The bait and switch pulled at the Elimination Chamber PPV led many of us to believe that the WWE had bigger plans for the Divas Championship tournament finals. Perhaps a lengthier feud to build up such an important match? No, as it turns out, because they finally decided to have the match on a regular old ordinary episode of Raw. Watch the match below and see if it was worth all the wait:
It definitely surprised me when the Divas Championship logo passed over the screen. But I think, more than surprise, I felt relief–finally this tournament is over! Maryse makes her entrance, and Gail Kim follows. It is mentioned how badly Maryse treated Gail in their tag team match the night before, but other than that this doesn’t feel like something that has been built up over numerous weeks. It feels more like the beginning of a feud; one that started at the PPV last night. At any rate, I’m glad to see this match finally happening. Let’s get on with it.
Maryse goes for the attack at the start of the match, but Gail slips past her, catching her in a belly-to-back hold. Maryse strikes Gail to get free, but the next blow is missed, and Gail rolls Maryse into a pin. Maryse quickly kicks out. Maryse reversed an irish whip into the corner and charges at Gail, but Gail slips out through the ropes, allowing Maryse to run full on into the turnbuckle. Gail blocks a few attacks from Maryse and leaps back over the ropes, continuing the momentum into a pin attempt. Maryse kicks out at 2.
Gail goes on a string of offense, Maryse beginning to look sluggish. It’s only until Gail tries to bash her head against the turnbuckle that Maryse retaliates. She blocks it with her boot and hits Gail’s head against the target instead. She tosses Gail in over the ropes, but Gail quickly reverses momentum into an attempt at the Eat Defeat, but Maryse holds onto the ropes, blocking the move. She kicks Gail across the face and goes for the pin, getting a 2-count.
Maryse picks Gail up, but Gail sweeps her feet, bridging into an unsuccessful pin attempt. Maryse is whipped into the corner but dodges an attack from Gail. Gail still manages to kick Maryse in the head from her perch on the turnbuckle, though. Gail goes for a flying attack, but Maryse tosses her off of the top rope at the very last second, letting Gail crash land on the mat. This seems to take a lot out of both girl, with Maryse holding onto the side of her face for some reason.
Both get to their feet very slowly and Maryse preps for the French Kiss, but Gail pulls her into a small package pin. Maryse kicks out at 2. Both girls stagger around, and Gail hops onto the top turnbuckle, coaxing Maryse over and managing to get on her shoulders. Maryse drops Gail throat-first into the ropes, and Gail snaps around, in perfect position for the French Kiss. Maryse hits it, and gets the 3-count, winning the Divas Championship.
I can’t say we didn’t expect this from the beginning–the outcome, at least. Most knew that Maryse was going to win this, and that a full-fledged tournament would have been a waste of time. Little did we know back then how long this tournament would actually take. This nonsensical stretching out of this tournament killed what little momentum it had, and expose what little thought the WWE has invested into it. They seemed indecisive about what exactly they wanted to do–they held off the finals for weeks so that it seemed like they wanted to have the big blow off match at a PPV, yet when the match is booked for a PPV, they switch it moments before it is to take place with a inter-brand tag team match.
That move led some to think that they wanted to build this match up a bit, but instead the WWE plops the match on a regular Raw and gives it about as much time at we expected–3 whole minutes. Perhaps they thought they couldn’t get away with such a short match on the PPV? That’s the only reason I can think of. They might have thought Maryse’s sneaky actions at the PPV would have added some last minute fire to the Championship match, but that wasn’t really the case. Many of us were tired of this and just wanted the match to happen so they could move on. Well, that wish was granted, and in unremarkable fashion. It simply wasn’t worth the month-long wait, and felt more like the WWE felt that they had to have this match as much as they wished not to, and threw it out there just to get it over with.
This match fit well with the short, underwhelming matches that populated the rest of the tournament, though one would hope that the finals would be a little more impressive. As always, Maryse managed to do as little wrestling as possible, and sneaked out a win. I wonder how the WWE will handle her reign if they are so dead set against having her actually wrestle. I just hope the bookers manage to book a somewhat coherent feud this time. I’m just so damn glad we can move on now.
