This week, we were promised the return of one Michelle McCool, Women’s Champion and recent victim of a knee injury. The details of her return were kept mum, so in what capacity will we see Michelle, if at all? Let’s watch and see if she turns up:
On the cards is a tag team match, teaming up Melina and her tag team partner (who we can only assume beat Eve in a coin flip) Maria. Going up against them will be Layla, Melina opponent last week, and Natalya, a Diva whom the WWE seemingly can’t decide if they want to wrestle or manage. This week, luckily, she’s on in-ring duty.
But who oh who makes the first entrance? Michelle! She makes her way (Gingerly? I couldn’t tell.) to the announcers’ table and takes a seat next to JR and Todd Grisham. We’ll see if they acknowledge her absence or just ignore the giant blonde hobbling elephant in the room. Melina and Maria then make a tandem entrance, and I wonder if Michelle visits Diva Dirt, because her first words on the duo express my sentiments exactly (“What is Maria wearing?!”). Gotta dig deeper than the obvious with these insults, Michelle.
A few more fashion-based insults pegged at Maria (Seriously, someone check Michelle’s browser history.), and Michelle shows a bit more charisma. Now, she’s not Trish Stratus or anything, but I sense some improvement. She just needs to work of her inflection and not sound dead-bored when speaking on the mic. As Layla and Natalya make their entrance, Michelle expresses some fondness towards who Todd describes as her “message girl”. Michelle refutes that claim, insisting that these past few weeks were just a vacation for her. Okay, so I guess the injury may not be as serious as once thought? You know, since they’re skirting around the issue and all..
But on to more the task at hand.. Maria and Layla start off the match. Layla takes an early advantage, hitting an impressive reversal into and arm drag and a pin attempt. Maria fights back, reversing an irish whip into one of the weakest clotheslines I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe that even knocked Layla over. Maria continues with some stock babyface offense, a clothesline here, a dropkick there.. Maria gets two-count on Layla and goes to tag Melina in, as JR suggests that some of Dolph might have rubbed off on Maria. I know that comment is meant to be a compliment, but after that weak showing, I can’t imagine it as anything other than a major diss to Dolph.
Melina receives the tag, and she and Maria perform some handy double-team work, ending with Melina dropkicking Layla. Layla, like last week, heads for the outside and escapes from the ring. Melina makes her trip a rather short one, tossing her back into the ring in a matter of seconds. This puts her in close range of Michelle, and this is seemingly enough to set Melina off. She shoves Michelle back into her seat, almost as payback for her skipping out on the last few weeks of SmackDown (“Bitch, do you realize that I had to listen Maria babble on for weeks, thanks to your ‘vacation’?”).
Layla comes out nowhere with a sick clothesline, punishing Melina for taking her focus off of the match. A face full of announce table and a toss into the ring later, and Layla attempts to end the match early, but gets only a two-count. Natalya gets tagged in, and pegs Melina with a sick clothesline of her own, turning her into a rag doll of sorts. She follows Melina around the ring a bit, toying with her, before standing on the back of her legs and locking her into a Mexican surfboard submission. After a few moments, she ups the ante and grabs Melina by the neck, craning it back. It’s an amazing-looking hold, but she almost pins herself, and switches the move off her of own back, and now instead of 9:00, Natalya’s head is at 12:00 on our Diva pretzel clock (Coming soon to WWEShop.com!).
Natlaya’s hold looks excruciating, and Melina sells it well, her arm flails slowing, like the blood is being drained from her head. Grisham remarks that Melina’s body must be made entirely of cartilage, and I get a gross Anatomy textbook image in my head. Natalya distract me from this gruesomeness by relinquishing the hold, smashing Melina’s face on that mat. I gotta say, with all this punishment her noggin’s taking, I wouldn’t be surprised if Melina needs a “vacation” of her own pretty soon.
She fights back, frantically trying to tag in Maria, but Natalya will have none of that, knocking her partner off the apron. Melina dodges a blow from Natayla and darts to the corner, coaxing Natalya over and trapping her into the Last Call. She nails it, and the referee counts to three. Glares are exchanged between Michelle and Melina, which we all know means in wrestling language, “You and me ain’t through yet.”
The match took a bit of a backseat to Michelle’s presence at ringside, so we didn’t see much in-ring work from Maria and Layla. From what little we saw, Layla is still improving, and is easing into a decent heel role on SmackDown. I hope she doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. Speaking of getting lost in the shuffle, Natalya seems to drop in and out of the Divas division based on the whims of the creative team, and it’s a shame. As made obvious by this match, Natalya deserves a major spot in the division. Whenever she gets ring time, she impresses me more and more. I really, realllllly hope she gets a proper shot sometime soon. The opposite could be said for Maria, who saw only a few moments in the ring, but managed to shock me with her lack of basic presence. I know we bash her a lot, but you can’t say that she doesn’t deserve *some* negative feedback on her in-ring work. She’s been in the company longer than most of the Divas roster, and yet cannot deliver a convincing clothesline. A CLOTHESLINE, for Christ’s sake. No wonder management seems intent on sticking her in a referee role–she’s got less a chance of embarrassing herself that way. She’s a long lost cause, I’d say.
