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Unwrapped: Eye Candy for the Week of March 1st, 2010

Welcome to this week’s edition of Unwrapped! As always, we will be grading all of the new photoshoots (or “eye candy”, as we like to call them) from the week gone by, judging them like so:

Sweet (Great)Bland (Iffy)Sour (Awful)

You, the reader, will also get the chance to grade the “eye candy” yourself by giving your opinion on each shoot and voting for your favorite out of the whole bunch. Now, dive in!

Beth Phoenix‘s Saucy Secretary
Grade: Sour. Has Beth Phoenix traded in the life of a WWE Diva to be someone’s secretary? Sure looks like it. And if her super short skirt is anything to go by, she may be an Ali Larter in ‘Obsessed’ type secretary — though I’m sure she’d have no problem taking care of Beyonce. Honestly though, I don’t know why Beth so often opts to dress like she’s heading off for a day at the office and it’s not a flattering look on her. It ages her, makes her a little bit frumpy and isn’t the wardrobe of a Glamazon. The poses are the standard hands-on-hips shots that offer little diversity also.
Click to see the rest of the photoshoot.

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Kelly Kelly‘s Just Dance
Grade: Sweet. Despite looking far too tanned for my liking, Kelly is dressed in cute, sexy, young club wear and looks like she’s ready to go dance the night away. Kelly fits her skinny jeans effortlessly and the the sequined top works on her too. Meanwhile, I really like Kelly with her hair up like this, it gives her more of a fashionable look than her usual hair-down look. The poses aren’t offering too much variety but I think Kelly manages to salvage it with her pearly whites. I particularly love the image we’ve used in the graphic — it looks a little more artsy than the standard Diva catalogue poses.
Click to see the rest of the photoshoot.

[polldaddy poll=2807978]

Read more to see the rest of this week’s photoshoots.

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In Video: WWE Releases Video Packages on Maryse & Mickie James

Following yesterday’s awesome ‘History of the Divas’ clip, WWE has released today two individual video packages: one dedicated to Divas Champ, Maryse and the other to mainstay Mickie James.

WWE has really been doing a great job with all the Diva love on their website in the past couple of days. If only they could put that same attention into their shows.

Watch the packages below:

Mickie after the cut:

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Mickie James on Music: Starting Over as a Singer, Interesting Comment Relating to Maria’s Release

Former WWE Women’s Champion, Mickie James, speaking about her upcoming CD release ‘Strangers & Angels’, comments on why she ‘started over’ as a country music singer even though she already has a successful career in wrestling: “I don’t know. Why not? I’m always up for a challenge and I like to challenge myself. When I … Read more

SmackDown Redux (February 26th, 2010): A Modern Day Diva Screwjob

Earlier this week, WWE announced that the victim of the ‘original screwjob’, Wendi Richter would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in April. Coincidence, then, that in the same week another Diva is the victim of a modern day screwjob. That Diva is Mickie James, a who woman who seemingly had the odds stacked against her this week on SmackDown. See the drama unfold below:

The odds didn’t look good last week, when Vickie Guerrero announced that Mickie would defend her Women’s Championship against Michelle McCool this week with Guerrero serving as guest referee. Factor in Layla at ringside and you had to wonder could Mickie unleash her inner ‘Super Cena’ to overcome the odds? Many, including I, expected Mickie to somehow retain the title. So imagine my shock and awe when I read that McCool had taken the title from James just three weeks after losing it at the Royal Rumble. Vickie Guerrero, who has proven to be quite the thorn in many a Superstar’s life [just ask Edge], can now add Mickie to the list of stars she’s screwed over.

We begin with Guerrero being introduced as the guest referee to a chorus of deafening boos. She’s followed by the challenger, McCool and run-in buddy Layla, sporting new red hoodies. The champion, James is last to enter the arena. Vickie holds up the Women’s Championship before the bout begins in a rather official manner. Nice touch.

