It’s been two months since the Diva Trade hit us like a bus and changed the landscape of Raw, SmackDown and well, ECW not so much. Since that time, the seven Divas traded have had time to find their feet on their new brands — new feuds, new storylines, new love interests. For some it’s worked out and for others, it hasn’t. Two months removed, we’re going to catch up with our Divas and find out how the Diva Trade has affected them in the ‘Diva Trade Report Card’.
The Bella Twins
The Bellas’ move to Raw has been wholly unthreatening, thankfully. Hardly ever seen in wrestling attire, the Bellas have served as eye candy to the Guest Host of the week. Not exactly something to write home about!
Verdict: Acceptable. An insignificant trade that doesn’t harm or hurt anyone.
Beth Phoenix
I kicked up something of a fuss when Beth was moved from Raw in October — but I’m happy to say, I’ve been proved wrong. The move to SmackDown has rejuvenated the Glamazon. The brief ‘Glamazon Squash Tour’ provided a monster heel-like reintroduction for Beth that many would expect for a Superstar, it’s rare to see such effort go into a Diva. In my initial look at the trade, I questioned whether WWE would pull the trigger on Beth vs Natalya or McCool but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a tweener-ish Beth challenge Michelle McCool for the Women’s Championship in the near future.
Verdict: Good. SmackDown should bring out a new dynamic to the Beth Phoenix character in the New Year.
More after the cut:
Eve Torres
Eve started the year as a non-wrestler, quickly became one of the hottest young prospects on SmackDown and as they’ve done with Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne and MVP — hot shotted her to Raw where she’s become ‘middle card’ fodder. And the worst part is, there’s barely even a ‘middle card’ for the Divas! Eve’s move from SmackDown was all too premature and looking at that brand right now, she could have provided a great partner for Mickie in her current storyline with Michelle/Layla and wouldn’t have been as limited in the ring as Maria. Eve’s run on Raw has consisted of a false start storyline with Swagger and The Miz, a match teaming up with a midget and now she seems to be the apple of Chris Masters’ eye.
Verdict: Failure. Raw is meant to be a ‘promotion’ but Eve had brighter prospects on SmackDown.
Melina
WWE moving Melina to Raw, like Eve, was meant to be a vote of confidence what with winning the Divas Title on her first night back. Instead, Melina has middling success — sure she may be the Divas Champion but miles away from the comfort of her long feud with Michelle McCool, Raw has seen her face short term challengers like Jillian and Alicia Fox in even shorter matches. There’s no real joy to being the top Diva of Monday nights, Melina has found. And up until the move, it looked like she was going to have a banner year after 9 months of consistently great matches and a lengthy Women’s Championship reign. Her work has suffered on Raw but could her brewing feud with Maryse be her salvation? The interaction between the two hasn’t been awful.
Verdict: Below Average. Titles mean nothing when you don’t have the right people to defend it against.
Mickie James
Mickie’s move to SmackDown has seen her work improve ten-fold. Given the opportunity to tell a real story, cut promos, have decent matches with decent workers — it’s been a good couple of months. Already on the brand, Mickie has had some memorable matches including Sunday’s TLC title bout with Michelle McCool and could soon capture her fifth Women’s Championship. But with the good comes the bad and there’s no overlooking the ‘Piggie James’ bullying that WWE has seeped into it’s writing. Mickie’s a tough cookie and I’m sure she’ll stick it out but is it all worth it?
Verdict: Good-to-Average. Mickie’s doing a great job on SmackDown and WWE knows she’s their go-to-girl, now why don’t you show a little respect?
Rosa Mendes
Lucky break that Rosa got traded to ECW, right? But rather than just disappear into the abyss and quietly get released, the ECW writers have actually found use for Rosa outside of the ring. No harm in that, right? Rosa’s currently loved up with Zack Ryder and has a steady spot on television each week, something that isn’t guaranteed on Raw or SmackDown due to her inadequacies, shall we say.
Verdict: Acceptable. Like the Bellas, she’s doing no real harm to anyone and WWE seems to be getting some use out of her.
