The 2010 Draft has come to a close and we have now learned that three Divas will be moving homes this year, way down from last year’s eight moves. Just how will they fit into their new brands? What can they offer? Let’s discuss…
Kelly Kelly
Kelly Kelly’s move to SmackDown reminds me in a sense of Torrie Wilson’s move in 2007 and Maria’s in 2008. Here is a hot, popular girl that they just don’t know what to do with. She isn’t quite a wrestler but she isn’t just eye candy. They want to push them but they don’t want to give them the belt — I think Kelly falls into a similar category. For both Torrie and Maria however, their moves signalled the opportunity to wrestle more and with Mickie James released, I expect this move will allow Kelly to come straight onto the SmackDown brand and work alongside Beth Phoenix against Team Lay-Cool. Kelly is a Diva who knows her handful of moves, throws in her screaming and that’s what she’ll do. I question whether or not we’ll see any actual improvement or anything new from Kelly on SmackDown. Hopefully, putting her against like someone like Michelle McCool will allow the best to be brought in her — McCool brought out some of Maria’s best matches during her time on SmackDown. I look back to 2008 and a match between Kelly and Natalya and that is what I want to see from Kelly, less offense and more ‘punching bag’, because in that match she sold Natalya’s moves and made her look like a million bucks. I’d like to see her do the same for Michelle and Layla. However, this could also be an opportunity to refreshen her character by giving her backstage segments and such with Lay-Cool. Kelly, as pretty and smiley as she may be, lacks character so they should work on that too. Given her popularity, I do see her overtaking Tiffany on SmackDown which is a shame to me because Tiffany has been doing a great job on the show in her few appearances. She, like Kelly, may be pretty and blonde — but she also has lots of fire and aggression that Kelly lacks in the ring. Hopefully, WWE sees Tiffany’s potential over Kelly’s because in my opinion, she has peaked as a performer.
More after the cut:
Natalya
Whether or not this move has any bearing on the Divas division on Raw remains to be seen, but if it does — wow, this could perhaps make Raw incredibly strong on paper. With Nattie moving over to the red brand with the Hart Dynasty, it could very well be that she’ll just continue her current role as manager of the new Unified Tag Team Champions and not take a wrestling role just like she did on SmackDown. However, were she to become part of the Divas division, the Raw Divas will have a roster to rival the efforts of SmackDown in the past few months. Just think about it: Eve, who isn’t half bad in the ring, along with Gail Kim and Natalya on the babyface side against Maryse, Alicia Fox & Jillian on the heel side. Sounds like a pretty decent roster to me. Factor in Melina’s return in the summer and Raw has a wealth of talent. Babyface Natalya on Raw is something I have been wanting to see from the moment she debuted two years ago. She’s gorgeous, she’s blonde, she’s a heck of a wrestler and she’s Canadian — remind you of someone? What a successor she could have been to the 7-time Women’s Champion, dominating Monday Night Raw. Still, there is hope and I think it’d be very exciting to see her go up against Maryse, Alicia and Jillian. Plus, perhaps we could even see a ‘friendly’ match between Gail Kim and Natalya, easily two of my favourite wrestlers in the Divas division. It’s evident that Eve is the new top babyface on Raw but hopefully Nattie will get her shot soon too. I think she could bring great matches out of Maryse just like she did with Kelly two years ago. She’s already worked with Alicia on ECW so that too could be interesting to see as memory recalls they had a great match. Again, all this depends on time — it’s no use having a great roster if they’re not going to afford them the time and effort. Raw definitely got the better half of the deal and this Divas division looks amazing on paper but on television, it’s another story.
