jacket with the sleeves rolled up, looking really classy. You can also tell that the rumours from last year are true, it looks as though Trish did have breast reduction surgery. Either way, she’s looking mighty fine — though her age is beginning to show in her face. But that’s not a bad thing.
Among topics discussed that are of interest to you guys, Trish talks about some of the Divas today using her signature moves like the ‘Ma-Trish’ and the finger-pointing entrance. She also talks about her personal favourite storyline and much, much more. It’s just a really fun show!
Check out some bonus footage after the cut:
Despite tacking on yet another gimmick to the Divas match, Raw managed to pull off a decent match which was dubbed a “Legs Match” with Kelly Kelly, Gail Kim, Alicia Fox & Rosa Mendes wrestling in shorts. Following in the footsteps of last week’s SmackDown, the red brand gave the ‘second string players’ a chance to shine a la Layla, Eve and Natalya on Friday. However unlike SmackDown, Raw also managed to push it’s Night of Champions match in addition to the second string quartet.
Earlier in the evening however, we saw an interesting dynamic in the ‘feud’ between Maryse and Mickie James, when Maryse sprayed a can of what we’re to assume is hairspray in Mickie’s eyes. This feud has never really been dialled up in the past two months that it’s been going on, we just seem to have Maryse avoiding Mickie because ‘she’s scared’ — which to me is just WWE’s excuse for lazy booking, they can’t come up with anything original or exciting. However in the final two weeks before their big pay per view match, we finally see the pace picked up as last week, Maryse pinned Mickie in the ‘Swimsuit Spectacular’ and this week she sprays Mickie in the eyes. What this tells us is that the writers are happy to bore us with teases of Maryse being scared of Mickie for two months and then when as we approach the PPV, go for the hard sell. To me, it’s a case of too little too late and while I’m sure they’ll have a great match on PPV, I’m not as excited as I should be. I don’t feel the personal animosity between them like I should do. Doing a hard sell the Monday before the PPV just comes off as desperate and is extremely transparent.
That said, I enjoyed this segment. It’s funny that WWE’s writers are actually in tune with the fans, as we saw in Mickie’s scripting last night — but yet they still go completely the other way from what we want to see. They had Mickie bring up the fact that Maryse beat her in a ‘Summer Swimsuit Spectacular’, sharing the same distaste for that type of match as the viewers and alluding to the fact that Maryse is an inferior worker which we know to be true. They mock it through Mickie here, yet they continue to book it. Things went downhill from there though, with nursery school rhyming — whichever writer came up with ‘Trampions’ deserves a gold star *Eye roll* Out comes The Miz, Maryse’s rumoured real life boyfriend [hence Vince’s pervy booking] berating Mickie. I know he’s playing a character, but I can’t help but sense that Miz truly does believe what he’s saying. I get the feeling that he and Maryse as a couple would be more narcissistic than Speidi. I liked Mickie’s comeback though, about getting his material off the Internet — coz it’s true! Out comes Maryse in a gorgeous pair of sandals and sprays Mickie in the eyes and does what she does best: flips her hair, smirks and waves her arms around. I heart her mannerisms.
Thoughts on the ‘Legs Match’ after the cut:
This year’s installment of Victory Road pitted Angelina Love against the Knockouts Champion, Victoria as well as Sharmell vs. Jenna Morasca.
First up is the Knockout’s title match. With the women’s title match being this early on card, don’t know whether to be grateful or plead for mercy.
As the Beautiful People make their beautiful way to the ring, I’m pleased to see Madison Rayne actually doing something in their entrance, even if it’s just shaking her ass. It’s even refreshing to see Angelina out of beekeeper’s suit, even if her pants look like they have gotten into losing battle with a shredder. Oh, and Velvet Sky prances around in lingerie. What else is new? Anyway, I won’t make any mention of Madison’s lean against the ring ropes as doing her best thinking on her back… because that would be inappropriate.
