Before this Sunday’s big Women’s Championship bout between Michelle McCool and Beth Phoenix, McCool and her Simply Flawless teammates literally ironed out the details for the match on SmackDown this week. Also, who knew that this would end up being Mickie James’ final appearance on WWE television? It’s a very interesting week for the blue brand. Watch below:
First comes the announcement of an ‘Extreme Makeover’ match between Michelle and Beth for this Sunday. What is an ‘Extreme Makeover’ match? Beats me. But I guess we’ll find out Sunday. Just as long as there’s no vanity mirror with light bulbs around it and the Divas aren’t forced to dress in feathered robes like this, I’m good.
So after months of waiting for this tag team match, it’s finally here — Beth and Mickie James versus Michelle and Layla with Vickie on the outside. It seems like this match itself has been months in the making, let alone the Women’s Championship bout. I was really looking forward to seeing a relationship develop between Phoenix and James so it’s weird to think this will be their one and only appearance together as a team.
The match begins with Layla and Phoenix, Layla smartly runs around Beth and applies a side headlock on the Glamazon but is then hoisted in the air and twirled around by the forceful #1 Contender. Layla begins to find her ground, reapplying the headlock but is picked up again and dropped by Beth Phoenix. Beth runs at Layla, who kicks her in the leg, followed by a kick. Layla then irish whips herself off the ropes, as McCool blind tags herself in, and runs at Beth who catches her by the legs. Layla is locked into a giant swing by Beth but in comes Michelle who for some reason, jumps over Layla and then gets hit with a back elbow by Beth. Not even sure what’s going on here. Beth then picks up Layla in a lateral press position, hoisting her above her head but is kicked in the back of the leg by Michelle and ends up falling to her knees. McCool then works over the leg and goes for a pin but to no avail.
Michelle then continues to work over Beth’s leg before tagging out to Layla. Layla also begins working over the leg, stretching it over the bottom rope, applying pressure. She then distracts the referee while from the outside, Michelle begins choking Beth with her foot. Layla drags Beth to the center of the ring, and applies a leglock but is kicked away by Beth. She then throws Layla into the corner and tags out to Mickie who hits a shoulder block on Layla and then slides into the ring under the bottom rope. Mickie hits some clotheslines on Layla, knocks Michelle off the apron but is then caught with a kick by Layla. Mickie manages to reverse an irish whip attempt into a neckbreaker. Mickie signals to the crowd that she is going up top, to a big pop, and hits a Thesz Press on Layla. She goes for a cover but it’s broken up by Michelle who kicks her in the head.
Beth now gets involved, attacking Michelle from behind and the two end up outside the ring. In the ring meanwhile, Layla hits her Layout on Mickie for a surprising win. Layla herself is shocked afterwards that she either A) actually won a match or B) pinned the five time Women’s Champion.
After the match, Beth Phoenix gets in the ring and sets her eyes on Layla but from behind, Michelle chop-blocks her bad leg and takes her down. Lay-Cool now work over Beth as Layla goes to the outside to get an ironing board of all things. Why the hell is there an ironing board under the ring?! Layla props it up in the corner and they both irish whip Beth into the ironing board, back first, in a pretty sick move. Beth however, manages to slowly get back on her feet but is met with a huge big boot from McCool. Vickie then gets into the ring, handing them both lipsticks, as they smear it all over Beth’s face adding further insult to injury. I don’t know about you, but Beth looked severely sunburnt to me — I don’t know if that’s the look they were going for.
The match was decent as well with McCool and Layla isolating Beth’s leg. It’s crazy to think that this was Mickie’s last match, you could hear the pops when she was tagged in and went up to the turnbuckle — how do you just release your most over Diva? It baffles me.
I have to wonder if WWE knew on Tuesday that they’d be releasing Mickie this week, because I was extremely surprised to see her lose clean to Layla who seemingly loses all the time unless Michelle picks up the win in tag matches. It’s a nice rub for Layla but extremely surprising nonetheless. I do think they knew they would be releasing Mickie at the time, it’s a hell of a coincidence.
In all, it was a strong build to Sunday’s match even if it came at the last minute. I thought the post-match beatdown was incredibly effective and made you look forward to the PPV to see if Beth can get her revenge. Great stuff. Considering that this supposedly got terrible reviews in the spoilers, I guess they did a decent editing job to make it look good — it came across great to me.
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65 Comments
Michelle’s performance was flawless.. now, many people are gonna be outraged by this but.. I think Michelle is just as good as Trish, Lita and those girls if not better. Her moves are just, flawless. And Layla, look at her, she is so beautiful. Vickie is such a hot cougar aswell. Yeah anyway, I loved this match and it is such a shame to see Mickie to go out like that, even though Im thrilled Layla one. But, Layla’s finisher. She can do so much better ”/
This has nothing to do with the match for Extreme Rules, it has to do with Mickie James.
What is WWE saying to the fans at live events in the future for the abscene of Mickie James, one of the WWE’s top divas! What are they gonna say, we let her go?
@ Simply Flawless. I agree completely.
I’m not a big fan of “beautiful” diva’s in general. I think it is wrong to put looks over talent. That being said, there are some of these girls that are going in with a “i’m beautiful, i’m hired because i’m beautiful and i only ever need to be beautiful” attitude.
Every now and again you get “beautiful” diva’s who break the mould. Michelle is one. Layla too. Candice arguably the best of all of these type of girls.
They go there, and they know they don’t have the talent that being in the indies would have got them, but they work hard, learn and MAKE themselves credible. Michelle deserves a lot of respect as she is one of the best female in ring performers in WWE right now, and she gets good heat. Real heat, not “why is this on my TV” heat.
