Greetings, you joy filled bitches, and welcome to another week of Impact recapping. On tonight’s big show, we continue on the journey to Against All Odds as TNA invades the United Kingdom for its second taping before heading back to the States. Tonight’s episode brought us a rare friend vs friend match up between Mickie James and Velvet Sky, and we also got to see a kickass segment involving the #1 Contender to the Knockouts Title, Tara, and the woman who holds the gold, Gail Kim! This is sure to be a night for all to remember, so let’s get into the swing of things and two step our way on in to this recap.

First up, we are taken outside the arena as the Knockout who challenges for the title this Sunday, Tara, takes us on a video journey through the streets of London. She welcomes everyone to Wembley Arena and praises the ravenous fan base located inside. From there, Tara attempts to record some of the fans walking by her until she is cut off by Gail Kim out of nowhere! Kim poses the question, “How’s this for home footage?!” before striking Tara across the face! The two begin to fight on the sidewalk, as the people walking by don’t seem phased at all for the sight of two women kicking the crap out of each other. As I continue to sit here amazed at their ability to walk by, Gail shoves Tara through an entry way and the two tear each other apart throughout the arena! Kim finally takes Tara down and then proceeds to viciously slam her challenger through a set of doors. She slyly turns to the camera and asks how that was for some home footage… courtesy of Gail Kim!~ Gail walks off, as the camera crew quickly rushes to Tara’s side and offers their help, I’m assuming.

We proceed to head out to the arena, where resident red head Christy Hemme announces the following contest is scheduled for one fall. (Ahem… warming up vocal chords.) HAAAARRDDDDCURRRRRR COUUNNTREEHHHHH blasts throughout the building, and out skips fan favorite, Mickie James. She slides into the ring and poses for the fans, before the music of much beloved, Velvet Sky begins to play. She steps out in her finest pink gear, as these two friends get ready to square off in a treat for the London crowd. Impact plugs the Twitter of my benevolent TNA ruler in Miss Karen’s absence, Aunt Dixie Carter, whom you should all follow now, while the bell sounds and we get started.

The two circle around the ring for a bit before a few “Velvet” chants break out and they lock up. Mickie and Velvet exchange advantages, before Velvet applies a wrist lock that Mickie cartwheels out of and drops into an arm drag pinfall for a one count. James keeps the hold locked in, but Velvet reverses it into a side headlock. Mickie with a quick reversal into a pin for a one count, before transitioning back into the hold until James can send her off the ropes. Velvet with a shoulder tackle, as she follows up by leaping over Mickie and then ducking under a leapfrog from the country gal. Mickie goes for a rolling kick, but Sky catches her early on and hoists her up into a hip lock for a near fall.

Mickie slides out with a bridge and connects with an Oklahoma roll for another two count, which brings the two to a stare off and applause. Velvet extends her hand as Mickie goes to shake it but reverses into a wrist lock to boos! Ruh-roh! James sends Velvet into the corner, but Sky comes back with a boot to the face and springs off with a whirlybird headscissors. Sky charges off the ropes, although Mickie sweeps her under the legs and runs forward herself with a baseball slide dropkick for a few close counts. This does not set well with Mickie, as she begins to display a bit of anger!~ Mickie takes Velvet into the corner and goes to town on her with shots and kicks galore. The crowd tries to get behind Sky, but James snapmares her over and locks in a submission hold to trap the arm and work over the ribs.

Applause from the crowd tries to get Velvet back to a vertical base, but Mickie rolls her up for another two count. Sky finally fights back with a jawbreaker, following it up with a series of clotheslines until she is cut off with a spin kick from Mickie. James goes for an Irish whip, but Sky reverses it into a neck flip type move for a near fall. Velvet tries to set Mickie up for a pair of jawbreakers, but ends up paying the price as Mickie scores with a clothesline. Mickie goes for the Mickie-DT, but Sky counters into an attempt for the Sky High… but Mickie hoists her over and she goes for a sunset flip. James smacks her hand away and attempts to pick her up, but Velvet quickly rolls her up out of nowhere for the victory!

Velvet celebrates her victory, as Mickie James begins to make a pretty scary look on her face following the loss. Nonetheless, Sky walks back up the ramp and slaps a few hands on her way, while Mickie continues to seem upset at the fact that she didn’t defeat Velvet… Interesting!

Thoughts: This was a pretty interesting show for the Knockouts of Impact Wrestling. Beginning with the segment between Gail and Tara, I thought it was extremely well done and hats off to both ladies for that brutal brawling in the street. Even if nobody stopped to see what was going on, it was still a great segment to add some fuel to the fire for their big championship match Sunday, and I’m elated that they weren’t simply forgotten about on tonight’s show in favor of the match, but got some shine as well.

The match was pretty fun to watch for me. It had a few moments where they seemed to get a little step off, but I’ve heard before that it’s challenging to work a match where both people are the same disposition, so I don’t really see any reason to fault them. I wasn’t sure how this match would come off on TV in terms of any signals of a heel turn, but it definitely looks like my pride and joy from the south is about to turn on us loyal Hardcore Country-men and women. Mickie definitely showed signs of an upcoming heel turn, and I could not be more excited. She needs to be rejuvenated character wise in my opinion, solely because while she is extremely popular, you just need variety every so often so you can continue to evolve. I like Mickie a lot, and I think a heel turn would be perfect for her. Very excited to see what develops between these two in the future.

Greetings everybody, and welcome to the your Thursday afternoon recap of choice… the NXT Watch! I’m sure that anyone who reads what I have to say knows how much I love everything about this show and how I pride myself in getting to review it, but tonight’s episode… how do I say it? Tonight’s episode brought my love to new heights. You see, we got to witness Maxine and Kaitlyn square off like we have a few times now, but because this is NXT — or as I like to call it, the Promise Land — we also get treated to a few tremendous segments backstage featuring the two women, Dirty Curty, and the most entertaining male wrestler around today (not named Husky Harris), Derrick Bateman!

Let’s continue on because I can’t contain my excitement any longer…

Following a match involving Percy Watson, we head backstage to see Kaitlyn warming up for a match against Maxine later tonight when she is approached, creepily might I add, from behind by Dirty Curty. He asks if she’s getting ready for her match, but before Kaitlyn can answer that, she questions where his shirt is at since it’s about 35 degrees backstage. From there, Kaitlyn then wonders why he’s even here since he’s off the show now. (Note: I guess NXT is like America where you must marry a roster member to stay on, and since Maxine dumped him, WWE has deported our very own Dirty Curty.) She adds that it doesn’t matter now, anyway, because Maxine chose Derrick instead of him.

Dirty Curty claims that their relationship will never last because he knows a secret that nobody else knows!~ Kaitlyn makes a fair trade in that if she lets him tell her this likely ridiculous secret, he will go back to his van and put a shirt on. Dirty Curty agrees, and informs her that when he was with Maxine, she would always complain about how Derrick had a thing for Kaitlyn. From her hair, to her skin, all the way to her method of gum chewing! He sums it up by saying that Derrick is digging her vibes, before creepily heading off and leaving Kaitlyn to wonder the legitimacy of what she was just told. She decides to shrug it off with a big, “Nahhhhhhhh”, although still appearing somewhat unsure.

After another excellent bout between Trent Barreta and Tyson Kidd, we are taken backstage to see Derrick Bateman walking down a hallway following his loss earlier to the ginger earlier in the night. Kaitlyn suddenly approaches and greets him with a, “Sweet Meat, what’s the deal?”, as he describes his disappointment at his loss earlier. She calls him a winner though, citing his head of cascading curls as a positive, which sparks him to dub her a “good friend” and take part in a consensual high five. He then proceeds to ask if she has any of the gum she likes to chew (GASP), but before she can answer, our beloved Queen of Mean enters the equation as a cold chill runs up their spines, I’m sure.

Maxine walks right in between them, shoving both backwards as she demands to know why he lost earlier! The Queen questions how they are supposed to ever move off of NXT if he keeps losing, especially when it’s to the ginger. (As if I didn’t admire Maxine enough already…) Before he can answer though, Kaitlyn comes to his rescue and sarcastically claims that Maxine is such a supportive girlfriend… and boy, let me tell you, this does not set well with our Queen. She slowly turns around and asks Kaitlyn if she got lost and couldn’t find an exit, because knowing her, she probably couldn’t find her way out of a paper bag!

Just then, that creep Dirty Curty sticks his head out from behind, watching his dirty work unfold before his very eyes. Kaitlyn informs Maxine that she knows right where she is, but this doesn’t stop Queen Maxine from offering her assistance in aiding Kaitlyn to leave. She then demands Kaitlyn to exit the conversation, and stop talking to Derrick. The spunky NXT winner just admits she was trying to be supportive, but oh no, Miss Maxine knows what she was trying to do, and she doesn’t like it one bit. She states that Kaitlyn is trying to sneak one in underneath her, and that it’s quite… um, I think Maxine said a word that ended up getting bleeped out. Vicious indeed!

Nonetheless, she demands that Kaitlyn stay away from Derrick which leads to the plucky fan favorite to ask Sweet Meat how he can kiss that mouth after hearing whatever word got bleeped! This INFURIATES the Queen, as she almost loses it until her Der-Bear holds her back. Kaitlyn then walks off as Maxine screams out, “Why don’t you tone your hair one color, okay?!” Genius. Derrick wants Maxine to act like an adult, and she amazingly tells him to shut up! From there, he makes the noise similar to when Kaitlyn was “giving birth” a few weeks ago, before walking off as Maxine questions what he’s wearing! The duo walk off, as that rotten scoundrel Dirty Curty walks forward and announces, “It’s getting weeiiirddd”. God, I love this show.

Out to the arena we go, to the tune of “If you want it, come and get it!” Our royal highness steps out in her finest thigh high stockings, before strutting down the ramp and climbing into the ring for her match against Kaitlyn. Speaking of which, after hitting the dance floor, I’m sure, Kaitlyn steps out from the back and poses on each side of the stage for the fans. She then twirls down the ramp and gets into the ring herself, as the bell sounds and we kick things off between these two enemies. Maxine charges forward and spears Kaitlyn to the ground, before choking her with her thigh. Those deadly stockings!

Maxine attempts to run after her again, but Kaitlyn moves out of the way and the Queen meets the canvas face first. Once she gets to a vertical base, Kaitlyn drops her with a nice sidewalk slam, before transitioning it into a neat submission hold. It stays in place until Maxine breaks it by reversing into a pinfall for a one count, as she then runs right into a bodyslam. The blond and black haired Diva plants her with a leg/elbow drop combination for a two count, as William Regal brings the “walnut crushing thighs” reference from FCW to NXT! My life has been made!

Maxine strikes Kaitlyn in the stomach, hits her with a knee to the face, and then runs forward with a big clothesline that gains her a few near falls. Kaitlyn shoves her off and gets a two count, as a “Let’s go, Kaitlyn” chant breaks out. Am I in heaven? Or at least, am I dreaming? Maxine slams Kaitlyn’s head into the canvas and locks in her dragon sleeper from a seated position. She strikes Kaitlyn in the stomach a few times, before Kaitlyn is just barely able to reverse it with a jawbreaker. She backs into the corner as the Queen seems imminent on ending this match with a victory by slamming Kaitlyn’s head into the turnbuckle. Maxine climbs up the ropes and looks to go for a few punches, but Kaitlyn cuts her off and shoves her backwards!

A shoulder tackle starts her comeback up, followed by a dropkick and a running crossbody for a near fall! Kaitlyn lifts Maxine up, but the Queen smacks her right in the jaw and runs forward into a crucifix hold. Kaitlyn uses her upper body strength to try and fight the move from being turned into a pin attempt, but ultimately does not succeed in this, as Maxine falls backwards and is able to pin Kaitlyn’s shoulders to the mat for the three count! She scurries out from the ring and walks up the ramp to grin at her victory over Kaitlyn, while the fan favorite wonders what just happened and looks on with revenge on her mind.