Skip to 2:42
Later in the night, the rest of the Raw Divas are seen backstage with guest hosts Jewel and Ty Murray. They make awkward small talk before Jillian shows up to croon Jewel’s “You Were Meant for Me”. She gets the brush off, of course, and Jewel shows her how it’s done. Jillian gets defensive and mouths off to Jewel, who slaps her in the face. Jillian wails “Why does everyone slap me??” as Alicia Fox helps her leave. Great comedy bit by Jillian, and I absolutely cracked up at that line. First Sharon Osbourne, now Jewel. Eventually Jillian might be able to open up a music Hall of Fame just based on the people who left handprints on her cheek. Batter up, Cyndi Lauper!
Later on they have a Divas Bullriding contest with Eve Torres, Kelly Kelly, and the Bella Twins riding tandem, which was more like an excuse to see the Divas bounce up and down, because the mechanical bull was as slow as hell and no one had any trouble staying on past the limit. It was largely pointless until the Miz and the Big Show came in to inject some comedy into it. I’m all for the Divas doing stuff with the GMs, but when it’s as time-wasting as this, I’m not too fond of it. It would’ve been much funnier to see Jillian hop on the mechanical bull and go flying rather than see the same boob-bouncing move 3 times over.
The show was a mix of relief (that the Divas Championship tournament is over) and boredom (the short, unremarkable match and the “bullriding”). I’m looking forward to where the WWE will go from here, now that they finally pulled the trigger on giving Maryse the Divas Championship. I’m not expecting anything grand, but a change of pace would do us all good, right?
Food for thought: How long do you think Maryse will hold the Divas Championship?
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55 Comments
Maryse Is My Fav Diva, But now I feel the same emotion at seeing her.!!! *-*
I hope maryse’s reign is not very long.
Quiero ver a otra “WWE Divas Champion”
Of course now it is called – WWE Divas Champion … Not just Divas Champion.
Melanie Reply:
February 23rd, 2010 at 7:21 pm
So the match is put into the standard three minute Divas spot on Raw where Maryse barely wrestles and sneaks out a win. Meanwhile on PPV, she’d actually have to, you know, wrestle. Somehow I don’t think that’s by mistake.
Gail has looked great in the past 48 hours though, major kudos to her for working her butt off two nights in a row. The People’s Champion~
I think the match was simply delayed so that it could be on a PPV as that made more sense than having it on Raw. I wouldn’t be surprised if the match not happening at the PPV was a last minute decision because someone wanted Laycool to wrestle on the PPV, even if it didn’t make much sense (especially Gail losing to Michelle when she was going to be losing the title match to Maryse).
I thought the match was okay. It seemed a little short for a title match but for a free TV match, it got slightly more time than usual.
I like Maryse, and think she has improved leaps and bounds in the ring but…
Maryse was TERRIBLE in that match! Gail Kim had to carry her the entire time, and she was just very sloppy.
I wonder what was up, because Maryse is usually atleast decent in the ring.
Poor Gail =( I was hoping she was going to win….hopefully in due time she will
Instead of the bull riding crap, they should have tried to do a better championship match.
It makes me sad to see the Hot factor meaning more to the WWE than the Talent factor.
“This seems to take a lot out of both girl, with Maryse holding onto the side of her face for some reason.”
Gail had kicked Maryse in the face a few seconds earlier (at the 2:54 mark of the video) and may have caught her harder than intended. If you listen closely, you can hear the kick connect.
well whatever, we all knew from the beginning of the tournment that Maryse would win. When I saw the outfit maryse was wearing and the way her hair style was, it screamed NEW DIVAS CHAMPION. When I saw Gail, she looked the same she always does so I knew maryse was going to win
So far, this has been Gails 3RD DIVAS TITLE SHOT and each time she comes so close but she just can’t win it. I wouldn’t be surprised if maryse holds the title until melina comes back because it seems now-a-days when someone gets injured, they get rewarded with a title reign when they come back and it’s not just with the divas
MAN I WANT GAIL AS DIVAS CHAMPION SO BAD
I don’t think this was a bad match. Maryse actually wrestled, a bit, and with Kim controlling the pace it wasn’t to bad. I think this is actually probably the best Raw match I’ve seen in a long time. Also, I think this was Maryse’s best match on Raw. I’ve been watching her Smackdown matches a lot lately and this is looking like what she was doing, minus that backbreaker that I love so much. This was better than I thought it would be. Maybe, this is the turn for Maryse’s wrestling on Raw, so she will ACTUALLY wrestle.
