Last week, Alicia Fox managed to overcome The Bella Twins switcheroo and pull out yet another win. She even took out her buddy Jillian afterwards, proving that no one is safe from the ‘Foxy One’s’ wrath. This week, Alicia teamed up with Jillian and Tamina to face off against the team of Eve Torres, Gail Kim and Natalya with a very special appearance by a certain A-List Diva. Check out the match below:
We start off the match with the face team already in the ring, posing to the crowd. Next the heels make their way to the ring and to be honest, Jillian doesn’t look too thrilled to be teaming with Alicia after last week. More on that later. The referee rings the bell and the match is underway with Jillian and Gail kicking things off for their respective teams.
The two Divas lock up and jockey for position, with Jillian getting the upper-hand, taking Gail down with a handful of hair and laying in with some stiff right hands. The non-melodious siren follows up with a hair beel for a two count. Frustrated, Jillian pulls Gail up by the hair and drives her head into her knee repeatedly, followed by a backbreaker for another near fall. Jillian drags Gail over to her corner and takes a moment to stare down her partner Alicia before tagging her in. Guess who’s still bitter?
Alicia quickly takes the reins, nailing Gail with a solid forearm and a picture perfect Northern Lights suplex for a near fall. Alicia tries to tag Jillian in, but Jillian refuses, obviously remembering that axe kick from last week. The distraction allows Gail to get the advantage on the Divas champ with a flurry of strikes and a flapjack. Not wasting any time, Gail crawls to her corners and tags in the third generation Diva and the first lady of The Hart Dynasty, Natalya. Brace yourself, my friends; Business is about to pick up.
Alicia tries to get the one up on Natalya with a clothesline, but Natalya ducks and lays the champ out with a clothesline of her own. The pink and black attack keeps the heat on Alicia with a snap suplex followed by a low dropkick to the back. Not giving Alicia any time to breathe, Natalya scoopslams Alicia before executing a gorgeous double underhook suplex.
It looks like Natalya just might have this match won, but the pin is broken up by Tamina. Before Tamina could think about helping out her partner, Gail comes flying out of the corner with a sick dropkick, sending Tamina to the floor, prompting Jillian to try and make the save. Unfortunately for Jillian, Gail sees her coming, hits her with a kick to the midsection and uses her as a stepladder to climb the ropes and hit Tamina with a beautiful flying crossbody. While Gail is still out of sorts, Jillian takes the opportunity to snatch Gail up and whip her into the turnbuckle at top speed.
While Gail is busy picking up her teeth off the floor, Eve gets in on the action, taking Jillian out with a baseball slide to the outside. Eve tries to follow up but Tamina is back on her feet and takes the former champ out with a nasty clothesline. Meanwhile, Natalya and Alicia, who are still the legal partners, are back at it. Natalya tries to set up the Sharpshooter, but is interrupted yet again by her rival Tamina. After a little stumble, which is covered up by some really shoddy editing, Natalya bitch slaps the Samoan beauty to the mat. Natalya make the mistake of dropping to all fours to yell at Tamina, leaving herself wide open for a vicious axe kick from Alicia for the win.
After the match, Alicia decides to get on the mic and talk some smack. She lets her opponents (and partners) know that has beaten all of them. Umm, has Alicia been taking WWE history lessons from Michael Cole? Last time I checked, Alicia has never beaten Tamina or Jillian in a match, singles or otherwise. Please correct me if wrong. Alicia goes to say that there is no Diva in the WWE that is comparable to her. Needless to say, none of the other Divas are too pleased with this declaration. Before Alicia can continue her tirade, she is cut off by some very familiar music. This moment will be remembered as the night where millions of Diva fans’ heads exploded simultaneously.
Out comes the former Divas and Womens champion, Melina, back at long last from a ACL injury that had her sidelined for several months. Alicia tries to haul ass but the Divas she just trashed are surrounding the ring, making it hard for her to escape. She finally jumps out the ring, only to be attacked and thrown to the wolves by Jillian, who is obviously still pissed about last week’s attack. I bet Alicia wishes she had just let her sing the damn song.
