After a mysterious (and illogical) absence from last week’s Raw, Divas Champion Alicia Fox is back in action this week in a non-title bout against Brie Bella (Bella Twin #1). Will the twin Divas manage to switch their way to a upset victory over the champ? Check out the match below:
First out are The Bella Twins, who are dressed identically (I wonder why…) in electric blue. Cole and King use this time to plug the sponsor, which means I have to hear more of the Bellas entrance theme than I should. I think I’d rather watch a Khali match… The champion is out next and she’s making her way to the ring rather quickly. I guess Cena went over his allotted time this week, so the Divas have to pick up the slack as usual. The referee rings the bell and the match is on.
Alicia doesn’t waste any time going to work on Brie, laying in a kick to the gut. Alicia throws Brie into the turnbuckle, then rams her back first into the corner. Alicia snatches up Bella #1 by the hair and executes a fierce irish whip, sending Brie to the mat. Alicia proceeds to stomp out poor Brie until the ref pulls her off.
While the referee is preoccupied with Alicia, Nikki and Brie go for their patented switcheroo to turn the tables on the champ. Unfortunately for the identical beauties, Jillian makes her way to ringside and blocks their attempt to switch out. Alicia and the referee turn their attention back to the Bellas and Alicia lands a stiff kick on Bella #2, sending her down to the floor. Alicia tries to get back in control of the match, but Brie rolls her up with a school boy for a near fall. Before Brie can get in anymore offense, Alicia kicks her in the gut before landing a brutal axe kick for the win.
Post match, Jillian decides to serenade the champion with her very own rendition of Queen’s “We Are The Champions.” Obviously unimpressed, Alicia cuts her off with another impressive axe kick before leaving the ring with her head held high.
Once again, not a great week for the Raw Divas when it comes to in-ring action. The match just barely cleared the one minute mark, which is just a damn shame, to be honest. That said, this match wasn’t about the ringwork. It was about putting over Alicia as a dominant champion and in that respect, I think it served its purpose. Alicia needs to pick up some decisive victories if she wants to be seen as a serious competitors and the Bellas were the best Divas for the job.
I also enjoyed Jillian’s involvement in the match as a secondary character. It allowed her to appear on the main show as well as continue her feud with the Bellas. Her altercation with Alicia at the end was also a very nice touch. It really cemented Alicia’s place as a top heel and also planted the seeds for a future conflict between the two Divas.
All in all, it was a middle of the road night for the Raw Divas. While they didn’t quite deliver in the ring, all the little things like Jillian’s involvement, helped them avoid a truly dismal night. Unfortunately for Diva fans, this kind of performance has come to be expected from Raw in the past few months. On the bright side, at least we have something to look forward to next week…
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32 Comments
I really can’t wait for next week. I’m biding my time, because I seriously am PUMPED! Although I’m excited for that, I DO actually want to see Jillian pushed as the Top Diva in the whole company. Wishful thinking, I know, but still. You can’t deny that the woman is a mega-talent, and on top of that has the look.
Yeah, Raw was definitely beyond “blah” this week. Nothing of any substance happened, at all.
I wish the Divas would get PO’d and speak up about how badly they’re used and treated on the show. If enough of them do, it will make a difference, as WWE can’t fire the entire Divas roster.
The only two decent things I can think of for the Divas this week were Maryse and Jillian’s outfits. That’s it. And that’s pretty sad.
Well the purpose of Raw was to put over Alicia. Mission Accomplished.
I am really digging Alicia Fox as champion. She has the look, personality and in-ring skills. I really hope she doesnt lose it to Melina to soon
“WWE can’t fire the entire Divas roster”
Dont bet any money on that. The Divas dont supply ratings, ppv buys or sell merchandise. So from a business pov they are technically replacable. WWE can fire their entire diva division and just work without divas for 6 months while the next generation is prepared. They have fired most of their division before (1990 and 1994), and even in 2004 half their division was released (Gail, Jazz, Jacqueline).