Thoughts: I’ve begun to realize that NXT is always going to make me happy, but tonight took it to new levels. The backstage segments are always a blast to watch because they actually get time to develop characters, and both Maxine & Kaitlyn work off each other so humorously. Between Maxine’s seriousness and Kaitlyn’s humor, I want them to feud forever if it results in segments like the ones we saw tonight. Plus, I still believe whoever writes NXT secretly reads what I want because that’s twice now Kaitlyn has been put into a storyline after weeks of my pleading for them to do so.

The match was finally a bit longer than what we’ve been getting the past few outings, and it didn’t feel rushed or anything. I thought they did well together, and I continue to be amazed at how much improvement both have shown since their season of NXT took place. The only fault I had is that I feel like if I see another roll up victory my head is going to explode. Maxine has some of the best finishers for a female, and I refuse to settle for roll up victories! Nonetheless, tonight’s episode of NXT has been perhaps the first strong one since the wedding, and it’s great that we’re getting back to having both segments and matches that go longer than twenty seconds.

The Queen of Wrestling, Sara Del Rey, graced us with her royal presence in video form to accept her 2011 Wrestler of the Year award — as only she can. (You’ll quickly see what we mean when you hit the play button!)

Check out the oh so humble Queen’s acceptance below:

RELATED:
- Diva Dirt names Sara Del Rey its Wrestler of the Year
- Exclusive: Wrestler of the Year Sara Del Rey Reflects on Award-Winning 2011

Welcome, everyone, to another chilling, thrilling Raw Redux!~ Unfortunately Cryssi’s work schedule has taken it’s blasted toll, and therefore, I am here to take over in what was a pretty interesting night for the ladies of Raw. We had a rematch from the Royal Rumble which saw Tamina, Kelly Kelly, Eve, and Alicia Fox take on Brie & Nikki Bella, Natalya, and our reigning Divas Champion, Beth Phoenix! Resident Pocket Rocket, AJ, also accompanied Daniel Bryan to the ring for his ten millionth match against the Big Show, and Eve closed the show in a haunting segment with Kane backstage.

Without any further ado, let us kick off this Raw Redux with some action.

We head to the ring, where Justin Roberts announces the following 8-Diva tag team match, and since there are only eight Divas that WWE regularly uses on TV programming, I think it’s safe to assume who is involved. Nonetheless, “She Looks Good to Me” starts up, and out walks Alicia Fox, Tamina, Kelly Kelly, and Eve! As the four Divas strut into the ring, we get a video recap of last week’s antics involving Kane, Eve, and John Cena before heading back to the classy tune of our Glamazon’s theme. Natalya and the Bellas step out to the ramp by her side, and together the four ladies hop into the squared circle as we get a nice video recap of Beth Phoenix saying there’s no competition for her. Could WWE truly be building to Beth vs. Kharma?!

The bell sounds, and hey, we’re already two minutes and thirty three seconds into this video which on any given night, is the time given to their entire segment. Progress is being made! Nonetheless, the bell sounds as Eve and Beth start things off for their teams. Eve goes for a headlock, but Beth sends her off the ropes and Eve beautifully glides off the Glamazon’s back. She goes for a kick, but Beth DRILLS her in the face with the soon-to-be infamous clothesline that has since possibly broken Eve’s nose. She goes for a cover, but Torres kicks out and Beth bodyslams her before viciously striking Brie Bella in the chest and ordering her to show the Glamazon what she can do in the ring. I have to say, I’m absolutely loving this new version of Beth where she bosses people around “her” ring!

Brie walks into the ring and drops Eve with a neckbreaker, before slamming her head into the canvas and asking Beth what she thinks about that?! Suddenly, we see Nikki Bella scream out, “BRIANNNAAAAA” like any good twin would do, as Brie turns around and gets dropped with a Samoan Drop by our Warrior Princess, Tamina. Nikki hilariously shrieks for Tamina to “leave her alone”, but Tamina refuses to listen and heads to the top rope. Nikki B starts to walk over towards her, but Kelly and Alicia Fox take her off the apron and to the floor. Tamina then proceeds to set up for it… and yes, Superfly Splash connects as Tamina picks up the win for her team. She and Beth then exchange glares towards one another, as the Glamazon seems pleased with Tamina…hmm.

Later on in the night following Chris Jericho’s victory in a six pack challenge, we begin to hear a loud female scream that I assume is a fan with a loud voice, until the camera suddenly cuts backstage to see that it is none other than Eve Torres! She cowers in fear, as Kane walks into her dressing room and proclaims that he can’t stand the hate pouring out of his soul. He continues that John Cena is beginning to embrace the hate, but that he’s not all the way there yet. Kane proclaims that when Cena embraces the hate, he will be in a better place but that if he doesn’t get there soon, he fears for Eve, Cena, or anyone that steps in his path. From there, Kane ends that for the first time in his life, he is afraid of himself! Eve cries in fear, as our horror movie saga comes to a brilliant end for this week.

Also, check out the phenomenal duo that is Daniel Bryan and AJ, as she joins him at ringside for his match against the Big Show:

Thoughts: Pretty unique show tonight. The 8-Diva tag was what it was, in that they still didn’t get a good amount of ring time, however I like that nobody got a commercial entrance. It’s also very intriguing to me that we got to see a recap of the WWE.com segment featuring Beth because we all know the website posts numerous segments involving the women that never translate to TV. I refuse to believe WWE is considering Kharma vs. Beth for ‘Mania because it’s always a let down in terms of booking. The only way I can see it happening is if the dreaded lumberjill stipulation makes its ungodly return, however, they really are building Beth up as this dominant force and I honestly love it. She’s becoming more entertaining to me because she is getting to show some character such as ordering the other females to impress her or get out of her ring. It’s planting the seeds for WrestleMania and I can not wait.

It also looks as if Tamina could be the challenger to Beth heading into the Elimination Chamber, which is pretty interesting considering I remember recapping her and JTG every week on NXT just a few months ago. It’s very weird seeing them actually utilize someone that’s not Kelly or Eve, and while Tamina isn’t everyone’s favorite, she’s one of mine because she is so unique in every way possible. I like that she isn’t cookie cutter, and yes, she’s not the greatest wrestler in the ring, but she and Natalya had a great outing on Superstars, therefore I have no doubt she and Beth could do the same on a pay per view. I’m assuming she is going to be used solely to bide time for Kharma’s complete return heading into ‘Mania, which is fine with me and it provides us with a fresh match that we have never seen before.

Eve’s segment with Kane was killer as well. I love that she is getting so much exposure on Raw with the top caliber stars, and tonight was the icing on the cake in that she actually got to close the show. You had Chris Jericho win a six pack challenge in the main event, and he is interrupted by a segment involving Eve… now that is phenomenal. (Note from Melanie: Backstage segments are pre-taped before the live show, so that’s why Eve looks fine here. The segment was recorded before her injury in the Divas match.)

AJ and Daniel Bryan work so well together too, it’s unbelievable. She plays the victim to a T, and he is the perfect person to work off of because he knows wrestling so well and is able to add in little quirks such as never saying he loves her back, and constantly persuading her to accompany him to the ring and use her to his advantage. I always wanted WWE to incorporate the females into male storylines, and judging from tonight, Eve and AJ are playing key roles on TV and I approve!

Welcome one and all to your first ever Ring Ka King Write-Up, a spin-off of our regular Impact Write-Up, and boy, what a ladies match we have to kick things off.

First of all, for those who do not know, “Ring Ka King” is a promotion set up by TNA and production company Endemol that takes place in India for an electric crowd who may not get to see wrestling first hand very often. The show airs on the Colors network in India, and features many notable names including some you’ve previously seen reported here. Well, it pleases me to say that the match I get to recap tonight is between two women who pretty much everyone that likes female wrestling knows about, that being Mickie James and Alissa Flash (Cheerleader Melissa to some not familiar with her TNA persona). Will the current Knockout best the former? Or can Alissa topple Mickie and prove her greatness to the rabid Indian fans? Let’s find out!

We head to the pretty amazing looking arena as that oh-so familiar (and heavily missed) theme music of Alissa Flash hits. She walks out from the back and executes her finest pose on the stage, before strutting down to the ring and stepping inside. Suddenly, her posing is cut off by a sound that I know very well from Thursday nights… HARRRDDCURRRRRRR COUUNNNTREEHHHHHHH!~ Out skips our favorite country lass, Mickie James, rocking some of her old WWE gear and looking as great as ever. She slides into the ring and poses for the fans, as I take notice of the referee’s green striped shirt. Anyways, the bell sounds and we get things started!

The two lock up, as Mickie takes control with an arm lock until Alissa reverses it and wrenches on the wrist. James with a one armed cartwheel, but Alissa knows this move all too well as she slams Mickie down to the canvas by the hair and chokes her with her boot. Flash Irish whips Mickie, but James slides under the legs, snapmares her over, and charges with a running dropkick! Mickie connects with some punches, as she is sent into the corner and elbows a running Flash. Legs up..and yes! She scores with the Mick-A-Rana! James follows it up with a clothesline, and heads to the top rope before Alissa snaps her off.

Flash begins to pound Mickie’s head into the ring canvas, before choking her using the bottom rope and then transitioning it into a boot choke. Flash starts to toy with Mickie, but she just ends up pissing her off it looks, as James starts to go off. She runs off the ropes until Alissa scores with a HUGE boot to the face for a two count. This sparks Alissa to apply a very unique submission that looks both amazing and painful. James somehow manages to slide to the bottom rope, but she just can not mount a comeback yet. Alissa looks to go for a Samoan Drop, but Mickie escapes out the back and rolls her up into a bridge for a two count! James ducks a clothesline attempt and charges off the ropes with a few of her own to fire this crowd up. She then scores with the flapjack kip up and begins to head to the top rope!

Flash gets to a vertical base, and Mickie leaps off with the Thesz Press into a split cover for a two count as Alissa gets the shoulder up. James signals that the end is near, but Alissa pokes her in the eye and nails the Samoan Drop! She hooks the leg and only musters a two count. Alissa looks to go for the Emerald Fusion, but Mickie manages to kick her in the gut and plant her with the Mickie-DT! Hook of the leg, and James gets the three count! Mickie celebrates her victory to the ravenous fans, as Alissa plots her revenge for another day.

Thoughts: What a competitive match between Mickie and Alissa. I was completely into this and I thought both women performed great together. It’s a shame that we never saw this on Impact Wrestling, but if this is how they want to present female wrestling to the Indian crowd, then it’s fine by me! I like the idea of Alissa being their top female heel, and Mickie being their fan favorite since she’s one of the most notable names in women’s wrestling today. The only fault I have with this is that Ring Ka King doesn’t air on my own TV because this is the type of match I would love to watch on a larger screen!

This week on SmackDown, Natalya and Beth Phoenix reunite as the Divas of Doom, to take on the team Aksana and Tamina in tag team action. We also had the return of everyone’s favorite pocket rocket, AJ. But before we get into any of the good stuff, why don’t we get this backstage segment out of the way.

Watch below as Natalya and Beth chat about their match:

Oh, WWE… I really hate you sometimes. I really don’t get the point of this whole farting gimmick, aside from making little kids laugh and embarrassing Natalya. Hopefully, this gimmick will bomb and we can all move along, because this is just getting hard to watch.

Next up, we have our Divas match for the evening. Watch below as the Divas of Doom take on Aksana and Tamina:

Aksana is out first to her espionage/Skinemax entrance theme to meet with her partner, Tamina, who’s already in the ring. Beth and Natalya are out next, and they’re all business it seems. While Natalya and Beth play up to the crowd, Tamina and Aksana discuss their strategy.