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27 Comments
i couldnt agree more even though i would like to see beth vs natalya feud and im happy there not yet pulling the trigger on that it gives them time to continue to build natalya as a charector etc i do believe we will see it in 2010 andi see natalya as the face just the hart name the legacy it could be that new diva feud
I’d hate for Natalya to turn face and I don’t think management have any plans for her to go in that direction. Given how they’ve planned Beth in recent months in terms of potential storylines, I’d say she had more probability of becoming face. I’ve really enjoyed her and Mickie on SmackDown, I thought it’d be the same old, same old, but having Michelle there as SmackDowns longest serving Diva, its really mixed up the dynamics.
The Bellas are just urgh, at least get them to manage someone. They’d play great heels using the fact there’s two of them to interfere in matches to pick up wins for the clients. Instead they’re smooching up to Bob Barker and grinding down on Verne Troyer. Rosa, at least she’s still training in FCW- The Bellas aren’t even improving upon their wrestling skills. Credit where credits due, the draft has benefitted Rosa.
It always seems to me where Eve’s concerned is that WWE don’t see her good enough for the Womens title, but she’s alright for the Divas title. On SmackDown it seemed like she’d breakthrough at any moment, but it was like she wasn’t good enough for the prestiege or the history that the Womens championship has had. Its a shame they dumped her storyline, but I’m looking forward to seeing where he alliance with Chris Masters is going.
Melina’s title to title bounce can just fade. People harp on about how well she’s done for someone who’s had a hard time (because being pretty must be so strenuous) as she’s not Diva material (course she isn’t, I hear WWE only hire Mickie Knuckles’ and Roxxi’s) but she lost all hype and personality she had when she was heel and on SmackDown. I don’t know Raw has always been the character killer for me, she did have a brief spell with Jillian and that team they had going which was alright. But it just seems management like to keep her sweet, whilst the fans clap on. Its alright, but I tend to get bored of Melina and Mickie hogging the division just because Management need a new Trish. Notice how both have held the Divas title and held the Womens Campionship 3 (Melina) and 4 (Mickie) times) its like they’re trying to match up to Trish’s 7 as fast as they can before they lost steam.
i dont even bother by getting worked up and upset about this. monday was the last bit of faith i had in raw (diva wise). if they would stop having the whole show be about JOHN CENA,DX,and whoever keeps us bored to death as special guest it would get get better. SMH. oh yea and stop having chavo, chris masters or HORNSWOGGLE UGH interfere in their storylines.
Yeah raw is a crashing point for divas ect eve Layla Jillian Gail Kim, these r only a few
I think the Divas trade has been good in general, I just don’t like the way it was announced…basically 2 chicks from Access Hollywood “engineered” this trade. Doesn’t make sense. Just say we’re making some changes to the roster.
Initially I was upset that Beth got moved off of RAW but I agree with you, it has been a good career move so far. When she was signing autographs before Bragging Rights in Pittsburgh she told the crowd she was excited about the change. For me the best part is now she doesn’t have to job to stupid guest hosts.
I think I’ve made it clear that I’m the most pissed off about Melina’s move to RAW,so no need to touch upon that subject (Anymore).
Mickie to Smackdown was a great move!Even with all the “Piggy James” crap,at least she’s getting a storyline!Not to mention her in-ring work has improved a lot more!I think she’s starting to get her passion back,just a little farther to go.
Beth to Smackdown was great as well,and I can’t wait to see her beat the stuffing out of Michelle! :D
Eve must be pretty sad on RAW.
Everyone else,whatever.
I have to feel for Eve in all this. Since the trade she’s been in limbo. It’s like WWE is saying, “we’re not sure what to do with you yet, but we’re still going to put you on TV. But we don’t think you’re ready to do a solo thing yet so you can be in the backround in other diva feuds (Survivor Series) and can be on TV with the guest hosts and other superstars (Miz, Swagger, Masters) but even there we’re not sure who to pair you with.” On Smackdown she had a supporting role in Michelle/Maria and Michelle/Melina stories and she was part of secondary diva feuds with Layla (which was awesome) and Nattie. On Raw she’s kind of been lost in the shuffle.
