This week on Raw: Beth Phoenix and Santino scored an upset victory over Jamie Noble and Mickie James in a mixed tag match after which things got heated between Layla‘s current and former squeezes. Plus Kelly Kelly picked up a singles victory over Jillian, in a match that was completely overshadowed by the inane ramblings of four grown men trying to act like they’re from the ghetto – while wearing body glitter.
Thoughts & Reactions
This week’s Raw was a letdown on the Diva front and by the time the second Divas bout rolled around, I found myself heading for the ‘mute’ button my remote control because I was frankly getting a headache. Awards for production, WWE will not be getting. Cutting from the actual action to four men standing around hurling abuse at each other like kids on a playground was pathetic and there was just no way the audience could get into the match going on in the ring between Kelly and Jillian. It’s hard to review a match I feel I’ve only seen half of. That said, from what we did see, I’d say Kelly looked as progressive as ever and the match was fine. It wasn’t spectacular nor was it a total wash out, the work was fine and it was nice to see Kelly pick up some steam after losing to Beth Phoenix last week. Her job to Beth had to be done last week to build momentum for Beth vs Candice at No Mercy, but I’m glad WWE is back on the Kelly bandwagon and pushing her because she’s becoming a solid worker and the more opportunities she gets to go out there and gain that experience, the better she will be. Judging No Mercy to last night’s Raw, I would say Candice and Kelly have some similarities – both are competent in the ring, but have their issues with timing and such. Kelly however, has something that Candice doesn’t: ring presence. Though awkward at times, Kelly really seems comfortable in the ring and even though her ring-work may not be on Mickie James level, that comfortability in the ring adds more credibility to Kelly’s wrestling style and I think fans, critics and WWE officials alike are seeing the improvement in Kelly’s work and seeing it as a positive sign. She’s not perfect, but she’s making good headway. Jillian will always be a jobber, but got a decent amount of offense in this match so it wasn’t totally Kelly-dominated as you might expect.
As for the mixed tag match, there’s not much to say as there wasn’t a lot of Diva action in this one. Then again, I think we’ve seen Mickie vs Beth countless times that we don’t need a repeat, we can just close our eyes and envision these two going at it. Coming off a huge week of victories last week, I expected more development for Beth this week, but it became ‘The Santino Show’. Beth is the one who notched up three victories over the course of seven days and was treated little more than background filler, you wouldn’t be able to tell she just came off a successful Women’s Championship match the night before. Speaking of which, WWE darling, Candice was noticeably absent from Raw last night. I find that a little suspect, because considering they want to promote Candice as their ‘top Diva’, you’d think she’d be guaranteed a spot on the show. Is WWE’s enamour wearing off? Are WWE putting their stock in Kelly Kelly instead? I thought Kelly’s win last night was a building block towards challenging Beth for the title. The Beth-Candice feud virtually wrote itself and could have been a focal point of Raw for at least three months but WWE killed any momentum with their ‘poison pen booking’ and totally wore off any excitement to see this feud continue. It seems No Mercy was a blow off match. Which begs the question: What next for Candice?
I guess Layla isn’t going to be a salacious, ‘sex-pot’ (God I hate that word) in the way Lita and Trish were when they turned on Matt Hardy and Chris Jericho respectively. I would’ve expected Layla to slap the taste out of Jamie Noble’s mouth or get somewhat involved in the brawl between he and Regal, but nope. On one hand, it left something to be desired but on the other, it was a nice change. It kind of suggests that regal/noble status Layla is aiming for in her union with Regal, that she won’t get her hands dirty personally – she’ll get her man to do it for her. It’s a nice twist to what we’ve seen in the past, such as the two examples above. I think Layla definitely could play that ‘spoiled girl’ really well, making Regal do her dirty work and not lifting a finger herself.
Individual Assessments
In this portion we will look at each of the Divas individually and the role they played, adding more thoughts yadda yadda:
Beth Phoenix: Like I said, Beth seemed to lose steam this week after a huge week last week.
Jillian: Eh.
Kelly Kelly: A neat little win for Kelly (from what we saw of it).
Layla: Didn’t do much, but who says she needs to when you look like that?
Mickie James: I liked that Mickie held Noble back, showed some toughness on her part.
Fashion Focus
The Good: Layla, as always looked mighty fine. And same as last week: I think Kelly pulled off her look even though it’s not my taste.
The Bad: None.
The In-Between: Everyone else.