The official signals for the bell and our Divas match is underway with Natalya and Aksana starting the match for their respective teams. The ladies lock up and Nattie gets the upperhand, leveling Aksana with a Michinoku Driver. Natalya blasts Tamina in the face with a stiff forearm, before going back to Aksana, but gets caught in the gut with a kick from Aksana. Aksana tries to follow up with a vertical suplex, but Natalya tosses her to the ground face-first.

While Nattie gloats, Beth sneaks up and forcibly tags herself in, picks up the scraps and Glam Slams Aksana to pick up the win for her team.

After the match, Beth and Natalya exchange words for a minute and Beth leaves her partner in the ring. Dejected, Natalya attacks Aksana and goes for the Sharpshooter. Fortunately for Aksana, Tamina makes the save, laying out the Hart heiress with a superkick and a Superfly Splash.

While the match wasn’t much longer than last week’s and had about as much substance, it set up what looks to be a feud between Beth and Natalya, possibly turning the latter face in the process. I must admit, the prospect of a Beth/Nattie feud is fantastic. I just hope we can drop the fart gags behind…

Last, but not least we saw the return of NXT 3 graduate, AJ, who’s been M.I.A. since she was nearly trampled to death by Big Show. It seems her injury also affected her vocal chord, as she communicated exclusively through facial expressions and gestures. Check out the segment below:

While I would love to see AJ tap into her inner bitchy heel and join forces with Daniel Bryan as the top power couple in WWE (sorry, Maxine and Derrick Bateman), I’m really enjoying this good girl/bad boy angle. I’m interested in seeing what kind of role AJ will play in this Big Show/Daniel Bryan storyline in the weeks to come. I believe that this could be the breakout storyline that could lead to her becoming a top Diva.

Gutenhagen, and welcome to a recap of that one show where the Divas aren’t shafted on ring time (sorry NXT, you’re starting to slip), Superstars! After months of no female action, WWE has seen the light and begun offering us weekly showing from the ladies. First it was Brie and Kelly, then Beth and Brie, and now it’s Brie and her sister Nikki against Kelly Kelly and Alicia Fox! I guess you could say the influx of Divas to this show can be represented fully by Brie Bella of all people, but nonetheless, after two solid outings, will this be third times the charm? Let’s check it out below:

All the girls in the club say who, as the blond beauty herself, Kelly Kelly, steps out from the back and high fives the fans on her way to the ring. She poses on the turnbuckle, as I’m sure everyone in the crowd starts to pa-pa-pa-partay at the sound of our favorite Fox’s theme. Alicia steps out in her Fancy Fox Hood, which does not fall over her face when she climbs to the second rope and saddens me as I’ve now come to expect it following this week’s NXT. She and Kelly exchange smiles and hugs like a good face team, as they are cut off by the vivacious duo of Brie and Nikki Bella. Following a Bella booty shake, they flip inside the ring as we get this “half a rematch” started.

Kelly and Brie start to circle the ring, before the latter slides outside and taunts Kelly with her sister. She slowly climbs back inside the ring, before running out the other side as they slap their booties at the duo. This sparks Kelly and Alicia to baseball slide the twins into the barricade, and then give them a little spank to simply annoy them. Alicia slides Brie back inside the ring and goes to town on her with some punches and a sick dropkick. Foxy is sent into the corner, but she fires back with a nice elbow. Nikki tries to chime in from the corner, but Alicia tells her she better mind her business, which gives me some mad “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” vibes and also provides distraction, allowing Brie to snap her neck off the ropes.

Brie slides back into the ring and slams Fox’s face on the canvas before tagging out to Nikki. Nikki B proceeds to choke her on the ropes, as Brie kicks her from the corner. Quick tag back out to Brie, and they slam Alicia’s head into the corner. Brie uses her boot to choke her for a brief count, before snapmaring Fox over and locking in a submission. Kelly tries to get the crowd behind Fox, but Brie and Nikki just continue to take control. Double Booty Shake by the two, and as Brie tries to leave, Fox kicks Nikki into her and takes her out. Nikki then BARELY stops the tag as she punches Kelly off the turnbuckle and drags Fox back to their corner.

Kelly is PISSED, but manages to calm herself down enough to cheer Alicia on as Nikki has her in a submission. Fox finally is able to break the hold as she executes a nice split arm drag and tags in Kelly Kelly! K2 ascends to the top rope and leaps off with a Thesz Press onto Nikki B. Running facebuster follows it up, continuing with her whirlybird headscissors to fire the crowd up! Nikki falls into that deadly spot in the corner where a stink face connects, but as Kelly goes for a bulldog, Nikki breaks it and tries for a clothesline. Kelly manages to duck it though, and drops her with the K2 out of nowhere! The referee counts, which sparks Alicia Fox to hilariously leap in air onto Brie as if she was a in a slow motion action scene to keep her away for the win! Kelly and Alicia celebrate, as we view a replay of the highlights from the bout.

Thoughts: This was a pretty fun match overall. I thought there were some creative spots such as the baseball slide into a spank over the barricade, and it’s a bummer these four can’t put on this type of match when the show is televised due to time constraints. If Superstars is the only way for these matches to happen, I say bring the entire division here and start some storylines because I’d rather get good action weekly than see thirty second matches all the time. Nonetheless, Kelly, Alicia, and the Bellas work well together and I really want to see what more these ladies can offer. We’ve seen Kelly face both of them in singles matches before, but It’d be fun to see what Alicia can do alone with them when there’s a solid amount of time given.

Hello everybody, and let me officially welcome you to the London edition of your Impact Write-Up. Many speculated as to whether or not TNA would be able to pull off such a large venue, and let me congratulate them on a job well done because that crowd was hot and jam packed. The Knockouts were not too heavily featured on tonight’s broadcast, and since I’m writing this on no sleep at six in the morning, that might work in my favor somewhat. Nonetheless, we had a stellar match up between Knockouts Champion, Gail Kim, and her top challenger, Tara, leading into their big bout at Against All Odds, but who will come out the victor in this preview? And what role will Gail’s best friend, Madison Rayne, play in all of this?

Let’s find out!

We head out to the arena where resident redhead, Christy Hemme, is seen inside the ring announcing the following Knockouts Contest. The familiar theme of Tara hits, as the Widows Peak Freak steps out from the back and slaps some fan hands as we recap her #1 contender win last week. Up next comes the still addictive song of the Knockouts Champion, as both she and Madison Rayne make their way out to the ring. Following some posing from the champ, the bell sounds and these two get ready to square off as both TNA and myself urge you to follow our benevolent ruler, Miss Dixie Carter on Twitter.

The two ladies lock up in the center of the ring, but Tara uses her upper body strength to shove Gail backwards. This merely fires the champion up, as she backs Tara into the corner. An arm drag or two by Tara follows it up, continuing with a bodyslam as some “Tara” chants erupt. She then does her trademark shirt removal before connecting with the shimmysault for a two count. Gail then sends Tara into the corner, as Madison Rayne grabs her by the foot to keep her in place. Kim charges forward with her slingshot move, only she doesn’t land outside the ring and continues the beatdown with a punch.

Gail steps outside and proceeds to choke Tara out using her knee to the throat, before hopping on top of Tara’s head and catching her up in the ropes. Kim leaps over from there, and goes for a sunset flip… only Tara holds onto the ropes. Gail fires back with a kick to break the hold Tara had on the rope, as she begins to take control with a clothesline to the corner and knee to the back for a few two counts. Kim decides to go for Tara’s patented injured knee, which she embarks upon by locking in a leg lock over the back of the head. Kim is tossed backwards, but she lands a SICK clothesline to the throat and taunts the fans.

Tara tries to fight back, but Gail just has too much energy right now, as she applies a dragon sleeper to the bronze clad Knockout. Tara finally breaks out and hits a very unique roll up for a two count until Kim comes back with a kick to the stomach. She then grabs the wrists and hits her “Happy Ending” neckbreaker, before scaling to the top rope and going for a Missile Dropkick that Tara dodges out of the way for! The referee starts to count them down, but both ladies make it to two feet and Tara takes control with some strikes to the face. A snap suplex follows suit, and an awesome back body drop.

The crowd is erupting for the two ladies tonight, as Tara gets a large amount of cheers for taking Gail down. She charges for the corner, but unfortunately gets met with a fist right to the face. Kim runs forward, but Tara catches her in a wicked power slam and goes for the cover. Madison Rayne quickly hops onto the ring apron to stop this injustice from taking place, but Tara turns her attention towards her with a stiff shot to the jaw. She then returns her focus towards Gail, and manages to dodge out of harms way upon Madison entering the ring and clocking Kim in the face! Tara tosses Rayne towards the outside and proceeds to hit the Widow’s Peak on the Knockouts Champion for the victory! She then celebrates her win, as Madison tries to help Gail regain her composure for their big rematch at Against All Odds.

Thoughts: I remember when Gail returned to TNA and faced Tara in her first match, many, myself included, thought it was too one sided and requested a rematch to be had. Thankfully, they listened, and tonight was a really really great showing. I thought the ladies meshed very well together, as in their past outings, and if this is any sort of preview to what Against All Odds will be like, then I am ready for it. The crowd definitely also helped make this match as enjoyable as it was for me, in that there was so many people in attendance that it truly felt like a big show. I have nothing against the Impact Zone as I like it and the crowd there, but perhaps TNA should consider traveling for a taping every few months or so if this UK tour is anything to go by.

Greetings to all my fellow NXT fans, and let me welcome you to another recap of our favorite yellow rope themed show. If you’re like me and you spent all night feverishly refreshing WWE.com only to find no update and think all hope in life was lost, well never fear, for some kind soul managed to help guide the show onto YouTube this morning for us all to see. This week, it’s match number three in the Pro/Rookie story, with Alicia Fox going one on one with Maxine. If that isn’t enough to entice your appetite, our resident fanny pack wearing Kaitlyn also appears backstage in a segment with the woman wrapped up in more love triangles than Jerry Lawler!

So without any further ado, let’s get this recap started!

Following a beautiful segment involving Derrick Bateman and he who shall not be named (seriously, WWE, if you make me write about Heath Slater, I will not forgive you) the music of our benevolent ruler, Maxine hits, and she makes her way out to the ring in her wrestling gear. Following a kiss to Derrick, we head to a commercial break upon finding out that up next we will see her square off with Alicia Fox! Once we return to “pa-pa-pa-partay”, it can only mean one thing! Out comes Alicia in her trademarked Fancy Fox Hood, which falls over her face when she hops on the turnbuckle and causes me slight laughter.

We get a recap of the tremendous segment from three weeks ago, before the bell sounds and these two lock up around the ring. Maxine takes control with a waist lock, before kicking Fox in the stomach and spearing her to the ground. This former rookie seems relentless in her attack, not letting up off of Fox until the referee starts counting! She picks Alicia up and begins to claw her in the face, before snapping her to the ground with a hair toss, as that rotten scoundrel, Dirty Curty walks out and distracts Maxine from the action. This allows the fancy Fox herself to roll Maxine up for the three count and victory!~ She celebrates in the ring, as the Queen of Mean heads up the ramp, furiously I might add, to hunt down that Dirty thief.

Later on in the night, we go backstage to spot Derrick Bateman basically being dragged along by Maxine as she is on the hunt for Dirty Curty. This small framed woman grabs a man who was simply standing by on his phone by the collar of his neck DEMANDING to know where Johnny’s at, before Derrick forces her off of him and helps make sure the man is okay. Maxine proceeds to order Bateman to go look elsewhere, as she turns around and spots Justin Gabriel chatting up Kaitlyn! Justin sees that he can obviously not be a man in Maxine’s way judging from what she just did to that guy earlier, and thus makes the smart choice to head out and leave the two ladies to discuss what’s up.