Victoria enters the Impact Zone with Poison by her side and the title held high above her head. At very sound of the bell, Velvet attempts to taunt and distract Victoria. Unperturbed, Victoria takes Angelina Love down and slams her a couple times. This is too much to handle for Angelina who calls for a time-out. Before the challenger can even catch her breath, Victoria pulls her back into the ring. Victoria then proceeds to support Angelina’s weight on her own back while pulling on her hair before slamming her down onto the canvas. Following up with an irish whip to the corner, Love counters but falls into a tarantula manuever against the ropes.
Victoria breaks the hold and gets involved with the Beautiful People, only providing Angelina with the opporunity to score a baseball slide. Just like that, the fight is taken to outside. There are shadows of their last match when Angelina shoves Victoria into the ring apron. Back into the ring, Angelina performs a running dropkick. She then runs Victoria into corner repeatedly. Tossing Victoria down from the turnbuckle, Angelina even finds time to gloat about it.
However, Victoria fights back and whips Angelina Love into the corner. Angelina follows up with kicks to the side of Victoria’s head and a diving clothesline. She goes for the pin multiple times, but is unsuccessful. With similar offense in mind, each Knockout takes her opponent down with a clothesline. Referee Slick Johnson administers a 10-count. Victoria surprisingly musters enough energy to kip-up and soon lead Angelina into a flapjack. A standing moonsault on behalf of Victoria renders a 2-count.
Velvet Sky takes to the ring apron. When the Beautiful People attempt to set Victoria up, Velvet accidently sprays hairpray in Angelina’s eyes. The referee gets so distracted and preoccupied with Velvet and Madison that he abandons what would otherwise be a 3-count against Angelina.
Victoria hits a spinning sidewalk slam and makes her way to the corner, stepping on Angelina Love in the process. She misses a moonsault from the top rope. Taking advantage of this, Angelina goes for the pin. Referee Slick Johnson does not see Victoria’s foot on the bottom rope and crowns Angelina Love the new Knockout’s champion.
A disgruntled Victoria superkicks the referee and even fits in a widow’s peak on the new champion. Angelina is pulled to safety, leaving only the referee to suffer Poison’s wrath. In a backstage segment, Madison Rayne is seen exiting a shower stall just after referee Slick Johnson. It is apparent that some form “persuastion” was utilized to guarantee Angelina’s win. So, forget my last comment about Madison on her back. She can do it standing up, as well.
Honestly, the outcome of this match took me for a spin. The Beautiful People were right by calling Victoria’s win as a fluke, sadly. I don’t want to jump to conclusions and say that Victoria’s title reign was entirely pointless, seeing as I have no idea what TNA may have in store for this feud. I will say though… that it doesn’t make any damn sense. It is only sensible that if TNA was looking to further pursue this feud, they should have either held off in having Victoria win the title on Impact or should have waited to allow Angelina to win the title back. Even perhaps at the next PPV? Sure, feuds are all about exciting twists and turns of events, but I can’t help but feel a tad misled in that aspect. It’s obvious that TNA tried to pull a fast one on us and TNA succeeded. Perhaps, not to its own benefit. Does anyone truly see the point of having Victoria blow all of her momentum? Somewhere, the WWE higher-ups are laughing.
Watch the match below:
You thought that was bad? Commence with the utter failure after the cut:
# Saturday, Saturday # That can only mean one thing it’s time for the continuation of our favourite new webseries *cough* ‘Ask the Divas’. This week, The Bella Twins, Maria, Lilian Garcia and Tiffany dispense advice: Diva Dirt was shown a short preview clip of next week’s episode, featuring only Maria! Now we can’t repost … Read more
This week, we are treated to a TNA Knockout webmatch between the two accessories of the Sharmell vs. Jenna Morasca contest at Victory Road. Consequently, we also get a sneak peek of things to come toward the PPV. Awesome Kong (looking just fine without Raisha Saeed in her corner) unleashes some pent-up aggression against her … Read more
After the fire returned to the Michelle/Melina feud last week, one would think that the WWE would want to capitalize on this and keep the momentum rolling. But of course, this is the WWE we’re talking about, so it only makes sense for them to leave those two off next show COMPLETELY. I’m not going to get into why this was a dumb move (you all can do that in the comments), so let’s just move past this logic fail and take a look at who did make it onto the show.
