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
“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?”
If Maryse would sell her supposed golddigger character half as much as Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler have been trying to do, it sure would come off a lot better.
This match was almost perfect- I haven’t seen such an exciting match from Knockouts or Divas like this match. It definitely needed to be 5 minutes longer, but we’ll take it.
I loved how EVERY move Natalya did got an “Oooh” or an “Ahhh”
If WWE would realize the WWE Universe doesn’t just love Divas like Eve, Kelly, Tiffany, Layla, etc…
but they also love women that can wrestle and kick ass (like Natalya, Gail Kim, Jillian, Tamina, Serena etc…)
Melina’s return was okay; I just want to see amazing matches from the Knockouts like this on a weekly basis.
**I especially can’t wait to see a hopeful Serena VS Natalya… that would be amaziiiiiing
I think what Alicia was trying to get across was that she was the champion and was the dominant diva at the moment on Raw (against Tamina I think she was trying to say “I won this match I”m the winner here” if ya know what I mean) haha D
I’m getting so sick of Alicia. I mean Look how awesome Natalya was dominating her and one little (not to mention sloppy once again) axe kick after all the ass kicking she was doing finished her off? PLEASE!!
Alicia isn’t horrible! Hey I prefer her over Maryse(wrestling)any day! And did anyone hear that random idiot in the crowd right before Melina came out, “We want Chyna!!” Lol! Little did he expect the Baraccuda! I love that nickname JR gave her. It makes her sound dangerous! ;)
ah, I love it! that match was great and the ending when Melina came back made the whole night SO much better! i’m not even a big fan of hers but I’m so unbelievably happy she’s back! Raw needed this desperately, the crowd was a tad louder than I expected too which is a plus :D
Alicia’s voice is very very cute….
The match was good… I noticed Gail got a lot of pops from the crowd when she hit that Dropkick, Cross Body drop, and the turnbuckle… unlike Eve who barely got anything when she baseball slide kick Jillian…
Jillian is FACE!!! YEHEY.. hopefully
Melina screamin “IM BACK!!” was the best
EBMICH: “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.”
LOL. :) Again, EBMICH, in your attempt to be “critical” or perhaps in your desire to be cute by being a devil’s advocate, basic facts seemed to have alluded you. Don’t worry. Here, let me help…
FIRSTLY, here are the people who have taken the Sunset Flip Bomb on TV…
1. Beth
2. Michelle
3. Alicia
4. Jillian
Had opportunities risen, Mickie, Natalya, Gail and other HARD WORKING DIVAS would be able to do it to given that the base of that maneuver is a pretty solid foundation and the most risk actually comes from Melina and not the divas due to the swing-over.
SECONDLY, Melina is only 5’4… most of the divas in the roster are taller than her. Jillian is taller than her. Maria is taller than her and both those divas–yes, including Maria–have been able to sell the split-legged guillotine well. Why? Because you’re supposed to go lower when you take it and that has nothing to do with height. Just a simple manner of bending backwards. The only person who never really took that move well was Michelle. And the only reason she didn’t was because she dropped too early.
And FINALLY, what was that other point you said? You hate her finishers “because it really depends on if the other chick can take them or not.”
LOL. Talk about bringing everything down for a few bad apples. Right… I’m sure other finishers don’t work that way. ;)
Basically, you’re looking for one move that can supposedly be used on everybody with EQUAL efficiency. Given the diversity of the human form? Good luck. ;)
I have a suggestion though: since Maryse can’t really pull off that DDT (lol. it’s only a DDT for crying out loud) maybe you can put steel tweezers on that weave of hers and have her just swing her hair to permanently blind people. I’m sure that’s the kind of finisher you would like. Feminine, effortless and usable on EVERYONE with eyes. :)
EBMICH – Oh wait… here’s a follow up before I forget: Katie Lea also took that Sunset Finisher and she sold it wonderfully. So, I guess that makes it 5. (lol)
@fanboy
OMG! i thought the same alicia’s voice is adorable its like a little girl aww! Also i was impressed except for eve who made the night a mess that kick she did to jillian messed it up uh for the rest i thought they outshined espicially jillian and natalya.
@wildsnortax
why would alicia stay in FCW forever? uhm WTF eve has to GO to FCW she needs to train before we ever see her again as for alicia s=you should watch i prefer Fatal 4 way dovas match on FCW and Alicia vs Beth in OVW those are the matches that say alicia was ready for the main roster also her ECW matches its because every diva that comes to RAW has to rush and be sloppy for example eve, alicia, gail, and maryse. Kelly is improving much more on SD and tiffany is improving as well its like if tiff comes to raw she is doomed for her career. So i think that alicia belongs in the main roster and not in FCW.
“I have a suggestion though: since Maryse can’t really pull off that DDT (lol. it’s only a DDT for crying out loud)”
She can’t? SInce when?
