Tonight’s Raw, being billed as a 3-hour, “viewer’s choice” show featuring wrestlers from both Raw and Smackdown, was destined to be a little cluttered, given how many elements were in the mix. Unfortunately, very little of that mixture consisted of Divas. In the whole span of three hours, the Divas (all 12 of them) took up about 4 minutes of time. That’s a “needle in a haystack” situation if I’ve ever seen one. But, there’s always hope that they make the most of the little time they were given. Did they? Let’s see..
The stipulation of the Divas match was, like the rest of the matches, determined the fans’ vote. The choices were either: a 6-on-6 Tag Team match, a battle royal, or a champion vs. champion match, which would pit Eve vs. Layla. The fans picked the battle royal, and I’m sure the WWE were glad for that (if the vote wasn’t rigged, which it probably was) because that means MORE DIVAS!!!~~~~~. Nothing can ever go wrong with fitting as many Divas as possible into a 4-minute slot, amiright?:
We start with the 64 12 Divas in the ring, and they all more or less pair off. A double-team by Brie and Nikki Bella sends Rosa Mendes flying out of the ring. Sucks for her, but it’s better than when she practically threw herself out of the ring in the last battle royal. Tiffany is eliminated next, falling from the top turnbuckle while pummeling Michelle McCool. Kelly Kelly gets knocked off the ring apron by Michelle while trading blows with Layla.
Gail Kim and Alicia Fox eliminate each other while tussling on top of the ropes, a modified hurricanrana taking out both the deliverer and the recipient. Michelle and Layla stop a Bella Twins attack on Maryse and eliminate the both of them with tandem dropkicks. Eve attacks Laycool, fighting valiantly and hitting some impressive spots before eliminating the both of them by shoving Layla into Michelle, causing them to slip through the middle rope.
Maryse and Jillian join forces to taken down Eve. Eve, again, fights back against two Divas, kicking at Maryse while Jillian has her up against the ropes (literally). Sadly, gumption isn’t enough to keep her in the match, and Maryse and Jillian irish-whip her through the ropes and out of the ring, eliminating her. Jillian is enthusiastic about being one of the final two, and even gets a double high five from Maryse. This harmony doesn’t last long, however, and Maryse, not liking the idea of being a double winner, kicks Jillian and tosses her roughly out of the ring. She’s the last Diva remaining, winning the battle royal.
I’m disappointed that the fans chose the battle royal, because, in my opinion, a champion vs. champion match would have been much more interesting. It would have been a decent push for both Eve and Layla. However, as it was destined to be, the WWE saw fit to shove every Diva into a 4-minute match. I have to say, though, that it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. Yes, there was random, sloppy action around the ring, but certain spots were interesting, like Gail and Alicia’s dual elimination and Eve battling back against two double-teams. Still, the ending confused me. Why push Jillian’s silliness when there’s a great opportunity to put Eve in the final two with Maryse and inject some much-needed fire into their fizzling feud? Clearly, tonight wasn’t meant to advance feuds, but with every week that passes by, Maryse and Eve’s feud is losing more and more heat. They need to act fast, or it will be a lost cause.
Another opportunity for great Diva action was thwarted when fans voted for Hornswoggle and the Great Khali to face the Hart Dynasty instead of the Uso Brothers. This would have set up for an inevitable confrontation at ringside between Natalya and Tamina, but we had to settle for a gag match and a rushed post-match attack. This attack lacked the fire of the last two encounters, but I’ll chalk it up to it being rushed. Hoepfully next week they’ll try something new–I mean, how many times can these teams fight each other without actually fighting each other? Several, apparently. Let’s just hope we don’t have to wait much longer to see an extended confrontation between Natalya and Tamina; we all know Eve and Maryse isn’t going to be serving up that kind of intensity any time soon.
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63 Comments
Yeah that’s the save I was talking about, you could hear Layla say to Eve, “we’ve got to do it again” and then yell at Michelle to get into place. Good for Layla and how cool that Melina noticed and complimented her!
The battle royal was horrible. And for the women to rely so much on strikes, they should have at least made them look convincing. Diva battle royals are usually a mess and this was no different. They should honestly just do away with them. About the only two that did anything remotely interesting were Gail and Alicia.
Gail wore her pink attire again; wooop :P.
I liked the Bellas in camo, I think thats better for their chosen attire, rather than their usual bright reds and yellows. (However, I did like the Italian flag down one of the Bellas legs a few weeks back.)