As the bell rings, Michelle and Mickie look up before Michelle applies a side headlock to the champion. Mickie throws Michelle against the ropes but she comes back with a shoulder block and knocks the smaller statured James to the canvas. Michelle goes against the ropes again but is met by a dropkick from Mickie followed by a low dropkick. Mickie then paces towards McCool but is met with a kick to gut. McCool throws Mickie into the corner, Mickie this time is the one to hit Michelle with a kick to the gut. Mickie then hits a neckbreaker on Michelle and goes for a pin cover. Convienently, Layla jumps up on the apron and referee Vickie is forced to deal with the intrusion while Mickie in the ring, could have pinned Michelle to retain.

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SmackDown Redux (February 20th, 2010): A Bit of This, A Bit of That

After concentrating on a single storyline for the past few months, this week’s SmackDown felt more in line with the mixed bag that we once saw on SmackDown pre-Diva Trade. There was a little bit of this mixed with a little bit of that and it just felt like WWE were trying to accomplish all too much with the Divas without any real substance to it ala a time when we had Michelle/Melina, Maria/Ziggler and Maria/Melina. It may seem cool to indulge in all of the Divas but after growing accustomed to a single storyline developing over weeks with plenty of effort, it feels like a step back to me.

First of all this week, we have new Women’s Champion Mickie James backstage with Vickie Guerrero apologising for last week’s incident:

Mickie comes into the office to apologise to GM consultant, Guerrero over the splatting incident last week but Vickie isn’t so accepting. She tells Mickie that she’ll face Michelle McCool next week, defending her Women’s Championship and the catch is that Vickie will be special guest referee. As I’ve been mentioning in the past couple of weeks, I really love the use of Vickie in the Divas storylines because she’s a woman herself and is in power, so it’d make sense for her to have a vested interest. It’s also interesting to have a storyline where the heel GM kind of exerts her authority over one of the talents and kind of makes their life hell — if done right, this could be a fun Diva version of Stone Cold vs Vince McMahon. My only fear would be that Vickie overshadows a ‘real’ Divas storyline. I could totally see them going for a gimmick match of Mickie vs Vickie at WrestleMania. While a step up from Santina last year, it would once again cheat us out of our desire to have a competitive, great Divas match on that big event and this year it seemed we were so close with the Mickie/Beth/Michelle storyline.

Speaking of which, once again Beth is noticeably absent from SmackDown despite being part of a big angle at the Royal Rumble and then being part of a big moment in the storyline the week after. I don’t know if there’s a bigger backstage thing going on here but I don’t know what else could explain them dropping the ball like this. There really is no excuse to just stop what was great development for Beth. Such a waste.

Next up, we have six person tag team action:

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Mickie James Day: ‘Are You With Me?’ Discussion Post

Today’s the big day for WWE Women’s Champion, Mickie James as her debut single, ‘Are You With Me?’ premieres! If you hear it on radio or online, please do come here and leave your comments on the song throughout the day. It looks like the song may be available on Mickie’s new official website MickieJames.com … Read more

Mickie James Blogs on Her Debut Album & Single

With just a day to go until her music is unleashed on the world, Women’s Champion Mickie James has spoken at length about her new album, Strangers & Angels, in particular commenting on her debut single ‘Are You With Me?’ which will be added to country radio tomorrow: We are less than 18 hours away … Read more

SmackDown Redux (February 12th, 2010): Going Around in Circles

After humiliating Michelle McCool and Layla at the Royal Rumble and snaring the coveted Women’s Championship on the same night, you’d think the jibes and taunts at Mickie James‘ expense would be over by now. Wrong. It’s evident that SmackDown has hit a creative roadblock as we seem to be going around in circles with little to no new storyline progressio — same old story. Watch this week’s action below:

McCool and Layla once again tease Mickie over her weight at the crafts table where a bowl of fruit is laid next to a bowl of cottage cheese. [Seriously, what crafts table has a bowl of cottage cheese anyway?] Mickie says that ‘this between us’ is over but Lay-Cool have other plans. Mickie smacks the bowl of cottage cheese out of Michelle’s hand and one obviously inserted sound effect later, we’re led to be believe that it was dumped all over a bystanding Vickie Guerrero.

