With last week featuring two Divas Championship Tournament matches, one would think that the WWE were going full-speed ahead with the tourny. However, this week brought a halt to it, so to speak, because the WWE felt fit to press pause on the tournament in order to feature a tag team match with the remaining four Divas. Gail Kim and Eve Torres took on Maryse and Alicia Fox in something that shouldn’t really make sense in the context of the tournament. Watch and draw your own conclusions about whether or not it was unnecessary:
Gail and Maryse start out the match, with Gail immediately outsmarting Maryse and rolling her up into a pin. Maryse kicks out at 2 and is whipped into the corner, receiving Gail’s shoulder attack. Gail slips out of the ring and climbs the turnbuckle, hitting a sit-down dropkick and going for another pin, still getting 2. Maryse reverses an irish-whip, sending Gail into the ropes. When she gets close enough, Alicia grabs her by the hair, and Gail takes a wild swing at her, which she ducks. Maryse lands a well-placed boot that sends Gail flying out of the ring. Alicia attacks her on the outside, slamming her head against the floor before tossing her back into the ring.
Maryse brings Gail to her feet, hitting her with a forearm before planting her with a backbreaker. She goes for the pin and gets a 2-count. Maryse grabs a handful of Gail’s hair and brings her to the corner, tagging in Alicia. Maryse hits a snapmare on Gail and she and Alicia lift her up from either side, slamming her down onto her back. Gail gets to her feet and battles back at Alicia until she’s taken out with another backbreaker (it looked like she did 75% of the work too, flipping into it like she did). Alicia goes for the pin, and Gail kicks out at 2.
While Gail gathers herself Alicia preps for her scissors kick. However, Gail moves at the last moment and likely gives Alicia a mean charley horse. Gail moves to a corner into which Alicia charges, but she moves and lets her get a face full of turnbuckle. Gail springs to her own corner and tags in Eve. Eve goes on a blast of offense, whipping Alicia into a corner and charging, but getting a boot to the face. Alicia comes running out of the corner but Eve halts her with an armdrag. She hits a dropkick (which we can only assume Alicia was selling out of habit rather than impact) and another (this one making contact). She clotheslines Alicia and hits her somersault splash and goes for the pin. The referee double-checks Alicia’s shoulders (kudos, ref!), so Alicia only stays down for a 1-count.
Alicia gains control and whips Eve into the corner, but gets an elbow to the face. Eve climbs the turnbuckle and latches Alicia into an arm bar, flipping forward and landing on the mat, switching into a full arm bar. Maryse tries to come to Alicia’s aid but Gail takes her out, and Alicia soon submits. Eve and Gail celebrate their victory as Maryse tosses up her hands to show her aloofness while Alicia uses hers to support her sore shoulder.
I was pretty confused when this match came about, mostly because I was expecting a tournament semi-final match. A tag team match is fine and dandy, but it makes little sense in the course of the tournament. These women are supposed to be enemies–after all, Gail might face Eve in the finals, or Maryse might face Alicia in the finals. We know that that’s not likely to happen, but they’ve got to keep that option open, and teaming these girls up together just makes you forget that they’re supposed to be against one another. Sure, Eve and Gail can be buddy-buddy–they’re good girls, after all–but having Alicia and Maryse coexist? I don’t know.. I know this match was likely just to delay the tournament another week and make a Royal Rumble match more likely (with two semi-final matches next week), but they could have used the four girls in a more creative way that didn’t make the tournament seem like friendly competiton rather than a fierce battle for a vacated championship.
The match itself was decent, with Gail doing most of the work with Maryse. I know that that’s become Maryse’s staple–take the punishment, hit a move or two then get out of the ring–but it’s just tiring to never see Maryse really wrestle. All it does is make it look like Maryse can’t string two moves together, and I’m sure that’s not the message they want to send. Alicia and Eve worked well together, I think, aside from the botched dropkick, but I’m sure that one more will be the talk of the town for a while anyways. Eve’s cool submission looks like it could develop into a fantastic move, given that they don’t overdo it and have her bust it out every match. A cool move like that should only be busted out on special occasions in order to preserve its “wow” factor. I can only hope that Eve’s got more tricks up her sleeve so her move-set can keep from getting as predictable as some other Divas’.