Kaitlyn claims that Maxine is always looking for a reason to talk to Dirty Curty, which sparks the dark haired beauty to state that this is none of her business. Kaitlyn comes back with the fact that she just doesn’t want to see Derrick get hurt again, which again, forces Maxine to state that HER relationship has nothing to do with Kaitlyn. The NXT winner dubs her and Derrick as friends, and brings up the habit Maxine has of hurting Derrick. Suddenly, Maxine comes to the revelation that… dun dun DUN, Kaitlyn has a secret crush on Derrick!

Kaitlyn calls Maxine an idiot, and tries to run away from her, but the stocking clad lady chases after her and questions if she really thinks Derrick would go for a girl like her when he only likes real women! Kaitlyn finally manages to head off camera, as Maxine is left laughing to herself and calling it cute, before heading out to find Dirty Curty. Of course, like a pimple on prom night, Johnny pops up out of nowhere and begins to breathe heavily as he looks both ways at what he just overheard, before the scene fades out, and I’m sure he heads to his creepy van to lure a poor strange woman inside.

Thoughts: When I first saw what was reported for NXT, I wasn’t too impressed. Granted, the match was pretty much what was said, in that it was under a minute long and ended with a roll up, that wasn’t where I put my focus to as much. As soon as I saw there was a backstage segment, I knew things would make me happy like they do every other week. Onto the match, there’s not really anything to say really. They only had forty seconds to work, but I guess I like that the short matches happen for a reason (i.e. distraction) and don’t just take place every week because they are considered afterthoughts.

The segment was what I enjoyed a lot because it’s finally incorporating Kaitlyn into the storyline as I’ve hoped for some time now. I really like everything about Kaitlyn, from her look, to her in ring style, to her charisma, and I think putting her into a storyline with Maxine is what needed to happen. With WWE finding places for almost everybody on TV like putting Rosa, AJ, and Eve with males and finally using Tamina and Aksana, it pretty much left Kaitlyn as the only Diva with nothing going on and that was a bummer. Thankfully, they seem to now be officially adding her to the story on NXT, and that is more than fine with me! Hopefully these two embark on a long mixed tag feud, that ends with fights at the makeup table and slaps heard round the world.

I realize that I’ve been absent from the Redux for the past two weeks, but I assure you guys that there is a perfectly good explanation for that. When I think of it, I’ll let you know, but as of right freakin’ now, I am back! And what a Raw it was, in every single way. The road to WrestleMania is arguably the best time to be a wrestling fan and last night was a good reminder as to why. The pieces slowly start to fall into place for the grandest spectacle of them all, and we’re treated with excellent matches, hot storylines, and our creative juices start to flow as we book our own personal WrestleManias in our head. Last night, I wanted more Kharma and after seeing her return the way she did at the Royal Rumble, I wanted her to have some type of epic confrontation with Vickie Guerrero. I wanted her to then make a beeline for Beth Phoenix and annoint herself as the person who was going to end Beth’s reign. I wanted Eve Torres to confront John Cena and blame him for not embracing the hate. It’s because of Cena that her man, Zack Ryder, can’t even lift his flip camera to film another episode of Z! True Long Island Story. I wanted Brie and Nikki, Kelly Kelly, Alicia Fox, AJ to make a return at Daniel Bryan’s side. I wanted all of these things.

But I didn’t get any of it.

And as sad as it makes me, what we did see on Raw was so good I can’t find it in myself to be disappointed. We got a quick title match with an epic ending, and for the first time ever I’m finding a reason to like Eve and care about what happens to her. It’s pretty amazing and I can’t wait to get started so with that be-

Excuse me. I want to interrupt this very important Raw Redux with a very special bulletin. Sorry, Khaleesi!

Following a sure to be interesting “WWE: Did You Know” tidbit, we head to the arena as the angelic voices of Cameron and Naomi introduce Brodus Clay to the ring. They dub him the only living, breathing, romping stomping Funkasaurus in captivity… as what is this? A disco ball is shown hanging from the ceiling! Suddenly, the two ladies jive their way out to the stage in some new blue attires as the man of the night himself claws himself out from backstage. After an amazing shot of Cameron and Naomi as they pose under the disco ball, they help Brodus into the ring as the three slide from side to side showing off their overall funk-ness. The pyro goes off with the three posing in the ring, and his opponent for the night, Tyler Reks, climbs into the squared circle following a bad Jerry Lawler joke.

They go to lock up, but Brodus simply uses his brute strength to shove Reks backwards. Tyler tries to fight back to no avail, as Brodus takes control with his posed moves. Reks finally connects with a few kicks to the side, as he becomes the first person to show any type of offense against Clay! This seems to merely pump the giant up, with him hoisting Reks up for one of his Shee-plexes, before connecting with a strike to the back and finishing it off with “What the Funk”! Cameron screams her joy out, as the three all climb back into the ring and dance the night away with the crowd!

Thoughts: What a brilliant, phenomenal, heart wrenching, yet sensational segment from our resident dance trio. You can tell that WWE is seeing the potential in them with the added features weekly (from the Divas introducing him 2 weeks ago to the disco ball now). I love that there is finally something I love to watch that isn’t on internet programming because it really makes me look forward to Raw and SmackDown more each week. I do hope they begin to transition Brodus out of the squash matches soon before people start to get tired of them, but for now, I’m just enjoying finally getting to look forward to the televised shows again. Planet Funk forever!

Okay, seriously Bobby.

That ladies and gentlemen, is our own Bobby. How can I begrudge someone so innocent and happy?

Back to what I was saying now. The evolution of Eve.

It was announced earlier in the night that Beth would finally put her title on the line against Eve, which was supposed to happen weeks ago if you recall. Instead of a title match that night, we had to watch Ryder change a tire for twenty minutes while Kane lurked and our gorgeous Dolph beat up on John Cena. That’s pretty pointless but I seriously needed a reason to mention Dolph in this Redux. Now that it’s out of the way, lets go!

Eve is the first to head to the ring, and thank God she’s not smiling for a change. She’s visibly upset and rightfully so. It’s the little things that matter, and this is so good to see. Eve is looking over her shoulder, probably trying to make sure Kane isn’t stalking her, and once she hits the ring she doesn’t even play to the crowd. Beth follows her out looking like a dominate (albeit rarely seen) champion, and we get set for the match. King and Cole actually put over the Divas by saying a lot of them have several things going on right now (yay AJ mention), and they wonder how Eve will even be able to concentrate on this match. Once the bell rings, Eve goes crazy. She lights Beth up and gets her in the corner, kicking her down to the ground. She has to be restrained by the referee so she doesn’t get disqualified, and Beth comes flying back at her opponent with a clothesline that Eve sells so well that surely backstage Dolph Ziggler is proud. Beth picks up a defeated Eve and lays her out with a Glam Slam, picking up what’s no doubt one of the quickest championship victories ever.

Beth seems pleased with her effort and the referee goes to check on Eve. She’s suffering mentally and physically now, but our poor heroine gets no reprieve. The arena turns red, Kane’s music starts to play, and the Big Red Monster appears on the big screen. He calls to Eve and wants to know how she feels knowing everything that has happened to her man could have been avoided had Cena simply embraced the hate. Kane is pretty furious that Cena doesn’t want to turn heel, and he goes as far as saying that until Cena bathes himself in the jeers of the crowd that he won’t ever beat Kane, and he won’t even beat that hot piece of man candy, The Rock. Eve has her best confused/befuddled/scared soap opera faces going on, as she’s still in the ring. That referee who was checking on her? Oh, he got the heck out of there as soon as Kane’s lights came on. Coward.

Kane makes a pretty harsh proclamation that he will continue to ignore the Be A Star campaign and beat up Zack, all thanks to Cena’s refusal to become a bully. Eve doesn’t like the sound of that. What she likes even less is when Kane uses his mental thesaurus to pull out a word that I can’t even spell to threaten her. Tonight Kane is going to use Eve to hurt Zack.

Dammit, Cena.

Eve and everyone else is deeply troubled by this and to add some more drama, the pyro explodes signalling that Kane is on his way to the ring. There really is nowhere for Eve to go so she stands frozen in fear, staring at the entrance. The crowd suddenly gets loud and that’s because when Eve turns around THERE IS KANE! Oh my gosh! Creepy masked Kane is standing there and Eve screams in horror. She falls down and proceeds to play the part of damsel in distress pretty perfectly. Kane creeps towards. Eve scoots back. It seems hopeless. It truly, truly seems hopeless. That is until…

JOHN CENA MAKES THE SAVE!!111!!1!!!1111!!1

Cena rushes the ring and goes right for Kane, and Eve seizes the chance to get the hell out of that ring and to the safety of the Diva’s lockerroom. Not even Kane would dare stalk her there and while an impressive brawl between the men ensues, you just have to wipe the sweat off your brow and praise the wrestling gods that for another week, at least, that Eve is okay.

AMAZING!

This segment was so, so much fun, and believe it or not, it’s the only time I will ever condone such a short match. It would have made absolutely no sense to have a legit match between Beth and Eve. Eve was in no fit state to wrestle and should have absolutely lost as quickly as she did. The ending, continuing to use Eve in this storyline, and all the little details Eve displayed absolutely made up for whatever bit of a match we didn’t get to see. We already know Eve is a worthy challenger to Beth, but only when she’s got her mind one hundred percent on wrestling. From a character standpoint she clearly has other things going on in her life and this ways incredibly well done on the part of everyone involved. Beth looks like a heartless champion who only cares about her title, and with what little we’ve seen of her lately, that’s the best thing the WWE can give her.

I have no idea what’s going to happen next with all of this, but I know for a fact that I’m looking forward to Raw next week. The soap opera fan in me is eating up all of this. I love it and I hope you guys do as well.

Until next week… Cryssi out!

Considering that there was no Diva involvement advertised for the Royal Rumble last night, it turned out to be quite the affair with not one, but two great moments for the Divas roster. Firstly, Beth Phoenix and Kelly Kelly lead dueling teams to the ring for an impromptu Divas match that, compared to recent matches on Raw and SmackDown, was the Divas version of a wrestling clinic. And if that wasn’t enough, it’s the watercooler moment that everyone is talking about today — Kharma made a shocking return to the WWE as only the third woman to compete in the Royal Rumble match.

Let’s review the Rumble!

Much like last month’s TLC pay per view we are caught off guard as Beth Phoenix’s music hits and we realize that it’s time for another impromptu Divas match. This month, however, Beth has brought some friends in the form of Natalya and Brie & Nikki Bella. All of the Divas are clad in matching teal gear. While I appreciate the color coordination, I’m not a fan of the color itself and the shiny, metallic look. Points for effort, though.

Next out it’s the familiar team of Alicia Fox, Eve Torres and Kelly Kelly — but wait, they’ve found another friend! Natalya’s recent rival, the Samoan Princess, Tamina, has landed a pay per view match! Welcome to the big leagues, Tamina! Though not exactly matching like the heel team, A-Fox, Eve & K2 are decked out in fiery orange-ish outfits… while Tamina sticks to her black with leopard print trim. It’s okay, Tamina, girl. We’re just happy you’re not wearing that other outfit anymore!

As the Divas begin filing into the ring and taking to their respective corners, it’ll be the familiar duo of Tamina and Natalya kicking things off. I begin to suspect that this match will end as quickly as their matches on SmackDown and none of the other Divas will be tagged in, but I’m pleasantly surprised to learn that is not the case. The pair lock up as Natalya gets the better of the exchange with a side-headlock takedown. Tamina and Natalya rise to their feet as Tamina whips Natalya against the ropes and then attempts to barge her down but the third-generation Hart is not budging! It’ll take more than that, Tamina. Natalya grabs Tamina by the hair but the Samoan Diva uses her strength to lift Nattie on to her shoulders and seems to be going for a Samoan drop, however, Natalya quickly wriggles her way out of the move and plants Tam-Tam with a hefty slap. This only fires up Tamina more, it seems, as she slaps Natalya right back and hits her with a hard chop and a jumping headbutt. Pin attempt but no three for Tamina.