Layla, wearing a Miami Heat jersey (she was a dancer for them the year they won the NBA Championship, in case you didn’t hear JR say that every.single.time. she’s wrestled). JR says she’s part of the reason Shaquille O’Neal watches Smackdown. (Actually, I saw him in person at a RAW in Miami back in 2005, so maybe he’s a bigger fan of the red brand.) Layla takes the mic, saluting Miami. She displays some decent mic skills, though nothing to write home about. Though, when you’re going for a cheap pop in your home town, how much skill do you really need? She puts down the mic and cues a seizure-inducing music and lights combo and then starts to dance.
Her dancing is of the “basketball half-time dancer” variety, which makes sense with her background. Still, it’s a little strange with one woman doing it – it’s one of those things that look better synchronized with several other girls. Alone, she looks a little bit like she’s having a fit. This goes on a little bit longer than necessary before Carlito’s music hits (scratch that.. it’s Ricky Ortiz). Ricky mocks Layla dancing a bit and goes on a spiel about motivation and inspiration before going for the cheap heat, dissing the Heat. He attempts to “RALLY UP!” the crowd, while Layla looks unamused. He gives her a towel to spin around, and she plays ball a bit, but then drops it, giving him a disgusted look and exiting stage left. I’m not familiar with Ricky Ortiz’s schtick, but I assume dropping his towel is like dropping a cheerleader’s Spirit Stick? No? Okay, I won’t try to rationalize it.
Layla showed a bit more personality than she usually gets to in the various tag team matches she’s inserted into, but I always find it a bit lame when heels become temporary faces in their home towns, just in the name of getting some cheap pops or putting over a heel. Do it like Chris Jericho does – diss your home town! It makes you an even better heel, I promise!
Meanwhile, on the other side of town,
This week’s installment of TNA Impact was jam-packed with Knockout action, including two promos and the debut of Sarita and Alissa Flash.
First, Impact delivered a promo setting up Sharmell vs. Jenna Morasca. Both Sharmell and Jenna hold nothing back in expressing their ill feelings towards one another. Jenna does not seem intimidated at all by Sharmell, but appears to overcompensate with words what Sharmell has in experience. I’m not exactly sure where Sojourner Bolt and Awesome Kong fit in at Victory Road, seeing as the match is still advertised as Sharmell vs. Jenna. Given the impression that each competitor will have her own lady in her corner respectively, it doesn’t do much to level the playing field. Jenna would easily have the edge with Kong at her side. Though, what’s most amusing is that TNA seems to be really treating this as a serious match. Well if you’ve got to admire anything about TNA, it’s got to be their ability to hype anything. Just as I anticipated, this will be only one of two Knockout matches. So, it’s nothing for fans to pull their hair out or souse their eyes out for just yet. I fear it will be that unimpressionable.
Watch the video below:
Further down the lineup, the Beautiful People make their way to the ring with some choice words in mind.
Watch the promo and the Sarita-Alissa match after the cut:
TNA’s resident goth girl, Daffney recently did a fun interview with The Baltimore Sun‘s Kevin Eck, discussing [among other things] going through thumbtacks at Slammiversary and the subsequent episode of Impact last month. In the interview, Daff says the tacks hurt less than the extensive ink she has gotten on her arms and back. She … Read more
Last night’s Raw was a scary one, as WWE seemingly found a balance between the throwback T&A and actual wrestling. However, the two don’t quite go together and as the title of this post would suggest, I liken it to ‘running with scissors’. It wasn’t a bikini contest nor was it a respectable wrestling match, … Read more
Following in the footsteps of Santino, Cryme Tyme and Miz & Morrison, the Divas have finally been given their own WWE.com exclusive show “Ask the Divas”, which is similar to the columns they’ve previously had in WWE Magazine. In the first webisode, Eve, Maria, the Bella Twins and Kelly offer their advice to the fans: … Read more
As you can see by now, the SmackDown Redux has been gifted to me by the generous Melanie. As she stated earlier, she’ll be handling the Raw side of things from now on. Hopefully you guys will warm to my style of Reduxin’ just as you did with her. Now with that settled, onto the show!