Digital Photos (Courtesy of WWE.com)
JAMIE NOBLE & MICKIE VS. SANTINO & BETH
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25 Comments
A lot of people thought Kelly was Ashley when she first came out.
The commentary was funny, and they found a way to get K-2 out there to get a win. I can see a six man tag next week with Cryme Tyme and K-2 against MnM and Jillian. K-2 made somewhat of a lateral move to me this week. She still doesn’t get much time in her matches, and I’d put Candice above her just for having some technical merit instead of relying on weak strikes and a few fancy moves.
Didn’t see the Beth / Mickie match, but from the sounds of it, I could’ve turned around once and missed their part in the match. I’ll catch it on youtube later.
Kelly is a solid worker? Her finish was uber botched. But meh whatever… Opinions i guess.
Mickie and Beth was fine for what it was. Layla looked great and i feel that maybe next week we’ll see Layla’s FIRST match on Raw.
btw: If you call that a “Kelly Push” than oh my… What a terrible beginning for a push.
Oh my, did you guys not see Kelly’s botch last night? Solid worker my ass!
i agree that yesterday was a big letdown and I dont think theyre gonna do anything interesting involving the title until Melina comes back. It seems the WWE was expecting for all the fans to embrace Candice’s return and push the title on her, but when she was revealed and it was revealed how much ring rust was on her, the fans sort of died on her. Melina’s return is much more anticipated because shes go the chops and the ultimate ring presence to back it up.
The highlight of the tag match was really how HOT Layla looked standing at ringside. Again, Im glad for some conituation and I expect a Noble/Regal match and a Mickie/Layla catfight.
The Jillian/Kelly match was hard to get into because I couldn’t help but listen to the commentary, or at least try. It was funny but annoying. Kelly was good but the ending was slow and botched. I don’t think the two of the practiced it before hand and Kelly isn’t tall enough nor had enough strength at the end to do the jump effectively. I did hear the ‘We Want Puppies’ chant in this match. To me it’s not a good thing because for a long itme we werent hearing it, and now for the past few weeks we are.
Now I’m actually hoping for Smackdown to step up this week and steal the spotlight.
The mixed-tag match was okay, but as you said, the Divas weren’t very much involved in this one.
The match between Kelly Kelly and Jillian was also okay. There was a botched move or two, but nothing too major.
The Cryme Tyme/Miz Morrison thing was very entertaining to me. I really liked it! :)
As usual, people read what they want to read. *Rolls eyes* Sorry guys, I don’t want to be a bitch but if you’re not actually gonna bother to read what I wrote properly and then try to twist my words, don’t bother commenting. As a journalist-in-training, it’s something I’m programmed to take seriously.
Well, I guess it’s one extreme or the other. If we’re not ~*bashing*~ someone (GASP!), we’re over-praising them, even if we weren’t exactly showering them with praises in the first place.
Along with Kelly and Layla, I thought Mickie looked really great last night too…
I was worried that overly-flashy springboard arm drag would become a regular move with Kelly… but there match was good. Poor girls didn’t get the crowd reaction they deserved.
Also, anyone notice Kelly has a new variation on her theme? They reversed the two bass beats.
I wonder how kelly will do in her first push on raw. Jillian deserves to be the womens champ. the mix tag match was ok, layla looked hot.
I’m guessing WWE has slowed down Beth vs. Candice since it’s time to push the SD divas towards title match, it always happens. Once that’s done, then I see it continuing.
Kelly vs. Jillian sucked with that horrible commentary. But at east picked Jillian and Kelly to go through that and no one else. It’s obvious the divas match was a filler to push Miz and Morrision vs. Cryme Tyme. Kelly wasn’t that good in this match. She looked worn out. I expected more since she’s supposed to be better. lol
Bryan, I highly doubt this is the start of a push for Kelly. She just won a filler match. If that’s the start of a push, then it’s obvious WWE doesn’t care. If she does get pushed, it will probably one be for 3 weeks until after Cyber Sunday. -
So you guys are saying that because she made one botch in the match it means she isn’t a solid worker? If that’s the case then there isn’t a solid worker on the entire roster. Everyone makes mistakes when they’re in the ring. Kelly might make them more often then others but you have to consider how she got into this business and how she was “trained”. I’d say one little botch isn’t bad for someone in her position.
^^
Agreed
It was a silly botch, it hardly killed the match! Kelly has improved vastly and has won herself alot of fans.
If WWE arent holding the title back for Melina then they should give it to Kelly.
Layla is gorgeous!
