Extreme Rules in Review: ‘Extreme Makeover: McCool Edition’
Extreme Rules is done and over with, and the mixed reviews continue to pour in. Last night, each and every one of us were able to watch the first ever Extreme Makeover Match which starred the reigning WWE Women’s Champion, Michelle McCool, and the lovely, beautiful Beth Phoenix. These two talented Divas fought within the confines of the match regulations and delivered one of the best diva matches we’ve had in awhile. Michelle’s cohorts and resident SmackDown mean girls, Layla and Vickie Guerrero, would make their presence felt, and as the match reached it’s crescendo we all watched as the Phoenix rose again. When the dust settled and the smoke cleared, Beth Phoenix was crowned the ultimate Queen of the WWE once again and Simply Flawless were sent limping to the back with their heads bowed down in silent defeat.
Before the match begins, the WWE gives us a close up of the make-up table and the so-called weapons that are going to make this match extreme. Michelle McCool and her Simply Flawless stablemates make their way to the ring first. Michelle does this unnecessary dance at the top of the ramp before she begins to saunter down to the ring. It’s not as if we were able to see her walk to the ring because the ‘E decided to get in a sponsor announcement but hey, at least they didn’t go to commercial a la TNA. Michelle and Layla are matching and Vickie is sporting some sexy mom jeans that didn’t have an elastic waist thus making me wonder if they were even mom jeans at all?
As the Vickie insults start to fly thanks to our wonderful broadcast team, the Glamazon’s theme music hits and Beth receives a massive pop as she makes her way onto the stage. As always, the shapely blonde looks gorgeous and her face reads of nothing but absolute confidence as she stalks down to the ring. As tonight’s “Buffet of Beauty” waits to get underway, Beth poses to the crowd while Laycool plus Vickie try to not look that effected. When things settle down, the referee holds the championship up for everyone to see and then calls for the bell. Michelle and Beth circle one another before locking up and jockeying for position. Beth forces Michelle to the ropes and the ex-teacher slips between them temporarily. Beth doesn’t break the hold but Michelle does get the advantage and nails the Glamazon right in the face. Beth staggers back and Michelle follows it up with a kick, an uppercut, and a whip into the turnbuckle. Beth jumps on the ropes, over a charging Michelle, and rolls her up for a quick pin. Michelle is out after the one count, but the match is off to a fantastic start.
Beth stays put in the corner and lures Michelle towards her. The Floridian eats an elbow and Beth pounces on the second rope and flies off with a devastating clothesline that takes Michelle down hard. Beth goes for another cover but Michelle kicks out, then rolls out of the ring to regroup. She doesn’t get enough time to collect herself because Beth is on her like white on rice and soon enough, Michelle is flat on her back again and this time it’s on the dirty ring mat. While Michelle is withering around on the ground in pain, Layla comes at Beth like a crazy woman and she’s waving a broom. Beth snatches it from her and gives Layla a little dose of pain. She tosses her into the ring, follows her, and even jabs the broom at Vickie Guerrero. Vickie wants nothing to do with that so she quickly drops off the apron. After Beth makes sure Vickie and Layla are in check, she goes to the other side and jerks Michelle up by the hair. Michelle, though, has summoned her inner Beautiful Person/Maryse and fights off Beth with a hair spray shot to the face. Beth is blinded by the Aqua Net and Michelle reaches under the ring for a weapon.
The majestic ironing board makes it first appearance of the night and Beth gets an abortion whether she needed it or not. Beth is covered by Michelle but she manages to kick out after the two. Michelle’s not thrilled by this so she decides to punish her challenger but slamming her with the ironing and then laying it flat across Beth’s mid-section. Michelle jumps right in the middle of it which leaves Beth down and visibly hurting. The devious blond decides to keep up the offense on Beth’s injured mid-section and applies a very painful body scissors to the number one contender. Beth does her best to fight back and finally catches Michelle in the jaw with an elbow. The soon-to-be ex-champion releases the hold and calls for a weapon. She receives an iron via of Layla, but unbeknown to Michelle, the cord of the iron has gotten stuck so when she goes to use it, it slips right out of her hands! Beth is able to capitalize with a quick roll-up but a horrified Michelle slips out of it! She quickly puts the boots to Beth and gets the Glamazon into the corner where she places the ironing board across Beth’s chest. Michelle harassing the crowd then kicks the dastardly weapon leaving Beth stunned from the brutal assault. Michelle pulls Beth away from the ropes, hooks both legs, and goes for the cover. She only gets a two count and it looks like frustration has started to settle in for the graduate of Florida State.