I thought the match was a little better than what we usually have on Raw, But i agree the writers could put some more effort into it.
sloppy in parts but also an unusually stiff match from the raw divas. i wouldn’t be surprised if these two didn’t get on backstage.
maryse is coming across as increasingly lazy. i’m actually really worried about her, she’s come back looking thinner than before and is looking almost constantly winded/exhausted. and we can’t blame it on ring rust considering she seems to work most raw houseshows.
gail.. well, she’s gail and i admire her patience. last night and the ppv.. is wwe trying to embarrass gail or something?? no idea why, but that’s how it comes across to me.
is it because of her latest injury or SD! was covering it cause it was tapped not live??
maryse seems to be totaly different i used to like on SD! and she was becoming my fav current diva but i think i changed my mind !!
and jillian…awesome like usual
I don’t think the WWE wants to push a former TNA Knockout while TNA is pushing former Diva. Also, they don’t seem to treat their ex-TNA talent to good. Look at Christian he got stuck on ECW for how long? That’s like being the champion of nothing. <_< I think Maryse will do fine, and if not she can do backstage segments that lead to tag matches, and she can continue to be funny as hell! "Get back in the ring!" Haha
please if WWE didn’t want to push Gail, she wouldn’t have advanced to the finals of the tournment, they could’ve easily put Eve or Kelly in that spot. I think they want Gail to pay her dues all over again, kinda work her way up. i mean she’s gotten 3 divas-title shots since her return to WWE so thats obviously a good sign because they know she’s worthy of a title shot
right now, Gail is in the same boat as Alicia fox, both get titles shots but WWE isn’t ready to pull the trigger on them yet, but they eventually will
Guest Hosts are KILLING Raw’s Divas. The whole bullriding crap wouldnt of took place on a normal RAW obviously, and the good segments and matches would be much longer and enjoyable. However, what we got was far too short and it capped off the most boring tournament ever in a pathetic way. Let’s hope now for the sake of RAW, an inter-promotional Wrestlemania bout is made by Smackdown’s writers so something at least good can happen with Gail.
It wasn’t a terrible match… but im a little disappointed in the outcome. i think they should have given the belt to gail kim, it seemed like the fans were finally getting behind her. gail needs a push big time, she can be the top face in the division if they give her the ball and let her talk more. she did it in tna.
RKOyou, perhaps the reason why they didn’t put Eve or Kelly in Gail’s position is because they don’t want them to get beat and taunted by Maryse numerous times.
Hmm.. I’m guessing Maryse will be champ until Melina comes back. Then she’ll feud with her again.
i knew maryse would win
but when i saw the outcome i was still shocked for some reason
maybe because wwe put the title on a women who gets winded in 1 minute matches and isnt allowed to wrestle and only performs like 3 moves and she is sort of injured
i dont no what wwe sees in her….the only thing i could come up with is her beauty
Gail had 18 victories in a row, then lost 2 by cheap tactics. So in the end she looked very good. And i doubt this is over. WWE announced the draft today (april 21st), which means they must fill 8 weeks. And there is no doubt that Gail is the #1 face on RAW right now, so expect a long feud for those 8 weeks.
Having Gail chase the title from the wimpy heel is much more interesting than having Gail as champion with 0 heels able to challenge her.
“Having Gail chase the title from the wimpy heel is much more interesting than having Gail as champion with 0 heels able to challenge her.”