Alot of people may not want to see it right away but I hope the rumours of Eve as the next title contender are true. We may not be talking about it when the 2010 Diva Dirt Year End Awards roll around and it probably won’t catapult her into superdivadom, but if all goes well it’ll be the first step toward those.
I don’t think it’s fair to call Raw a “disappointment” for the Divas. If you look at the bigger picture, I think the Divas are positioned/booked where they need to be.
Lazy booking or not, Mickie was the most over chick on the Raw brand this past year. And what did she do with that ball? She didn’t run with it, that’s for sure. Let alone when they DID try to do something different with the matches, it is safe to say they just weren’t that good. Then you switch the focus over to Melina.. And her and Jillian totally screwed up for a month. They are just now starting some new and “exciting” things with Maryse because you can atleast count on her not to screw up a move/match and not to “break character” when things don’t go her way.
I don’t think it’s because the writers don’t want to do anything with the current chicks on Raw. I think it’s because they don’t trust their women to get the job done live. There’s also a group of people that can be described as “bigger fish to fry” on Raw.
As far as SD goes, I really don’t think they give a damn about the SD Divas. If they did, Michelle’s “I can’t get a freaking reaction to save my life” butt would’ve been pushed to the background faster then Dolph Ziggler or Jack Swagger. Sorry, Michelle fans, but it’s true.
Eve and Melina (especially Eve) have been hurt by the move, because look at RAW itself. The brand totlly sucks. Stale Cena, DX/Hornswoggle crap/guest hosts every week (they NEED a full-time GM). It’s not their fault, the RAW writers don’t let the women shine. Melina has to work 2 minute matches and Eve is lucky to even get on TV. At very least they should have kept Torres on SmackDown.
Bella’s and Rosa are fine. Moving Rosa was actually a great idea. She’s not that good in the ring and she’s got to show some character on ECW.
Beth and Mickie have been the best trades. Freshened up the scene for them and given them some new competition.
Katie Lea should have been part of the the trade though, instead of the Bella’s. They could have moved her back to RAW. Seems like she’s sticking with ECW, further wasting her talent.
I like mickie but I lost my faith in her when she was drafted to SD,she doesn’t belong there,she’s a Raw diva through and through,bring her back home
Jillian and Melina only had one bad match with each other and that was the mixed tag match with santino and chavo,but their other matches were pretty good like the rematch for the divas title a week after melina won it and the thanksgiving indians vs. pilgrams match,those matches Jillian and melina worked great together IMO
smackdown divas just don’t interest me,it’s the same boring people,Raw divas are exciting,young,and fresh,you have a great divas champion in Melina,you have 2 great veterans in Gail and jillian,and nice young talent like eve and maryse
Melina dosent have a solid oppenent to face on Raw. I thought Jillian would be the best for her but ti seems they dont mesh well. Melina has worked very well wil alicia on SD but it dosent seem they are even gonna try and attempt that. Mayrse is just no , I dont want to see her run around the ring for the next 6 months with or without the diva title.
The trade hurt eve the most in opinion , she should have stayed on Sd and could have helped Mickie. I think Eve should have had a small push for the womens title.
Beth & Mickie ‘s move helped alot I felt that they were getting kinda stale on raw and ppl were whinning about it too. So this was a great move for them.
I honestly thought Melina should have stayed on Smackdown.
WWe needs to stop depending on there top divas all the time. Im serious they depend on Mickie & Melina for everything. Eve,Alicia,Jillian,Kelly and Mayrse could run raw. While we have Melina,Mickie,Beth,Nattie & Michelle run SD but thats wwe for you
i think the bellas move was a great idea. there on tv every single monday night, so the fans are seeing them & stuff. hopefully their using this time to do some training.
i think the best move out of these was the one for rosa. she assumedly must be getting more time to train, and is also being used in a non-wrestling capacity.
she should’ve started from the bottom to begin with.
Funny how to three divas who I thought wouldn’t benefit from this actually have. Rosa is off being blonder then ever as staple and arm piece to Zack Ryder which is all good for her but i doubt she’s doing any type of training. The Bellas are living up to the standard of their new roles on RAW which isn’t saying much because as always they’re not really doing anything but playing milk maid to their farmer aka every dude whose hosted RAW thus far.