Rosa Mendes
The only of my Draft picks to come true (*tear*) happened to my wildcard pick — Rosa Mendes. Never underestimate the power of the wildcard! Well, what can we say about Rosa? She isn’t exactly the best in-ring performer and that is probably why we’ve seen so little of her wrestling in the past several months. However as I wrote over the weekend, every brand needs a jobber and that’s a role that Rosa could fill beautifully — especially on a taped show. Let’s face it, Layla has grown out of the ‘heel jobber’ role and actually become an extremely well-rounded character and wrestler and with her win over Mickie James last week, it’s evident that this is not the Layla who kept losing matches a year ago. Layla is slowly working her way up to ‘top Divadom’ and that means you need a new lackey to take all the losses. Working as the new resident heel jobber of SmackDown, Rosa could be pinned by the likes of Beth, Kelly and Tiffany on television so Layla doesn’t have to be. In the meantime, working with girls like Beth, Layla and Michelle could help Rosa up her game and allow her to get better in the ring. There’s also the opportunity to, like Kelly, see more flare and personality from Rosa who I think has a lot of fiery Latina-ness that she could bring to the table — there’s nothing wrong with jobbing in style! It’s how Layla got over against the likes of Beth. The only downside to this move and Kelly’s move is that it’s become painstakingly obvious that there aren’t many top feuds that you can do on this brand. The only two Divas that could conceivably hold the Women’s Championship is either Beth Phoenix or Michelle McCool — how long before that wears thin? I can’t quite imagine a Kelly, Tiffany or Rosa going for the title. Layla could be a contender but I don’t think WWE quite sees what we see in her. Hopefully Serena will become more involved with the division and perhaps you could even move Melina over when she returns.
That wraps the 2010 WWE Draft. How do you think each Divas will fare on their new brands? What do you want to see them do? Post in the comments. Also vote for your favourite Draft move below:
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37 Comments
Natayla to Raw was definitely my favorite move. Part of me was hoping that the Hart dynasty wouldn’t follow her to Raw just so there’d be a better chance of her wrestling, but they still have so much to do together as a unit, so I suppose it was better than her just being dropped onto the show by herself. She’ll get the chance to build her character on the show while managing them, and hopefully she’ll get a feud of her own before long.
I don’t see Natalya doing much on RAW, just managing. Hopefully I’m wrong
SD did need a heel jobber but I personally think they could do a lot with Rosa though. Rosa got major heat during her feud with Katie Lea in OVW when she was the OVW Women’s champion. Rosa had Stephanie McMahon-like title run and honestly wouldn’t mind seeing Rosa as champion with a similar storyline with Beth, Kelly, or Tiffany. Or maybe Rosa can join Simply Flawless “Team Lay-Cool-Sa” LOL
Kelly needed a fresh start. I think Michelle and Layla can bring the best out in her and I think we will see some good things come from her.
I’m so happy Nattie is finally on Raw. I hope she gets a title shot soon,
she needed a major push and thank god it’s starting right now! Hopefully, she’ll be our next Divas champ, it’s about time Nattie gets some gold.
Raw came out looking like gold. Smackdown is terrible right now. There is no one worthy of being Champion other than Beth & Michelle, as Melanie stated. They’ve completely killed Smackdown’s Divas Roster in One week. If I said I was surprised… I’d be lying.
WWE Universe Was Way Wrong We All Thought Michelle Would Go To RAW, Also i dnt think ill be watching SD as much since beth vs lay-cool is still going on i hate tht feud its getting really boring im starting to hate Lay-Cool, and i dont want michelle as champion or contender but in summer tht Big 15 Superstar Blockbuster trade will occur which i hope it does.
Overall i thought this years draft was weak, from the Divas that moved and didn’t move to the Superstars, Although I must say WWE is consistent, Every year moves are made to pretty much decimate the SD roster and every year SD proves to be the better show, talent wise and from a wrestling standpoint.
You mentioned Torrie and Maria — and I love that comparison. I was hoping that Kelly would be moved to Smackdown because RAW has barely used her. We never know, maybe she is like Torrie Wilson –given the opportunity she should shine. I’m looking forward to her having actual matches and not just being included in tag matches and never being able to get in the ring. (remember those matches?)
Same with Rosa. She’s a heel so I’d like to compare her to Nidia. I want to see her improve both in and out of the ring and become a great heel who we love seeing being thrown around the ring. (Also similar to Stacy Kiebler’s role when she was a heel and her constant challenges to Trish Stratus…they were very entertaining)
As for Natalya — she’s golden where ever she goes as long as she’s used. Since her team if with her, we’ll be sure to see her. They just need to give her a legit rivalry and I was HOPING that it would have been The Hart Dynasty vs Straight Edge Society (i.e. the two lovely ladies dishing it out in the ring from time to time)
At first I was extremely bummed at the fact that the Divas trade wasn’t very exciting. And then again, after reading this and pondering my thoughts together, I can see the positive out of this.