It was cool to see a Divas match end on submission–it’s been a while since we’ve seen that. Hell, I’m just glad it didn’t end on a roll-up. I still can’t keep from wishing that the WWE went another route with this tournament off-week, doing something that could keep these girls in separate corners and maintain the isolating illusion that tournaments can bring. It’s supposed to be every girl for herself, isn’t it?
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40 Comments
I enjoyed watching it. Too bad it was short as usual.
I didn’t like this match at all. Gail Kim was the only hope in this match. :/ I felt like when Eve was tagged in, she tried to pick up the pace and it only backfired against her because all of her moves turned out sloppy. Especially that god-awful drop kick. I thought Alicia did great work, though. I cringed when she missed her leg scissors, it looked like it hurt her knee.
I enjoyed the work between Alicia and Eve and thought they had a great fast pace in the ring which you don’t usually see from two inexperienced girls [Brie/Maryse]. They came across confident & had good ring presence with each other.
It’s a shame that a missed dropkick will be all that most take away from this though. I commend Eve for not being deterred by the fact she’d messed up and continuing the match straightaway and covering it up. That’s what a professional does and she handled it well. And to her credit, aside from that I think she looked good and I really liked her submission finisher. Not many girls use submission finishers so it’s a nice change.
I don’t mean to say she or Alicia for that matter are perfect in the ring, they’re not. But as far as WWE goes, they are decent and can put on a good Divas match.
“It was cool to see a Divas match end on submission–it’s been a while since we’ve seen that.”
Didn’t Natalya win with a sharpshooter not to while ago? O.o
Anyways, not mention the botches. I think the stupid part of this, is the fact that Msryse is an arrogant character, so I don’t see her being oh so happy to have to share ring time with others.
A after match attack by one of the girls would be great, especially by Maryse. I mean, she’s a heel, but people cheer her like she’s a babyface.
Ana,completely agree on a post-match bit. This match was intended to build toward the upcoming matches, yet it didn’t. There should’ve been more than just a straight up match.
It woudl’ve been better to get more segments, outside of Maryse, running on how the final four feel about heading into the semi-finals. The match itself was out of the blue, but understandable, but as with every Diva match on Raw- cut short. Eve continues to impress, but I just see this match as the calm before the planned storm, I mean they’ve built some tension with Eve and Maryse and they’ve been running up wins for Gail, so therefore its going to be ‘shocking’ when Maryse turns the tables and defeats Eve and with Gail being defeated in the finale.
Also in defense of Brie Bella (I must be ill or something) she wasn’t THAT bad in that match, I mean she did almost as much as Eve in this one, sure we know what Eve’s capable of, but I think in the opening round Brie outpeformed Maryse in the move-set rankings. Not that any of that matters, I guess we’ll have to wait til the RR maybe? To see Maryse win the title that we’ll never see coming.
I thought the match was ok and the commentators did well putting over the tournament and the Divas, especially when Jerry Lawler said Gail tried to reverse Maryse’s backbreaker into a DDT, nice touch. :)
I thought it was an alright match, although Eve’s dropkick made me cringe a lot. I wouldn’t have expected Eve to get the pinfall though, but I liked her new finisher.
I’m sorry, but Eve’s phantom dropkick was hilarious. Her submission move also looked weak as hell and very awkward, apart from that it was a decent match, but all people will remember is the screw up.
I had a look at the comments when i woke up this morning and the feedback on the match from most people was really negative. having just watched the match, i was suprised, because i thought it was actually pretty good! yes there was a botched drop kick in there (as much Alicias fault as it was eves) but they recovered from it very well and it certainly didn’t ruin the match. Eve’s finisher really looked great. I think an Eve/Alicia final could be on the cards!