“If enough of them do, it will make a difference, as WWE can’t fire the entire Divas roster.”
Yeah, I would bet money they can.
As for Alicia, I don’t know. I’m not feeling her as a dominant, effective champion. I don’t know that it’s all her fault, but all the same. In her relatively short run as champion she may have beaten people, but none of the matches stick with me as being impressive. I was never like “omg owned!” by any particular moment. Her finishing kick has also been looking uber sloppy to me. I mean I’m not going to hate too hard – I’m impressed with anyone who can get a leg up that far. That’s a talent of some kind, but the execution always look really weird to me. I feel like she’s been kicking people’s backs a lot more often which just doesn’t look nearly as effective as kicking their head/shoulders.
She’s just also not bringing anything at all unique to this character. I know there’s only so far you can take the sassy heel role, but come on. They’ve even removed Maryse from the title picture so she’s not being shown up with the same gimmick, but there’s just… nothing there for me. I feel like she has clearly put effort in to learning – she’s a pretty good bumper, and she has some charisma. It’s just not adding up for me, though, as a memorable or impressive character or performer.
While the Divas don’t bring in big ratings, it’s not their fault. They’ve virtually never been allowed to play an important role in the the key storylines. They’ve also virtually never been allowed to have as long or as important of matches. It’s the creative lack of focus over the years that has never allowed the fans to care. The fans would care if the Divas were treated like the Knockouts were just a year or two ago. For the most part, the fans care about who they’re told to care about, and that’s the bottom line.
Just watch how a lot of the indie promotions allow their womens wrestlers to work. All it takes is creative effort, and capable workers. Fans, in general, are smart enough to recognize that and show appreciation where it’s deserved.
Alicia as champion is great so far.
I think Alicia is too harshly criticized for her axe kick. How many times has JoMo missed Starship Pain? How often does Triple H mess up the Pedigree? How many times has Rey Mysterio legit injured people with the 619? True, Alicia misses her mark with her axe kick sometimes. But she gets impressive height on the kick whick makes it look powerfull. Anyway, it looks like a difficult move to excecute. Give her a little more time to perfect it.
I seriously doubt they would fire the entire division. They’ve got two belts, so they need champions. There’s no way if WWE fired all the women that the fans wouldn’t notice and wouldn’t care.
@RedHotVixen, you right about Morrison.
He always missed that move.
I swear, if I didn’t know better, I would think that crowd had never seen Alicia Fox in their lives until this match. I know the crowd is usually tough on the Divas, but this seemed particularly bad to me.
“They’ve got two belts, so they need champions. There’s no way if WWE fired all the women that the fans wouldn’t notice and wouldn’t care.”
Don’t put it pass them. WWE has fired the reigning women’s champion twice and let Chyna leave without losing the title.
The Match was Blah , but the Jillian and Alicia moment was a story to tell I really hope they go some where with this hopefully a Jillian face turn and she can reuinte with her best friend as a face……nd possible a future Divas Title Match…wwe let Jillian go face and Team up with Melina…it would like there Melina’s Heel days….
This weeks raw was beyond blah. bring on next week!
ChrisP: I don’t know hardly anyone who cares about Alicia, i’m one of the few out of my friends who watches womens wrestling and i will admit i cannot wait until she loses the title because she just doesn’t strike me as a credible threat. not sure why but i just can’t take her seriously as champion. If people in the live crowd feel like this as well then its not really suprising that there was no reaction to her.
@RHV i totally agree with you on that, cut the girl some slack maybe R-Truth can give her pointers on perfecting the Axe Kick. I was fine with last night’s Diva action because it had a fair amount of character development and incorporated new elements to existing angles that could come into play later on if the E chooses to act on them. I still maintain my stance of “not every show needs to have steller or even decent ring action to be enjoyable” Decent character progression, story line progression and/or promos can often be goo enough or better than the matches themselves, Kudos to the E for delivering on the character progression last night.