I really want to see Natalya go to a face, I mean come on, she’s been here forever and she can certainly get over with the crowd, especially after this past RAW. I also agree that Rosa could become a good heel and improve her skills.
I actually don’t think Kelly is like Torrie or Maria. I think she’s better and she has that ability to do more than what we have seen. I remember her being involved in a 6 diva tag match on Smackdown in 2008, that was awesome.
I can see possible feuds and it’s not the quality of the wrestler, it’s the quality of the matches and segments that the superstar/diva can produce them self.
Welp. all are boring moves, but I think it’ll definitely be interesting to see how everyone settles into their new spots, especially Natalya. If ths girl gets the time to build up her character, there’s a monstrosity of things hse can do. I think Natalya is the best pure wrestler in WWE right now, male or female, and it’s saddening she’s stuck on the sidelines. :/
I get your point regarding Kelly, but truth is that she’s a much better wrestler than both Maria and Torrie ever were, and she also has a decent-ish division to wrestle in. I see Kelly as the strongest diva of the ‘model’ women (McCool aside)…sure, she only does a handful of moves, but at least she pulls them off really well and doesn’t look like a mess in the ring. Working on SD could allow her to prove herself as a performer and, like you said, develop some sort of character. She’s the obvious choice to replace Mickie (being that Melina is injured) in the short-term, so I think it’s a good decision.
i really love kelly and rosa on smackdown. im hoping kelly can show some personality and i know rosa has the personality she just needs to be able to show it which im hoping smackdown will let her do(and wrestle). ive always said that i wanted her in simply flawless and i hope thats where theyre headed with this! i can see tiffany and kelly tagging a lot being little cutesy blondes or whatever. maybe one of them can go heel though or maybe they can manage.tiffany managing drew anyone? i knew hart dynasty would go to raw and i really wanna see them feud with ses. i want natalya to wrestle serena and i want her to hold the divas title so all of them can hold gold. obviously that wont be happening soon cuz eve just got the belt.
Smackdown certainly got the worst end of the stick when it came to this year’s draft, Diva and Superstar wise. But, that said, there was a comment in the WWE Live chat that make me curious. Corey Clayton or maybe the Fink said Teddy Long should go out of his way to try and make room for the NXT rookies on his roster. Those weren’t his exact words but it got me thinking that maybe Smackdown is going to become the home of new talent, much like ECW was. They have a handful of veterans on the show that can help the young talent, and a young champion. From a Superstar standpoint it makes sense and looking further into it, it makes great sense for the divas as well.
With such a depleted, weak roster some of the FCW girls may find themselves with main roster jobs soon enough. I think some of the holes could be filled with AJ Lee and perhaps Naomi Knight. I don’t know if the WWE would go that route, but it wouldn’t hurt to try some experiments. We’re going to need more than a Beth/Michelle feud to look forward too and I certainly don’t want to see Melina moved back to Smackdown when she returns. Fresh faces would be the best bet and maybe we can see a new Gail Kim type of character emerge meaning someone who waltzes in their first night on television and steals the Women’s Championship. That would be exciting to me.
Oh yeah, Kelly to Smackdown was my favorite move =P
I believe this is going to be a great opportunity for Kelly to blossom as a wrestler. I think she really has grown to love the business and wants to improve as a wrestler, but she wasn’t going to get anywhere in three minute gimmick matches on RAW. I’m genuinely excited to see her get in there and work with Michelle and Layla and show us what she’s got. She especially makes the perfect foil for Layla given their history.
The Divas should have a separate draft.
To be honest, I don’t think Rosa is that bad. She knows how to bump her buns off, has a natural PERSONALITY, and it is really dedicated to her job. I think people just talk down on her because those gawd awful matches with Mickie because, you know.. Mickie could not do wrong to some people.
Nattie does absolutely nothing for me. I don’t think she is naturally interesting. I don’t she should be allowed to talk with that tranny-quese voice. I don’t think she’s that good in the ring because all she prove she’s stronger than everyone. Haha. She reminds me of her Dad when it comes to her performances.. And ihe wasn’t that good either.
I like the Kelly pick. Some how I think she will finally get her big push she’s been waiting for.. Right after Michelle gets the title back. Is Kelly amazing in the ring? No, but she is serviceable. Though, I can’t wait for Layla to go back to jobbing to her.