The biggest downside to the match for me (besides Maryse not being more dominant/offensive) was the lack of crowd reaction. I think that is mainly down to the characters of the girls. Gail has no character, and Alicia and Maryse play a fairly similar, generic cocky heel. It’s pretty hard to get excited about that.
but overall I say well done to the Raw divas this week because Gail was solid as always, and the other three are showing signs of steady improvement (yes even maryse!)
an okay match. i would’ve preferred a fatal four way, though, if not the next round of the tournament.
as for eve and that dodgy dropkick, i think a lot of that has to do with her trying to be faster than she actually is (it looked like she was rushing almost), whereas others, like gail, are naturally that speedy. but for two rather inexperienced divas, they did well to keep going and not let the entire thing break down *glares at mickie james* ;)
thinking about it, i wonder if the original plan was to have both the semi(?) finals on raw, but instead another segment over run and they threw this together last minute?
i like maryse, but i think her standing about doing nothing much at all is really ruining her. she’s one of the few divas who are allowed to have a personality, and it comes across, to me, that wwe are trying their best to destroy that aspect of her.
The match would have been better built with a backstage segment, maybe with all four girls talking about how they’re going to win the tournament. Then, when the match’s over, all four eye one another with distrust, knowing that the woman standing across or next to her could be standing in the way of her title. Instead, we get the same ol’ same ol’. It’s no wonder no one cares about the Diva Title.
i agree with mr socko, before last night it seemed a done deal that the final was going to be maryse/gail. but after the raw action, it seems more likely they may be pushing an alicia/eve thing instead.
as much as maryse reclaiming the belt would be great, i’d love for a swerve such as eve or alicia in the final.
Why are they making Eve use submission? It was such a sucky move, pretty much a head scissors..
Gail Kim has the Christo, she should use it more..
I thought the match was ok.
It seemed amature because their Music Themes lasted like 3 seconds and they didn’t get in the ring whilst they played. It was stupid, in my opinion RAW should have carried on with the tournament.
Why do people keep saying Maryse is ”inexperienced/sloppy”? Yea she has only been training for about 3 years but I haven’t seen Maryse botch one move yet. Actually, Maryse saved Brie from looking ”Jackie Gayda-like” in that match they had a few weeks ago (don’t believe me, watch it again). I can’t recall a time where she has ever messed up really badly. If you can PLEASE correct my mistake.
GK1, with that attitude i reckon you should just give up on women’s wrestling all together and watch something else.
i agree with iLUVMARYSE – she does not deserve the criticism she gets by some of the people on here. I think she’s more a victim of bad booking than anything else and she’s probably still not 100% fit.
An Alicia Eve final would be genuinely exciting because neither girl has held the title before, and it would be very difficult to predict
x
Maryse and Gail will definitly be in the finals and I bet all my money on that
I was disappointed, I really wanted to see the semi-finals matches NOW and not later
Maryse is just psoiled by WWE, thats why she doesn’t deserve to be divas champion AGAIN so soon, she’s never had to take a backseat before to anyone and I think it’s time she did
i def can see eve getting the push and the title. her going down to fcw all last week, and debuting a new finisher just seems like perfect timing for her to win. overall good match, sucky crowd.
You wanna see why Maryse is called sloppy or a botch queen? Look at any of her Kelly Kelly matches or even the match against Cherry. Hell, in this match, she botches her backbreaker and nearly breaks Gail’s tail bone! LOL Maryse can probably be something good in a few more years. As it is, she is far too inexperienced and not ready to be the figurehead for a brand.
“Hell, in this match, she botches her backbreaker and nearly breaks Gail’s tail bone!”
Unless Gail actually got hurt, I don’t see what the problem is. If the move looked really painful without hurting Gail for real, isn’t that a good thing?
Why do people keep saying Maryse is ”inexperienced/sloppy”? Yea she has only been training for about 3 years but I haven’t seen Maryse botch one move yet. Actually, Maryse saved Brie from looking ”Jackie Gayda-like” in that match they had a few weeks ago (don’t believe me, watch it again). I can’t recall a time where she has ever messed up really badly. If you can PLEASE correct my mistake.
Maryse saved Brie? I think you’ll find Brie did most of the work in that match, all Maryse did was her usual routine of playing to the crowd and the DDT. She may not have botched, but its not that hard seeing as she only has five moves to rememeber in the first place and seeing as she does them on a loop, she must’ve mastered all five by now. I’m expecting a bit of heat now, but to be honest you’ll only defend her regardless, your name pretty much stops you having an unbias opinion. I think people need to stop getting charisma and ring skills confused. Can she mouth off? Yes. Can she wrestle? To a degree. Is she improving? No, has she actually done anything new or wowing since her return that doesn’t involve demon eyes or the hand flick?