With nowhere left to run, Alicia has no choice but to fight her way out. She goes for a clothesline but Melina dodges with the ‘matrix’ and nails the champ with an elbow. Melina then drives Alicia into the mat with a snapmare driver (Someone has been watching her SHIMMER DVDs. I approve) followed by her signature split-legged bulldog, before posing triumphantly over the fallen champ.
This week’s edition of Raw was excellent, especially in comparison to some of the nonsense they’ve been putting out in the past few weeks. Oh, let me count the ways…:
1. In ring action: All the girls seemed to be on their Ps and Qs when it came to the wrestling this week. Even those whose time in the ring was limited (i.e Eve and Tamina), made their mark on the match. The interaction between Alicia and Natalya was particularly impressive and I would love to see these two face off in a feud sometime in the future. And don’t even get me started on Gail Kim’s brutal introduction to the turnbuckle.
2. Storyline continuation: I loved how the tension between Alicia and Jillian was played up after their altercation last week. So many times we’ve seen WWE drop these kind of things quickly, so it’s nice to see them follow through for once. I must say, I’m very interested in what we’ll see between Alicia and Jillian going forward.
3. Melina’s return: The return of Melina was the highlight of the Divas action this week. To be honest, the division has been at a stand still since her departure and I’m sure her return will kick things into gear on the red brand. As mentioned on The Post-Raw Show last night, I hope WWE doesn’t push her too hard and put her right into things with Alicia. A slow and gradual progression seems like the best way to get her back into the mix. I would hate to see her pull a Candice and get injured right after her return.
There you have it. Looks like WWE can put on a decent Divas match when they apply themselves. Hopefully, they can duplicate this in the coming weeks now that Melina is back. It’ll be interesting to see whether Jillian and Alicia’s issues with each other will play a part in the budding Melina/Alicia feud. Either way, I can honestly say that I’m really looking forward to next week’s edition of Monday Night Raw.
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78 Comments
great write up, the Raw Divas were really great this week, i hit replay on that outside dive by Gail Kim like 10 times XD
Totally agree with everything you said. I have no problems with the divas on Raw this week. I didn’t find the match length that big of a deal as Natalya just wrestling makes up for it. Personally I like what you said on the post raw show as you think that some divas should get Melina’s place in the division. Natalya would be great as one of the top divas but the wwe just doesn’t want to do it for some reason. Like Michelle and Beth, Natalya can carry anyone and make them look good. I mean it worked for Maria in her matches against Michelle and Layla/Kelly in their matches against Beth.
I was just re-watching the match and I only realized then how awesome the current RAW diva roster is.
Nice Write-up. I LOVED Raw this week, really awesome diva’s action.
Also Alicia has beaten Jillian in a battle royal in November. (Foxxeh did say battle royals – so it counts :P)
LOVE Alicia, and I got to agree with her tbqh – Can you honestly say that there has been a DIVA’S Championship reign better than hers? x
It’s nice to see the more experienced divas like Natalya, Gail & Jillian delve out a lot of the punishment. In some ways, it shows that Raw has more talented divas than we give credit for and if it was purely based on skill, the number one contender wouldn’t be an easy one to fill, because there’s so much potential. I’m still patiently waiting for Natalya to join the title picture.
Welcome back, Melina. Get in line :) Obviously she’s jumping straight to the front of the queue, however.
See this proves that the Divas have it in them to pull off a GREAT!!! match rather its Raw or Smackdown the Divas Rule!!! and loved Melina Return defiantly made me jump out my seat…… AWESOME!!! Job DIVAS!!!! :)
Natalya was AWESOME in that match and so was Gail Kim!
They showed that they are easily the best out of the 6 Divas in the match!
GAIL KIM & NATALYA <3
I thought Melina's return was a bit short! She should have had mic time or something!
The finisher looked weak as well!
2 best spots:
Gail Kim > Outside Dive
Jillian > Throws Gail Kim into ring post!