Michelle rolls to the outside and picks up a red mop bucket. Whatever’s inside she tosses on Matt Striker in frustration (perhaps she was listening to the commentary?) and she reaches for what seems to be the supporting guest star in this match: the ironing board. As she goes to crawl back into the ring with it, Beth drop kicks her, and Michelle flies back into the make-up table, bouncing her head off it in the process. The crowd is shocked at the sheer brutality of the spot and Beth goes to capitalize. She’s greeted by Layla and Vickie who double team her long enough for Michelle to stand up in a dazed state and grab another can of hair spray. Beth wiggles away from Layla and Vickie just in time for Michelle to spray her BFF in the face. Layla starts screaming that she’s blind and Michelle slams the Aqua Net to the ground in disbelief that Layla just got sprayed instead of Beth. Beth grabs Michelle by the hair and throws her right across the make-up table giving all of us reason to think something awful is about to happen to McCool. Beth keeps her grip on Michelle’s hair and slams the other woman’s face into the wood a couple of times before just pushing the table over and sending Michelle sprawling onto the mat.
Beth uses her half a minute free time to start throwing weapons into the ring before she pulls Michelle back inside. The groggy champion halfheartedly gets to her feet but Beth is waiting and ready to knock her down again. Beth slams the red mop bucket into Michelle’s abdomen and then hits her in the back with it. If that wasn’t awful enough she throws all her weight behind the bucket and launches it right at Michelle’s face. Michelle isn’t able to duck or anything, so she ends up slumping to the ground thanks to the ferocious beating she’s taken for the last few minutes. Beth goes for the cover but by sheer instinct alone Michelle manages to get the shoulder up. An annoyed Beth decides that she’s basically ready to the end the match. She places to ironing boards together in the ring and goes to get Michelle. She hoists her up and places her on top the rope, climbing up after her. At this point, Vickie and Layla do the only other thing they can do and that’s start batting at Beth’s feet with a mop and a broom. I guess this distracts the Glamazon from superplexing Michelle down onto the ironing boards, because next thing you know Michelle is able to muscle the stronger woman off of her. Beth lands flat on the metal weapons and you have to think that the Glamazon is out of it at this point. Michelle goes for the cover but Beth somehow by the grace of God (…or David) manages to kick out. Michelle lets out an ear piercing shriek and pitches a fit, not that I blame her. Beth has been hit with everything at this point and she won’t stay down. There’s really nothing else left for Michelle to do.
She gets Beth up by the hair and looks to be setting up for the Faithbreaker. Beth has come to far to give up now she digs deep and reverses the attempt by picking Michelle up on her shoulders. Michelle fights out of it but she ends up in a position for Beth to hit the Glam Slam. Beth hoists Michelle in the air and we all know what’s coming. Michelle starts screaming bloody murder but Beth has no sympathy and puts Michelle out of her misery. She goes for the cover, gets the pin, and we have a brand new champion! Layla and Vickie are so shocked and horrified, and tears spring to the eyes of Beth as she is announced the winner. The crowd is very happy with this outcome and Beth poses with her newly won championship.
The Good: I think the first thing that needs to be applauded is WWE management. We lay the smack down on them each and every week, and rightfully so, but tonight they gave their amazing divas an ample amount of time to go out there and work a match that would satisfy diva fans and maybe even make a few haters open their eyes to the fact that these girls are no joke. Beth and Michelle are two of the best on the WWE roster right now and despite the fact the match could have been so much more, they did their absolute best with what they were given. Beth took an amazing bump from the ropes onto an ironing board. Michelle more than proved that she is the top diva heel in the company. She beat on Beth and never really held back, not to mention she took some punishment of her own. One of the best spots of the match is when Beth took the mop bucket and began to beat Michelle with it. How much fun was that? I know that all of you want to beat someone down with a plastic bucket now because it honestly looked like it hurt like hell. And you know what? Deep down, we all have a sadistic side. Each of us laughed a little bit as the leggy, dominate Women’s Champion got her ass beat by something as simple as a bucket. It was the ultimate humiliation, in my humble opinion, and Michelle deserved that beating!