In the ring then, we’re ready for Mickie vs Layla with James getting in a few forearms and a low dropkick before the match is stopped by Guerrero. Looks like Mickie is set to catch hell from Vickie. Guerrero makes the match a handicap match and as if by magic, Michelle is already taking off her hoodie, belt and shoes. As McCool gets in the ring, she’s attacked by Mickie who then fights back with a kick to the stomach as Layla gets her licks in. Mickie is thrown against the ropes but comes back with a kick to Michelle and slams her face first to the canvas. She then follows through with a Thesz Press on Layla. Michelle comes at her, Mickie sweeps her off her feet and goes for a bridged pin but Layla hits her with a low dropkick, breaking up the pin.

Mickie tries to fight back against Lay-Cool but is overpowered by McCool who hits her with a spinning backbreaker. Mickie is thrown into a corner and McCool hits a high knee. Layla then has her turn but is thrown over the top ropes by Mickie who then hits her with a forearm. She hits McCool with an elbow and goes for her patented headscissors from the corner but Layla grabs her hair. Mickie is forced to let go of the hold on Michelle and then kicks Layla off the apron.

Michelle comes charging at her with a huge [barefoot] big boot and a Faith Breaker for the win.

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The “Piggie James” Impact

If you’re a fan of women’s wrestling and more specifically, the WWE Divas, then you are familiar with the “Piggie James” storyline that has graced our television screens in recent weeks. The angle has ignited a lot of discussion and controversy due to the sensitive issue it has been dealing with; a woman’s weight and image. The WWE constantly promotes their women as smart, sexy, and powerful and with those labels come certain expectations. I’m almost positive the girls employed by World Wrestling Entertainment are expected to maintain their appearance at the highest level they possibly can. I’m purely speculating here, but seeing as how the majority of their roster is filled with models, the girls get hired for their looks alone. If want to sit here and nitpick, the male portion of the roster has its fair share of lookers to but that’s not what’s important today. In the entertainment world, looks are everything, and as sad as it is, Mickie James could be considered big for a diva by some people.

Personally, I find it absolutely ridiculous to call Mickie James fat, but the writers over at the ‘E saw a chance for a storyline and they decided to role with it. Week after week we got a chance to see then Women’s Champion, Michelle McCool, and her BFF, Layla, humiliate and taunt Mickie for being “overweight”. Team Laycool (and sometimes Beth Phoenix) made Mickie’s life a living hell until the Royal Rumble when Mickie finally got some much needed and oh so sweet revenge. Laycool got served a nasty little dish of their own medicine and Michelle suffered the ultimate embarrassment of losing her precious title in less than a minute. I thought the end justified the storyline, and overall I thought the angle was brilliant. Lets face it, the WWE just doesn’t care about their divas like they used too. The Diva division has suffered in the post-Trish era. I don’t know if it’s because the WWE just doesn’t care these days, or if it’s because they don’t have the confidence in any of their women like they had Trish. Either way, women haven’t had legit storylines in a long time and their three minute matches have been sloppily put together and terrible to say the least.

Since the draft last April, Smackdown has more than proven itself as the place to be if you’re a diva. The girls on the blue brand are given a little more time and for the most part, better writing. As a diva fan, I didn’t find Piggie James appalling whatsoever. I found it funny, dramatic, annoying, and I enjoyed it. As a woman, I sympathized with Mickie and wanted to punch Michelle McCool and her perfect little self in the face. Us diva fans were FINALLY given a storyline we could get emotionally attached too. We were made to root for Mickie and we were made to hate on LayCool for their terrible actions. All women were given mic time. They were given segments. The storyline had extreme build and that’s something we haven’t seen since the days of Trish and Lita. Our girls were finally given time to shine. I had no idea Michelle was capable of comedy. I had no clue I could ever be made to want Mickie James win a match. I was so excited to see what Beth Phoenix would do and which side she would pick. I even marked out for Maria when she got herself involved and cut the best promo she’s ever done. This simple, childish storyline brought something out of each and every woman involved and it was refreshing to see. Despite the touchy issue it was built on, I think everything worked out well in the end. Us Diva fans were finally given a reason to get excited and emotional.

