Last week, Jillian managed to score her first win in almost a year, pinning Eve in a 6 Diva tag match. As a reward for her hard earned win, WWE decided to give her a shot at the Divas Championship against Melina on this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw. Will The Shrill Songstress be able to pull out the win over The Paparazzi Princess? Check out the match below and find out:
We come to ring after commercial to find Jillian in the ring with her ever-present headset. She lets everyone in attendance know that she’s about to become Divas Champion once again, before torturing serenading us all with her own rendition of “Not Afraid” by Eminem, prompting Michael Cole to start singing as well. Kill me now… Fortunately for us, Melina’s music hits, cutting Jillian’s performance short. Melina makes her way to the ring in her usual extravagant fashion and the referee rings the bell, signaling the start of the match.
The two start off with a lock-up with Jillian getting the upperhand and pushing Melina to ropes, forcing a break. Surprisingly, Jillian breaks clean but goes right back on the attack with a stiff forearm. Jillian tries to follow up but is stopped in her tracks by a headscissor/heel kick combo from the champion. Melina tries to keep the heat on Jillian with a kick to the gut but is caught and pulled down into a painful looking split. Jillian goes to kick Melina in the back, but the A-List Diva ducks the attempt and lands a kick of her own, sending Jillian across the ring and into the ropes.
Melina sees an opportunity while Jillian is laid out across the ropes and charges across the ring, looking for her flying double knee strike. Unfortunately for Melina, Jillian has the champ scouted well and ducks the attack, sending Melina flying across the ring. Before Melina can collect herself, Jillian is on the attack again, this time snatching the champ up by her hair and smashing her against her knee. Jillian immediately goes for the pin, but only gets a one count.
A frustrated Jillian cinches in a modified surfboard submission before taking the name of said submission to another level, using Melina as an actual surfboard. Jillian grabs Melina from behind, but the champ reverses it, sending Jillian face first into the mat. Melina tries to get back in control with a forearm, followed by a flying face plant for a near fall. Melina tries to whip Jillian into the corner but Jillian turns it around sending to the turnbuckle instead. Melina manages to leapfrog over Jillian before making impact, but Jillian comes bursting out of the corner, unceremoniously taking the champ down.
Jillian pulls Melina to her feet, drags her near the turnbuckle and pulls her to the canvas once more, setting her up for a Matt Hardy-esque leg drop off the 2nd rope. Melina sees it coming and moves out of way just in time, leaving Jillian to stumble around the ring, clutching her butt in pain. Melina takes advantage of the situation, climbing Jillian’s back and hitting a perfect Last Call for the win.
Melina celebrates her win in the ring, but the party is cut short when BFF Co-Women’s Champions, LayCool appear on the TitanTron. The Flawless Ones let Melina know that they’ll be present at the the 900th episode of Raw next week and they have an offer she simply cannot refuse. I wonder what it could be? But more on that later.
When I heard that Melina and Jillian were facing off this week, I was not expecting the best match. Let’s face it, these two Divas put on several train wreck matches last year during their brief feud. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised at the match these two put on. It was far from a wrestling clinic, but it was their best match against each other to date and one of the more impressive singles matches we’ve seen on the red brand in the past few months. Some may complain that the match was a bit on the short side, but considering the history these two Divas have with each other, I really didn’t expect them to get that much time in the ring. All in all, a solid match from these veteran Divas.
The other big story here is LayCool’s offer for Melina at next week’s Raw. There’s been much speculation about what exactly the BBFs will be offering. Everything from title unification (NOOOOOO!!!!) to a spot in LayCool’s faction has been brought up. Honestly, I don’t have any theories that haven’t already been explored. We’ll just have to wait until next week to see what this offer is, but I will say this: I will be sooooo pissed if the titles get unified (not that WWE cares what the fans think or anything).
In other news, after dropping the ball last week, there was yet another disturbing exchange between the Samoan Beauty, Tamina and Santino. Prepare to be skeeved out:
Long story short, after losing to Santino and Vladimir Kozlov, one of the Usos tries to attack Santino. Lucky for Santino, Tamina comes to the rescue, calling off her cousin and helping The Milan Miracle to his feet. Before escorting her charges to the back, Tamina gives Santino a nice, long, awkward and disturbing stare before blowdarting (yes, you read that correctly) a kiss at Santino. Erm… ok?
I honestly have no idea where this angle between Santino and Tamina is going, but I cant say I’m excited to find out. I mean, the last time Santino got involved with a Diva, we got Santina… Need I say more?
Last, but not least, Maryse wore a really fugly dress…
I have to say, I was satisfied with this week’s Raw. We got decent progression in the LayCool/Melina storyline, as well as the Tamina/Santino angle, which is more than I can say for last week. After LayCool’s announcement tonight, I’m sure every Diva fan is on pins and needles waiting for next week’s Raw. Let’s just hope it lives up to all of the hype.
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28 Comments
It was decent. The match was short but it was good for a RAW thing.
I honestly think that Laycool will just challenge her for Night of Champions. They need to put SD! Divas doing new things, but we all know how SDs roster is really small.