The Simply Flawless stable is probably the best thing to happen to the Divas in a long time. The combination of Michelle and Layla, along with Vickie, gives anyone who comes into contact with them an instant storyline. I find it horrifying and shocking that people want this group to break up. People should want to see more Simply Flawless segments on their television because the longer it lasts, the more opportunities for segments and fun matches the divas will have. I’ll agree that Flawless has done everything they can on Smackdown, and Raw certainly needs some life injected into it. What better way to get Eve over than throwing her to the wolves and giving people a chance to get behind her? Michelle, Vickie, and Layla are hated enough that people will rally behind Eve and cheer her to the moon if she can take them down. Last night’s PPV was pretty decent as a whole, and my unbiased opinion allows me to believe that Simply Flawless getting dismissed in such great fashion by Beth was one of the best moments of the night.
Another great moment was Beth recapturing the Women’s Championship. This has been a long time coming and it couldn’t have happened to a better worker. Beth has worked her butt off for the WWE and has become the top face on the Diva side of the spectrum. I’ll be happy to argue with anyone who disagrees with that and I’ll even say she is/was more popular than Mickie James. There is just something about Beth that makes everyone take notice of her. Her run as a face is so exciting and just so fresh and needed. She’s going to be able to carry Smackdown to even better heights now that she’s the face of the division. Last night Beth was powerful, endearing, emotional, and she shined like a star. No one can say she holds the title all the time because it’s been a long while since we saw Beth with some gold. The world is her oyster now and I can’t wait to see who steps up to challenge her first.
The match itself was good. Both girls have great chemistry together and with the exception of a few awkward moments, the whole match came off really well. Beth and Michelle made use of the “weapons” they were given and both took a nice amount of punishment. Vickie and Layla were full of shenanigans (that’s totally my favorite word) and their involvement in the match wasn’t overbooked. We speculated on the pre-show that perhaps Mickie James was originally slated to interfere in this match. We’ll probably never know if she was or not to be honest. But lets say that if the match did have to be rebooked, I’m glad it happened. Beth is the type of character that doesn’t need help in order to win. The WWE stayed true to her last night. Simply Flawless gave Beth everything she could handle last night and then some, and Beth still refused to stay down. If the match had some alternative ending, it would have definitely taken away from the emotion of the contest and Beth’s eventual victory.
The Bad: As much as it pains me to say, some of the interference from Vickie and Layla last night was bad. They provided the awkward spots of the match but none more strange than when they took the mop and the broom and attempted to bat the Glamazon away from Michelle while the girls were battling on the top rope. I literally cringed at this segment and tried not to think about how badly it would get slammed by the wrestling press. The interference wasn’t really needed and it made Vickie and Layla look kind of dumb and useless. We all know they’re not, but this came off awful and I have to question what they were thinking when they decided to go ahead and put that in the match.
The weapons were pretty bad. It’s like they took every stereotypical girl object ever made and threw it down at ringside for Beth and Michelle. I can see why some people would find this cute and whatnot, but I found it stupid and borderline sexist. I’m sorry if that bothers people, but why do girls have to use mops, buckets, brooms, and make-up as their weapons? What they should have done is let Cena and Batista play with the brooms and mops, and let Beth and Michelle play with the duct tape! Am I serious with that comment?