@ She-Wolf. Yes, Maryse’s first Diva title reign. Wow, well that was easy. xd
The Raw Divas Action was amazing, but IMO Natalya stole the show. I mean, wow. I’ve never seen a Diva be SO good on live TV – almost every diva is always screwing up at least one or two moves, but Natalya did all of her moves perfectly! Omfg, can you say new Nattie mark? Idc if they push her for the title or whatever, I just want to see MORE of her, WWE! She is good and a true women wrestler who could probably could dance circles around more than half of all the WWE Divas.
Gasp. Melina just did the Mind Trip. I hope she sticks to a finisher like that because she pulls off her other finishers very badly.
The women’s division on RAW definitely needed something to spice it up, but I don’t know if this is the best way to go. They could have made Jillian turn face. Or maybe give Gail and/or Nattie a chance to actually feud with Alicia.
we get a great match when eve isn’t heavily involved.. coincidence? ;) lol
even though she’s not done too much in the ring so far, tamina is still impressing me. it’s nice seeing somebody relatively still a “newbie” taking the bumps that she did last night. gail as always was perfection and natalya did awesome, too. i almost forgot just how great natty is in the ring, so i’m real thankful for her wrestling last night.
i don’t know whether it’s just down to it being pre-taped, but the return itself wasn’t as “wow” feeling as i was expecting. i think the segment could’ve really benefitted from some statement by melina afterwards.. it also would’ve helped if alicia actually was dominating! if anything, her wins since becoming title champion have came across to me as just her being lucky.. but she’s right saying her divas reign has been most interesting.
the only two things i didn’t like were both melina’s and alicia’s finishers. alicia was too tall for the split legged ddt, i would’ve preferred it if she hit something else. on the same note, alicia’s axe kick still doesn’t look right to me. she’s sitting on her opponent’s backs and i don’t like it. she has hit it perfect a couple of times before, so i know she can do it.. just wish it was on point more often.
super hopeful for a jillian turn now, likely won’t happen but the fact that wwe’s memory lasted long enough to remember last week’s friction between her and fox (even if it as only an hour or two in real time) was a welcome change.
I agree with you Steven I hope they slowly progress Melina into the title picture, I don’t want her getting the title straight away. Let’s have Alicia feud with Jillian or maybe even Nattie? let Melina have a few backstage skits (chatting with the face divas, and eventually calling out A-Fox herself) As much as I know everyone loves Melina and wants her to have the title back (she’ll just be the top face diva dominating the scene) although to be fair Tamina could be a good challenger for her (while Natalya hopefully fueds with the “Fierce” one) The divas all done good I loved Alicias mic work staring out all the divas Gail was brilliant as always (that dive was AWESOME) and Jilly bean played her part perfectly (I’d be suprised if Gail really did have any teeth left) Natalya is a great wrestler and needs a massive fued/push soon!!! XD
I guess the match up was refreshing. But the match didn’t do it for me. Especially the end. The setup for the sharpshooter was almost botched and mah gawd, is every chick that Alicia hit with the axe kick an idiot or what?
Melina’s return fell flat. I really think she buried Alicia when she calmly walked to the ring with that idiot smile of her’s. The finisher was almost botched too. =/
The Bellas segment with the guests was funny.
Quote Steven- “This moment will be remembered as the night where millions of Diva fans’ heads exploded simultaneously..”
LMAO!
Nice review. All the divas were fantastic this week. Jillian’s newfound agression really stood out. Gail Kim is amazing, as is Natalya. Natalya is so intense and precise, flawless. She wrestles like she was born to do it. Tamina took the crossbody from Gail like a champ and Eve’s dropkick was sweet and she was more confident in there. I guess cause she wasn’t doing much but it was nice to see her get the crowd involved with the hand clapping. That’s a good girl right there. ;)
I love Alicia but the promo was a tad on the weak side. It sounded more like she was complaining rather than bragging. Her axe kick was crap too. She’s a good bumper and not bad when on her A-Game, this wasn’t her best night in my opinion.
