In celebration of the end of the year, we have produced two audio specials reflecting on all things Diva and Knockout. It’s been quite the year for both companies; we’ve seen many new faces emerge, we’ve seen new champions crowned, Divas traded and even a new set of titles introduced. In these two audio specials, Erin and Melanie offer their take on the Divas and Knockouts based on the past twelve months!
Kicking off the weekend, we have the ‘Diva and Knockout Report Card 2009′ as we go through each individual Diva and Knockout, looking at what they have accomplished and contributed in 2009 and grading them using the academic scheme.
To listen to the audio directly on the website, just click on the play button below. You can also download this audio in MP3 format straight to your computer.
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Run Time: 01:16:16
[Download (Right click & 'Save Target As') | File size: 17.4mb]
NB: We did forget to include Katie Lea as she’s no longer listed on the WWE Divas website which I used to go in alphabetical order, whoops! Apols!
Check back tomorrow for the second part of our year-end audio specials!
Please Note: This audio bulletin is the exclusive content of Diva Dirt (diva-dirt.com), for which we hold copyright. By downloading our audio you agree not to repost or transcribe the content elsewhere including but not limited to other websites, blogs or message boards. Failure to respect copyright will result in legal action.
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18 Comments
Michelle and Melina are defiantly the top divas of the year in the wwe
Disagree with Kelly’s grade. I’ve give her a low ‘B’/high ‘C’ at least, to be honest. She hasn’t been directly involved in any big angles or anything, but she’s maintained her spot on the roster, and she’s been consistent both in terms of ring-work (bar the Maryse match, but bear in mind that Mickie couldn’t get a good match out of Maryse at that point either) and in terms of popularity. The problem is that she’s always going to be a face, automatically making her second fiddle to, Melina/Mickie, whereas Alicia Fox has been given title matches and feuds with champions due to there being a total lack of decent heel divas on the roster. In addition, I’d say her match with Gail Kim has been better than any Alicia/Layla/Eve one-on-one match this year, which is impressive given that it’s probably a lot harder to work a face vs. face match than a face vs. heel match.
“I know we missed some but sorry,we’re not going back”
lol seriously melanie,you are so funny,you always make me laugh(in a good way)
WOW I agreed with every single grade except Erin giving maria a B-,sorry but winning diva of the year was a blessing for Maria,she didn’t earn it,she just got lucky,her grade should have been a D to D- because this time next year,your not going to remember a thing Maria did in 2009
but great report card,man a lot of girls got C’s,they need to start studying lol
Regarding Melina: defo agree with most (if not all) of what you guys say. I think that out of all the divas she’s had the strongest, and I’m just saying that because of how much I like her. She tries her hardest to improve and to perform at as a high a standard as possible – in fact, a lot of people accuse of her trying too hard. Honestly, I *do* think WWE have a lot of faith in her. She’s been among the top two or three divas in the company since her debut, and while I think she’s suffered as a result of a lack of timing, poor opponents, a lack of real character development since her injury etc, WWE acknowledge the fact that she (alongside Mickie) is the clear cornerstone of women’s wrestling in the company, and reward her as a result.
If she has one problem, it’s the fact that she’s still retained some of that bitchy element to her character, and so it’s difficult for her to get much a reaction when she’s not going crazy or being super bendy in the ring. She’s in direct comparison with Mickie, who I imagine is a lot more likable due to the peppiness and wholesomeness and all that, and she suffers. I’d really love to see her revert back to the uber-bitch character and show the current heels how it’s done, but I doubt WWE will do that, at least not until they have enough faith in Kelly, Gail, Eve etc to push them as faces. I’d at least like them to go sort of tweener…given her history, it’s hard to see her act all friendly and girly around Mickie, Maria, Kelly and the rest, and remember the huge reactions she was getting when she was sort of in limbo between fan favourite and bitch back when she was feuding with Beth before her injury.
I at least want to see a proper feud with Mickie, because I think they have more chemistry than any other two women in the company. And if Mickie is retiring, then I wanna see her wrestle her last match with Melina. They’ve been the ‘new’ faces of the division since 2005, and have a sort of unwritten history.
Sorry for the rant. :P
i would have given kelly kelly b-
i mean gail kim had a c, i think kelly kelly had a greater year than gail,
i agree i think layla should get a b-, maria should get a d-.
I honestly hope that 2010 will be a better year for the Divas. With Smackdown being the brand for serious competition, I’d say that’s the brand to look out for, in terms of female stand-out performances. I feel really sorry for Melina, Alicia Fox and Gail Kim (my favorites on Raw). Being on Raw for them, is like being the bathroom break on the top show. Compared to Smackdown, they just don’t give the girls a good chance at all. :-(
Alicia: B+
Beth: A-
Layla: B
Maryse: C-
Kelly Kelly: D+
Melina: A+
Michelle McCool: A++
Rosa: F
Bella Twin: F
Maria: F
Eve: C+
Wow,that was long as f*ck!But such a great audio show to listen to.
I really can’t lie about it,but last RAW really made me think.It really hit me,and not in a good way.I want to know,how long will it take for WWE to realize that Mikcie/Melina are on the same level,and that’s being nice to Mickie.When I heard Mickie’s music hit I was like,”Oh hell no…”,she was taken off the “A-show” but is still considered the best Diva?What the hell??
I hope and pray 2010 will be a great year all around not just for the divas,but for the Knockouts too.The Knockouts had a very lackluster year this year,and they have to pick it up.At least revert back to where you ere in 2007,the hardcore wokmen’s division that ALWAYS crossed the line.I know Gail’s probably laughing her ass off at WWE right now,but I hope she quits and goes back to TNA.
I feel like giving the divas a grade is difficult because it’s more that you’re grading the booker’s and writer’s use of them more than their performances in themselves.
I mean take Eve for example: her in ring work has been solid. Not great great but still very watchable. She sells well, executes close to perfect most of the time, and her movements flow. And while we haven’t seen alot of it, there’s a great personality in there that’s waiting to come out. She’s shown she can carry a feud. Her interviews have shown she’s pretty decent on the mic but one thing to look for in 2010 is her ability to cut a promo by herself. And even though the move to Raw wasn’t the best for her, she’s looked good in her appearances even if they were speaking roles (at best). For the few minutes of action she had at Survivor Series and in the mix-tag she’s been really good. Perhaps for next time establish a grading rubric with criteria?
Firstly wow, you guys work really hard here at DD, that was long and you really hit the mark with those grades, sites like these will only push the Diva’s harder and the WWE harder in terms of betterment of their product. Great work seriously,
MELINA is undoubtedly the only A for 2009, consistency is the word here, I disagree about you all saying the WWE wont use her as their top diva over Mickie, if her move BACK to Raw wasnt an indication of that I dont know what is, I think Mickie being moved to Smackdown was part of her career ‘wind down’ more than a demotion as well.
I agree with Melanie in wondering why Gail is reportedly the WWE’s highest paid diva and yet used the way she is. Sure she’s not as over as Kelly or Mickie but if they pushed her as much as they did Michelle or Maryse she’d be an uber star by now. I hope 2010 see’s a MAJOR push for Gail, Gail vs Melina or Maryse at Mania would be epic.
Thanks everyone for the feedback. It really was a long discussion and I feel really strongly about this audio, it took us a lot of time to record [as you can tell] but there’s also the time taken to edit etc. which made this one of the biggest audio challenges we’ve had. I’m glad you guys enjoyed it!
Could we maybe get a transcript for this as I don’t have the time or patience sit through it.
This also goes for Post Raw shows etc, in the future if we could get transcripts I would appreciate it.
For me both WWE and TNA were very disappointing in 2009. In WWE’s case i was already expecting it, because 2008 wasnt that great either, but TNA ruled in 2007/2008 so compared to that period TNA kinda disappointed me this year. Highlights for me were Sarita, Hamada, Alissa Flash in TNA (all the good matches this year involved at least 1 of these 3), and Melina (only her smackdown period), Gail Kim (only her smackdown period) and Beth in the WWE.
Hopes for 2010:
- Alissa Flash, Daffney, Gail Kim and Jillian Hall getting the pushes they deserve.
- Face turns for Beth Phoenix and Madison Ray
- TNA adding a few more tagteams (permanent)
- Bellas, Kelly Kelly and Rosa recieving a multi-million hollywood deal, so they retire from wrestling
- Storylines that last longer than 1-2 weeks, and actually make sense (this goes for both WWE and TNA). And naturally, matches that last 5+ minutes (once again, that goes for both companies).
ReyStyle94 – Likewise, we don’t have the time nor patience to provide a transcript because it takes a lot of work and the idea of audio is that it’s easier to produce. What we do is in our own free time and the audio is free for all readers. It’s your decision if you wish to listen to it or not but we don’t ‘owe’ anything i.e. transcripts for those that don’t choose to listen to it because again, all content on the site is free and we don’t owe anything unless we take paid subscriptions.
So yeah, just skip around the audio if you’re looking for a specific thing–we’re not forcing you to listen to an hour-long audio bulletin all at once.
I really enjoyed that, keep up the good work. It really is hard to look back on 2009 as a whole, but overall I’d day the grades were pretty fair.
I think with Natalya, she’s generally been underestimated. People just see her as the manager, which is frustrating when you see her work, but at the same time it really helps character build her. I mean at least if she’s in a team that thrive off the name of their ancestors, her own gimmick won’t really go stale, because people always regard the Harts as legendary and collectively it makes them more powerful in the long-run. Whereas on her own, I think people would’ve got pretty bored of her coming out with the same things. Also, by using her as a manager it makes her almost the brains of the team meaning that she’s consistently becoming more powerful again so in later storylines she always has her boys at her side, again if she was on her own I think she would have just been used as the muscle which she basically was to Maryse in the early part of 2009 during her push.
Melina for me has just chipped away slowly and slowly, when they turned her face it was alright, but its harder for face Divas to really shine. Kelly was able to do it because she was on ECW which had a small roster, Mickie was able because she got loads of exposure following the Trish feud and Maria and Eve have been able to because of off-screen roles. Whereas Melina pretty much came from this power heel and turned without having much reason or time to fill a face role other than jealousy of Beth Phoenix and then just started capatilizing from it all- to be honest like I said before, Mickie and Melina just seem like WWE’s way of trying to match Trish. When Melina went back to SmackDown, it helped her a bit as it was new dynamic, but then she was drafted again and won the title and still she hadn’t had anything to build her to win the title other than tallying up title reigns. It just feels like with Melina, she’s a good worker, but can’t break out from being this prima donna which people have said is exactly what she’s like in real life. It just feels that maybe if she didnt have Mercury and Nitro behind her in her early days, she would be on the same ranks as The Bellas or at best Maria right now.
As far as Gail is concerned as much as I love her, you could say she dug her own grave when she chose wage over work. I prefer her to what she was in TNA where I felt like Tara she was only ever popular due to her establishment in WWE. But I don’t think she is being punished, literally WWE knew it was a big deal she was poached back from TNA and capitalized from the exposure it got them when she first came back. Then, when it died down, so did she. Easy.
L+V+E shoud’ve = F. But I know you didn’t want to fail anyone, you said it was a WWE move to hire her for her looks, but at least WWE has FCW to train its Divas to a basic minimum level, I mean as much as people and myself criticise Rosa and the Bellas for being bad at wrestling at least they CAN wrestle. I think to an extent they tried to do a WWE and hire Lacey for her name, but then realised she couldn’t actually live up to it and this is why she’s only spending a nano second in the ring in her matches and battle royales.