But as for Michelle and Melina’s feud, I’m sooo happy to see it continuing. It’s still unclear how this will advance, as we can’t tell if Michelle’s 100% just yet. After all, sitting at an announce table and making bitchy remarks isn’t very convincing when it comes to selling her recovery. I guess, like always, we’ll have to wait until next week to see for sure. I just hope we aren’t setting ourselves up for weeks of “intense glares” and non-action. Though, I’d gladly take that over more Maria/Dolph-ness. I swear, the average WWE fan loses an average of 10 brain cells per minute during a Maria backstage segment. Compare that to the average 5 lost during a DX segment, and it’s clear that the WWE has some re-prioritizing to do. Please, WWE, think of the children!!
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33 Comments
I was quite entertained by Michelles quips about Maris….possible shoot there perhaps?
Michelle has a really good bitchy personality! She really impressed me quite more than the match did. lol
Great redux!! I think the match was way to short, but I guess I knew it would be…there’s no words to describe how fast-paced and awesome Melina is, I can’t imagine her getting any better, she’s already so fantastic, I’d say almost perfect!! Michelle’s mic skills got A LOT better and her comments on Maria cracked me up! Layla was impressive and she gets better each time I see her inside the ring!! Natalya is an awesome wrestler, I think she deserved to have a singles match!
Maria is the living definiton of TRAINWRECK, her wrestling is poor, her “sense of style” is a MESS, her acting skills are shit, her make-up and hairstyles scare the crap out of me, her responses on Twitter are childish and Emo-like, I know she’ll hit the bottom one of these days inside that ring, and I CAN’T WAIT FOR IT, anything that could make her out of the wrestling world works for me!! I must say, I would probably consider her less of a wrestler than Jenna Morasca, both should be released quickly, but Maria has been in the industry for YEARS and, *add every single name of newly signed WWE Divas and TNA Knockouts* look a lot better than her, Rosa at her worst is Maria at her best!!
I really enjoyed the match. Wasn’t really impressed with Maria but Layla is really beginning to shine! I’d really love a Melina/Natalya singles match.
I’m glad to see Michelle back :) I don’t think she sounded too bad on the mic :D. I hope she’s healthy enough to wrestle again soon. I miss her in-ring action.
Where’s Eve been? I’m starting to miss her :(.
Ignore the Eve comment… I kinda missed the Word Up thing at the end there. I do kinda miss her in-ring wise though… especially when it comes to tag matches.
I liked Layla’s attire this week. She looked good.
Good much but I think it could’ve been much better had Eve been in it over Maria. Melina, Layla and Natalya all worked really well. Layla really is becoming well rounded and continues to show her improvement week-to-week, she has an intensity and aggressiveness in the ring that just cannot be taught. You either have it or you don’t. Nattie is a powerhouse and her versus Melina is a match that would be up there with the best of them given the crop of Divas right now.
Michelle was much, much better on commentary than she has been in the past or even in promos. Looks like she has been working on it.
Michelle did a very good job on commentary in my opinion, but onto the match, I must say that the match was a typical good Smackdown Divas match-up. Nothing out of the ordinary other than McCool doing commentary rather than wrestling, but that’s really what stook out the most to me minus Natalya being in the match-up.
That match was ok……..but it let me down.This week has been disappointing ALL AROUND.ALL THREE matches let me down.I expected A LOT more.At least I got to see Melina push Michelle,*smiles softly* Layla just keeps getting better and better,outfit-wise and ring-wise.Maria,just go away already,go into your ‘fashion’ career.Who knows,maybe gaudy clothing will be in next season.Natalya deserves to have a singes match with Melina,imagine the possibilities.Melina rocked it,as usual,and how the hell did she not top PWI’s Female Top 50 this year?Hopefully next week will redeem itself.
Lmao at Michelle dissing Maria! Her mic skills have gotten a lot better.
The match itself was decent but I really think Michelle needs to get back into the ring (providing shes ready) so this feud can continue.
I love it when they start wearing attire with a certain trademark continuity a la Beth’s body suits and Maryse’s halter and boy short combo. Im liking Layla’s new style.
Match was basic. Michelle made me lol at the start.
I do feel sorry for Maria though bless her.
Seriouly is Eve being punish for injuring McCool?
McCool is trying to raise her charisma but there need to be more job done!
McCool sounds like Maryse.
Melina pushing Michelle made me ROFL.
Good match, but it needed more time. I’m impressed by how they used it so wisely though; it wasn’t too bad for a three-minute match. One more reason to beg for a Melina vs Nattie match.
LoL, Michelle took the words right out of my mouth with her comments about Maria at the beginning.
Michelle, on the other hand, looked really good. I liked her outfit, as well as Layla’s.