Tamina tags in Eve now, who despite her boyfriend being crushed by Kane for several weeks in a row, looks a little too happy. Eve, with not a care in the world, sets up her booty pop and hits a nice standing moonsault on Natalya. Pin attempt but once again Natalya kicks out. Natalya quickly finds a second wind, jumping to her feet, picking up Eve and charging into the heels’ corner. There, Natalya tags in Divas Champ Beth who is hungry for some competition. Beth quickly puts some licks on Eve but the former Divas Champ soon fights back with a nice kick to the face followed by a sitout clothesline. Eve then follows up with a senton splash but Beth puts up her knees and drives them into Eve’s back. Beth now takes advantage with a hard kick to the stomach followed by elbows and a pin attempt.

Beth then isolates Eve in the heels’ corner and tags in Brie Bella. Brie chokes Eve over the middle rope before kicking her in the head. Chinlock by Briezy as Eve tries to muster the strength to fight out of it. Eve eventually gets to her feet and manages to get out of the hold and tags in Miss Foxy who comes into the ring with a nice clothesline and not one but two dropkicks. Foxy begins stomping Brie in the corner. However, the referee becomes distracted by unruliness amongst the two teams on the apron and as his attention is diverted, Nikki pushes Brie out of the way and swaps places with her allowing the fresh Bella to dupe Alicia. Nikki plants Fox in the corner and drives her knees into Alicia’s back. She then snaps her arm against the mat before applying a nice submission hold. Foxy begins getting to her feet and hits a very cool splits into an arm drag on Nikki before giving the hot tag to the holler hollerin’ Kelly Kelly.

Kelly gets a big pop as she hits the ring with a face smash on Nikki followed by a twirly-bird headscissors. Kelly with a handspring butt bump in the corner and bulldog. Pin attempt but Brie breaks it up. This leads to the veritable mish-mash as all of the Divas duke it out in and out of the ring. As all of the Divas battle outside, golden girl Kelly sees an opportunity, climbing to the top turnbuckle and hitting a nice dive to take out all of the Divas. Good response from the crowd, too.

Kelly throws one of the Bella Twins back into the ring and looks to be about ready to pick up the victory, however, Miss B trips her up and Kelly lands throat first on the middle rope. Divas Champion Beth sneaks up on Bella and blind tags herself in with a hard slap to the arm. As Beth gets in the ring, we’re going to assume Miss B is now coughing up a lung.

Beth has had enough of all of the fun, games and shenanigans it seems. She picks up Kelly Kelly in that all too familiar position and hits the Glam Slam for a rousing victory.

Thoughts: Really enjoyable tag team match that saw all of the Divas get some time in the ring. As I mentioned, when I saw Natalya and Tamina starting things out, I really thought this was going to be another one of those tag matches that end in one minute with all of the other Divas still on the apron. I was so sure that Tamina was quickly going to hit the Superfly Splash and it’ll all be over in a minute, but thankfully that didn’t happen. Instead we got a fun match that saw all of the Divas involved get to have a little piece of the action and it was technically sound too. No big slip-ups that people seem to always be hoping for.

Watching it back, it definitely seemed like the Divas began to win over the crowd as they were quiet for most of the match but then started getting into it around the time Kelly was tagged in. From there, the big dive to the outside and Beth’s victory got good reactions and people seemed to be into it. It’s good to see them being able to get fans involved. Of course they’d be far more involved in these matches if WWE fleshed out the characters and made people care about these girls in the same way as past Divas, but hey, we’ve said that a million times. For what it was, it was fine.

I really enjoyed Eve’s exchange with Beth in this match. I recall seeing some of her FCW matches a few years ago and then seeing her fluidity in this match — from rolling over Beth’s back, the little kick thing she does etc. She’s come very far. I liken it to how I felt about Michelle McCool but on a lesser scale. With Michelle, her transformation in the ring was incredible to me and I enjoyed watching her wrestle perhaps more than any other Diva because of that reason. Watching Eve now, where she’s gotten very comfortable in the ring and has all of these unique moves that look great, it’s similar.

I also liked Alicia’s splits/arm drag combo, Kelly’s dive and the finish. I hope that poor Bella didn’t wake up with a hand print on her today!

Match Rating: 4/5

Also at the Royal Rumble, we got to see the surprise return of Kharma, who entered the Royal Rumble match at #21 and quickly made an impression.

Watch below:

As doofus Michael Cole (seriously, what a waste of an entry!) stands in the ring awaiting the next Rumble entrant, Kharma’s long dormant music hits after over 8 months of not hearing it and receives a huge pop from the crowd. Michael Cole looks understandably scared as Kharma hits the ring and clotheslines him. Cole jumps over the top rope to avoid any more of Kharma’s assault but as he’s standing on the other side of the apron, Jerry Lawler and Booker T give their announcing partner some payback by pulling him off the apron thus eliminating him from the Rumble.

As Kharma turns around, the gorgeous Dolph Ziggler awaits telling her to get out of the ring. Clearly, our Prince Charming doesn’t want to battle her and is giving her the opportunity to leave on her own. How chivalric! Of course, the Diva Killer is not going to back down from a fight be it man, woman or beast! Kharma delivers her first Implant Buster in many, many months and the distinct honor goes to Dolph!

Next, Kharma eliminates Hunico (who?) before unfortunately being eliminated herself by Dolph. Still, it was fun while it lasted!

Thoughts: I was not expecting Kharma to show up at all, but what an epic surprise. I figured Kharma would be in the Rumble match one of these years but given the close proximity between her pregnancy (assuming she gave birth recently) and the Rumble match, I didn’t think she’d be ready in time for this year’s Rumble. However, anything can happen in wrestling, as they say!

As for what this could mean for the future, that remains to be seen. I don’t want to speculate too much but I’m assuming Kharma had her baby recently and isn’t necessarily ready to be back full time. I’m guessing this could have just been a one off appearance to have her in the Rumble match and she’ll be back full time in a few months after maternity leave. Of course, I could be wrong and she could be back on Raw tonight, but we’ll see. I’m of the mind it was just a one off for now. Either way, it was an epic moment and it shows that despite being away for so long, the fans have not forgotten Kharma and she is just as much of a star attraction as ever.

Welcome to what might be the shortest SmackDown Redux in the history of Diva Dirt! This week we got the SmackDown in-ring debut of NXT 3 graduate, Aksana against the First Lady of the Hart Dynasty, Natalya. Can Natalya finally break her losing streak or will Aksana avoid a Lithuanian shovel beating by picking up her first win as a SmackDown Diva? But before we get into the match, let’s check out the backstage segment that led to the match:

… Wow. I’m seriously at a loss for words. Let’s just move on to the match:

So we start off with Natalya, already in the ring looking frustrated. Aksana is out next, using her Skinemax entrance theme. I’ll just assume that the crowd is so silent due to the shock from that backstage segment.

Right as the bell ring, Nattie starts shouting up the entrance ramp for Tamina to come to the ring. Aksana seizes the opportunity and rolls Natalya up, getting the upset victory. Post-match, a pissed off (and understandably so) Natalya attacks Aksana from behind and puts her in the Sharpshooter. Tamina makes the save and lays out Nattie with a Samoan Drop and a Superfly Splash to end the Divas segment for the night.

Can anyone explain to me? Seriously. From the cringeworthy segment backstage to the five second match, that had to be one of the worst showings I’ve seen for the Divas in the past few months, and that’s saying something.

I think the real loser here is Natalya. She went from being on the top of the world as a member of the Divas of Doom to a downward spiral in a matter of months. I’m usually not one to go on about how wrestlers are being ‘punished’ with the storylines they’re given, but it seems as though poor Nattie has really pissed off someone because she’s being dealt the worse hand ever, it seems.

Usually when we have an awful week for the Divas, I would end the Redux by praying we get a better segment next week. I’ll save my breath this week, as I don’t see how it can get any worse than this. Until next time, guys. *Farts and runs away*

Greetings all my loyal bitches, and welcome to another delightful Friday. The birds are chirping, the work week is ending, and your talented and entertaining Knockouts division has just given us another week of treats to review. On this week’s episode, we were given a triple threat match in which the winner would receive a shot at Gail Kim‘s Knockouts Championship during the Against All Odds pay per view between Mickie James, Velvet Sky and Tara. In addition to that, Winter and Angelina Love teamed up to face the…interesting duo of ODB and Creepo Beard in what is sure to leave me screaming, “Thank god Winter’s finally back on TV!”

Enough of my babble, let’s get started!

Opening the show tonight, we head to the arena where Christy Hemme announces the following triple threat bout for the ladies. The theme of everyone’s favorite knockout to rock out with, Velvet Sky, hits, as the pigeons begin to fly and out she comes in some patented Beautiful People gear. She makes a title pose around her waist, as she proceeds to her trademarked side of the ring and bends over the second rope to step inside. Sky poses on the turnbuckle, as up next comes, well, normally I would say the veteran but I’m honestly not sure who in this match has been wrestling the longest so let’s refer to her as the Widows Peak Freak, Tara! She rides out on the side of the arena where her bike can properly be driven, before stepping off and climbing inside the ring to display a nice new bronze gear. HAAAAARDCURRRR COUNNNTREEHHHH proceeds to grace my ears, and out skips our peppy lass in her finest denim, Mickie James! (Note: I wrote her name while saying it in my head using the voice of a Madison Rayne country accent.) Nonetheless, the bell sounds and we finally get things underway!

The three move about the ring trying to get started, but they all agree to shake hands with each other to show their mutual respect. Suddenly, Tara takes it upon herself to kick our Pigeon Leader in the stomach, before trading shots with miss Hardcore Country. Mickie then flies off the ropes, but Tara dodges back into a Matrix (Another note: I love that Tara still adds new moves no matter how many matches she has) which allows Mickie to (accidentally?) clothesline Velvet Sky. Tara grabs her around the waist and rolls Mickie up into a pinfall which only amounts to a two count, as Velvet runs off the ropes and dropkicks her in the face to break it. Sky tosses James outside the ring and hooks Tara’s leg for a one count. Tara then uses her brute strength to hoist Velvet into the air and carry her back to the corner.

She rams her head into the stomach of Velvet a few times, before setting the plucky underdog up for the Widows Peak. Sky luckily manages to escape out the back as James runs back in and kicks Tara in the stomach. Another kick to the face follows it up, as she then connects with a roll up of her own for a two count. Mickie brings Tara to the corner of the ring and scores with a kick to the stomach until Tara manages to reverse the roles and send Mickie there instead. She takes control with a few strikes to the face, before shoving James down face first to the canvas and applying a head squeeze as the crowd gets behind her. Tara Irish Whips Mickie into the corner, and James elbows her in the face… as we head to a rather irritating commercial break to interrupt a match I was pretty invested in.

After an ad promoting the Knockouts (and Robbie E of all people) for Valentines Day, we come back to see a nice spot (unfortunately probably even better if we didn’t miss half of it) where Tara looked to have a Boston Crab locked on Mickie until Velvet charges forward with a monkey flip. Sky goes for the Sky High, but Mickie breaks it up and drops her with the arm trap neckbreaker. She goes for a pinfall, but Tara immediately breaks it up and lifts James up for a bodyslam. Tara shakes and shimmies, before going for the standing moonsault that Mickie rolls out of the way in time for. Velvet begins to chop Mickie and Tara as she is then sent off the ropes and comes back with a beautiful whirlybird headscissors takedown to the southern gal.