I completely see Melina mentoring AJ Lee, with AJ Lee’s becoming a tag team partner to Melina.
I will be very pissed if the titles are unified, and WWE Diva Gail Kim is denied her opportunity to win that Diva belt and be the first three belt winner (WWE Women’s, TNA Knockout’s & WWE Diva’s) … but then does WWE really care?
I agree with you about the match. I thought it was decent match with NO botches. With Melina and Jillian wrestling each other, it was a miracle.
I really don’t want a unified women’s championship because I know the Wwe will be lazy and not let their champion appear on both shows (see Hart Dynasty). I would rather have Michelle challenged Melina for the Diva’s championship that way, LayCool can officially rule the Wwe women’s division. *Insert evil laugh*
I really don’t want to see Santino paired up with another diva. Every time he does, he becomes the main focus for the divas, especially at Wrestlemania time. At Wrestlemania 24 and 25, Santino was the main focus in the diva’s match. Even though he wasn’t the main focus at Wrestlemania 26, we had Vickie Guerrero as the focus :P Vickie imo is almost as big of a joke as Santino. Almost.
Agreed about the match. The dodge from a split position at the start and the surfboard spot were both pretty cool, and it was a fun match in general. Don’t agree that it was their best match though – most people seem to have forgotten about their 2006 match @ Judgement Day, which IMO was pretty great. Melina as a character was never stronger IMO. I wonder if they just have more chemistry when the face/heel roles are reversed.
Commentary of the night:
Cole: “What’s with all this screaming?”
King: “I thought that was you!”
Almost Heenanesque.
i think there just goin to switch brands because even micheal cole and layla said at summerslam that lay-cool have ran out of people on smackdown so i just think that lay-cool propose a trade possible 2 out of 3 match……i dont think they will unify the titles yet its too early and if michelle/layla wins then who on smackdown can they defend it against but wwe notices as layla as the champion even on the website it says layla is champion so why is michelle shining more then layla
That match was BORING.
Where the fuck was Alicia and Eve sucks they’re getting pushed to the back now
Yeah, their best match to date was at Judgment 2006. They were given time and a build-up and they delivered. However, as far as their Raw matches go, this was solid. I wish they would have gotten more time, but eh.
Maryse’s dress was not fugly. It was quite summery. I was surprised that it didn’t flash some cleavage, instead she went for showing lots of leg.
Tamina’s top was fugly with the skirt she was wearing though.
Jillian was looking Fabolous. It really upsets me that she is THE jobber, because she’s, Probably my fave diva in the WWE. Unlucky for me. About the match, it was pretty good for the amount of time it got. Lay-Cool was there too, and that Makes it even more fun to watch. And, As Long as I get to see Maryse ( and Jillian) , I will be willing to watch RAW.
When Jillian and Melina had their first match back at Judgement Day 2006, it was one of the most solid diva’s matches of the year. I always thought it was shame they didn’t face off again.
Then they did last year and it was…not pretty.
This match, however, was back to solid work! Jillian controlled the match (which I think she always should- she works much better being the one in control) and Melina didn’t use too many extravogant moves which I think is for the better. Overall it was pretty darn good. Only negative thing I can mention- Melina’s screaming. Someone needs to gag that woman just before she goes out there. The scream just before the Last Call is okay- screams before, after and during every move she hits or recieves is not okay.
I’m loving the storyline with Tamina and Santino. I wish they had a segment last week, but this was good progression. Tamina is quite stunning. She’s not typically pretty, but she has a great exotic look to her. Their little exchange at the end (with the harpooning kiss) was fantastic. They were about 10 foot away from each other and yet they had incredible chemistry.
I don’t think Maryse’s dress was bad, but she looked bad in it. I think the bright colours would look better on someone of darker complexion (Alicia would look fantastic in it).
I know I’m in the minority, but I really want them to unify the titles. Put all the Divas who can work/are champion material on one show with one title and rebuild the division.
It seems like wwe is forming a mix tag team called Taminarella .
The worst thing they did was turn Natalya face, turning Tamina will totally put me off her altogether, the same as they did with Nattie. The storyline is pointless, it just seems like a failed attempt to drum support up for Santino again, when in truth he passed his sell by date a long time ago and now they’re dragging Tamina and the Usos down to put him over.
The Divas title match, well I don’t know, I don’t really find Melina’s matches entertaining anymore, I’ve felt this way a long time before her injury, so it’s not a case of a ‘she’s just returned from injury!’ comeback. I feel like Melina has such a reputation of this contortionist, flexible woman that she’s trying to force feed us it in her moveset when most of the time it just slows the match down and makes it awkward, take this match for example it’s just like Melina’s trying to show how bendy and creative she is with her legs to do a kick or the splits, that she doesn’t flow well. If you’re going to try innovative moves, I think you really need to speed to sell it as the Cruiserweight or X-Division do otherwise the move itself looks weak, because it just seems a bit slow paced and like the match never really picked up. Shame they cut short this feud, I think Jillian has so much potential without having to drum up support for the Raw Divas by including LayCool into the mix.