Beth/Mickie i just cant bear them in the ring together, even though they have good matches.
LMAO @ Lillian!
I felt bad for her…
Who would’ve thought that Lillian Garcia and The Great Khali would make out on national TV?
The mixed tag match: Mickie looked good! I thought the match was okay, but I seriously thought that Regal or Layla was going to interfere in the match. Hopefully, the match that we’ve been hoping to see is going to happen. That fight afterwards? Crazy! I was hoping that Layla and Mickie would get into it, so much for that.
Jillian vs Kelly Kelly: I liked that each girl got to get in a certain amount of offense, but at the same time, it was so freakin hard to concentrate when MnM and Cryme Tyme were “ridin” on each other on commentary. I gotta admit, it was funny. Yeah, there were a few mishaps, but I enjoyed the match. BTW, I liked K-2′s remix entrance!
Cryme Tyme nd K-2 vs MnM nd Jillian next week!!{I hope}
Can’t wait to see what’s going to happen on Smackdown!
Erin and Melanie, you guys are the absolute best!
Mannie: Yeah you’re right but you can’t compare the experience and training of the rest of the roster. Mickie botches every once in a while but Kelly botches in every single match.
If her training and stuff aren’t THAT good, why do people praise her so much? If she’s not that solid as a wrestler, why do people still say she’s better than Candice?
I’ll never say Kelly kelly is a good wrestler when that’s a insult to TRUE good wrestlers! Look at Allison Danger or Sara Del Rey. Will Kelly be that good since she gets so many complements from the people in the Net? NO! She’s average, that’s all. The new Stacy or Torrie Wilson.
I quite enjoyed the Kelly/Jillian match… well what I saw of it. I was literally screaming at my computer screen as it kept showing shots of Cryme Tyme and Miz and Morrison.
I wish the tag match had been an intergender match. I always like it when the girls fight the boys. I quite liked the way Mickie pulled Jamie back like she had real concern for him. I was like aww ^_^.
I really want to see Layla in in-ring action, because it seems like forever since she’s been in a match!
i really liked kelly’s work she is improving alot…just a botched end but the match was fine…n sure i couldnt focus because of the commentary :)
I love cryme tyme & miz & morrison but i didn’t like the fact that they were arguing back & forth throughout the match.it was hard for me to kinda get into cause i was too busy listening to them (and looking at jtg lol god i love him)
Raw didn’t impress me this week. :/
I’m really hoping next week we’ll see Jamie/Mickie vs Noble/Layla. It’s about time that Layla actually gets in the ring. The storyline will get very boring if she just sits at ringside every week.
There was no focus on the Kelly vs Jillian match. It was more to push the rivalry between Miz n’ Morrison and Cryme Tyme. The commentary was pretty funny, in my opinion, though. Kelly looked like Ashley when she came out. I think she should stay away from the bandanas. Also, will Jillian ever win a match? I feel really sorry for her. She needs a storyline, or fued or something, because it’s getting pretty repetitive.
Oh sorry, I meant Regal/Layla. Sorry. :X
Katy, I strongly disagree. Kelly can’t be compared to Torrie, because Torrie is way more technically sound and has some mat-based wrestling skills that most of the divas lack. Kelly is average though…I’d have to say she’s better than Candice at this point, but they should of had Candice on Raw last night…
From the pictures posted above, something tells me Mickie is a bitch in real life lol…look at that mug
raw was so boring to me
kelly vs. jillian was ok
it was kinda annoying cuz of those idiots at ringside lol
a lot of people dont say this but Jillian is a really good Wrestleing Diva she is one of the best ;]
i cant wait to see Layla in the ring
i think Cyber Sunday will belong to the Sd Divas maybe thats why no real fued was set
i think they switch the PPV which is gay i wish we could have 2 Diva matches at a PPv
waaa waaa waaa kelly bothced big deal!!!! Micki bothes all of the time and I never us see the readers on here say anything about that..
agree with brent…maybe torrie didnt do much flashy moves as mel calls it but she(torrie) knew how tomake a real match but wwe didnt give her the chance to show tht…watch her houseshow matches n u will know wht i mean
but kelly after few years will be something she is still young
^^^
i agree with yuu i saw some of torries house matches and boy did she know how to give a good(if not average/great) match!!!!!
i still misss herrr…
onto raw
the kelly/ jillian match just boreed meee….the dudes outside needed to stfu!!!!
the mickey/beth(35620347514 times) was eehhh okayyy
this RAW suckedd!!!
last week was betterr!