Velvet goes for a move, but is cut off by Tara quickly with a clothesline. The former Knockouts Champion turns right around into a flapjack by Mickie, who then kips up and heads to the top rope. James leaps off for the Thesz Press, but Tara dodges it and it hits Velvet for a two count! Tara, in turn, tosses Velvet outside the ring and turns right around into the Mick Kick…however, Tara manages to grab the ropes for the break in what was sure to be the finish. Mickie kicks her in the stomach and goes for the Mickie-DT, but Velvet runs off from behind with a bulldog! Tara then lifts Velvet into the air and hits an AWESOME sidewalk slam that drops Velvet onto a downed Mickie. She hooks James’ leg and covers… one… two… three! Tara wins a title shot! She celebrates to the overjoyed fans, as Sky and James try to recover from that sick finisher.

Out of nowhere, we head backstage to see Knockouts Champion, Gail Kim, as she watches the action on a monitor near by. She offers congratulations to Tara, by stating the best woman won tonight. Kim informs us that she’s looking forward to facing Tara and proving why she is the most dominant champion in this company! The camera guy brings up the history between the two, which Gail states is there, but the main point is that she’s the current Knockouts Champion and she’s going to bring it at Against All Odds to see who the better woman is.

We continue backstage to see my “favorite” person, Creepo Beard, as he warms up for the tag bout later tonight against Winter and Angelina Love. Suddenly, a worker comes to remove a stage light, and Creepo Beard somehow mistakes him for Sammy Davis Jr. I believe. (I need to brush up on my jazz.) This poor, obviously frightened, employee simply goes along with the act, until the beautiful Winter and Angelina Love cut him off as they try to seduce Creepo Beard. Love tries to apologize for her actions last week, calling them “not lady like”. Winter proclaims that this is not a trick, citing his beard as beautiful?! Making up for that lie, Winter dubs herself and Angelina as being beautiful too, and claim that they aren’t that hard to get.

Suddenly, Love tries to knee him in the groin, a trend that seems to be happening a lot this week, but apparently he has a cup on considering she grabs her knee in pain and almost falls down from hobbling! Winter begins to scream at him, as he says something about a yeast infection and starts sniffing his cup. (Lord, help me.) ODB then walks up to him and states that she wondered who took this from her locker room?! What on Earth is going on here? Never the less, the two leave the room and talk about taking out those “hussies”.

We trollop off backstage once again, thankfully to see no more talk of yeast infections or cup sniffing, but to see Tara, as she shows her elation over the victory earlier tonight where she became the number one contender to Gail’s Knockouts Championship! She brings up the memories of facing Gail before, asking the champion if she can “remember me?!” Tara continues on about their tremendous matches together, stating that they know each others repertoires which is unfortunate. She adds that she will have to work very hard to change things up, but that Gail’s gold is going to look good around her size 28 and a half waist! She states that it’s hard to read Kim’s body language and her facial expressions, which can be dangerous, and that she (Gail) is going to do anything it takes to leave with the title. Tara claims that she will as well, and if Gail wants to play dirty, so will she!

(Skip to 04:37 in video above.) Returning to the ring, we get a great pan up shot of Christy Hemme from head to toe, as she announces the following intergender tag team match scheduled for one fall. The best darn theme song in all of wrestling hits, as out walks the team of Angelina Love and Winter! The two creepily step out onto the stage and pose together, before continuing down the ramp and climbing inside the ring. After some added posing, the upbeat music hits and out walks ODB and…sigh, Creepo Beard. They slide into the ring, as we go to a commercial you know, at a GOOD time to do so before a match gets started. Unfortunately, we return to see Creepo Beard basically hugging Earl Hebner, who, much like I would do, simply exits the ring and wants no part in this!

Hebner finally climbs back in, as Beard steps outside, before climbing back in and locking up with Earl. (What gets me through times like this is telling myself “Winter’s back on TV!”) Winter steps into the center of the ring and stands off, as Creepo Beard does some more stuff I don’t understand to stall time…but hey, Winter’s back on TV! Thankfully, she shoves him in the back, but unfortunately, it does nothing but make him strip down to his trunks. Angelina steps back inside, and THANKFULLY ODB tags in and we get to see something happen. She takes Angelina down with a clothesline and splashes her in the corner, before running forward with the bronco buster!

ODB takes Winter down, but this allows Angelina to come back as the two trade shots and well, try to wrestle if a distraction wasn’t leaping into the ring every five seconds. Winter attempts to trip ODB up, but she stops herself in time… only Angelina charges forward and pulls her down by the hair. Love hooks the leg for a two count, as she tags in Winter and the two take control with a double team move in the corner. Winter scores with a nice backbreaker to the knee for a close call, as she takes ODB back in the corner and locks her in the proverbial tree of woe.

She chokes ODB with her boot, before distracting the referee long enough for Angelina to do some damage. A kick to the stomach gets a near fall, as Winter then applies a choke hold and the crowd gets behind ODB. She starts to power out of it, and finally does after a jawbreaker as Creepo Beard slides in the flask and ODB gets some liquid courage. Angelina tags in and goes for ODB, but she blocks Love’s attempt and fires up with some forearms and shoulder blocks! She lifts Angelina up and connects with the fallaway slam, as Creepo Beard and ODB hit stereo airplane spins on Winter and Angelina, which ends with ODB hitting the TKO on Angelina for the victory.

Thoughts: I’ll start with the triple threat match, which I thought was very entertaining. I don’t like that we got a commercial break during it, but surprisingly, it didn’t really stop me from getting into the swing of things. I thought all of their moves came off great, and they each got some proper time to shine. Seeing Tara win was really enjoyable for me because I like surprises and I definitely was not expecting her to take the victory. Also, she and Gail always put on great matches together and I’m definitely looking forward to another. It’s something fresh and new, and I like it!

As for the tag team match. Ignoring the first few minutes, they actually got to wrestle some this week which is a big step up. Honestly, I know there are people who like these two together, and in all fairness, I wouldn’t mind a man being in the division if it was just someone other than the one who’s involved. Heck, I liked Cody Deaner! I’ve just never been a fan of Creepo Beard at all, so having to recap him weekly isn’t really a fun thing for me, but hey, Winter’s back on TV and that’s what matters!

This week saw the return of the Glamazon Beth Phoenix to action — but it wasn’t on Raw. Instead, Beth took her Divas Title to Superstars to face off against Brie Bella.

How will Beth do in her first televised match of 2012? Let’s find out…

After we get past the entrances, it’s time for the bell to finally ring as Brie’s sister Nikki (Nikki B, forevs!) looks on rather deviously. Perhaps a sign that this won’t exactly be a one-on-one match?

Brie rather confidently steps up to Beth, shoving her, but the Divas Champ exerts her size and strength advantage by shoving Brie back and the former Divas Champ falls to the mat. Not a good look, B!

Brie tries to run to her sister but Beth is hot on her tail with a clothesline, back elbow and atomic drop combo, followed by a side slam and pin attempt. Brie manages to kick out but this only agitates the Glamazon more as she whips Brie into the corner and charges at her with the full force of her weight. Brie is then caught up over the middle rope as Beth tries to go for a running leg drop using the ropes but as we expected, Brie’s sister Nikki comes out to play, moving Brie and thus Beth ends up catching the hard cable ropes.

With Beth now hurt, Brie seizes the opportunity, taking her down from behind, stomping on her and then choking her out with her leg. Brie now has Beth over the middle rope and chokes her some more until the referee breaks things up. Meanwhile, Nikki plays cheerleader on the outside. Brie with a pin attempt but no, ma’am, that is not enough to put away the Divas Champ.

Brie goes for a stomp, but Beth catches her boot, pushing her back and Brie lands on her back. Beth on the offense now but Brie manages to hit a stealthy neckbreaker to take the Divas Champ back down to the canvas, much to the approval of Nikki. Another pin attempt and another kick out by Beth.

Brie now applies a chin-lock submission but Beth manages to get to her feet slowly but surely, picks up Brie and rams her into the turnbuckles. Beth with a slingshot suplex next, and now we know what it’s time for… Glam Slam! Beth positions Brie into Glam Slam position but Nikki tries to provide a distraction by jumping up on to the ring apron. Beth wisely uses Brie as a human battering ram, pushing her in Nikki’s direction resulting in the latter falling to the floor outside. Beth locks in the Glam Slam hold again and this time hits it perfectly for the win.

Thoughts: Kind of your standard match. Nothing stood out too much, but it wasn’t bad either.

I guess the question is, what’s next for Beth? As I mentioned during the Tamina/Natalya match last week, it seems like WWE has dropped the whole Divas of Doom thing and Beth and Natalya are back to being solos, so what does Beth do next? She’s pretty much faced everyone at this point from Kelly, to Eve, to Alicia, to the Bella Twins. Could they put Tamina up against her next? There aren’t many girls to choose from. I’d like to see AJ be given a “reward” for doing so well in the Big Show/Daniel Bryan angle and get a storyline with Beth, perhaps?

With Divas action on Superstars for the past few weeks, maybe they should just move the division over there? They certainly get more time than they would on Raw. I’d like to see them incorporate storylines and backstage segments into the show.

Why hello there! It’s Thursday again… and that can only mean one thing. No, not a new episode of Z! True Long Island Story (although that’s likely true), but another NXT recap! Last week was the big wedding between Maxine and Johnny Curtis, but like all wrestling weddings turmoil struck and the bridezilla ended up leaving alongside her former love interest, Derrick Bateman. We all (and by that, I mean myself) cheered this action, but were concerned about whether this meant the end for the saga known around the world as “Maxine’s Choice”. Tonight, however, we did get a small dose of continuation from it… and hey, Kaitlyn and Derrick also got a backstage segment which means we are sure to see some added hilarity ensue.

Well don’t just sit there, let’s get started!

As we head backstage, we spot our triumphant hero, Derrick Bateman, as he skips down a hallway with a mop in his hand like he just won the lottery, or a part in a Broadway show. The mop eventually falls, as he speaks to a random person named Mipsy, before high-fiving the great Kaitlyn, complete with pink fanny pack. He asks her if she saw last week that true love prevailed and BateMax is back! Kaitlyn is none too amused though, which sparks her to question how he can be so happy when she (Maxine) ripped his heart out, stomped on it, spit on it, and probably fed it to a rabid dog. She continues on that after one slap, he’s back under Maxine’s powers and they are doing that “weird disgusting tongue thing”.

Kaitlyn wants Sweet Meat to be sure he knows what he’s doing, to which he retaliates that he knows it will be different this time. Besides, being on NXT so long, he might as well have a hot chick this time. Suddenly, the conversation changes as Kaitlyn asks if Sweet Meat has seen Dirty Curty today and Derrick claims that even Johnny isn’t stupid enough to show his face this week. Kaitlyn lets him know that he actually is, as she saw him cleaning his bear skin rug and putting it back into his van earlier. (Someone seriously needs to call Chris Hanson… I know Maxine isn’t underage but still.) This sparks Derrick Bateman to look slyly into the camera and let out the one word which signals that this isn’t over… “Curtis”. He then thanks Kaitlyn for the heads up and proceeds to leave the former NXT winner.

Following a commercial break, we return to the ring to see Matt Striker standing by with a microphone in hand. He introduces himself to the crowd, before giving us a brief recap of last week’s action (complete with video) between Maxine, Derrick, and Dirty Curty. Once the video comes to an end, we go back to the arena as perhaps the theme song that in all of wrestling I find odd that I’m addicted to, Dirty Curty’s hits, and he makes his way out to the ring. After grabbing a microphone, Matt asks his thoughts on what happened last week, to which Dirty Curty exclaims that he enjoyed Maxine’s fingers in his mouth because he absolutely loves a girl with dirty fingernails!