The best section of this match were Eves dropkicks which I thought were pretty accurate for being in such a confined space, and the section from the final 3 divas onwards – Eve, Jillian & Maryse. This was obviously short; just like the whole match, however it connected well. Eve being eliminated first to leave a heel-heel stand off (well, not as far as Jillian was concerned.) was nice, and I liked how Jillian played up the “Double win”. Maryse turning her back on Hall was clearly going to happen but im glad it wasnt a simple push from behind – she got a kick to the mid-section in first :D ahaaa.
I hope they have something decent in the works for Maryse & Eve. Though, as they seemed to bring this feud crashing down when they teamed up last week in a mixed tag team match, and after an okayish build up too … It’l probably be lack luster once more.
@Michelle Mccruel: obviously your doing this out of attention. either that or you’re a stupid brat. either way it’s pathetic. learn how to spell before trying to put down anybody.
>.>
the match: tifanny’s fall looks kinda nasty. haha. i love how layla eliminated one of the bella twins. lol. most interesting point of this match was gail and alicia.
not bad.
more a 3/5. ohwell. battle royals rarely get any good scores. haha.
LaceyVonEricFan… lmao For The Third Time Stop Writing Like This!
I honestly cannot read your messages they hurt the eyes! Does anyone else skip his/her messages?
Erin, pretty much agree with all you said. Gail and Alicia were fun to watch though, looking forward to their match on Superstars.
Michelle McCruel: Being a Michelle fan, I know it must’ve pissed you off when people called her a whore last week re: the whole NXT/Kaval thing. So why would you use derogatory words on another of the women? Eve Torres is no slut, just like McCool isn’t a whore. And must you insult Gail’s looks every time you post? It’s old and adds nothing to the discussion.
@POuRQUOI-BITCH AT LEAST LVEFAN DOESN’T TYPE IN ALL CAPS. I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE DO THAT!
“I see the same thing in Maryse that I saw in Trish as well, but I agree that Trish had her eye on the ball and Maryse doesn’t. I don’t think Maryse is really interested in being a wrestler but she likes the celebrity that comes with it. In all her interviews, she compares her lifestyle to that of a rockstar or actor. I highly doubt she watched wrestling growing up the way Trish did and I highly doubt she is interested in putting in the hours and months of training it’s going to take to get her to the next level. But maybe it’s not any of that, it could be because of the lack of interest on creative’s part. Maryse was doing really well a couple years ago, see her match with McCool for the Diva’s title at Unforgiven 2008, but now it seems to have fizzled. So it could be because of the move to Raw, who knows?”
I actually agree with rodneyclint on this. And I also think that the other girls (if they’re not) should do like Trish did and watch and emulate the aspects which helped big(ger) stars get over. They also need to serve in their proper capacities. Not all the women NEED to be wrestlers. As it’s become quite obvious that WWE’s focus is on the entertainment and not the wrestling, this should not be much a problem. There is SO MUCH you can do with valets, managers, and other staff, but they insist on putting people in the ring that shouldn’t be there and who at least appear to not care about wrestling and/or improving.
See? I told you that even if Erin’s idea was good, WWE just doesn’t know how to do Battle Royals.
But hey, It could be worst. At least they didn’t allow people to choose what they would be wearing.
I was cheering for Tiffany. I love that girl.
laylas cover of the almost botched push thou the ropes was awesome & shows how far shes come along…
the battle royal wasnt that bad i wish they had jillian win & move into a feud with eve & push maryse out of the picture for awhile & maybe just do some backstage promos or feud with the bellas or something…
@Michelle McCruel Please explain to me what make Eve a whore? What did she do? Nothing! Comments like that are childish and uncalled for >:(
Personally, I am glad that RAW went with the battle royal. Eve is my least favorite diva and the last thing I wanted to see was her wrestle LayCool. When i read that Gail Kim and Alicia Fox had a match for Superstars, my heart sunk because i didn’t think i would get to see my favorite Diva on Monday but I was very happy so see her. After watching Superstars last week, It is obvious to everyone but WWE Creative, that the 2 divas that should be feuding over gold in the company are Gail Kim and Jillian Hall…and not the very green Eve and the one move of doom Maryse. What always amazes me is that it isn’t just the women who have little time on an episode of RAW that is an extra hour long. Most of the time the men have short matches on the 3 hour RAWs as well?!?