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SmackDown Redux (February 5th, 2010) – New Champion, Same Drama

With a new Women’s Champion crowned at the Royal Rumble in Mickie James, it seemed like a new era for the SmackDown Divas division. Not quite. Despite a new champion, we still have the same three-way problem though slightly altered: Beth Phoenix wants the title, Michelle McCool wants the title and Mickie James wants to keep the title. A three-way match between these two had been teased in the early weeks of January but somewhere along the way, the focus shifted back to Mickie and Michelle leading to the Rumble. But now it looks like we’re once again on course for a triple threat scenario. New champion Mickie found out on SmackDown this week that being champ ain’t easy:

Mickie has been Women’s Champion five times now but how many times has she gotten to give a post-win promo? Not many. Already, her fifth run is off to a great start as Mickie gets to do the whole “We did it!” pow-wow that we see from the men. As can be expected from such a paint-by-numbers speech, just as she talks about anyone challenging her to go ahead — she’s interrupted. The Glamazon, Beth Phoenix, fresh from using her feminine wiles~ to eliminate Khali in the Rumble match, is out to boast about doing so. Really, Beth? You’re going to brag how you acted slutty like it’s a good thing? I kid. Kinda. Tangent: I didn’t really comment on the whole Beth-Rumble thing so I’ll do it here. I think it’s great that she was in the Rumble and got a big moment but of course it had to be played out with the most cliched tactic in the world. Somewhere a woman is burning her bra in anger.

Anyhoo, Glamazon says she can take Mickie’s title whenever she wants and as things are about to pop off, out comes Vickie Guerrero. Hey Striker, where are the fat jokes for Vickie? Anyway, Vickie says it’ll be the two of them versus the ‘true number one contender’ Michelle McCool and Layla.

Out come Lay-Cool in cute matching hoodies and for a second there I thought they were gonna emulate the Beautiful People entrance but thankfully, they didn’t bend over and touch their toes. Michelle McCool surprisingly graces the SmackDown ring with her presence this week, her first full-length match on the show it seems in quite some time. And if the prospect of Beth vs Michelle isn’t tantilising, I don’t know what is. Beth shoves Michelle to the mat with great force before picking her up effortlessly and tossing her to the canvas. Beth throws Michelle into the corner and hits her with a butt bump and shoulder blocks. Michelle counters with a low dropkick to Beth’s knee, taking her off her feet and giving McCool some momentum.

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Mickie James’ Album Title Revealed

The title for Mickie James‘ debut country album has been revealed. The CD will be called ‘Strangers & Angels’ and is due on March 23rd. Mickie’s first single, ‘Are You With Me?’ will be released to radio on February 16th.

Royal Rumble in Review: Sweet Revenge & A Rumble Match Treat

Week after week, we have witnessed Michelle McCool and Layla crack about 10,000 jokes, all with the same punchline: Mickie is fat. As lamented as this “Piggie James” storyline has been here at Diva Dirt, with its fat jokes and barnyard humor, it has been given one of the biggest buildups in recent Diva memory, and it was reasonable to think that they would cap off this pretty silly storyline with a decent enough match, at least to make the juvenile booking somewhat worth it. After all, their match at TLC was pretty damn good. Let’s see if Mickie and Michelle were able to transcend the “Mean Girls” cliches and mature a bit:

Michelle comes out to the ring, microphone in hand, and explains to the crowd that Mickie was a no-show tonight. “Where oh where has my piggie gone?”, she laments. She figures Mickie is forfeiting. Layla shows up in her fat suit, doing the same Mickie impression she did last Friday. She doesn’t get very far, though, before the real Mickie emerges and attacks her. She tosses FatSuitLayla into the barricade, as Michelle looks horrified. Did she really think Mickie was a no-show? Would that be why they left her off SmackDown last week–to fool Michelle into thinking Mickie went into hiding? That’s the only reason I can think of why Layla would come prancing down to the ring in a fat suit not once, but twice, and not even watch her back.