This doesn’t go on for long, as that oh so benevolent voice comes over the microphone and out walks the newly reformed BateMax. She questions if he will indeed stoop to any level, and asks if this is what it’s come down to. He tries to calm her down and states that they are exactly the same, before trying to make her admit she’s a dirty little girl! (That’s not PG!) Maxine agrees that they may have some similarities, but at least she’s woman enough to admit it. She explains that last week was a disaster, and it’s obvious to her that she either has to keep them separated by arm’s length or get him off NXT. Derrick secretly tries to mention that they should be more worried about getting themselves off NXT, but she reassures him that they will get off soon. Matt Striker tries to interrupt them, but she tells him to shut up! (Side note: I oddly find it amusing every time Maxine tells Matt Striker off — sorry, Cryssi, if you see this.) Maxine states that Derrick has been a contestant on NXT forever, whereas Dirty Curty walks himself back in here and takes a squat trying to mark his territory!

She adds that he doesn’t even belong here, which sparks Dirty Curty to form a look like Maxine just killed him inside. Striker tries to inform them that they will all just have to learn to get along together, which Derrick seems to agree with since he’s beaten Johnny twice already. Dirty Curty tries to calm “Der” down, claiming that he just wants to be one big happy family like it used to be. He tries to shake hands with the curly haired hero, before adding that he doesn’t bite, and to ask Maxine for proof of this!~ (Ouch!) Derrick starts to get upset, but Maxine, being the woman with the power and control that she is, leans in towards Dirty Curty… and knees him right in the… well, you get the picture! She grabs him by the hair and asks if they have an understanding, before doing the same to Derrick. He agrees to the truce, and the two share a kiss, before making their way out of the ring as Dirty Curty looks on with his “injury”.

Thoughts: It’s not the level of segments we usually see on NXT, but after fearing for my life that this feud was over after last week, I’ll take it! I thought the in ring segment was solid, and they all shined together as always. Maxine walking up to Johnny and kneeing him right in the baby maker had me laughing, and I’m pretty curious as to where this will go from here since they all agreed to get along. I’m wondering if Kaitlyn will somehow get involved since she keeps appearing in the segments, but I don’t know what she could do since she can’t exactly be Johnny’s equalizer with her disinterest to “get weird” with him.

I know I said I could possibly handle losing “Maxine’s Choice” since I now have Planet Funk on Raw and SmackDown to get me by, but I’m not going to lie, when NXT aired for a good twenty minutes and we saw no sign of them, I started to fret. Thankfully, this seems to be continuing, and I say let it. People may not be fans of the program or some of the people involved, but as for myself, I really enjoy it and I look forward to it more than other shows. I’m still invested in the storyline and I’m interested to see what happens next, which in wrestling, is pretty much all I ask for.

Why hello again, it is I, Bobby, and before you all accuse me of Redux hijacking I will inform you that Cryssi is not feeling her very best. Besides, I would never hijack Khaleesi’s Redux when that HHH (Husky Harris Hating) team member named Steven is an option. But enough introduction, let’s get on to this week’s showing from the flagship show of the WWE. We did not have a match involving the females, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t get some nice character development from Eve, as well as one of my personal highlights in the entire company, Planet Funk, consisting of Brodus Clay, Naomi, and Cameron graced us with their presence this evening. What are we waiting for? Let’s jump right into the fun.

… Did you really think I could force myself to type about anything but this first?

We head out to the arena as the angelic voices of both Cameron and Naomi introduce Brodus Clay to the ring as the only living… breathing… romping, stomping… Funkasaurus in captivity! His addictive music hits, as the two lovely ladies make their way out to the ring doing their finest dancing! They clap along with the music, as do I, and proceed to skip their way down to the ring making phone motions as they request for you to call his mama! Brodus walks down with them in a snazzy new white suit as he makes dinosaur claw motions to the screen, while they hold the ropes open for him to enter. As he brings the house down with his moves, the trio proceed to slide across the ring with some added dance steps. Once I’m able to settle down from imitating the entire act on my own floor, they pose as pyro goes off and we spot William Regal on commentary!

From there, we see Brodus’ prey for this evening, and it’s finally someone that pleases me to see dismantled… Heath Slater! He rudely cackles at Brodus and his dance troupe, before entering the ring and viewing as Brodus shakes his rump. Heath tries to run off the ropes, but he charges right into a brick wall as he crashes to the mat in pain. William Regal compares Brodus’ dancing to a walrus giving birth, which sparks me to pause the video and take time out to laugh, before continuing on as Heath hits a dropkick to absolutely no effect. He taunts the crowd before falling victim to a running splash by Brodus, who continues it up with the Shee-Plex! Clay runs forward with another splash into the corner, before coming off the ropes with his patented charging crossbody for the victory! Naomi and Cameron once again climb into the ring, as Brodus lets the ladies get some solo’s to the millions watching. William Regal claims that he could do things to Cameron and Naomi (which is still surreal to finally hear said on TV) as we end this miraculous segment with the three of them moving around the ring.

As Zack Ryder and Kane battle it out in a lengthy match which sees Zack’s “friend”, Eve Torres come down to ringside and try to will him on, we spot the two on the stage in which Zack is basically dead weight from taking such a beating. Kane lifts him up and proceeds to BRUTALLY chokeslam him through the stage. Eve can be heard screaming hysterically, as she walks over and tries to cope with what has just happened. Suddenly, Kane turns his attention to her as she quickly tries to run back away from him! She manages to step to the side of the ring, when John Cena walks out and somehow causes Kane to escape through the crowd. Eve runs back up the ramp to help check on Zack, who looks to be pretty much incapacitated.

A medical crew proceeds to stretcher Zack out of the building, which sees both Eve and John Cena following close behind watching in fear at their fallen friend. Once the team loads Zack into the ambulance (quick shout out to Kelly Kelly and the Bella Twins on a brief Raw appearance), the cameras focus on Eve and John, as she tells Cena this is all his fault! John tries to tell her he didn’t cause this, but she doesn’t let him continue as she cuts him off and says he’s done enough already. She tells the main eventer that SHE will be riding with Zack, not him, before climbing into the ambulance and leaving Cena to watch in agony as it rides away. Josh Matthews attempts to approach him with a question, but Cena shoves the microphone back and makes a weird looking face that screams constipation… but I digress. This segment comes to a close as our terrified philanthropist hopefully manages to help Zack not be seriously injured.

Thoughts: While there wasn’t a match, I thought Eve did great in her role tonight. Some may have questioned her acting, but I don’t know, I thought she did well in telling Cena that it was all his fault, and it’s remarkable to see a Diva being given air time with undoubtedly the top star the company has. She’s certainly being more focused on in this program, and that’s definitely a good thing. I’m intrigued to see if this leads to her turning heel any time soon, or whether or not it’s just adding fuel to the fire for Cena to make the turn with having his friends blaming him for stuff when he was only trying to help. I don’t know what’s coming next in this angle, and to be honest, that’s a good thing.

Funkasaurus… Oh, what can I say? I’ve worshiped this stable since the first second that disco music hit the sound system three weeks ago, and it’s finally given me something I can look forward to seeing every week. The crowd seems to be getting behind them, and judging from the fact they have been given time on BOTH shows, I’d say it’s definitely catching on backstage! Seeing Naomi and Cameron on TV is great for me since I overly love both of them, and I really hope they transition into the ring after the crowd gets to know them more because I think they would definitely be impressed with what they see. Naomi is insanely talented, and Cameron is already showing a great improvement down at FCW, so things can only go up for them. I’d take this over either debuting in an already (unfortunately) fledgling Divas division any day of the week.

Speaking of which, it is kind of a bummer to not see a match tonight. I know that it probably would’ve been forty seconds (counting entrances) but I wish they would’ve thrown something out there. This is now the fifth week of not seeing the Divas Champion on Raw, which really seems suspicious to me, but never the less, perhaps next week the females will get some ring time on the show. With that being said, tonight’s Raw was a nice showing for the Divas in terms of character progression, especially Eve, but not so great in the sense that they didn’t get any sort of action, especially after last week’s “highly publicized” angle.

With the absence of a Divas match on last night’s episode of SmackDown (see Superstars instead), it was up to Vickie Guerrero and Brodus Clay’s funky mommas — Cameron and Naomi — to give us our Diva fix this week.

In a good ol’ fashioned dance off, Vickie showed us her dancefloor moves as she faced off against Brodus Clay — much to the amusement of SmackDown ring announcer, Lilian Garcia (Yes, girl, we caught you laughing your ass off!)

Watch as Vickie makes a show of herself and Brodus Clay jiggles… jiggles… and then jiggles some more. Oy vey. It’s enough to drive Lilian loca! (See what we did there?)

Thoughts: Though not a match, definitely a fun segment — if you can look past Brodus Clay and his jiggling man parts. Vickie brought the lulz while Cameron & Naomi brought the heat! I’m hoping one day we may see Naomi take center stage with Brodus, perhaps the two of them in a mixed tag feud with a Superstar & Diva.

Welcome all you benevolent skanks. This is, of course, your weekly Impact Write-Up, and I can think of no better way to begin tonight’s festivities than with that top notch greeting. Tonight, from what I saw on Twitter last night, we have a pretty Knockout filled show, however, I have stopped viewing as it airs on television to protest the firing of Miss Karen! Okay, that’s a little exaggerated, but thanks to a certain website being shut down yesterday I have lost much of how I view other programming so I chose to watch that instead. What does that matter you ask? Well, I don’t know what happened so you shall be getting my live reactions to it. I do know that Mickie James and Madison Rayne shall be squaring off inside a steel cage, and that, ladies and gents, is enough to get me excited. Let’s begin!

First up, we head backstage to see an unidentified male voice asking Angelina Love how she feels about Creepo Beard getting a little too personal with her last week. She claims that she feels dirty and disgusting after he put his grubby paws on her, before challenging him to a match tonight! She tells him to come alone, being she doesn’t need to see his boyfriend ODB, as she then heads out to get ready for this supposed Intergender match coming up.

Up next in this Knockout saga, we spot Creepo Beard standing in front of a Bellator Fighting Championship truck. He spots a woman and claims he won’t fight girls, before using her spoon to practice his shots. (So I guess female cooking utensils aren’t part of the “won’t fight girls” deal?!) The woman tries to politely inform him that she’s not a part of this and that Bellator Fighting Championship is just an ad on a truck, but clearly his beard is distracting him to process what she says. The annoyed caterer walks off, before ODB walks into the equation and pumps him up about his match later, whilst criticizing Angelina’s weight. He informs her that he does not want to go through with it because he doesn’t want to fight women, but she says Angelina challenged him and to stop hiding behind his mother’s skirt. She ends it by saying if Creepo does a number on Angelina in their match, ODB may do a number on him later tonight!~

(Skip to 10:54 in the same video.) Following a video package hyping up the Mickie/Madison cage match tonight, we spot Madison Rayne freaking out to Gail Kim backstage about it. She claims that people don’t belong in cages, but animals do! Following a magnificent Miss Karen shout out, Gail snaps at her to calm it down. She informs Madison that she will be there for her like Madison always is for her. They then head out to the ring to get ready.

We return from a commercial break to see Hardcore Country herself, Mickie James skipping out to the ring in her sharpest plaid gear. She enters inside the cage and poses for her fans, until SHE’S A KILLLLLLERRRR QUEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNN blares across my computer speakers and both Madison & Gail walk out to the ring. Gail is pretty much having to drag her partner out, as Madison looks like a timid mouse right about now. Rayne officially enters inside the cage, but the referee sends Gail away. She does something interesting though, and makes a phone call symbol that she’ll be back and it’ll be fine. Could she… could she… could she be calling Miss Karen?! As my eyes nearly begin to cry tears of joy at what may happen, the cage door shuts and the bell sounds which can not mean good things for one, Madison Rayne.