There are 3 more capable women in katie jillian and alicia
guys i’m been hearing that on WWE.com live blog at elimination chamber, Vickie said she’s working on another title to put on the smackdown brand, is this true?????
everyone thinks it’s going to be tag titles for michelle and layla
“There are 3 more capable women in katie jillian and alicia”
Katie and Jillian are only known as jobbers, you cant just put them into the title picture after jobbing for many years, that will require some rebuilding. And Alicia is still too green and already lost to Gail numerous times, so she also doesnt make a credible heel against a Gail champion.
I love Maryse and I always find her entertaining, but I really wish the WWE would have put off giving her the title. She isn’t 100% in her wrestling, and she has really gone backwards in terms of her in-ring skills. They should have given her a bit of time to train and put the title on Gail. If they were able to have a real feud, Gail’s in-ring experience combined with some training would really do Maryse well.
Oh well, at least it’s over. Maybe (but more likely not) we’ll get some kind of storyline, considering how high Vince is said to be on Maryse.
rkoyou, she said something along the lines of how she would like to make a belt for the smackdown divas. but i thought she already did that with divas belt.. that whole chat was she either just got dropped on the head, or wwe are paying some random dude off the street to pretend to be vickie.
just checked the wwe chat archive..
somebody asked ” if you could make a new belt for the WWE, what would it be?”
vickie replied with “i would make a title belt for the womens division just for Smackdown, i am still working on the title”
what they could do is unify the single belts, perhaps with it being defended solely on raw, and have smackdown introduce a tag diva belt. laycool will obviously be the first holders of it ;) although, if they were to introduce any new belt/s on wwe for the women, i would quite like them to go in a different direction and perhaps have a mixed tag belt. i really miss the days when the ladies were nearly all paired up with the superstars.
oh.. and also according to vickie, a battle royal at wrestlemania is a good idea for the divas.
back to raw’s action…. i’m not looking forward to the next few weeks, i think they’ll likely revert back to the random multi tag matches they were doing before the tournament happened. or even the no.1 contender battle royal we’re all accustomed to. cruise control until the draft maybe?
At some point logic has to enter the equation. The fans just dont care about Gail as a face. She got a dead reaction despite a hot crowd and a string of wins. This is a business, not a lets just do what suits some whiny internet marks.
Maryse seems to have no real reedeming quality other than being a hot heel which Vinny wants. I mean, you guys endlessly bash KK. Look at the tale of the tape. Shes younger, alot more popular, more marketable, fits the flashy face role, more durable, never posed nude. I’m not even trying to bash Maryse but if I’m starting a company I would much rather have KK because its a lot harder to find faces the fans accept. They could be using girls like Katie, Natalya, a heel Gail in the prominent heel spots instead of a limited Maryse.
She can cut heelish French promos that are sorta funny but its not doing enough to generate interest and justify a constant push and multiple titles.
Alicia only lost one time to Gail in a single match just Gail lost one time to Alicia. The last tag team match Alicia had she won it so Alicia would make a credible heel more than Maryse. Because Maryse only have a character that’s it.
But Gail Kim should had won:(..
like*
Yeah, Gail simply isn’t over enough. I think we all know that the WWE will push you if the crowd really cares about you. That being said, I dont’ even want Gail with the Diva’s title, it was weird enough seeing Melina and Mickie with the thing. I think it should be reserved for the Kellys and Maryses of the WWE and let the real wrestlers go for the Women’s belt, which is a lot more prestigious. That being said, I kind of enjoyed the match. It wasn’t terribly short and the ending was pretty good. Makes me wonder though, if the Divas actually put together their own matches because it would be weird if Maryse just always said “well I’m going to win so let me do as little as possible” as opposed to an agent telling her not to wrestle too much. I really do hope she ups her game now that she is champion again because I’m the biggest Maryse fan and I’m starting to get bored of her, she needs new moves now and she has to actually start using them lol.
Meh,it was a good match,and a good night overall.I found Gail to make Maryse look competent,so,yeah.
Is Maryse already injured?she looked so uncomfortable out there lastnight, Like she has no confidence when she is in the ring. Gail really needs to stop killing herself, Maryse bearly sold any of her offence. It seemed like after 30seconds Maryse was totaly drained and its hard to be convinced with anything she pulls off.