Mickie gets into the ring, and the match starts. FatSuitLayla isn’t quite done sticking her plastic pig nose into Mickie’s business, though, and climbs up the apron to distract her. It works for a split second, and Michelle charges with her boot but Mickie dodges, replaying a similar collision from TLC: Michelle accidentally delivers a big boot to Layla and lays out her backup. Michelle turns around right into a kick from Mickie, who plants her with the Mickie T. One 3-count later, and we have a new Women’s Champion!

FatSuitLayla comes into to check on her fallen friend, and Mickie hits her with a kick that lands her smack dab on top of Michelle. Meanwhile, several babyface Divas (Maria, Gail, Kelly, Eve, and the Bellas) come to the ring with a rather large cake in tow. Similar to what Laycool and Beth did to Mickie a week before, the Divas prop up Michelle and Layla as Mickie plants the giant cake in both their faces, the other Divas smearing it in. Michelle and Layla do a good job of acting horrified and look pretty damn hilarious blinded by yellow cake and icing while pitching a fit. Mickie celebrates with her newly-won title and smears some more icing in their faces, tasting it for good measure. All the good girls make their exit as the bad girls wallow in their “just desserts” (it’s okay, you can boo.. it was a pretty awful joke).

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SmackDown Redux (January 29th, 2010) – The Joke’s Over, Folks

For the past few months, the storyline on SmackDown has centered around Mickie James‘ weight with the Diva being taunted and called ‘Piggie James’. WWE even went as far as to create a graphic like the old Looney Tunes cartoons saying, “That’s all, folks” — a line reused by Michelle McCool on this week’s SmackDown. What became evident on this week’s SmackDown is that the joke is wearing thin and to WWE, I say: “The joke’s over, folks.”

Women’s Champion Michelle McCool discusses the huge favour she did for the fans by running Mickie James off SmackDown last week — complete with replays! Michelle then challenges any of the girls to face her right then and there for the Women’s Championship in lieu of her Royal Rumble match with Mickie. James’ music hits but instead of Mickie, out comes Layla in a fat suit wearing a similar outfit to Mickie’s signature ring attire — complete with hat! Cue a ‘hell to the no’ look on the face of the viewer but the anger soon subsides as Layla begins jiggling around on stage and as offensive as I found it, I couldn’t help but giggle at Layla’s delivery which had some humour in it.

Layla as ‘Piggie James’ makes her way down the ramp before getting on the microphone claiming she didn’t get enough food last week. It was mean but funny. Layla then gets into the ring challenging Michelle for the belt, Layla runs at Michelle in the corner who moves out of the way and trips Layla before pinning her for the win.

The underlying Mickie bullying continues and after last week’s humiliation it was hard to top that this week. I think WWE did such an amazing job last week in making Mickie relatable to the audience and then not to even have her on the show this week was ridiculous. They had an opportunity to capitalise on the way they used her last week and blew it. A quick backstage promo saying she would be at the Rumble and she would prove herself there would have done the trick, I mean how hard could a quick segment like that be? Instead what we got was more childish humour that makes you not care about the angle. Instead of making it seem like a true storyline, as it came across last week, with us wanting to root for Mickie — what WWE has done has made fans roll their eyes and want the childish drama to be over. There’s only so many shenanigans that you can pull off before they start to wear thin and this one did wear thin on the audience.

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Can SmackDown Give the Women’s Division Its Respect Back?

In the past few years many people have [wrongly] assumed that the lackluster women’s division in WWE is due to the Divas themselves. With no Trish Stratus or Lita leading the pack, the division has admittedly waned but I would argue, it’s not because of the women in it. It’s because of the writing. In a post-Trish era, it all went downhill. Not to toot her horn too much, but it’s true — Trish was seemingly the only Diva that WWE had full confidence in carrying a real storyline, developing it for several months, engaging the viewer and delivering that great blow-off match that we all anticipate. When she left, the effort stopped.