I commented on Alicia’s awful axe kick and not Morrison’s Starship Pain, etc. because this is a divas site so the kick was relevant. There are multiple horrible finishers in WWE, a few of which have been named (and God knows how much I loathe Starship Pain), but their awfulness doesn’t negate Alicia’s.
I also don’t mind there not being a five star mat classic on every single show; however, not even holding these ladies up to the standard of expecting a “decent” showing is an insult to them in my opinion. They clearly don’t have a lot of time, and I understand that. At the same time it feels to me like many of the divas aren’t even doing the basics well which they have time to do. If many can’t prove capable of handling a two-to-three-minute match, why should I be excited when they get more time? There’s a huge difference to me between a “boring” match and a “horrible” match. A boring match I can look at and go, “okay, that wasn’t really entertaining, but they didn’t have much time. They did what they did well, though, so I would like to see what they could do with more time!” A horrible match is, “oh God, I’m glad they only had two minutes. What in the world was that?” I feel like lately Raw has been a lot of the “horrible” and not so much of the just “boring.” That’s just me.
@ Maxine- Starship Pain, 619 and the Pedigree were used as examples. All I meant is that the women are held to a different standard than the men. The men can put on long, sloppy matches and get a free pass, but no matter how hard the Divas try, they will always be critisized and dismissed. You can have whatever opinion you want about whomever you want, but I was simply stating my opinion.
The execution of the Scissors Kick isnt bad or sloppy at all.
“The execution of the Scissors Kick isnt bad or sloppy at all.”
Look at the picture of her and Jillian. An axe kick is supposed to hit the head, not the back.
I saw Alicia like skipped half her entrance and I felt like she wanted to run down to the ring so she could have more in-ring time. It’s obvious that these short matches and time cuts annoy the girls and I really sympathise with them. I personally believe Alicia as Champ, she has proven to be a dominant force. The axe kick, regardless of where it hits looks powerful. And when it does hit the mark its completely nuts, she looks like she’s decapitating her opponents.
Was the first move of the match screwed up? Maybe it’s the YouTube video, but the opening spot looks weird.
Its one inch off. Thats not off by much.
I love Alicia’s scissor kick. Besides, it is much safer to take a scissor kick to the back than the neck. Lord knows we don’t want another serious neck injury to occure.
Poor Jillian. Even when she wins, she loses. Glad that they spared 4 whole minutes for the ladies.
Why is Alicia getting squash matches? Isn’t her character suppose to be sneaky and opportunistic? Which begs the questions as to what Alicia’s character is. Immature? I dunno man. Her wrestling still bugs me. She’s reckless and stiff. Are they gonna wait until she injures someone to get her out of the ring?
I’ve grown to like the blue Bella attire. It reminds me of cotton candy. The only good part of this match is that they did reminder that Jillian was screwed by the Bellas.. But that was irrelevant considering that crowd didn’t care about the run in. How the heck does that happen?
I love the look alicia gives the camera as she steps over bella #1
If Alicia were so stiff, why haven’t
she hurt anyone yet? She been wrestle
on TV over a year she haven’t been hurt or got
someone hurt.
I never saw Alicia work stiff yet, she
gave Gail a stiff kick but that were only
once.
The Bella Twins are so goddamn annoying.Raw is a cluster f***.Melina should get out of there and go to smackdown .Raw is just crap!!!!
the funny thing is..raw got more divas but they r not used properly
nothing about the match but jillian can make any segment better…it was strange the crowd didnt cheer when she stopped the switch but she made it up by gettin the mic later :D
i hope she gets more time on raw and be pushed a bit more
Why are people talking about WWE firing the divas? DO YOU WANT THAT TO HAPPEN!? They won’t do that because there are a lot of diva fans that are not on this site. Alicia is a good champion and I like her dominate attitude. Love Jillian and nice to see the Bellas on RAW for once.
I’m sick of “Twin Magic” already!
thank god melinas returning next week