Poor Eve though they got this girl acting like a yo-yo, they don’t know what to do with her knowing that the right decision should have been to leave her on Smackdown.
Re: Rosa Mendes
“Like the Bellas, she’s doing no real harm to anyone and WWE seems to be getting some use out of her.”
Ouch… “doing no real harm to anyone”. That makes it sound like her & the Bellas are more of a liability to the WWE.
lol
Anyway I agree w/the ratings for the most part. I wonder if the DD staff will have a full report card for all the divas & KOs before 2010?
I’m not feeling Melina and Eve on Raw. It’s just… not there. Eve should have definitely stayed on Smackdown, and the writers should put a little more effort into Melina’s title feuds.
I actually love Rosa on ECW. I think she’s hilarious with her ‘stupid’ gimmick – she’s picking up where Maria left off.
“Funny how to three divas who I thought wouldn’t benefit from this actually have. Rosa is off being blonder then ever as staple and arm piece to Zack Ryder which is all good for her but i doubt she’s doing any type of training.”
If you look at the FCW roster on their website, Rosa is still listed and actually is still down there. She does a lot of work at house shows, with occasional appearances on tapings, The Bellas on the other hand were removed ages ago showing that obviously there’s no intention to even continue their skills. Its weird because Rosa always looked so good in the rng on FCW, but then you compare her work now and it just seems weird seeing as she’s been there for like 3 years when people like the Bellas, Tiffany and Alicia who joined the same time as her (and before FCW’s official WWE revamp) have all moved on and up (though Alicia and Tiffany make guest appearances)
I think one of the things I liked about Eve also is she was a SmackDown original Diva, she hadn’t been on any other brand which gave her a good following and now she’s in murky waters and it just takes away from her character in my opinion, because it was refreshing to see a Diva Search winner cut their losses and stray from going to Raw for the Womens Title, I know Layla also went to SD but she went to ECW early on in her career.
I actually agree with what was said about the trades. However the Bellas should have been on ECW (Katie Lea and Rosa need to smack someone for once in a while) and Eve, as it was said should have remained on Smackdown as well as Melina. The rest of the roster seems okay as it is, but they need to balance the number of Divas in the brands, even though ECW barely needs them.
IMO i would have had gail move back to SD
and i still feel this second draft was a bad idea (although i do like seeing beth on SD)
the SD divas roster is very unbalanced still
and raw is over crowded with faces
In an ideal world I’d like to see…
RAW:
- Melina
- Mickie James
- Kelly Kelly
- Maryse
- Beth Phoenix
- Alicia Fox
SD:
- Eve Torres
- Maria
- Gail Kim
- Michelle McCool
- Katie Lea Burchill (Also acting as valet)
- Layla
ECW:
- Savannah
- Jillian Hall
Noticbly Rosa and The Bellas have been axed, not because I dislike them, but because they overtip the scale on rosters for no reason other than to act as arm candy. I’ve kept at least 3 faces and heels on both Raw and SD so that 6 Diva tag matches were still possible. As much as Mickie and Beth have benefitted from their trades, I moved them back simply because I thought if Mickie remained on SD following my shuffle, she’d take the shine off Gail who is arguably the best of the SD lot on my list. Beth I moved back for similiar reasons plus I wanted to ‘understudies’ Layla and Katie Lea to get more notice, if Beth was the second dominant heel, the other two would get very little screentime. ECW wise, I moved Jillian so that she could get repackaged or at least get more screen time, ECW always finds a way of reinventing stars (even the worst of them) and Jillian really needs a fresh lick of paint, plus I think Jillian and Savannah could work well together.
Course this is just what I’d have done if I were those Hollywood Xcess Girls who obviously ‘negotated the whole tade’ in the few days it took them to read the script.
Just because the Bellas aren’t listed under a website doesn’t mean they ain’t training? Guess I missed that memo.
They could well be, but they’re not training under FCW which is where most ‘green’ Divas go. Plus I doubt they’re training to round their skills on linking the arms of miscellaneous D-listers.