Oh yeah so true! i forgot who brought it up but since last night was pre – taped maybe that is why the divas did amazing except for last week alicia/brie was AWFUL! So plan on not seeing so much divas.
hope Jillian is face now… and that she shocks the WWE UNIVERSE by singing good…. not shrieking…. hope it happens…
“Idiot smile”? Really? Was that really necessary? For pete’s sake, she was HAPPY to be back. Thank goodness Melina doesn’t listen to nonsense like that, people wanting to find every little thing wrong with her.
Great writeup as usual Steven. Can’t complain with the match or Melina’s come back. The crowd was probably tired, seeing as how it was their second Raw to sit through, but she still got a great response. Missed her so much. <3 All the women looked so good tonight, kudos to all seven!
One thing I noticed about Melina that night: no ring rust at all. All her moves transitioned smoothly and were performed expertly too; I almost didn’t feel she left at all. I guess when a girl who’s been out for seven months suddenly returns then performs moves three times better than Eve, that definitely means something…
on the topic of a possible jillian face turn, i wouldn’t mind seeing eve become heel to help balance the roster. if anything, it’ll mean she can’t rely on the flashy moves any more and will perhaps help her fine tune the basic moves that she does seem to suffer with.
they could maybe bring up the supposed (supposed ‘cos it was only mentioned by ted) no.1 contendership match she won, her being pissed that melina just “swans in and takes her place”, etc etc, involve a face jillian and there you have another 4way feud.
i do hope they somehow continue with the bellas/hall feud next week though, it was a highlight of the week for me.
melina has given the sunset bomb to michelle, alicia, beth, jillian and natalya so why is there people saying she only did it 2 two :S
im not going to give my hopes up that WWE is giving jillian a chance i think they just used her to help with alicia promo as she bad mouthed them all….i hope they bring back the jillian we saw in 2007 when she won matches and teaming with melina :D
Now you all see why I’ve been pushing for Nattie to have a shot at the title ;-).
As for Melina’s return, It would of been better if it was live. I’ve sat through 6 hours of live wrestling so I know how the crowd felt having to sit through two tapings of RAW. It does take the wind out of you a bit.
@Shanti, I see what your saying about Natalya. Perhaps it is in her blood or maybe not, but I can’t argue that she’s definitley special. She can put on a clinic like Michael Cole mentioned. And I don’t want to hype her up too much but, she wrestles a lot better than some of the guys in all of WWE right now. That’s saying something.
So since we’ve settled the situation with Melina and her excellent SunsetBomb finisher, then yea, I prefer her using that one. It is very impactful and the crowd responds better vs. the split leg drop. If I could change one thing about her return, it would be that. Not much else to complain about there. She looked amazing and I wouldn’t call it an “Idiot Smile.” More like a devious one, a sexy devious one that is.. ;)
@ Agent E – Not really, also her finisher looked sorta sloppy. Fox should bended lower or something.
Very, very weak reaction for such a ‘big’ return. This moment proves that women’s wrestling is dead in WWE. No one in the audience has been made to care about the ladies, anymore. I feel bad for every woman in the locker room that’s working her ass off yet getting no help from creative.
Creative effort = Audience appreciation.
I think The Crying Light just became my fave poster lol. I loved the match. I which Tamina would’ve got tagged in but her role was pretty good. Gail and Natalya owned all in this match. I’m begging the WWE to put them in the title picture. Alicia Fox was pretty good as welll. She sold well and put up a good fight. Her Axe Kick was alittle iffy though. i’m happy Melina id back put i’m afraid as well. You know she is going to line jump and get a shot at the Diva’s Championship before more deserving people. When she does have her matches with Alicia they will be pretty good.
I believe alicia fox has beaten jillian in battle royals, but that shouldn’t really count. And she has never beaten Tamina. And she said on the raw roster not in the wwe. Because we know two divas on smackdown might take exception to that.
In addition Alicia Fox mic work was terrible imo. She sounded like a liitle girl and very unconvincing. As for melina, why are people saying she shouldn’t do her finisher on tall people she has done the move to Alicia before on smackdown with difficulty but i guess its because she hasen’t done it in a long time like when she returned last year and she botched her finisher on Katie Lea.
And it is funny how alicia fox went from no reaction to decent heel heat in one week. Oh yeah it was edited in..sadly. And I hope Jillian turns face now and team up with melina again like they did when they were heels.
lol She did sound like a little girl (thought it was kinda cute) and not this badass WWE and everybody else is trying to make her out to be with all these damn wins shes getting over the divas, its just unconvincing to me. She doesn’t look like she would be a ” threat ” to anyone on the roster IMO …ok maybe the Bellas, but that isn’t saying much lol.
Although Fox has ways to go to be a well rounded wrestler, she can be quite the hellcat against the right opponent. Namely, Gail Kim. The more experienced wrestlers like Natalya, Melina and Jillian can make her look like gold with good effort. And I’m glad I wasn’t the only one not drinking the kool aid promo she cut. It was pretty weak and for a second there I pictured a Nickolodean character had busted in there. She really needs to work on that..she’s not supposed to sound like 12 year old. But other than that..she’s doing good, oh..minus that inconsistent AxeKick.
So glad Alicia doesn’t have the title anymore…..her entrance had to be he gayest thing in the WWE since Goldust.