Melina was awesome ofcourse. It was shades of the old Royal-esque Melina combined with a new more bad ass side to her. Which ofcourse I love. Nothing better than a strong attitude to make a comeback, especially for a Diva! There are small things here and there that could have been done, for example-I would have preferred she did the SunsetFlip/Powerbomb Manuever instead of the split leg drop. That other move is just a lot more impactful and makes the crowd go “Ohhhhhhh!!!!” But anyway, I’m just glad Melina is finally back! Just don’t be cookie cutter, be Melina!!
“would have preferred she did the SunsetFlip/Powerbomb Manuever instead of the split leg drop.”
You know, I think Melina’s finishers are both bad because it really depends on if the other chick can take them or not. Her split leg one doesn’t work on people taller than her (which is most of them lol) and only 2 people have taken the sunset bomb one. Which I don’t blame. I won’t want a diva to get injured.
agree with gail kim # 1 nattie and gail should be pushed more and given more raw matches….they really shined in this match……..and melinas return was okay i just wish she would of came out and attacked before her music played……
“You know, I think Melina’s finishers are both bad because it really depends on if the other chick can take them or not. ”
hmm, i guess that is the case, yeah. i’ve always preferred her old running, spinning facebuster she does.. i think it suits her almost feral-cat like wrestling style.
@xfrenchkiss – Maryse’s first title reign was bleh. I admit I was wanting for her to win the title and I was extremely excited when she did win the belt – the reign was a let-down. She got injured and didn’t appear for a month and when she returned, Boy was she sloppy. Come to think of it Maryse never got back to how she was in Late 2008. x
@Ebmich, don’t be so harsh..things aren’t so bad there I don’t think. Maybe she should have taken out Alicia and Jillian so Jillian could have taken the SunsetBomb? I don’t know..
@Kaledrina- I think the running facebuster is cool and effective but not for a finisher. Besides, Randy Orton might drop a cow or two if he doesn’t like it because it might be too sudden and similiar to the RKO. Who does this guy think he is? Triple H?! Grrr!
I felt the crowd reaction might have been piped down too..because when her music played I saw a bunch of people getting of their seats and screaming and then when they showed her coming out it was abit settled…it didn’t make sense…but alas, she’s back! And that’s all I wanted! Now if Lita can make her damn host appearance!! Lol.
what if melina tried a new submission move i wanna see her use the move she used on mickei at backlash where she used her legs to do like a master lock with her legs does anyone remember it???
and maybe even try a frog slash….i always wanted to see her do that….lol…thats the finisher i always use for melina in the games….lol
I think they are. As much as a I rag on Alicia being a total wreck in the ring (as mah Bellas get dogged on for some reason), it was new. It was showing that the Raw team is capable of doing something different with different people. Heck, you had two storylines at once with the brand (Alicia braggin’ and baggin’ divas, The Bellas having to actually outsmart Jillian).
It just seems like really lazy booking that got off to a bad start.
p.s. Why would the WWE pipe down noises for a babyface? Especially when they zoomed out of the replay, the crowd was sitting there like “Ugh. When is Cena coming out?”
it’s good to see melina back.
alicia did really great on the mic
natalya and gail stood out in the whole match.the two of them deserve a major bush i hope the mangement realize that sooner rather than later.
“and only 2 people have taken the sunset bomb one. Which I don’t blame. I won’t want a diva to get injured.”
Um, let’s think. Katie Lea, Jillian, Beth, McCool, Alicia. That’s practically everyone she’s faced since using it, bar Layla and Maryse (and I can understand her not using it on those two…Layla’s tiny and Maryse would mess it up).
And I prefer it when she uses the Sunset Split on a woman the same size or taller than her. It looked best on Mickie and Alicia the first time round, whereas on Layla it looked week.
Anyway, I thought the match was great for what it was. Nattie was amazing, and Gail and Jillian were great too. And Melina’s return was pretty much perfect. Here’s hoping her face character is a teeny bit more bitchy and headstrong this time around.
*weak
@Ebmich, not everyone! Don’t exaggerate, comeon now. Some people were glad to see her. And I like the Bellas, they’re coming along nicely. I don’t find them particularly attractive or nothing, but they’re okay I guess. So maybe they didn’t mess with the noise, it just seemed a little weird is all. I suppose most crowds would be burnt out sitting there through two RAW tapings.