It seems as though the WWE can’t get enough of tag team matches, because it feels like that’s all we’ve been getting for weeks now. Of course, that’s hyperbole, but it’s clear that they’re using “paint-by-numbers” booking as a means to extend this feud between Michelle McCool and Melina. Melina’s got her third partner in a week, teaming with Eve Torres, who one can only assume gave up her seat on the bench for Maria (Don’t cry for Maria, she had more important things to do, like coming out of closets with Dolph Ziggler. I’m not even joking.). Meanwhile, Michelle teams with her new Alicia, Layla. Let’s see what this slight tweak in the ingredients does this week – watch Melina & Eve take on Michelle & Layla below:
Eve and Layla start off the match. Granted, that sentence probably would’ve scared you a few years ago, but their work wasn’t bad at all. Sure, it feels a little deliberate and calculated, but those two Diva Search alums have come far from strutting for Tom Grisham or whoever the hell hosted that thing. Eve remains in control for much of the beginning, until a sick kick to the head by Michelle takes her out. Michelle must have Inspector Gadget legs, because it’s like she reached Eve from the other corner of the ring. Damn.
This week on TNA Impact marked a very momentous evening for the Knockouts.
Victoria is set to first take on Velvet Sky. Backstage we find the Beautiful People making their way to the Impact Zone. Velvet seems very upset at the events that took place last week. Velvet holds nothing back in pronouncing just how fed up she is with Angelina Love‘s selfishness ; she puts Angelina in her place as Madison Rayne timidly looks on.
When the Beautiful People make their way to the ring in their typical manner, something very non-typical occurs. The camera man reaches out to fondle poor Vel-Vel, but Velvet is having none of it. I’m not exactly sure why this little random little incident takes place, but I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone tried to cop a feel. Creepy, but funny.
Next, Victoria confidently approaches ring. Her signature tarantula, ‘Poison’ is in tow to level the playing field. Victoria delivers a very steady set of punches to the chest of Velvet Sky, followed by some lunges into the turnbuckle. An irish whip into corner, but Victoria eats the sole of Velvet’s boot. Velvet then perseveres with a clothesline and resorts to her cat fighting expertise again with a choke to Tara.
Velvet insists on more prissy offense before she goes for a pin. When Victoria is hung up against the ropes, Angelina sees this as an opportunity to get the better of her. However, the referee catches her before she can assault Victoria with the Knockouts belt. Unperturbed, Victoria takes down Velvet with a few clotheslines and scoop slam. Velvet puts up a fight but cannot quite wiggle herself out of an amazingly powerful Widow’s Peak. Victoria picks up the win.
Watch the first match below:
Velvet falls under hostage status once again when the Beautiful People suffer déjà vu at the sight of Victoria’s tarantula. The crowd eggs Victoria on, but before she can proceed, Angelina makes the ultimate decision to come to the defense of her partner this time. So, Victoria gives Angelina a very clever ultimatum: Velvet’s safety in exchange for a chance at the Knockout’s title. Angelina Love gives in. Thus, we have ourselves an impromptu TNA Knockout’s title match.
Click to watch title match & thoughts:
As you all know, this week’s ECW was pre-empted from it’s usual Tuesday night spot and instead will air tonight at 7pm ET on the rebranded Syfy network. However, why wait? The whole episode has leaked online and below we have this week’s Divas action as newcomer Nikki Bella [with sister Brie] takes on the scarcely-seen Katie Lea.
Click in for video & thoughts:
Raw newcomer Gail Kim scored a huge win in her first night back on the brand, when she pinned Maryse in a tag team match, also featuring Alicia Fox and Mickie James.
Click in for video & thoughts: