The Perfect 10 is back for a year-end special, counting down the top 10 Divas and Knockouts from the year gone by. Last year, Michelle McCool was #1 on the Perfect 10 of 2008, can she make it a repeat performance? Who has had the most memorable moments & matches of 2009? Check back over the next 10 days to find out how the countdown will unfold!
MARYSE
Winning the Divas Championship in the closing moments of 2008, Maryse entered 2009 with her first title reign — and a momentous one at that. Her quick rise from in-ring newcomer to ‘main event’ level talent [as far as Divas go] was unprecedented. 2009 however, has been both a year of success and sorrow for Maryse. Just one night after her big title victory aired, she blew out her knee and spent the early months of 2009 injured.
Returning to the ring in late February, Maryse was back just in time for WrestleMania and continued her feud with Michelle McCool even though they were both now heel. Just weeks before ‘Mania, Maryse then began a short-lived interpromotional feud with Raw’s Women’s Champion, Melina and then the returning Gail Kim.
The Draft of April 2009 saw Maryse and the Divas Title move homes to Raw where she immediately struck a nerve with the brand’s resident top Diva, Mickie James. The long on-off feud was continuously prolonged until finally, the two faced off for the Divas Title at Night of Champions in July. Maryse lost her belt and disappeared off television for several months. Her previous knee injury hadn’t fully healed and the now former Divas Champ opted for surgery.
Returning in rather grandiose fashion the night after Survivor Series, Maryse ‘hatched’ from a Gobbledy Gooker outfit and attacked the current Divas Champion, Melina. Since then, Maryse has begun finding her feet back in the ring and back on Raw, while brewing a feud for the gold she once held.
Despite being absent for some of 2009, Maryse has been kept at the forefront of all things Diva in the time that she has been active. All of her interaction this year has involved the Divas Title, for which she holds the record for the longest reign thus far. Going into 2010, it looks as though Maryse may become the first multi-time Divas Champion.
Check back tomorrow for #6
RSS
Email
Twitter
Tumblr
Facebook
YouTube
27 Comments
Good pick.I like the list so far.
rarely in the ring and barely doing moves, i’m not too keen on maryse being higher than kong. :x
oops, i didn’t mean to do an angry face, i thought the x was tape over a mouth? lol
I’m so over people always talking about Maryse’s wrestling skills. She’s in the damn WWE, just be happy she can actually do a few things. It’s not all about that in the WWE, especially on Raw. I thought this was known and (although hated) accepted by everyone. She has a good character and is pretty competent in the ring and I’m sorry, but having wrestling skill doesn’t always mean anything when it comes to these kinds of lists. Kong has been pretty boring this year compared to her others, she didn’t have anything remotely interesting going on until Tara went to TNA. I think the list has been good so far with all the placements making a lot of sense.
Boo! She sucks…
I hope she generates a good feud between her and Melina.
maryse should be no 9 at sarita place i love her but her wrestling sucks
I don’t know, I think Maryse should’ve come at 9 also. You look at Sarita who entered, she’s won gold and executed some truly amazing moves and she’s worked hard this year, Kong hasn’t had a bad year either in fact she’s had some good matches- maybe not as brilliant as 2008 but thats mainly down to the fact they force fed us Tara vs Kong about seven billion times this year. Then look to Maryse and what? Most of her hype around her was her return and even that was a laugh and half, since then she’s not exactly had a winning streak or TV time to rebuild her character, the feud is really dragging along thanks to interference from gimmick matches and we still don’t know when the match is going to happen…
I don’t know usually I defend Mary 5 Moves in times like these, but I guess its proof that WWE has managed to put image over substance in terms of character:skill.
I’m not sure if I agree or disagree with this.
I think that she is great as a heel and she is improving albeit her still ever present crudeness, but despite what SOME people think: NO. I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT SHE IS “THE QUEEN.” People tend to be enamored by her beauty and for some reason, I think that it is easy for them to forgive her for her flaws but, really, in terms of overall attributes, she is still far behind a lot of women. That, of course, is my opinion. That being said, she has had a somewhat memorable year.
However, I still think that she needs to work on her ring skills. NO, I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT ADDING MOVES TO HER SET (at least not while she is a heel because it works for her character.) But I think that she should improve on her selling and her grasp of the character. Minor details in her movements tend to ruin that sexiest of the sexy moniker she has bestowed herself with.
Well to be fair, I’m sure this list isn’t counting down the top ten in terms of wrestling talent. 2008 was a better year for Maryse, but she’s consistently been on TV and written strongly in 2009. Sarita has just gotten on the map a bit later this year with her tag team title win and fantastic matches with Hamada and Alissa Flash. Awesome Kong floundered and at times they didn’t really know what to do with her. So I think it’s pretty reasonable.
I’m not a Maryse fan at all because I tend to enjoy wrestling talent more than character. But, again to be fair, I’m sure Maryse is still improving in the ring. A huge drawback to her and every woman on RAW is just that. THEY ARE ON RAW! And RAW is the land of bad opportunity for women. So, yeah she haven’t had great matches so far. But she’s only made her return a minute ago. And there hasn’t been an above-average women’s match on RAW since Mickie Vs Beth (or Gail Vs Alicia, if you ask me).
I agree with MarBu 13 in that I am more a fan of wrestling talent than character (for me, when it comes to Divas), and I agree with The Crying Light. I guess for me its more about the women who move Divas forward in terms of “respectability” as far as the idea of women even being wrestlers in WWE (as opposed to merely being managers/valets), and not those who are hot/funny/throwaway characters who do not move things forward. There are millions of potential Maryses, imo, and that’s the problem I have with “wrestlers”, or rather Divas, like her. To me, Maryse and many like her are much better suited to be managers and valets at best, and the Beth Phoenixes should be wrestlers. That being said, its true that WWE doesn’t care about wrestling ability at all when it comes to women; in a way that’s good, because it leaves the door open for a lot of people. In this way, I would say Maryse had a better year than some! I respect your opinions, since in all our minds we have our own top 10 list! ;)
If Maryse`s abilities in the ring matched her great heel presence than she`d be great.
Maryse is above Kong and Maryse in this list??????.
Euh,i do not understand at all.Why 2 of the best north americans wrestlers today are under Maryse?.
The only thing that i love with Maryse is that she speaks french like me,but she sucks,in the ring.
I guess this rankings is not about wrestling skills,no?.Otherwise,it s ultra weird…….
Eh. I suppose she’s had a decent year Kayfabe-wise, but simply put, she’s just not very good, and I do think it’s fair to say that she’s coasting on her looks. People go on and on about how good she is as a heel and as a character, but compare her to certain other arrogant bitches in past years (namely Melina and Trish) and she pales in comparison. She’s just…there, and I’m worried that her lack of ability is going to put people off Melina. :/
Melanie Reply:
December 27th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
The list isn’t based on wrestling skills. It’s based on what the Divas/Knockouts have accomplished in 2009. You’d think that would be taken away from the ‘of 2009′ part of the title or even the intro. By reading a little closer, perhaps we can save ourselves from conniptions in future.
well with Maryse on the list I have more hope of seeing my lovely Layla on there =)
i disagree with Maryse being so high due to the fact she was injured for all bt a few months of 2009 and her work on Raw was not as impressionable as her work on Smackdown and I do feel Sarita deserves to be higher
however, i feel the Diva Dirt team have made their reasons clear as to why shes there and I cnt argue they are wrong =)
enjoying the list guys :D
by “so high”
i meant not 10th lol
I’m with you megagary
of course i understand that it’s a best of the year, which is why i don’t get how sarita is lower than maryse. they’ve both been active in their respective companies for about the same number of months. sarita has had impressive match after impressive match as well as becoming the first ever tag champion with taylor, whereas maryse has barely done a few moves, limped her way to victories and above all lost her belt. everybody has their own views, it just doesn’t sit right with me. i’d even feel the same if somebody like gail kim, who hasnt done much overall, is higher than maryse.
“of course i understand that it’s a best of the year, which is why i don’t get how sarita is lower than maryse.”
Sarita had her debut match in July of this year, before that time most people here probably had never heard of the name Sarah Stock/Sarita. And instead of becoming the #1 face on TNA, she was demoted to the Tagteam division. Sure, she got gold there, but does that title really mean anything when the only other tagteam is the beautiful people? So I think a low position in the top10 is about right for her right now, but in 2010 she will probably be much higher.
You said it yourself Kaledrina, “everyone has the right to their own opinions.” ANY list we produce will always have people that disagree. Can’t please everyone and not trying to.
I have nothing nice to say. So, I’ll keep it moving… lol But naw, I used to see promise in Maryse but her matches with Kelly Kelly really exposed her. Don’t know if I would have even ranked her this high, since she sat out some time due to injury. But it’s obvious that the WWE is big on her character, which I can never understand since she’s so over the top that she borderlines on parody LOL
That’s it! That’s the word that’s been eluding me when it comes to Maryse’s character: parody! Maybe she will become a female version of Santino, a parody heel. For me, great heel characters are dangerous/scary to some degree. Maryse is more humorous because she’s so over the top. There’s no real viciousness or malice there. She’s more a I’m-Too-Good-For-You character rather than the rip-you-to-shreds heel characters I enjoy.
Actually, I think that we do understand the point of Maryse’s ranking and respect it based on the year she’s had. I haven’t seen any spaztastic posts a la Maria’s Slammy win. Of course there’ll never be 100% agreement.
Good for Maryse :]
I like her, 2010 will be a Good year for her I can feel it.
She’ll be Champ (Divas champ) and most likely have some fueds with Gail,Melina and… er probably not kelly heh lol. But yeah Now she’s back I’m really Looking forward to see what happens! I hope she does win the Divas title again.. just so we don’t hear Michelle boasting about holding Both titles all the time they will be talking about the FIRST EVER multible Divas Champ Instead :]
I will respect everyone’s opinions because its there own but I think that maryse has a lot of potential and she definitely has room to grow as a wrestler. She has the character down perfectly but there is always some room for improvement and this is coming from her biggest fan.
Maryse higher than Awesome Kong… ??? I really don’t understand why all of you here try so hard to praise the WWE Divas and shoot on the TNA Knockouts. I mean.. are you people blind? Maryse can barely do 2 moves in a match, wrestlers like her, Alicia Fox, Layla, Eve, Kelly Kelly or Michelle McCrap don’t belong in ANY top. They belong in a bar doing wet T-Shirt competitons.
Anca – how many times do people have to explain this list isnt about ‘wrestling skill’ ? If it was, then the list would be dominated by Joshis and Luchadoras, added in with a few Shimmer wrestlers. Probably the only WWE/TNA wrestlers who would make the list would Hamada/Sarita/Melissa.