The crowd was dead all night. Even if she didn’t cause them to erupt, Melina got one of the biggest cheers of the night. Certainly the biggest reaction for a diva I’ve heard since whichever of Mickie’s has it beaten.
And most of the reports I’ve seen (and a lot of these are from people who either don’t care about Mel or don’t care about the women in general) say she got a pretty huge reaction, so I dunno why it didn’t translate as well as it should have onto the screen.
I left Natalya out of that list of divas btw. She’s taken it as well.
i still get chills from watching that match everything about it was awesome i hope that they have something even better next week! oooooooh i cant wait.
Just a great edition of RAW! Loved Nattie’s butterfly suplex and low dropkick (it looked hard), Loved Gail’s high cross-body block off the top, Tamina’s clothesline, Jillian’s hard irish whip to Gail into the post, Alicia’s promo, Melina’s return, just great. I hope to see Natalya in the title picture soon, she’d be a kick-ass champion.
Amazing job Steven, I agree with everything.
when Gail climbed the turnbuckle, i immediately believed she was going for an arm drag.. but when she hit that crossbody my jaw smashed onto the floor, then when Jillian rammed her into the steel post i thought wow, there is still hope for Raw if they have Divas doing something a little hardcore
the double underhook suplex, in the words of LayCool, was FLAWLESS! hopefully we see more of Natalya in ring action.. possibly against The Straight Edge Society’s Vixen Serena?
Alicia Fox was good on the mic.. i can see her point in how she’s defeated Eve, Gail Kim & now after that match, Natalya.. but this is the first time she has been in the same ring as Tamina & in all the battle royales Jillian & Alicia have been in, Alicia Fox has never won, so she basically just cut herself off
I guess if you get into details, Alicia beat Jillian in that big 18 diva tag before WM 25 when Tiffany pinned Katie Lea since Alicia was a face at the time, but true she hasn’t beaten Tamina yet.
Great job on the redux Steven, and I don’t want to basically rehash my post raw show comment, but Natalya & Gail shined throughout that match and I loved Melina’s return. Can’t wait to see what is in store for the Raw Divas.
@boi213- Yeah, I remember that move. Melina used her legs to put Mickie in a Full Nelson, then rolled onto her stomach to turn it into a pin. That was really cool. Great redux, Steven. Awesome night for the Divas. Even if Melina had made her return sliding down a rainbow and on the back of unicorn, people would still find something to complain about. I think the return was great and the crowd LOVED it. Hopefully this will lead to a great feud between Foxy and Melina.
This probably the best Raw match this year. All the girls who we usually complain about not getting used got used. The only thing that kinda bothered me was Melinas choice of finisher. Fox should of bent back more so melina wouldn’t have to struggle to get her leg up. It would of been so much cooler if Melina came out the crowd because it looked like Alicia could of easily made a run for it.
Alicia fox need stay in fcw for her intire life period……
I don’t know, I thought the division was actually thriving while she was away. It’ didn’t exactly cripple the division. As a matter of fact two new superstar was pretty much made over night due to her absence. Now compare everything that happened between the short reign of Eve up to Alicia’s reign to that of Mickie’s, Jillian’s, Melina and Maryse reigns as champions. They basically didn’t do anything with Mickie’s, Jillian was transitional, Melina’s was much of the same until she got injured…then of course they had to wait for Maryse so they can give her the title. That’s when it stalled, waiting for Maryse. But the ball started rolling after that. New superstars were created, fresh feuds and storylines were made. Gail become a contender, Jillian was wrestling almost regularly, Eve became a fighting champ, and now Alicia, probably the best reign so far in the short history of Diva’s championship.
I don’t think Alicia fox beat Tamina did she ?
They managed to pack a lot into the 3 minute match, and Melina’s return was one of the better ones they’ve done.
