Any sort of buildup to this Sunday’s Divas Championship match was noticeably absent from Monday’s Raw, but never fear! The WWE hasn’t completely forgotten about this match, for this week on WWE Superstars, Gail Kim tries to build some momentum going into the big match in taking on Katie Lea. Watch the match below:
Katie Lea takes control out of the tie-up, twisting Gail’s arm behind her back. Gail gets out of the hold by hitting a snapmare, then rolls Katie into a crucifix pin. Katie kicks out, and Gail takes her down again with an arm drag, holding onto the arm and twisting it behind her head. Katie gets free by catching Gail in a leg scissors, but Gail slips free pretty quickly, rolling Katie into a pin for a 2-count.
Katie reverses an irish whip, sending Gail into the corner. Katie charges but misses her mark when Gail slips out through the ropes. She then sends a shoulder into Katie’s midsection, flipping over her back-to-back and attempting a roll-up. Katie hangs onto the ropes, though, and Gail goes flying without her. Running in for the attack, Gail is redirected shoulder-first into the ring post. She hangs there for a while and Katie has to drag her out from between the ropes to roll her into a pin. Gail kicks out at 2.
Katie lays a few boots into Gail before latching her into an arm submission identical to the one Gail hooked her in at the beginning of the match, right down to the same arm. I like that–it tells a bit of a story. Still, we might end up with two competitors with bum left arms by the end of the match. Yikes. Michael Cole says that Katie Lea is working on Gail’s right shoulder, the shoulder that hit the ring post, but it’s actually the opposite. Oh well. Might as well take out both arms, I suppose.
Gail jabs Katie a few times to get free, but Katie stops this with a knee to the stomach. Katie lifts Gail up and hits a vicious shoulder-breaker (to the left arm, if you’re keeping score at home). Katie has shown a tendency to use power moves we don’t see Divas bust out too often, and ones like these are impressive while continuing the forward-momentum of the story and further punishing Gail’s shoulder. She’s not one to use flashy moves that don’t do much other than dazzle the audience, as other Divas tend to do–her interesting moves have substance.
Anyway, Katie goes for the pin and gets a 2-count. She pounds on Gail a bit before ramming her shoulder-first into the turnbuckle. I like how she set that up, with holding her left arm back to leave her shoulder prone. As Gail holds her shoulder Katie Lea forces her into a pin, but she kicks out. She hooks Gail back into the shoulder submission from before. Gail gets to her feet rather quickly, but Katie Lea slams her back-first onto the mat before she can try anything. They trade blows a bit before Katie lifts Gail up onto her shoulder. Gail slips free, going on a string of offense and hitting a cat-like cross-body from the corner. She hooks Katie into a pin, but gets a 2-count. Katie crawls to the corner and Gail hits her slip-out attack, climbing the turnbuckle and hitting a flying dropkick. She attempts a pin, but Katie kicks out.
When they both get to their feet Gail goes for the Eat Defeat, but Katie blocks it, hitting a flying kick. She continues her offense streak, whipping Gail into the corner and charging. Gail lifts up her legs, dodging the attack and giving her the opportunity to hit the Eat Defeat. She pins Katie Lea for the win. As Gail celebrates, Maryse come out to the stage, simply applauding Gail’s effort. Gail just looks confused.
The match, while short, was pretty entertaining. Katie Lea and Gail work quite well together, with Katie’s power moveset and Gail’s aerial abilities allowing them to play off each other in a compelling way. I’d love to see them work together more, and allow Katie Lea to demonstrate some more of that tenacious heel streak she has on Gail’s able selling, but I doubt we’d ever see a feud between them. A match now and then would be nice, though.
But about this match’s spectator–Maryse’s “fool Gail” tactic would work a lot better if she looked a bit more sincere in what she was doing. We all know she’s not really applauding Gail or really wishes for to have 5-star match with her, but it’s not believable for Gail to be so perplexed by her actions. I guess it amounts to a half-assed attempt at creating conflict between them. Speaking of half-assed, what kind of PPV buildup was this? A partial stare-down from the top ramp on a show nobody watches? Sure, the WWE has never had any sort of motivation for building this feud or tournament, but it’s just ridiculous how obvious they are at phoning it in. Let’s hope the booking for this Sunday’s match won’t be nearly as lazy.
Food for thought: Could Maryse ever pull off a babyface run?
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32 Comments
I voted for “Thumbs Up” because I thought this match was really good. Both ladies did a great job working together. I would really like to see them face off again, soon!
As for Maryse turning face, I could see it happening. She’s the top heel for the Divas on Raw so I guess Alicia would have to take her spot of Maryse were to change to a banyface. I think it depends what happens on Sunday. If Maryse & Gail shake hands after the match that could be a good sign for sure! :)
This match just show cased what we’ve all been saying for so long. WWE really needs to use their more experienced talent more and in a better way. Gail Kim, Katie Lea, Jillian and Natalya are underused but everytime they’re put in the ring they pull off something good. I hope WWE used this as a creative trial for a possible Katie Lea vs Gail Kim feud for the championship in the near future.