The Ugly: The only thing that was ugly about last night’s match was the horrible commentary, in particular Matt Striker’s. When you are naturally as wonderful as Matt Striker, you tend to overshadow those around you, and during the diva match Matt Striker unfortunately stood out for his crappy remarks more than King and Michael “Vintage” Cole. It’s sad because Striker is one perfect looking man. From his piercing blue eyes to his stunning tan to the fact he wears suit jackets and dress shirts with jeans. He’s gorgeous and intelligent, and he plays perfectly into the female hot teacher fantasy. But his stupid, sexist remarks brought a great match down to elementary school level and showed just how little the divas are cared about in the WWE. He had no clue what was going on in the match and King and Cole weren’t any better. I know Vince McMahon tells the commentators what to say, but there is a fine line he keeps crossing. He may not give a damn about the divas but he doesn’t have to force feed crappy lines to his announce team. And if Matt Striker came up with his sexist comments on his own, then shame on him. Double shame on him for the Vickie Guerrero insults. We know she’s an older woman who isn’t a hot, young diva but talking down on her isn’t acceptable. King and Cole were tacky too and deserve a nice telling off as well.
Of course I’m sitting here and saying all this when I would gladly slap on an apron, a pair of five inch pumps, and a cute dress and make dinner for Matt Striker on any night of the week. Ahem.
Overall, Extreme Rules was a superb night for the divas. They gave it their all and put on a match that gave all of us a little bit of hope. I hope this isn’t one of the classic “one step forward, two steps back” thingies the WWE is good at when it comes to the divas, but we’ll have to wait and see. We have the draft in a few hours and that is bound to shake things up for the girls. Anything will help at this point and the more balance the rosters are given, the better. I want to end this article by saying Congratulations to Beth (and David) for winning the Women’s Championship last night, and congrats to Beth and Michelle for bringing everything they had to last night’s table and giving all of us something to be very proud about.
Match Rating: 4/5 stars!
bortman
April 26, 2010 at 11:35 pm
honestly.. not their best match.. both of them are a bit lost using those weapon around them. im pretty sure a singles match would do more justice with the time they were given to them. anyway still a step to right direction for the woman division, both trying to bring prestige to woman’s division and to the belt.
Litaker61
April 26, 2010 at 11:42 pm
Great write up Cryssi. Yes the match could have been better, maybe if there was no stipulation involved but I thought both girls did the best with the stipulation and pulled out a great match nonetheless. Again I think the crowd was very silent throughout the match which damaged it a little. I think this is where TNA has the advantage because no matter what knockout match there is the crowd is generally hot for it and I wish it were the same for the divas especially in this case as the match itself was great.
Lee
April 26, 2010 at 11:43 pm
The RAW commentators are so annoying and have such awful commentary.
theregoeskitty
April 26, 2010 at 11:47 pm
such a good match, i noticed Beth’s move set is changing slightly now she is in full face mode, she did a roll up & went on the turnbuckle, i don’t think Beth has ever gone up the turnbuckle before in WWE, that rebound off the turnbuckle/roll up/ huricanrana thing she did was cool i didn’t know she could do things like that, i think striker had Mickie confused with Beth in the commentary
$imply Flawle$$.
April 26, 2010 at 11:57 pm
Honestly, in my opinion I think this match was amazing! Yes I wish there was more time and the divas had a chance to really bring the pain but lets face it guys. Maria herself has told you, Vince is NOT going to let them do anything to extreme. We are lucky we got to see what we did. I think Beth and Michelle are two of the few top divas in WWE currently Melina and Nattie being the other two. But back on subject here…I think both girls did amazing and I hope to see more matches (More extreme though) In the near future. Congrats to Beth on being the new champ as well! I am a huge McCool fan but I think its time for her to drop the title for a while, wouldn’t want her becoming another Triple H. :)
RangerDeon
April 27, 2010 at 12:02 am
I agree, actually.
I’m a guy so bare with me on this one: I thought it was rather sexist myself to have to use mops and cleaning products and hair and make up stuff in their hardcore match. Rather foolish, actually…but these two lovely ladies did a great job at selling it.
I’m soooooo glad this match wasn’t just 3 minutes long. I miss the days where they were given enough time to sell their aggression and need to win. When I saw 9 minutes I was like “WHAAAAAAAA!?” Very good.
Michelle and Beth were amazing. The bumps they took in this match were…wow. When Beth fell from the top rope I clapped. I think I even added a “YOU GO GURL!” in there somewhere. I say this because I got into wrestling way back when Ivory was telling people to kiss her ass as she came down to the ring with her purple and black shoes. I loved her and her character so much. And the matches they had were amazing….I hope last night’s match was a prequel to whats to come. No more 2 second matches.