Good stuff. That pic of Melina in the banner headline at the top of this is phenomenal. I have forgotten how phenomenally gorgeous she is considering that WWE has gone PG and she’s become just another diva.
I agree with a lot of what you said in the writeups. When the trade happened I was happy because it put more of the divas that can wrestle on the show where they have actual wrestling, which is Smackdown. I don’t think Raw has many women’s matches that get even five minutes, so it’s better for Mickie and Beth to be on SD. Plus, I really liked that Mickie/Beth/Natalya match a couple weeks ago. I don’t love the Piggie James angle, but Mickie vs. Michelle is better than the other diva feuds of the year. Let’s just hope they use Beth better too because she’s great.
How do you know that all the Bellas are doing is being hostess? Eve isn’t listed under the site and she’s almost the same amount of match time as the Bellas this year. Hell, I think other then Rosa, Savannah and that Courtney chick, none of the current divas are listed on that site.
Do you actually know what FCW is? Most of the current Divas train in their personal time and when they’re set up for matches, FCW allows training both on-screen and off scree, but the performers within it have to stick to a schedule in order to move up the roster. That’s the difference between FCW Divas and main brand Divas, hence why Mickie and Eve aren’t there. I wish I didn’t say anything now as it seems I’m in for cross examination. As for Eve and Bells having the same match time?
Nikki Bella vs. Katie Lea
Faces vs Heels on Raw last Week
Brie Bella vs. Katie Lea
Hmm…can’t really think much else they did this year compared to Eve’s billion rounds with The Hart Dynasty, her match with Jillian amongst others. FCW Divas aren’t based on screen-time, they’re there full time until they are semi-promoted or fully promoted from the roster. Take Rosa, she’s semi-promoted compared to the Bellas who have been fully called up. Also even if the Bellas are training they’re not exactly backing up or shutting the fans up with their ‘talents’ until they actually do something other than introduce themselves as eachother, laugh and then correct themselves before grinding on down, they’ll always just be the extras.
The divas have been traded so many times its like a revolving door and i can honestly say that they will probably be traded even more next year. It’s very annoying when you like seeing a Diva on Friday Nights or Monday Nights and for no apparent reason wwe decides to trade them, annoying. But if i had to grade these divas on the trade it would be.
The Bellas A- On Ecw there beauty was getting lost among the new testosterone, and why waste hot twins who don’t need to wrestle, but just look hot.
Beth Phoenix B- She was as many have said a character on Raw who was going back and fourth between the face divas on Raw, but moving her to SD she has knew blood and new divas to squash.
Eve Torres F- On SD eve showed a lot of potential in this 2009 but this move to Raw has staled her wrestling skills and basically pushed her behind Melina and Kelly Kelly
Melina C – Moving her back to Raw after just like 5 months of being on Smackdown showed that wwe wasn’t really felling it, as long as Melina is on Raw she will be the #1 face on Raw.
Mickie James A- With the Rumors that Mickie weight and her extra activity beyond the wwe rings the debate was that wwe basically lost faith in her but on the one hand her move to SD has been a good thing as she has been more involved in back stage promos and has had a legitimate feud with Michelle McCool on the other hand sadly she has been taped as the fat diva, but its just a storyline so get over it.
Rosa Mendez A- She couldn’t really wrestle so great idea to move her to ECW and have her portray a valet and eye candy and it the words of her Man Zack Ryder “WOO WOO WOO Your Know It”
I hope I’m not the only one with these sentiments, but in all honesty, I think the top Diva spot on Raw is a freakin’ CURSE. Mickie botched every week while she was top girl, and apparently, Melina is fighting not to suffer that same fate now too. I don’t know if it’s the pressure of holding the top spot, the intimidating fact of being in the flagship show, or most likely the three-minute Diva match time limit, but it seems that if there’s any place for any real Diva to stand out nowadays anymore, it’s SmackDown.
On the bright side, Melina’s matches, in comparison to Mickie’s, are a lot better on Raw these days, which is at least a breath of fresh air from Mickie’s less-than-stellar performances with the red brand in the past. It gives one an idea of the difference in ring work between the two.