I know I’ll get a billion Melina marks now tell me how wrong I am, but I just preferred Melina in the olden days when it seemed like she wasn’t just trying to show her creativity constantly.
Lol, I can see your point. I love Melina, but I do wish she’d tone her moveset down at times and make it less ‘showy’. Her bendiness would seem a lot more impressive that way, I think. I mean, Jillian forcing her into the split could have been a ‘gasp’ moment, a la Melina/Mickie at Backlash 2007 (that was an awesome spot, lol), but the crowd didn’t really react on account of them being so used to her bending in all these weird and wonderful ways.
Saying that, I feel like the divas need something to make them stand out, due to the fact that they rarely get time to develop a personality and only get a few minutes every week match-wise. Therefore, I can see why Melina feels the need to bust out the big moves and bendy positions so often. If the WWE gave the women more time then I doubt we’d be seeing her using those moves nearly as frequently.
well since both match at last years night of champions were 15 minuites combined sooo except a 2 on 1, 15 minuet match
and the match was good but when melina did the last call jillian was waiting for melina and she looked stupid just bending over
okay match…but i remember they had a great match when they were on SD!..jillian was face and melina was heel…it was on a ppv but can’t remember what it was
it was melina’s first loss as i remember
and tamina…never thought i would say that but she looked smoking im starting to like this angle
I heard that WWE is setting up a fued between Santino/Kozlov and The Usos!
So much for Jillian winning two matches in a row :(
@ Looking Glass
Santino is one of the most over wrestlers who is not in the main event. At live shows the fan’s absolutely love him. If anyone will benefit from this storyline, it will be Tamina.
I agree (somewhat) with what you said about Melina, I really wish she’d slow things down again. I feel that her in-ring work as a heel is superior to her work as a face, because she tries so much stuff that very few of the girls she’s working with can pull off as a face. I respect that she’s adding all these spots into the match to entertain the fans, but it needs to look natural, which alot of it doesn’t. I’d like to see her work on submission moves because that can incorporate her flexibility and has less chance of being messed up.
@aiden123 about two days ago, I would’ve been all for the two champs swapping brands but at the moment that would be stupid. No more Serena and then no more Laycool means no heels on Smackdown minus Rosa Mendes who I’m pretty sure is a face. So by giving Laycool new challengers you’re taking away all of Melina’s. The best thing for WWE to do at this time would be a complete reshuffle were they to switch up the divas.
I see Michelle challenging Melina at NOC and then Melina bringing in AJ to face Layla.
The match was pretty spot on on RAW and Jillian proved that she is incredibly entertaining. Her surfboard spot was awesome. However, the Tamarella is far from awesome and even though it could be funny, I’d rather not see Tamina being buried. And yeah, I don’t think she’ll benefit from it at all. Although the Usos have the charisma of two amoeba, I’d rather not see them be buried because of Santino, who is about as funny as toothache.
Wow, have to get Melina kudos for not crying. I know it must’ve been really hard for her to keep in all those tears, but you did it girl! (:
All kidding aside, I don’t remember much from the match except for the Laycool and Melina exchanged. Oh, and Jillian singing “Not Afraid,” everything else was zzz for me which is the case when WWE doesn’t build up a proper fued. I mean, Jillian NEVER pinned Melina – she pinned Eve, Eve had to go through pinning a feud Divas (including Maryse) AND win a number one contender spot, C’mon WWE, stop switching up the rules!
Tamarella is what it is. It’s evident WWE is only doing it because Santino has pretty much been forgotten and replaced, IMO, by The Miz when it comes to promos. This is just another storyline for him to keep him in the fan’s mind. But, this might not be Tamina being burried? I don’t see where anyone sees that. Glamorella was a HUGE success and besides, wtf else were they going to do with the Usos, huh? Anyone, Anyone?
Oh, and yes, Maryse.<3 Made my night like always, 'nuff said.
Ummm…LayCool look scary in that title pic lol Layla lukin especially drag-a-licious haha
it seems like they try to find any occasion to play mccool’s theme song!!
i think theyer are going to challenge melina to a match at noc and winner takes all and michelle will get the win making her the divas champ……then after that teddy will tell them that since both members of laycool have the titles they will have to decide who moves to raw and who stays on sd,…….which will end lay cool’s run and give layla a face turn……
Another crappy match form these to, didnt enjoy
I know most people don’t want a unification match, but there aren’t enough decent female wrestlers in WWE to justify two titles. The Divas Championship had about as much importance as the NWA Western States Heritage title. I say unfiy the women’s titles and good riddance to what has become known as “The Barbie Belt”.
On a different note, as much as I like Gail Kim, she is not getting a title from WWE anytime in the near future. She’s cooled off too much. Maybe if she were to turn heel and make it her personal mission to end Melina’s career, you might have something. You can even team her up with an up-and-comer to form a new version of “The Jealous Jezebels”.
I have to agree that LayCool has no one on SD to wrestle. Two weeks in a row and no Divas match. I can see them going to Raw. I hope that they don’t unify the titles. The Divas Title seemed perfect for Kelly Kelly or Maria. They don’t have a lot of wrestling moves, but entertain. It also looks to be a springboard for the Women’s Title.