Maryse is in no way shape or form a face, I couldn’t ever see her as one, I just think it goes against all the laws of nature… but then again there have been some wild card face/heel turns in the past.
Maryse is not turning babyface, she knows she can’t beat Gail fair and sqaure so she’s trying to play mind games and I guess it’s kinda working.
I REALLY REALLY WANT GAIL TO BECOME DIVAS CHAMPION, not womens champion DIVAS CHAMPION and I don’t even have to explain myself because it’s pretty obvious why i want that to happen. Gails Birthday is tommorrow and sunday is elimination chamber so i was hoping WWE would give her the divas title as a birthday present. But I highly doubt that will happen
anything is worth a try, maybe a face turn would mean Maryse starts wrestling again.
allthough there was a lack of build up, i gave it a thumbs up,
i think this was a good match, i kinda liked Katie’s attire this week,
not sure why cause i detest leopard print
What I notice about gail is that she always makes her opponents look good, AND I MEAN SHE MAKES EVERYONE LOOK good. she even made kelly kelly look good which I thought was impossible, someone like Gail would be a great divas champion and would definitely add presitage to the belt
I love this match! so much action! I hope maryse and gail put up a match like this or more better than this in elimination chamber!
The match was pretty good, I was a little worried because Katie doesnt seem to have much chemistry with most of the Divas, So i was expecting the match to be a little awkward.
Also i think Maryse as a Face could work, I mean she is very charismatic & probably wouldn’t be as boring as Michelle was when she was still Face.
ok, everybody knows that i’m like the biggest fan of maryse…
so, hopefuly she would win on sunday!..
but.. i have to say..
I WANT GAIL TO WIN!
why?
Let’s see.. if gail win she would be like shake hands with maryse and THEN!.. maryse goes crazy and MAKE A GREAT AS_ KICKING NEW MOVE ON GAIL!.. so now there would be like a feud to WM26.. In a Total Rising the Gold: Diva and Womens Championship Pack Match … Maryse and Michelle (or Beth) vs Mickie and Gail… So then Maryse winning, can attack Michelle like I`m the best (or Michelle attacking Maryse)..
So theeeeen THE DRAFT! .. wich would change EVERYTHING! …
And then we got Gail Kim moving to Smackdown!.. and Serena to Raw with Cm punk, and looking for the Buterfly!.. THEEEN Serena beats maryse..
—–
If maryse wins on sunday.. She would feud with mickie to WM26 for the 2nd Miss Wrestlemania where only the champs would be looking for the title..
Maryse would win and then DRAFT!… some face would come to raw and gail to SD.. and that face would losee a oportunity for the belt with maryse, and next week on a tag team match melina comesback!…
:)
The crowd was into Gail lol.
gmosoto- Gail’s not leaving Raw because theirs no other babyface that can fill the role of top babyface for Raw. Smackdowns only babyface is mickie james and she’s definitely staying there because theirs a reason she was sent there in the first place
with the wwe’s focus on gail’s shoulder slamming into the turnbuckle, i wonder if they’ll make a mini-angle out of it come sunday? if they do, i’d be okay with maryse winning due to taking advantage of gail’s “injury”. also, if they do do that, it could partly explain why this match was aired on thursday rather than monday.
i’m not that bothered right now who does win the belt. all i want is a decent match involving maryse.
sidenote, it sucks that they edited this match shorter a bit. look at the digitals and look at the match. trimming divas time on superstars now, too. shame on wwe.
I don’t really think there needs to be a lot of tension or anything in this “feud”, simply because it’s not really a feud, it’s the final match in a tournament. It’s basically a bunch on girls trying to get a belt and these just happen to be the last two women in it, I mean, it’s not like Maryse has been sabotaging Gail to try and make her lose or anything remotely interesting like that, it’s just the final match in a tournament. There isn’t any “real tension” simply because there doesn’t really have to be and the WWE hasn’t treated as anything more. Maybe we can get a proper one after this Sunday, seeing as Raw’s go to storyline for the girls is “gimme that belt” and right now, no one has it.
It really doesn’t matter how many wins Gail quietly notches up, the seemingly omnipotent Maryse has been booked to convey the impression she has a trick up her sleeve. And what makes the outcome predictable is that all of Gail’s efforts have done nothing to instil fear in her ultimate opponent. I just don’t see Maryse’s confidence being knocked at all on Sunday, nor can I imagine given the limited skills possessed by Maryse what kind of match it will be.
By the way, this was a good match. These are two women who would know how to make the most of the scraps of screen time on RAW, if the writers cared about having at least a half-decent division.