Natalya to RAW is alright. I’m still waiting to see what she could in the ring because I haven’t seen a whole lot from her. Not in a bad way. Literally I just haven’t seen her wrestle, but people put her on a pedestal so I am eager to see her in action.
Kelly could be what Torrie was for Smackdown a few years back once Phoenix is out of the spotlight. Hopefully she will play a supporting role to Beth or in another storyline altogether. She could become someone’s girlfriend or something.
Rosa Mendez- This one was a surprise for me. I had forgotten about her for awhile there. Glad she’s going to be put to use. She can become an excellent heel though id have her start off as a someones valet first. She will have a longer career if she manages someone like..Dolph or Chavo. Id pair her with Chavo.
I’m interested to see how Kelly Kelly will work against Layla given their past in ECW as Extreme Exposé.
the only thing i can think of is that maybe some more girls are coming up from FCW because when u look at smackdown they need another heel rosa is jobber layla is talented lackee and michelle is the top heel (even though id love it i dont see them using serena in ring just yet) so i think they need one more heel to challenge beth
Nattie on Raw to me is a little weird, shed have been there as a manager of HD anyway. but i guess the idea of Gail/Nattie Nattie/Alicia or even Nattie/Maryse is pretty good
LOVING Rosa on SD, she can easily fit the mould of LayCool/Simply Flawless, cos she has the looks, she is mega hot, so she can claim shes just as Flawless aswell…and plus Layla wouldnt need to job anymore
So that was it? Wow was i wrong, so my Gail Kim didn’t move anywhere she is still stuck on that brand. I kind of figured that Kelly Kelly would get moved just do to her popularity and with Mickie out that brings Kelly Kelly in! KInd of bummed that I have been waiting for this Supplemental Draft and only got two picks out of it Rosa and Natalya. I think Raw did deserve more divas like Tiffany not Michelle or Layla just because I think like The Beautiful People Team laycool is really dominating and Making the Diva Smackdown brand look pretty extreme, So not moving them was a good plan also Beth and Kelly Kelly will get a huge pop when they enter the ring together. This Supplemental draft unlike last years was kind of lame, seems as if SD got the short end of the stick. Sadly
“the only thing i can think of is that maybe some more girls are coming up from FCW”
AJ Lee is the only one who is ready. All the others are way too green.
But with Serena + AJ Lee + Savannah, you have 3 very good names to enhance Smackdown.
Ohh, I posted on another article here on diva-dirt that i want natalya on raw and rosa to sd! wow! Actually, I also wanted to draft jillian to sD, maybe she can start a new career there and tiffany to raw because kelly is now on SD and there are now 2 blond bombshell baby face there. Raw needs tiffany since the lost kelly.
i don’t think any of the moves are particularly great, Natalya would be the most interesting but i very much doubt she will be gold hunting (or should i say butterfly hunting) wile staying on Raw
There are too many Divas on the roster atm to bring up any FCW Diva. I mean, they haven’t even used the first set of FCW Divas (Rosa, Tiffany, Alicia, Natalya, and Savannah) to their full potential yet lol.
well, let’s just hope that serena is allowed to start wrestling, ‘cos i’d rather not see mccool with the belt again anytime soon.
diva trade in general is pretty piss poor. all they’ve really done is added an extra heel on sd! – does that mean we’ll see more of rosa? iunno. we’ll likely get laycool vs kelly/beth twice a month.
I was okay with these draft picks. I just wish WWE gave us more? If that’s not asking to much. Maybe Alicia to SD, and LayCool to Raw would have been nice.
A babyface on Raw has to turn heel because Raw is uneven:
FACES
- Brie Bella
- Eve
- Gail Kim
- Natalya
- Melina
- Nikki Bella
HEELS
- Alicia
- Jillian
- Maryse
Maybe Melina will return as a heel? I’m not sure but we all know Jillian will be the heel jobber for the Raw Divas, and if Gail doesn’t go heel, I’m going to fear for her future because she will likely be the Babyface jobber. The Bella Twins don’t even wrestle much so I don’t think WWE will use them to job to other Divas.
SmackDown on the other hand is pretty even:
FACES
- Beth Phoenix
- Kelly
- Tiffany
HEELS
- Layla
- Michelle
- Rosa Mendes
If Serena and Savannah were able to wrestle it would make the roster more even since Serena would be a heel, and Savannah would probably be a face.