I re – watched the Gail vs Maryse matches from Smackdown last year. The matches came off better due to the fact Maryse took some of Gails bigger moves like the block buster and top rope frankenstiner, and she also pulled off some of her own moves like the face first leg sweep, that backbreaker and some flash kicks.
Kaledrina- sounds to me vickie was just goofing around and answering some questions. I don’t think they’re really going to make a new title. vickie is a woman and she loves laycool so obviously she would be bias to them. Also vickie doesn’t have the power to make a new belt, it’s WWE decision
why does everyone want the womens and divas titles unified so badley. The divas title was made less then 2 years ago and so far, the title has been a big help because now both smackdown and Raw have a female title. Tag titles are useless when it comes to women, sure of you have real teams it will work out but after a while, it becomes hard to keep the titles going, example being the TNA KO tag titles
“Tag titles are useless when it comes to women, sure of you have real teams it will work out but after a while, it becomes hard to keep the titles going, example being the TNA KO tag titles”
TNA only has 1 show and a limited amount of knockouts, so you cant compare that to the WWE where they have like 16 divas on the main roster and 9 in development, and 4 shows. So if the 2 titles are combined, then it would be a good idea to introduce tagteam titles, most of the divas matches are tagteam matches anyway.
Mikas- eh I think WWE has a great system right now when it comes to the divas and tag titles would ruin it. Plus the tag titles would eventually mean nothing because every diva would eventually hold it
All I Kan say is I knew it….
This rumor going around abt them unifying the Titles…I hope they dont do that. I mean then the womens title will b bak on raw…where right now they r played as a joke. Also I hope they dont come up with Women Tag Team Champions Belts!
First off there isnt enough Divas to be paired up like that. But I suppose if they do unify the titles nd make tag team title then i suppose that that will be a good idea.
As long as they move Melina 2 SD. So Melina & Mickie can b come the first ever WWE Women Tag Team Champs. M & M 2.0…
What’s funny is that Maryse isn’t proving to be anymore over than Gail. They both came out to pretty much silence. At least if Gail were champion, we’d be guaranteed entertaining matches.
how do you not see that!!
gail kicked maryse’s face at 2:54,
the side of her face!! :O
she has a reason to be holding it, i mean wouldnt that hurt you?
and i did not see her get up at 2, i saw her get up when the ref counted three,
:O
“WWE has a great system right now when it comes to the divas and tag titles would ruin it. Plus the tag titles would eventually mean nothing”
Yeah because my five minute max matches is what keeps me going every week. The system is rubbish, there’s no storylines and when there’s chance for it, it’s dragged out to the degree no one cares. Whilst on SmackDown it’s just getting repetitive, I think its just flagging overall. I agree more women’s titles would ruin it when it can barely keep two going. I mean as the newest title, the Divas Championship needs to gain some prestiege, maybe thats why Maryse was penned to win? To gain some familiarity, after a string of one off holders, starting to hold it multiple times would give it more history, I don’t know, but it should be getting all the help it can get and it isn’t. As for a tag division, being split across two brands kills its chances and even if it were contested on both, it’d be just as active as the TNA equivalent which is barely seen nowdays. I mean the WWE Unified titles is barely involve in proper storylines other than individual hypes for randomly paired together stars, what would they do with the Divas given the fact they can barely dedicate 5 minutes to one match and a title match at that? Those titles won’t be revived anytime soon.
As for creating them, you do understand Vickie liking Laycool isn’t real? Its scripted bias, she might like them in real life, it sounds like your blurring reality and wrestling into one there. Plus, Vickie holds no power at all backstage, she’s just an on-screen character, hence why WWE have jumped through hoops to get any excuse to put her on television..
I can’t even comment on that match, I liked the fact Gail had more than two words to say and she didn’t come off that bad either. But to be honest it was just all very blah and predictable. Maryse is starting to look very professional though these days, not in the ring, but image wise, they’ve really made her look like a leading character- which is weird cos she’s not changed much about her. As for the segments, I’m not even commenting, they get more and more random each week and less and less entertaining.