Match was really good and helly yeah Katie got her entrance…no I should say we were able to see it. I’m not sure what to say about Elimination Chamber. Gail deserves a title win more than Maryse BUT i think that Gail is too good for that Diva’s title. She and also Katie should compete at SmackDown! for the Women’s title.
That was one of THE best RAW Divas matches in a long time! No botches, no crappy arkward spots or anything. I don’t think Gail and Katie ever worked a single’s match against each other. They picked up such good chemistry, together! Love how Katie worked on that shoulder. Gail’s high flying looked good, because she had a strong opponent to work with such offense.
I hope they keep pushing Gail even if she doesn’t win the title, and Katie surely deserves one.
Great work by two of the best female talents in the WWE. Thumbs up :)
I said it once and I’ll say it again, the Scarlet Witch would suit that purple butterfly.
Still picking Gail to pull it out, I don’t care what anyone says haha.
As for the FFT, I’d actually like to see Maryse as a face. Somehow she’s less annoying when she’s being nice. I think I read some time ago that she’d like to get a shot at being a good girl.
I liked this match actually, shame the wrong shoulder was worked on throughout the whole match, as it took some credibility away from it straight away, but nevertheless, the ending was good and it made me want Gail to be Divas Champ even more, let’s hope she pulls it out of the bag, causing they’re fued to continue after Maryse goes psycho! :D
their*, sorry for my grammar fail. :)
Good match with some very clean wrestling from both ladies. It was entertaining but I do agree with you. Sweet f**k all in the way of build up. But still, it was what I expected…
Katie is stealing Maria’s clothes…
Anyways they worked great together and I hope they’kk face each other more times in the future.
I adore Katie Lea. She’s my second favorite next to Nattie, because they’re both so vicious. Not to mention the fact they have good technic. I just hoped WWE would give them more opportunities.
Im so glad Katie Lea got her own entrance for ONCE! Katie Lea is on of my top favoirte divas she & Gail did good. I would love for her & Gail to fued if Gail wins the title.
Mayrse isnt turning face or ne thing not b cuz she clapped for Gail nd what not dosent mean she is turning face its just a friendly good luck
Type your message here…
I love Katie Lea’s ring attire. <_<
I hope that Maryse actually wrestles this weekend, I’m pretty sure she can. I thought she had a nice start with her Smackdown matches, and that was a year ago. She can only have gotten better. The pity about Maryse is her character, sure it’s great on the mic, but it’s not built for wrestling. She hits and runs. I think that if they try and make her face we are going to see some wrestling, because hit and run isn’t really a face tactic.
Gail for Divas champion. Giving it to Maryse seems ridiculously obvious, and if Gail wins it, there’s more choice of who she could feud with. Alicia, Maryse, even Katie-Lea with enough of a push…
The Gail Kim vs Katie Lea match was great! They have excellent chemistry together.
I would love to see Maryse pull off a face turn. I don’t think it will happen because the WWE obviously loves her heel persona, but Maryse could definitely do it.
If you just watch any of Maryse’s non-kayfabe interviews, she comes off as a really sweet and nice person. I think a face turn would actually be the best thing for her, because she could actually start wrestling like she used to instead of doing the classic heel steal-the-win-at-the-last-second-by-cheating thing.
Ooh, I got it. The WWE needs to turn MARYSE face and then send MICHELLE to Raw in the draft! Get Michelle away from Layla, so they can stop that crap, and then you’ll actually have a strong heel/face clash to work with on Raw! Michelle vs Maryse matches were always great to see in 2008.
Everything’s gone downhill for Maryse since Michelle and Maryse’s feud ended and they were separated in the draft. Michelle could actually get Maryse to wrestle.
As much as I would like to see Gail win Sunday, I think they’re going to give it to Maryse. WWE has a notorious history of pushing looks over skills.
As for the idea of Maryse being a face, I think her character suits being a heel.
Marsye is not turning face because when Gail faced Jillian on Raw in that 1-minute match, maryse insulted Gail in french so that proves it
“WWE has a notorious history of pushing looks over skills.”
Maryse is more than a nice rack and blond extensions. She has more natural “oomph” than Katie and Gail combined. Her smiles translates into more than “I AM SO HAPPY TO BE HERE!” or “I AM SO HAPPY TO BE DOMINATING A MATCH”. Who wants to watch Gail badly act while cutting a bad promo? Who gives a ding about Katie when she looks like a CAW?
The match was what it was. I really hate how fake the crowd noise is for Superstars.
i’m voting for gail kim to win so badly. maryse can always get the title later. but gail would be a great top face. she basically is the top face of raw now that melina is injured on gone for a long time. if gail wins then her maryse could feud for the title until the draft. because we all know gail will go to sd!. so lets hope and pray that gail makes maryse eat defeat. lol.( get it because thats her finisher.)