Though her segment wasn’t mentioned here, Maryse should be punished for her performance last night. Dave Meltzer, on his Wrestling Observer Live show this morning, mentioned how the Maryse-DiBiase pairing isn’t helped by the fact that Maryse is seen pouting and looking miserable/uninterested when she’s shown on camera during DiBiase’s matches (he speculated that it’s possibly because she would rather be wrestling). He’s absolutely right. It’s unfair to DiBiase for her to not at least make it looks like she cares. If she’s that unhappy/disinterested, she needs to request a new angle for herself or quit. Not even trying to make when you’ve been given work is unacceptable.
the match was great maby 1 of the best this year besides kelly kelly and tiffany vs Lay-Cool but it was awsome and my girl Melina is back im sooooooooooooo happy
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WOW!!! Last nights divas match was pretty damn good!! It just goes to show how if you get real wrestlers in the ring, they can put on a good show!! The crowd was really into it and was the first time I have heard that kinda response during a divas match in a long time!! Personally I think last nights match just potentially opened doors for a slew of story lines for several divas! Now if only WWE can realize that themselves and actually do it!
That match were great. When you
don’t put divas like Torres, Kelly, etc..
you will get this. All the ladies did great(
besides Torres when she botched that side
kick).
Im not a big fan of Melina but I can’t wait for
the coming weeks.
“The crowd was really into it and was the first time I have heard that kinda response during a divas match in a long time!!”
The crowd is always into the matches that on taped shows because WWE can just add in crowd noise or make decent heat louder. That’s why you get a Diva coming out to a big reaction on Superstars, then getting nothing on a live show the next week.
“Though her segment wasn’t mentioned here, Maryse should be punished for her performance last night.”
i do think people are being a bit harsh on maryse over what was basically a 2second clip of a facial expression. i’ve no first hand experience, but surely a major characteristic of being a “gold digger” (as wwe have put it) includes not really caring or being interested in the man they’re with, but rather just his pay-check?
@chrisp, thanks for bursting my bubble!! lol but your right and i completely forgot that last nights episode was pre taped instead of being live
The match was nice tho I wish it could have been longer and get to see more of tamina in the ring. Natalya was the beast in this match and alicia fox also shined in her promo. Alicia, uhmm don’t talk shit like that while staring at tamina, you never had beaten her! LOL! Its nice to see melina back but I love to see gail, natalya and jillian getting a push too.
did anyone else notice that one of alicia’s shoulders (or both I couldn’t see it very well) didn’t touch the ground after the double underhook suplex but the ref did count it xd
Natalya is the sole reason I’ve watched that match about 5 times in a row lol. The girl is just that good. Everything is crisp and looks painful! Put the title on her now!
I’m glad Melina is back, but I do hope they build her up to another title run and let her feud with Alicia so that Alicia can build character and get over with the crowd. The interactions they’ve had in the past were good, so I’m looking forward to their matches down the road. No one will benefit if it happens too soon though.
As for Maryse, I really don’t see the problem most do with her managerial skills or whatever you want to call them. I mean, she’s a gold digger and the relationship with DiBiase is based off of money, not love. I still think it’s a case of him being way too stale and Maryse just stands out too much. She has a stronger presence than him. I also think it has to do with the fact that DiBiase isn’t really being pushed or anything like that. He’s not even a part of the big match at SummerSlam, he has no title or anything. This is creative’s fault for thinking that sticking these two together would equal magic. Give them a storyline and a feud!
Finally, something that got me excited since the past few months or maybe year.
Highlights:
-Gail Kim flies on Tamina.
-Gail Kim hits the ring post like she was shot out of a cannon.
-Jillian Hall throws Alicia Fox back in the ring.
-And Melina does her finishing move on Alicia Fox.
Hopefully his continues!
The Raw divas right now are perfect! I can’t wait to see what they do with them in the near future. Smackdown divas will also be perfect once Beth returns, Serena wrestles and, hopefully, once Kong debuts :)
@RedHotVixen wouldnt you agree that move would work well against alicia, michelle, and all the other divas a little taller then melina, i hope jillian gets a face turn and the bellas go heel or to smackdown….