To me TARA needs to back to the WWE because ever since shes been there it hasnt been like OMG VICTORIAS IN TNA. its more like ok victorias in tna and…. And GAIL KIM needs to go back to TNA because ever since she’s been in the WWE its like if you where to name all of the WWE DIVAS right now you might actually forget her name and then when you do remember her a comment might come out like “oohh the one that MARYSE beat last night?”
But its still early in the year no telling what twist WWE might pull off after WRESTLEMANIA.
This is a lesson to all of us. Never assume that WWE will go in a specific direction, because just as Sunday and Monday have shown us, whatever happens the night/week before don’t mean diddly.
Also, Eve was smoking tonight!
I’m a huge Maryse fan and I agree that something needs to be done in regards to how she is in the ring. She used to be really good compared to the rest of the divas. Looking back on her old matches she had signature moves like the leg sweep, the modified figure four, the modified camel clutch, and her backbreaker. Now, she just gets the crap beat out of her and then capitalizes at the very end of the match and hits the French Kiss. If she trained more and if the WWE wasn’t so against making her seem like the kind of weak heel that only gets the win with one move and then the finisher, I think she could be good again.
She gets winded quickly without doing any offense. WWE should MAKE her work on that. AND, they need to start putting some thought into storylines. When Maryse was out, it seemed like they just had matches to have matches. Now she’s back and they don’t even know what to do because Melina got hurt. When superstars unexpectedly get hurt, they immediately know what they’re gonna do but when divas do, it just goes to crap.
I’m still a huge fan of her, but seriously, she’s not like she was on Smackdown or before she got hurt.
Srrry to spiler this but Michelle is the New Womens Champion! I guess Mayrse is gonna turn face….who knows
wow you guys are really harsh on blondes lol .. the way i see it is, if the crowd doesn’t care about you the writers won’t either.
i’ve always assumed that maryse was better on smackdown! because she works better with michelle & cherry.
I wasn’t even excited to watch this match. The only feeling I got from this was being relieved. WWE teased us for a long time and then dissapointed us (ooo, shocker). Then they gave one of the worst Women’s/Divas’ Championship matches ever. Even the 3-second match between Trish and Nidia was better. I don’t think I was even happy for Maryse even though I wanted her to win. Maybe nobody remembered, but this was a history making match. Maryse is now the first ever multi-time Divas Champion and Gail could’ve been the first triple-crown champion.
This is really stupid. I bet that the Divas WrestleMania match is going to be a last-minute thing for the creative team. If not, it’ll probably be another Miss WrestleMania match. If they do that I hope the do a tournament (i know we were tired of this last one) and it comes down to 2 divas. One from Raw and one from Smackdown.
if i were a diva i would want to be on smackdown because that seems to be the place that they at least give a little thought to the divas. therefore i think maryse should be drafted back even though raw is the A show SD is better for the divas and she deserves better :D
“i think maryse should be drafted back even though raw is the A show SD is better for the divas and she deserves better”
i want that, too. i’d like to see michelle traded to raw with maryse back on smackdown. maybe wwe will care about it’s raw division with mccool there. and, well, maryse was better suited to not being on live tv. it just highlights her flaws.
SPOILER: Michelle is the new womens champion so either it will be michelle and maryse vs. mickie and Gail at wrestlemania winner takes the titles or Gail might become the next divas champion. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’m happy michelle is the new womens champion, now Gail has a shot of becoming the divas champion
I agree with Kaledrina, I’m hoping to see McCool moved over in the Draft to Raw, her and Layla. Then have Maryse and Eve back on Smackdown.
GO FUCK YOURSELF Goodnightddtmnm! IF I WANTED TO FUCKING SPOIL SMACKDOWN, I FUCKING WOULD HAVE! LOW-LIFE SCUM! I’VE FUCKING HAD IT WITH PEOPLE THAT SPOIL THINGS FOR OTHERS WITH NO WARNING!
Not directed at RKOyou, he at least has a warning, *HINT*.
Something must be done.
PEOPLE, CAN YOU PAUSE AT 3:23 AND SEE GAIL BLEEDING FROM THE TEETH?
I just dont understand why the title is given to her at all.