Maryse’s matches with Kelly were not bad at all and that Brie botch she saved was painfully obvious, doesn’t really matter how much “work” Brie did (a jumping snapmare and a dropkick from what I can recall). It seems people forget that Maryse injured her knee so they are probably taking things easy on her right now, the same way McCool barely wrestles because her knee injury still bothers her. And no one is getting ring skills and charisma confused, it’s just that Maryse’s character and mannerisms can make up for her lack of in ring action most of the time. And I like how you pointed out how Maryse does her moves in a loop, what Diva doesn’t? Most of the girls have about 4 or 5 moves that they always use so I don’t see why you want to single out Maryse. People need to quit hating, Maryse may not be the best wrestler but she is pretty much the only girl on either show who isn’t a “point and smile” or a “look really mean” character. They should play up the psychotic aspect of her character more actually.
Why not just enjoy things? It’s just a butterfly title. Who cares who wins it?
As long as I keep watching them wrestling, I don’t care who is with the title.
I would love to see Eve win it. I already said it before but Eve and Maryse would be a great feud.
Gail Kim is an awesome wrestler, she will get the title soon don’t worry.
But after thinking about these match I’m actually more confident to see Eve pick up the win.
And I give the”haters” two months to start loving her after WWE turns her into the top babyface. It’s the same old shit.
I remember when everybody hated Michelle Mccool. Not to mention the Melina haters. Now EVERYBODY loves Melina!
chrisP wrote:
“Unless Gail actually got hurt, I don’t see what the problem is. If the move looked really painful without hurting Gail for real, isn’t that a good thing?”
Workethics. You aren’t supposed to hurt your opponent. If you are not capable of properly executing a potential dangerous move, you should stick to easier moves. I have to admit though, that Maryse executed that move plenty of times without messing up in the past, so this could’ve been an incident. But i do believe she needs to train more (especially stamina and strength training), since her comeback she looks kinda weak, has trouble keeping her balance and is out of breath too quickly.
IMO, the match was just awful.
“Workethics. You aren’t supposed to hurt your opponent. If you are not capable of properly executing a potential dangerous move, you should stick to easier moves. I have to admit though, that Maryse executed that move plenty of times without messing up in the past, so this could’ve been an incident.”
My point was that you’re supposed to not hurt your opponent while making it look like you did. That takes skill. Not hurting your opponent by missing completely or making the move/hold look fake and harmless takes no skill.
After rewatching the match I have to say it’s not as bad as I thought it was. It still wasn’t the greatest match but it wasn’t awful either. I must point out that I loved the double team move Alicia and Maryse did on Gail. Nice team work. I liked the submission Eve did but for some reason I don’t think it fits her. I don’t see Eve using submission moves.
RAW is simply dreadful (“trbl” even) right now, and I’m just wondering how anyone can prefer it to Smackdown. The match on RAW was decent but this tournament has no fire behind it, and therefore the fans (and myself for that matter) have little reason to care about these women. It’s just the same old “Smiley babyface divas” vs. the “Scowling heels”.
I’m thinking that the decision to delay the Diva’s title semi-finals is a big win for those hoping for Mickie/Michelle/Beth to receive the spot at the Rumble. The WWE isn’t completely inept, and knows very well that the Triple Threat is the superior option. The Diva tournament will probably be completed post-Rumble, perhaps at the following PPV. It’s probably for the best, as these women and “writers” are going to need more time to get the fans to care.
I don’t mean to get too off track, but RAW really really needs to bring in some new talent to spark the division. We need a Mickie James-esque debut. The key is this: The woman has to have years of wrestling experience, but needs to be young enough that the WWE feels she is worth a long term investment. Mickie and Melina have become the golden divas of this era because they debuted met both of those requirements at the time. The Kellys, Eves, and Maryses need more time to develop, while the Gail Kims will never be seen as long term investments because of age. A good candidate? Serena Deeb.
“I don’t mean to get too off track, but RAW really really needs to bring in some new talent to spark the division.”