As for the match, I thought it was alright. I love seeing Natalya in action, and Layla’s really improving lately.
great match though it was a little short
Layla is starting to really impress me =]
Natalya seriously needs to become a full time wrestler she is just so good in the ring
Melina was great
im glad Michelle is back she looked great
omfg i laughed so hard when she got pushed my Melina i mean dont get me wrong shes awesome but just the way she sold it lol it was great
so if she can take a bump it looks like shes recovering quite nicely.
Wow the moment Michelle talked about Maria´s attire Diva Dirt was the first thing that came to my mind..seriously can she get some of those writers to write her some material down instead of getting it from you guys because I dont believe for a second that she came up with that on her on..kinda pathetic but at this points it doesnt matter..whatever it takes to improve her character lol.Anyways moving on to the match..Wwe decided to punish us by putting Maria in the match..way to waist tv time,I think she did a lousy job when it came to the wrestling but doesnt she always?Thank god Melina was there to make their team look good..Layla did an amazing job as well showing her improvement and I love her attire just not the color she choose..Melina and Natalya had great chemistry and I would love to see a one on one between the two soon..in addition the confrontation outside the ring serve to say that this Melina/Michelle feud is far from over which is something I´m not hating because I like this feud besides I dont see Smackdown comming up with something better considering that their writers are feeling a little bit more lazy this days.Well that´s my review lol!
oh and Michelle sounds really good on the mic shes really improving =]
Few things stood out 1) the WWE is completely denying that Michelle is injured. Anyone else notice how they didn’t show Michelle walking down to the the announcing table and very quickly cut away to show her walking away from it. they did not want any camera shots at all of her walking. 2) Natalya really deserves to be in a 3 way fued between Michelle, Melina and herself. the 3 of them could take turns for the rest of the year going after each other and trading the belt around. 3) Maria looks like she belongs in a lingera add not a wrestling ring. Just when you think she could not come up with something worse than the last outfit she wore, she manages to do so.
My opinion on this match isn’t that Maria was bad, but that she’s gotten worst since they haven’t make her wrestle in a long time, and is obvious that she hasn’t trained in all that time because we’ve seen better than that from her before. To me is kind of like with Lita who used to be the best ever (great), but when she stopped wrestling and started wrestling again she wasn’t as good anymore, she wasn’t great she was just good.
for the first time i like mccool’s mic skills and ya talkin about maria’s attire made me rememebr this site for sure :D
and for the first time i bash maria but she looked like she dont even care about her in ring work!!
“I dont believe for a second that she came up with that on her on.”
Betty – The writers write the scripts, not the actors, hence not Michelle.
Rob – Agreed. However, the injury was un-expected therefore the writers still proceed on with their plans, or just adjust their plans. Obviously, adding in the fact that Michelle was out on injury would mess up the storyline going on with Melina and her when the injury was done by another Diva, not Melina.
Decent match. Insert Eve instead of Maria (seriously im so sick of Maria ruining good match ups) and give it a few more minutes and it would have been good. Too short.
Michelle is MUCH more interesting as a bored-sounding heel. Lol I mean, to me she came across looking like some intelligent Paris Hilton, bored with the competition. I totally dig her. And I noticed her comments about Maria as well. Lol Nah, I don’t think she visits Diva Dirt – because anyone with good eyesight can see that Maria dresses like a bi polar stripper.
Layla and Michelle both have new entrance videos! :D
I heard somewhere that WWE might be planning a full fledged Maria heel turn, so unfortunately seems like we MIGHT be seeing more of her :(
WWEdiva16:
Try considering the fact that Lita returned to the ring as a HEEL; heels are usually slower in the ring than faces, hence her transition from being a ‘great’ wrestler to being a ‘good’ one.
Don’t think for a second that Lita didn’t try training during the time she was managing Edge either; anyone would know Lita has passion, and always tried to wrestle even when her role was simply be a manager. PASSION is a quality Maria doesn’t and never has; it’s quite obvious to me that she hasn’t been training for quite some time at all.
Hey erin, great summary article.
I thought Michelle did very well on commentary – so much better than expected from her. My guess is she is still limping heavily, and thats why they edited out her walk to the ring, and started the segment with her already at the announce table
Next week I’m hoping for Michelle, Layla and Natalya v Melina, Eve and Maria !
I have just noticed that Nikki Bella has the same outfit as Michelle http://www.wwe.com/superstars/divas/dailydivas/
This could be the way forward for Michelle, she always sounds bored and emotionless with her monotone voice, might as well make it part of her character.
Natalya was very well in this match and worked great with Melina,but i believe Nattie will continue to mainly the Hart Dinasty´s manager and having not much ring time to herself.
i don´t believe the WWE will give her a title shot anytime soon….
Michelle looked amazing
Wasn’t that top that Michelle was wearing the same one Maria was wearing in a backstage segment with Dolph Ziggler?( 7/31/09). Melina and Natalya were fantastic, like always, I just wished it would have been a one-on-one match. Michelle’s personality is always the same, she’s always plain boring. Layla put up a decent match, but she has a long way to go. Maria is a lost cause. I’m glad Eve didn’t wrestle, Maria is a bad wrestler but at least she doesn’t take people out.