I don’t want Simply Flawless to break up. The one thing i hate about the draft is that it sometimes break up really good tag teams that I love watching every week. I have a prediction: her loss of the title means that she may go to raw to shake things up (hopefully layla follows)
Another thing before I leave: I agree about Matt Stryker. But you failed to mention one thing: He’s eye candy for the guys as well. He’s the professor I’ve always wanted. :D:D
Kaledrina
April 27, 2010 at 12:04 am
not a bad match, but i think i would’ve preferred just an ordinary straight up one-on-one. some of the weapon spots looked real awkward to me and, of course, layla/vickie were more comedic in a fail way rather than anything else.
thankfully i seem to have learnt how to tune matt striker out as i don’t remember anything he said last night, ha.
Paparazzi8o8
April 27, 2010 at 12:10 am
This match really threw me some shockers like I didn’t know BETH was that Athletic (the off the rope pin thingy) and i was surprised of how good of a response BETH got from the crowd and i was very shocked when MATT said something about MICHELLE being the best DIVA in history or something along those lines. but other wise i really liked this match.
BTW…..i coulda swore MATT said what the F!#K IT.
Teri
April 27, 2010 at 12:12 am
The entire time the match was taking place, I couldnt stop comparing it to the housekeeping match Jeff Jarrett and Chyna had at ‘IYH’, hahaha
art1e
April 27, 2010 at 12:16 am
i liked the match but wish it wasnt “girl” weapons which annoyed me…..
Jordan18
April 27, 2010 at 12:25 am
Cryssi, you make Matt Striker out to be this vastest, sexist pig when the guy has always made forward an effort to put over the Divas on commentary for athleticism and technical prowess rather than psychical appearance aside from portraying more of the heel commentator during the Mickie-Michelle feud. It’s almost laughable in a sense because I’m read your review for “The Ugly” section of the match and asking myself if I watched (or listened) to the same thing. I mean, how can you not make a remark about the plain-day, facepalm worthy stupidity of Layla and Vickie with the mop and broom to Beth’s ankles with a hilarious comment like “You cats get off my fence”? If you ask me Jerry Lawler’s comment for Vickie to take advantage of this free make-up was more crude than anything made by Matt Striker.
The match itself just kinda sits “meh” with me. Nothing greatly memorable or innovative, which I thought certainly two great wrestlers like Beth and Michelle wouldn’t struggle to achieve but this obviously was a fault of this match being a numbers game for Beth Phoenix and these two opponents having to incorporate Layla and Vickie into the match somehow — it just didn’t work out as well in my opinion if it had been a one-on-one affair like Melina and Beth achieved at One Night Stand.
Jack5326
April 27, 2010 at 12:33 am
Watching this back, I enjoyed it more than I did watching it live, probably because I wasn’t participating in a live blog this time around haha. The bucket spots were really good, as were the table ones, and I loved when Beth fell onto the Ironing Boards, although Vickie and Layla trying to take Beth’s legs out looked crap.
I also think its great how Cryssi how you mentioned your love for Matt Striker to try and make us forget you LOVE Batista haha. And there’s really no need to make an effort for Matt Striker, he seems easily pleased, so much so he took pictures of his down below and they are probably still on the internet lmao!
Cryssi
April 27, 2010 at 12:33 am
I can make the comment because it’s my opinion and I stand by it. And if you read the whole thing you’d see that I took it all in stride and make a joke out of it at the end. But things like that get overlooked because people like to twist things and make them sound one million times worse than they really are.
And I clearly said Cole and King sucked as well and the reason Striker got it the worst, is because he is the best out of all the WWE announcers. If you listened to him on ECW like I faithfully did every night you would see that he is much better than what he portrayed last night.
Cryssi
April 27, 2010 at 12:36 am
And dammit. All of you are getting a Faithbreaker for thinking I love Batista, lol
Toby
April 27, 2010 at 12:47 am
Wonderful review Cryssi. Amazing night for the divas.
mah
April 27, 2010 at 12:50 am
wonderful match…good work from both ladies
CapnFran
April 27, 2010 at 1:10 am
I tune the commentators out, they so rarely actually call a match and whenever Vicky is onscreen they are just rude.