Probably in april after Wrestlemania, they dont make roster changes in the Rumble/Wrestlemania period. In FCW they are now focussing more on Lavinia, Naomi etc, instead of AJ/Serena, so you can bet that AJ and Serena will move to the roster in april. AJ would be a good babyface in the underdog role (she is about the same size as Layla). Serena would also be a good face.
Btw, about the botch. Yes, Eve failed it, but Alicia was worst by still falling, like she has hit. If Eve had only failed it, they could say “oh Alicia moved away”. So they both botched.
@ Looking Glass –
Yes, I’m a Maryse fan but i can also contribute an unbias opinion as well. My take on things was just i was wondering why most people give her heat for being unexperienced/sloppy when she has shown no signs of that to me personally. No she hasnt debuted any moves & she isnt the most talented diva in the WWE but there is a thin line with people judging her with their opinions & just plain facts. Maryse gets it done out there whether you like her or not.
Decent match.I also cringed when Alicia missed her finisher.I like how Eve’s moveset is becoming unique in its own right.What with the handspring moonsault,flipping senton,and now armbar submission hold.
This Raw,like many others has been boring.I like the idea of having two matches on the same show,because it’s like the competitors are going up against eachother,seeing whos match will be better than the others.Needless to say,I’m excited for next week.
One thing I have realised is that you can always count on TrishMelinaFan to tell it like it is
I really don’t understand why fans give Maryse such a hard time about her in ring work. She isn’t that bad, I agree she could do more but I’m starting to think that it’s apart of her character to belittle her opponents and get her a$$ kicked and still come out on top. I agree I don’t recall ever seeing Maryse botch on TV like some of the other divas do. Someone said Brie looked better then Maryse in that match they had? She just did a hair toss and and a snap mare. She barely took any bumps Maryse took the most bumps in that match. Anyways on to the match….what was so bad about it? It was one of the better diva tag matches I seen on raw in a while. All four ladies did well imo. Keep it up Raw divas. I just think some fans just like to bash the match because they don’t have a favorite on Raw…so they like to put down every match there is on Raw.
This match was decent… Was it five start I dont think so but is the best one since Melina got injured in my opinion. I like Eve submission move I think it makes her look bettet as a wrestler than just do Spot. Eve just miss a Dropkick….oh well wresltlers way better than her miss to so their no point to put her down because of it..If she didn’t care and kept going why should I? I was expecting this match I think they’re waiting till the Rumble for the Rumble. Again my whish to see a Diva rumble is crushed. I dont really understand the point that WWE try to give with this match…Was it to make Eve look dominant over the other or what? What do you guys think?
i agree with mikas and undi, we need some new divas on Raw and my beautiful wife AJ lee(lol) is perfect for the role, add Mia mancini also. The womens division is getting stale and boring and we need some fresh meat on the roster
I believe the match should’ve been Eve/Maryse vs Alicia/Gail so they could build that one of these girls will face another in the finals but WWE never does heel/face teams for the Divas so oh well. Then when Eve makes Alicia tap, Maryse comes in, DDT, then the whole thing breaks down. It would’ve made the tournament more credible and seem like the Divas actually want the title.
I’m wondering why did they do a tag match this week, it should have been the qualifying matches first this week, than the tag match next week, backwards ass WWE lol1
The finish was just awful why have Alicia tap out to a basic armbar???
Maryse botched her back breaker.
Gail didn’t do much.
Eve shouldn’t be doing high risk moves she’s kinda big to be jumping on the smaller girls she could easily injure them.
All around a bad match not to mention the botched dropkick.
After watching this match it has put me in mind that Gail is the only one of the four divas that should be the champion. Maryse just seemed to lose track of Gail when she was running around and she of course she uses the same moves she always does. Alicia, while she is one of the better new girls she still has a few things that she needs to sort out. Finally Eve, while I am a huge fan of hers, I think she is still quite new to it and I think she should hold back for a while before she is ready for a championship. Gail is the better choice as she has worked off her ass to make all her matches good, also we know she can cut good promos just watch some of her promos while she was in TNA, and if you give her a decent timing match then she can have a great match with a girl who is not so good, like Gail’s match against Kelly a couple of months ago.