Now, we have Beth as the Women’s Champion. She’s a babyface. Who else is she going to fued with for the Title? Are we going to see this Beth vs. Michelle feud for another three months?! I really hope not. She’s not going to fued with Layla, or Rosa. I just don’t get that part on the SD side.
I agree with Kelly to SD. Don’t think she’s ready to be a contender for the women’s title, but she could team with Beth (or Tiffany) to overcome LayCool. Plus it’d give her a chance to refresh her character and get some mic time in. SD’s the place to be to develop your character as well as wrestle.
Raw…not so much. That said, I think Gail vs Nattie, and Melina vs Nattie both have fabulous potential. Nattie would look silly with the butterfly belt, so I’m not crazy about her chasing that title. It’s a shame we never saw Beth vs Nattie properly. Maybe in the future..
Hopefully we will have a Random diva trade and things are gonna heat up. I personally think that this draft didn’t do anything to shake things up with the divas.
Natalya is part of the Unified Tag Team Champions and can work both shows.
Why does everyone think that Kelly is going into improve so quickly now that she’s on SmackDown. If she was on Raw for two years and has wrestled with some of the best in the company (and even won!) and she hasn’t shown us anything new at all!
I not 100% sure they’ll make Rosa a jobber heel. She might end up being an ring announcer, or a most likely a manager again. Which kinda sucks because we won’t ever know if she’s improved inside the ring or not.
Natalya better be Divas/Women’s Champ by 2011. This isn’t a prediction or a plead. THIS IS A DEMAND!!!
Natalya’s move to Raw was the best, Its just the question of if she will be in her own feud since it does look like she will be with the Hart Dynasty for a while since they are now the new Unified Tag team champions, but hopefully that day will come.
Kelly’s move to SD was very needed for her because on Raw there was points in her run there that she was going to get pushed or somewhat, But with the way things were she got lost in the shuffle & isn’t really given time to improve, So hopefully with SD being a taped show it will help her to develop into a decent wrestler & show more personality & The same goes for Rosa even though she is going to be a jobber, She will get the chance to grow there more easily than on Raw.
Kelly is definitely the worst pick, RAW is the homeland for pretty, useless divas. Why does everyone want her to have a character? Have you seen her acting skills? Type “OVW divas gauntlet” in youtube and get back to me. Either way, she’ll still be the same old smiley Kelly, I just wish her and Rosa (to an extent, mic skills are very good) were released, then finally the Divas can start to bring some credibility back to its Division.
Normally they draft about 6 divas, so only 3 was disappointing.
Kelly Kelly to Smackdown means they need a new face now Mickie’s gone. She probably won’t win any titles, but she will be very popular, and the fans will like her. To be honest, I’d rather they got someone like Gail over, because Kelly and Tiffany are too similar for me.
Natalya to Raw… just remember guys, Trish started out as a valet!
I hope Rosa does take on the ‘jobber’ role. I could even see her becoming a member of Simply Flawless and being the new punchbag, now Layla’s getting better.
When I saw Melanie had 6 predictions I thought that was way too small. How gutted I feel right now, I just wish Gail was on SD! instead of Kelly, why God why?
Wasn’t it just last year that there were three times where divas were drafted? Including there own individual “Diva Draft” I guess that’s why they’re being so selective now. I completely agree with your comment about there being a lack of feud options. I DO NOT see Kelly holding the championship or competing for it and Laycool vs the Glamazon could get stale very quickly if not played right. I’m definitely hoping to see Serena start to be utilized. RAW on the other hand is quite well off, it always was. All they need to do is get their face/heel ratio sorted and we could have some very new feuds. I see Alicia getting pushed :D Or if Maryse gets the title back, Natalya. :D
It was a given that Natayla was going to raw. So that is not much of a surpise. I hope that Natayla can get in the title picture. I would love to see Natayla as diva’s champion.
With Kelly Kelly, I think it will be good for her career. I wish it was Gail Kim getting drafted to smackdown, but whatever. Maybe now Kelly Kelly will start to improve on her wrestling abilty and also on her personality…
I think people are being way to negative about Rosa. The last time we saw her wrestle was a year ago. People said the same thing about Tiffany when she went to smackdown but their opinion changed once they saw her wrestle against Michelle McCool. So maybe it will happen with Rosa. She could have improved since the last time we saw her wrestle.
Natalya will OWN RAW.