I just find it funny that they advertised the Double Down during Michelle McCool entrance.
Mr. Glamazon
April 27, 2010 at 1:21 am
Great write-up Mrs. Batista! :-)
The Crying Light
April 27, 2010 at 1:36 am
Am I watching an edited version or is this really how it goes? I’m asking because I read in previous reviews that the crowd was SO dead. They didn’t seem as DEAD as I expected.
Anyway, that wasn’t a bad match. However, like Kaledrina, I would’ve wanted a straight one-on-one match and have a stipulation match right before the feud ends or something. Or, if they’re going to have a stipulation match, I would’ve rather get a hardcore match. But if they really want a can of hairspray, they can easily have Layla bring it or something.
I’m not a fan of Michelle but she can definitely handle that. And, I’m beginning to see what serious pro-wrestling fans see in her. The girl can work. Had she not been shoved down my throat the way she was, I would’ve liked her too.
As for Beth, what else can I say? She’s amazing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… she’s one of the best female power-wrestlers in the WWE. And as much as you all may disagree, I think she’s A LOT better than Chyna. Chyna was merely bigger in terms of size but in terms of technical skills, Beth is better than her.
darkmarvel
April 27, 2010 at 2:56 am
The match was alright. It was nothing to jump up and down about though. But I guess this is as much hardcore as WWE is going to let their divas get invovled with. The whole hair care products and ironing broads had a bit of sexism which made it sucked.
TrishMelinaFan
April 27, 2010 at 4:36 am
The match was ok, but it wasn’t really that great to me, really. I was so excited for this match, especially when I heard the spot of Beth on the boards, but in the end it was plain boring to me. And the dead crowd doesn’t really didn’t help. I was expecting for Beth to fall THROUGH the ironing boards while they were up, but she just fell on top of it. Nonetheless, it was decent, and they definitely made the best out of a horrible situation.
And haaaay at Beth being champ again! :DD
THETommyTommy
April 27, 2010 at 5:52 am
Thank god for Beth and Michelle! This match was brilliant!
RedHotVixen
April 27, 2010 at 7:09 am
Cryssi and Striker sittin’ in a tree. K.I.S.S.I.N.G! Sombodys in lurvvvvv! Thats O.K. As long as you keep far away from The Rock… Anyway, awesome write-up. Are you a writer or something? You are so wonderfully descriptive and expressive. I am really proud of Beth and Michelle. They took one of the most gimmicky matches imagenable and turned it into a real battle. I could have done without Layla and Vickie, though. Good match, either way. I cant wait to see what Lay-Cool get up to on RAW.
mpezza
April 27, 2010 at 9:06 am
I didn’t find the match that good, and that’s coming from a complete Michelle mark! I usually wet my panties over ever single match of hers, I’m extremely biased. :P This wasn’t her, or Beth’s, best though. I think they relied too much on weapons (and stupid weapons at that), it just took away from the entire match from me. However, I do like that the divas were given a more hardcore match than usual, hopefully it can only get better from here! :)
Lady Sheamus
April 27, 2010 at 12:54 pm
I think it good, too, that they were actually given a match that matched the gimmick (somewhat). I got sick of them having “standard” matches during PPVs. I would have liked to see a Divas TLC or Elimination Chamber match but (of course) how ridiculous that would have been, eh, WWE?
And I gotta say, no matter what, if a guy is a dick (excuse my language) like Striker is, there’s no way that I could see him as good looking. His sexist and racist comments (I still remember his “wigwam of shame” comment about Mickie) put me off so badly that I can’t stand to hear his voice or see his face. I would cook dinner for him only to throw it in his face! lol Just my 2 cents but he disgusts me. WWE needs to get on it’s game with the commentators cause they’ve been super-crappy for a minute now, imo. (If I was fired from my job for lying, I wouldn’t keep bringing up that I was a teacher, either – I always think it’s funny that he does that. :P) Smh