Hamada was struck down quite early on, we knew she was coming, but there was no build up for her and on her first match for it to be gimmick just felt weird. It was a good match, but it just feels like she’s only being met halfway, she provides talent in these matches but doesn’t really get character development through it. I don’t know if she only speaks Mexican, but if she doesn’t TNA halved her chances of developing in that segment where it stated she couldn’t speak English, which makes it hard for mostly English speaking viewers to connect with her, which again leads back to just a good shell but nothing underneath. Also Hamada’s own aligment is rather odd, she attacked Sojourner which was suppose to show her off as a face, but it wasnt as if Sojourner did anything else other than lose the match which really just made Hamada look heel for attacking her. I’m assuming she’s turned heel now for this feud, but there’s been no sign of it other than her wrestling and winning over faces and teaming with an established heel in Kong. Nonetheless, I hope she continues to show her skills int o 2010.
You guys gave Sarita a bit of a tough time saying she was left in development hell and I think this has always been her problem. Sarita was aimed to be TNA’s top KO and as soon as Tara came there from WWE she was pushed aside because of Tara being more bankable. I think Sarita’s problem is the fact they tried to build her at the beginning with promos and the mini feud with Alissa, but then left her without nothing for ages and then booted her with Taylor. It was a good move and I’m glad she has gold, but it felt like TNA have always tried to put her to the top and make her a dominating singles force but then pushed her aside, in this case its like they dropped her to put her with Taylor who at the time had very little exposure after ending the Daffney storyline.
As for Tara, it just feels a waste. Different name, same character. I’d have liked to see something fresh with her when she moved, even WWE did something different with Gail when she went back (dropping the Matrix gimmick) whereas Tara just relies on what she had, she’s a good worker yes but she’s essentially a carbon copy. It might work for Kurt Angle, but that’s because he kept his name and therefore keeps his character. It just felt like TNA’s way of trying to ride off of name without getting in trouble due to copyrighting. I’d go as far to say if Tara was never Victoria in the first place, she’d be treated on the same level as Daffney in some freak gimmick, without much to do.
I think my problem with the grades for the Divas were too forgiving for the *respected* workers and too harsh on the *models*.
Beth, Natayla, Michelle, Mickie, Gail and Melina all have the same basic problems.. You can’t think of 4 different traits to each of them for almost the entire year. Sure, they are “smart, sexy and powerful” because they are consisted the workers, they all have done their sure of bikini time and each are intelligent in their own way. I guess. But really, what seperates Beth and Nattie? A last name and a love for wearing pink? lol This leads to rather forgettable matches because the chicks themselves only go out there to do Jersey All-Pro spots (for y’all who don’t know what I mean, their matches are THAT BAD) and that’s it.
Maryse may be just a cheap hair flip in high heels, but she mos def stands out. And she does it without hitting 18972687687 moves in her short matches just to *prove* she can wrestle. This is the WWE. The WWE style isn’t about doing the most, but getting the most out of what you do. That is why Maryse caught on in crowd reaction and in the ring so fast compare to the forementioned chicks. She doesn’t botch much. She hits her moves pretty good when she does them. You could say she doesn’t do much at all, but I digess because the amount of people who are lookin’ forward to her matches each week are growing.
The Diva I think had the best year in retrospect is Layla. I hated when she was moved to SD because SD has Michelle’s personal playground for the past 2 years. But, her really wrestling has really really picked up and she is actually doing something almost every week.
(Reading Erin’s post…nodding head in agreement…)
Great podcast!!! Loved it. God bless Beth, but I would give her a B- this year…too many unsuccessful title shots on TV and the Santina thing was a mess. I hope 2010 is a BIG year for her – looks like SD is going to give us some great programming.
I’m sorry but, Kelly and Lacey with the same score? I can’t help but sense the total bias here, and I’m not even a big Kelly fan. :/