It’s not that any one of the girls can’t do the same, they just haven’t been given the opportunity to. Storylines that once spanned months now span weeks, matches on Raw — once home of the coveted Women’s Championship — are now usually half as long and half as exciting. The audience itself, paying customers, have stopped lapping up the Divas action and instead feel something apathy and indifference. You may have your own arguments as to why Diva A or Diva B aren’t over but my argument is this: the audience, you know the ones that pay for the honour, don’t care because WWE has given them little reason to care over the years. Any one of those girls could be over if WWE gave them the attention to detail in character that they gave Trish, the same effort in storylining that they gave Trish and had a little confidence in the girls to do their own thing, like they did Trish.

While many have switched over to TNA or perhaps SHIMMER, it’s been a long road but hope isn’t lost. WWE does know how to do women’s wrestling because they’ve done it before and it seems, they may be looking to do it again. Last week’s segment on Friday Night SmackDown was easily the best thing the Divas have done in quite some time — the closest thing to the original ‘golden era’ of Divas that is so treasured.

This segment to me is the biggest milestone for the Divas division in years. It showed that the “smart, powerful and sexy” tagline isn’t just a load of BS. It showed a confidence in the Divas that has been less than visible of the years. And it showed that the girls can tell great stories too.

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SmackDown Redux (January 22nd, 2010): Seminal Moment for SmackDown

It’s official: this is where women’s wrestling is at. SmackDown, in my humble estimation, is now the premiere series to be watching if you are looking for women’s wrestling on your televisual boxes. That was never more evident than tonight’s episode, where despite not even having a match, SmackDown proved that it is the show that everyone should be watching. Compelling storylines, well written characters and great performances — it’s hard not to do double-take. This is WWE, right? Despite the recent years of fluff and disappointment, WWE have delivered perhaps one of their strongest Divas storylines in quite some time and this week’s show is a seminal moment in what I expect will be a turning of the tide. There’s nothing Diva-y about this week’s SmackDown, to spin the old line used by WCW — this is where the big girls play.

Beginning this week’s Divas action, we saw the debut of Serena Mancini in what may go down as one of the most memorable debuts in Diva history.

PART 1

PART 2

Serena appears as a fan jumping the barricade during another scintilating straight edge promo from CM Punk, claiming she needs him. He says she knows he needs him. Honestly, the initial dialogue was as cheesy as a Twilight movie and I was expecting Punk to throw in a “You are my life now” at some point. That said, it did get better and Punk is golden at his whole shtick. We see Serena willing to make the ultimate sacrifice and denounce her life of addiction etc. and has her shaved head in the name of her saviour, Punk.

All in all, I think this was a good segment and Serena played the cult-like psycho very well. It’ll be interesting to see how she’s used from here with her bald head. I hope this works out for her, it’s a great sacrifice to make but she’s in the big leagues now. I hope she didn’t sacrifice this just to be the glorified bald manager for Punk’s Straight Edge Society. The setup of that group doesn’t really suggest to me that it’ll have a typical manager/wrestler dynamic ala Hart Dynasty. I expect we’ll see Serena actually getting nitty-gritty and I look forward to it. Perhaps she herself could target a Diva and try to ‘help’ them?

Next up, Mickie’s ‘going away’ party:

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Royal Rumble Official Match Preview

As reported earlier in the week, Women’s Champion Michelle McCool will defend her title against Mickie James at the Royal Rumble in just over a week’s time. The bout will be the pair’s second consecutive pay per view encounter following last month’s favourably-reviewed TLC match. WWE.com has now posted an official match preview: After coming … Read more

SmackDown Redux (January 15th, 2010) – Michelle’s Going in for the Kill

The Lost-like wheel of fortune stops on Michelle McCool this week, continuing the analogy that each week a different Diva is the main focus of the SmackDown storyline. The Women’s Champion, who recently celebrated 200 days with the gold, threw her hat into the race to prove just who the most dominant Diva is on … Read more