Smackdown Divas have done it once again. I’m always excited now to watch and see what happens each week, unlike RAW unfortunately.
Michelle McCool has evolved into such a great wrestler all around. I loved her throughout her whole career and it seems each week, she gets more heat, and she gets better in the ring. Layla as well is doing so well in the ring. I can see her being a top diva one day. I really don’t want to see this team break up for a while.
I like the ending, it worked perfectly in my opinion. I like the sound and impact Beth made it look like it killed when being thrown into the iron board and that boot by Michelle was done well and Beth sold it well.
Sad to see that this is Mickie’s last match in the WWE, hopefully WWE makes the decision to bring her back, cause it was not time for her to go yet. The match this Sunday should be awesome if they’re giving good time and they don’t make this match seem like a total joke.
I think that if they can even out the shows with the Divas, that will be good. Looking good SD.
“They go there, and they know they don’t have the talent that being in the indies would have got them, but they work hard, learn and MAKE themselves credible. Michelle deserves a lot of respect as she is one of the best female in ring performers in WWE right now, and she gets good heat. Real heat, not “why is this on my TV” heat.”
Where is this heat? True, It’s not like she has never, ever gotten booed at any time during her career, but she gets no reaction from the crowd the vast majority of the time, including this week. It’s made worse by the fact that is she is by far the most pushed Diva on the roster. They desperately want her to be the next female star like Trish Stratus, but she doesn’t have a fraction of Trish’s charisma and appeal.
Simply Flawless – I totally agree I’ve been saying that MICHELLE reminds me of heel TRISH back in the day. to me i don’t think that she gets the proper recognition that she deserves now and back when she was DIVAS champ.
This was a good match i never thought that i would be seeing MICKIE come out to BETHS music tho.I’m still in shock that she’s not in the WWE anymore. i think the respect level for the DIVAS went down after LITA retired. i mean they couldn’t even give her a final match and a extra 1 or 2 minutes to say thanks to all her fans and stuff like that and that goes for SHELTON as well.
I think Michelle is a better wrestler than Trish and Lita too. For one thing, she’s not as sloppy as Lita (how many times did Lita nearly kill a girl with her moonsaults?) and is more innovative than Trish. Michelle’s always trying new things and offering new offense. Where they trump her though is personality as both were able to draw crowds to them, while Michelle is still struggling with that.
How can any of the girls that are heels get boo’ed they hardly do anything to get it…
good match i was shocked layla pinned mickie like she was…..
michelle doesnt get boo’ed too me its like shes just wrestling a match not connecting to the crowd & is too afraid too open herself to the crowd..
mickie im gon miss her alot i think she did her best too keep interest in the womens division & is always gon be respected for that..
On to whole Michelle/Trish/Lita thing, Michelle is head and shoulders a better wrestler than Lita. I know when Lita was towards the end ofher career, I hated seeing her. Her ring work was incredibly sloppy, poor and lazy and she was called a slut 24/7 to top it off.
Trish however is head and shoulders above Michelle, for now. The two both have very different wrestling styles and they could be equally as good on that front, but you can’t argue the fact Michelle doesn’t have anywhere near the amount of charisma Trish had. Her heel one liners were classic, and we’ve seen nothing like that from Michelle. Trish was entertaining as a Face too, something Michelle wasn’t. Once Michelle improves her mic skills (which she is currently doing), she’ll reach the heights that Trish was at.
The match was good, I just hope the lipstick and stuff isn’t present at Extreme Rules. I know I’m probably hoping in vain though :(.
Ill probably get slated for this but this was Mickie’s last match and she jobbed to Layla. Joke.
You won’t get slated. Mickie is miles ahead of Layla and it’s a complete disgrace she went out this way. The casual fan will ask himself, where’s Mickie? She’s gone now, and they probably don’t even know it, and that is what is truly disgusting.
i do agree Mickie really deserved a farewell speech or something
Mickie is by far a bigger diva and had a bigger impact then Victoria
Victoria was a jobber for 2 years and was irrelevant as a diva since she lost her last title in 04, so for 5 years she was doing what Katie did up until now, and what Jillian has mangaed to do her entire WWE stint, and thats escape release, yet she was allowed to get a fareweel speech
Mickie is one of the most decorated divas, one of the most popular, and she didnt get a farewell, she was shoved in a match, got pinned by Layla..and then released…not at all fair
i loved Layla getting a win, but id rather that this match happened last week, and themn this week we had Michelle/Mickie and have Mickie say goodbye have LayCool beat down Mickie, Beth come out, fail a save attempt, get beat down and have the whole irnoing board skit.
but i still dont believe this was a way of wwe saying fuck you to Mickie…this was taped 2 entire days before WWE chose to release Mickie
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They must have edited this a LOT since the spoilers said it was absolutely terrible. I wonder if the cheers you heard were pumped in through the speakers. And Layla’s looking for the ironing board edited almost seamlessly. (despite the crowd being suddenly louder for no apparent reason.
I thought it was great too. It is so weird to think of this as Mickie’s last match, but she went out true to form. She sold everything perfectly, especially the end, & she got a HUGE pop from the crowd. Plus her entrance with Beth was kinda funny. I had really been looking forward to seeing her work with Beth like this for a long time. It’s a shame they only got to tag up like once.
They even announced Mickie as the most “decorated diva” when they were announcing the tag match at the beginning! How could they release her!! I’m still so mad!
This sounds kinda stalker-ish, but I always loved the idea of knowing where the divas are & what they’re doing every week. It made them seem more real than other celebrities, like where you only see them in reruns of shows or movies or at concerts. I loved knowing that Mickie was always going to be there the next week.