Mickie shoves her back from behind and begins with a nice clothesline. From there, she begins to pound Madison’s face into the turnbuckle, but Rayne starts to take control and scales the cage… until Mickie hits an AWESOME sit-out powerbomb. James takes the fight to Madison in the corner, before connecting with a snapmare into a baseball slide dropkick for a two count. Another pin only gets a second two count, which sparks Mickie to apply a chokehold submission. The crowd begins to clap, but I don’t think it’s in the usual way where they strive for the person to break the submission. Madison gets to her feet and goes for an Irish Whip, but Madison DRILLS her in the face with a brutal sick boot. She goes for an Irish whip, but Mickie reverses it and sends her into the corner as we head to a commercial break.

Upon what I believe is our return since these videos I’m watching are beyond confusing, we see Mickie kicking Madison Rayne in the corner, before Madison breaks it off and starts to scale the cage. She elbows Mickie away, but as she charges forward, Mickie nails her with the flapjack kip up! James starts to head to the top rope, but Madison stops her and executes a neckbreaker off the top rope that also slams Mickie’s head into the cage. She then begins to rake Mickie’s face across the steel! Rayne with a snap Suplex, as she keeps the hold locked in and drops her with a neckbreaker. The crowd tries to get behind Mickie, as Madison remains in control with a face lock. She just decimates Mickie with a hair slam, before hitting her repeated face slam headscissors stomp onto the mat. A hook of the leg gets a two count, as Madison takes it back to the rest hold. Mickie finally starts to fight out, but Madison remains in control with a running hip toss into a facebuster.

Rayne sends James into the corner and connects with another hip toss, but as she charges off the ropes, Mickie counters a clothesline into an arm trap neckbreaker! The referee begins to count them down, as both women struggle to a vertical base. Madison and Mickie exchange hair slams into the canvas as neither stands in control yet. Mickie finally counters a blow and begins to mount a comeback with some flying forearms! She goes for another flapjack, but Madison escapes and hits a kick to the face. Madison argues with a referee about a count following a near fall, as she goes to toss Mickie into the cage, only Mickie counters and sends Rayne into both sides! She then drills her with the Mickie-DT and scores the victory! Mickie celebrates her huge win as Hardcore Country remains undefeated in cage matches (to my knowledge at least).

Backstage, Mickie can be seen with Tara and Velvet Sky as they celebrate James putting Madison in her place. The unidentified male asks Mickie how she feels after the match, as Mickie says she’s ecstatic… but that she still has one more person to get through, and that’s Gail Kim. James adds that the title is coming home to Hardcore Country land, which seems to take Tara and Velvet off guard, as both of them say they want the title as well. Mickie continues on about how Gail ditched Madison even though Madison is always there for her, before the focus goes towards something with her leg that she says is an injury from a prior match against Gail. The three then head out to celebrate with champagne as this segment draws to a close.

(Skip to 11:56 in same video.) Also backstage, we spot ODB drinking from her flask as this unidentified male asks her what she wants Creepo Beard to do tonight to Angelina. ODB tells him that he wants Creepo to rip her in half and take her out… but Winter attacks her out of nowhere from behind! The two brawl around the photoshoot area, before Winter can take control with what I think is a lead pipe. She then removes her belt and starts whipping ODB in the stomach with it! She demands to know where ODB’s boyfriend’s at now, as she chokes the One Dirty Bitch out and heads off.

As I get ready to ice my hands in water from all of these segments, Angelina Love and Winter make their way out to the ring, which gives me enough reason to hold off on the phalange treatment. They pose on the ropes, and out comes her opponent… which makes me want to just go ice my hands now, Creepo Beard. He slaps hands with the fans and climbs into the ring after some spastic posing. He locks up with the referee and does a cartwheel, before asking for a time out against Angelina. Love taunts him, as he backs up from her and he locks up with the referee again. From there, he rolls outside the ring and does one of the most awkward lock ups with a fans I’ve ever seen.

He slides inside the ring and back out, as he goes after Winter and finally hops into action. He tries to shake her hand, as she screeches for him to fight her, before he goes after the referee again and punches him slowly. Angelina thankfully kicks him in the groin to end this in a disqualification, as both females beat him down until ODB runs out and spears Winter to the ground. The start to go for her as Winter removes her belt and goes for it again, but Creepo Beard tosses both of them out of the ring. He helps ODB up and the two proceed to kiss inside the ring much to Winter and Angelina’s chagrin.

Thoughts: So when I heard this was a Knockout filled night, I think that was even an understatement. I feel like I just recapped the entire show! Starting off with the cage match, I thought it was pretty awesome. I loved Mickie’s sit out powerbomb, and especially that they got so much time to go out there and actually deliver inside the cage when it’s not the main event. I think it speaks volumes that TNA is giving their females this much air time in one night, complete with about a billion backstage segments to boot. I’m glad they are finally finding places for Winter, Angelina, and Velvet Sky as well, and that fight backstage between Winter and ODB was brutal! I like seeing the two of them feud because it takes me back to their OVW days and I enjoyed that feud a lot, so here’s to hoping it continues (maybe with slightly less Creepo Beard… that’s all I’m going to say).

Another week and another match between Natalya and Tamina in what must be the most one-sided feud ever. Three weeks, three losses for Natalya, and little to no storyline advancement. Why do we keep seeing the same match over and over? I’m not quite sure, but at least this week we got a lengthier bout between second and third generation Divas compared to the lackluster 1-2 minute matches we’ve seen between them on SmackDown. In fact, this match — if you can look past the canned crowd noise — was pretty darn good.

Check it out below:

Natalya is first out to the ring followed by Tamina in a brand new ring attire. Hurrah! After months of seeing her in the same ring gear, it’s nice to see that she’s changed it up over the past couple of weeks, and I think this attire actually looks good on her and suits her. Kudos!

Fashion aside, the bell rings and the two intense Divas go at it almost instantly, locking up in a very physical way. Tamina gets the upper hand initially, circling behind Natalya and locking her arms around her waist. Natalya tries to bump her way out of it and is soon behind Tamina. Natalya with a blow to the back of the head which does not amuse the Samoan princess in the slightest as she gaves Natalya an “Oh, it’s on now, b*tch!” face. Natalya attempts to hightail it with Tam-Tam (hey, it’s a better nickname than “Tampon”) in hot pursuit. As the referee tries to hold Tamina back, the villainous Natalya runs at her with a big boot to the stomach, followed by a forearm and side headlock. Tamina whips Natalya off the ropes but gets charged down to the mat by the former Divas Champion. Natalya runs the ropes as Tamina first lays on the mat before leaping over the third-gen Diva to avoid collision, but she soon has the upper hand by striking Nattie down to the mat. Tamina channels her father with the pose & “woo”.

Tamina with a pin attempt but Natalya kicks out and then scurries to the corner. Tamina is once again hot on her tail but the referee keeps the pair apart. This allows Natalya to gather her bearings and she manages to take control by cutting Tamina down to size and hitting her head off of the second turnbuckle. The Hart Dynasty Diva picks Tamina up for a suplex and it seems like she’s going for a slingshot off the top rope but perhaps can’t hit it due to Tamina’s weight, so she ends up hanging Tamina over the top rope and laying in a big boot to the midsection.

Natalya begins working over Tamina now with and eventually applies an abdominal stretch trying to wear Tamina down. The second-gen Diva begins to fight back, elbowing her way out of the move and eventually is back on her feet. Tamina with a hip toss on Natalya. However, the former Divas Champ quickly recuperates and hits Tamina with a nice clothesline. Natalya then goes for not one, but two pin attempts before smashing Tamina’s head against the mat out of sheer frustration. Natalya then applies the fantastic Pin-Up Strong submission, perhaps my favorite submission that Natalya has shown us over the past four years or so, as she tires Tamina out. Natalya eventually breaks the hold and again smashes Tamina’s head against the mat with some smack talk. Natalya goes for a legdrop but Tam-Tam moves out of the way as Nattie lands on her glutes. Ouch!

Natalya tries to run at Tamina but the second-gen Diva has this scouted and hits her with a nice big boot. Tamina with some really nice hard chops to Natalya followed by a jumping headbutt which sends Natalya straight to the mat as the Samoan Diva riles up the crowd.

Tamina goes for the superkick but Natalya counters and tries to go for the Sharpshooter, however, Tamina skillfully manages to roll Natalya up into a small package, nearly having the match won, but Natalya kicks out.

Tamina with a Samoan drop. She struggles to get to her feet and after what feels like a lifetime, she finally gets to the top for the Superfly Splash, but by this time Natalya has recuperated and knocks Tamina into a precarious position. Natalya seems to be going for a superplex but Tamina is not budging. The Samoan princess headbutts Natalya off the turnbuckles and this time Tamina manages to hit the Superfly Splash for the 1, 2, 3… Tamina picks up her third consecutive win over the third-gen Diva!

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this match. Compared to their previous matches on SmackDown which have been much shorter, this go around both Divas have been able to show what they can do and tell a story. I particularly loved the final couple of minutes from the Pin-Up Strong submission hold to the final Superfly Splash to take the win. It had excitement and intensity, and I found it enjoyable. Without a doubt, their best match yet — and that’s not hard to say considering their previous matches have been given a fraction of the time that this one got.

Firstly, I want to talk about Tamina. Many assume that because Tamina has a heritage in the business that she’s at the same level of a Beth Phoenix or Natalya, but she isn’t. She was signed by WWE with little experience and brought up to the main roster quite quickly. Because of her strength and size, Tamina is able to look a little more at home in the ring compared to some of the other Divas who have slimmer statures, and I think this could be one of the contributing factors as to why she doesn’t necessarily receive the same criticism as other girls with less experience. However, while somewhat green still, Tamina has shown progression as you can see in this match and really does come across as comfortable in the ring and seems to have a natural aptitude for being a performer. That is a solid base that can be built upon. With more time in the ring and more work with opponents like Natalya or Beth, Tamina can only get better.

It’s also interesting to see Tamina get this big babyface push as we all know WWE tends to push girls like Kelly or Eve in the babyface role. What will come of Tamina’s push? Are they going to pit her against Beth? I’m not sure, but it’d be interesting to see as they usually go for the “model vs model” or “model vs wrestler” feuds. It’ll also be interesting to see just how much the fans get behind her as a babyface. Fans are always saying they want to see the “wrestlers” get storylines and feuds and not the “models”, well, here’s a test. How much will the crowds who attend these shows cheer Tamina as compared to a Kelly or Eve?

Now onto Natalya. Over the past month or so, I’m sure I’m not the only who has noticed that there seems to be something fishy going on with Natalya and Beth Phoenix. While one has disappeared from TV entirely, the other has been losing matches left, right and center. Also, until this week when Alicia Fox appeared on Raw, the talent exchange between Raw and SmackDown was seemingly over. Natalya had been a fixture of Raw and SmackDown for months and now she’s not on Raw and losing every week on SmackDown, while Beth is nowhere to be seen? I think that’s a little odd. And there has also been no mention of the Divas of Doom or the pin-up strong movement on commentary in the past month during Natalya’s matches. It almost feels like the Beth/Natalya partnership has abruptly been dropped. I don’t want to speculate on what the issue could be, but something has been off in the past month or so — and I’m sure I’m not the only one who has noticed.

Sadly, it almost feels like Natalya is being pigeonholed into the role that Victoria (now Tara in TNA) held prior to her departure, putting over the other girls and that’s a damn shame. Natalya is without a doubt the best wrestler on the Divas roster and with her family lineage and naturally positive attitude, I think she could be so over as a babyface. She has a lot to offer the division.

I think the Natalya vs Tamina feud is a great idea, on paper, but in execution it has been far too one sided and not had enough storyline investment. Really, it’s just a series of matches. How about some backstage segments or promos? This could be a great feud, but I’d like it to be more than just Natalya losing every week.

“Your wedding day is a special day where two hearts become one.” Yes, I did just start this NXT Watch off with a quote from our very own former Diva, Jillian Hall. Today is a big day for us all, because our blushing bride to be, Maxine, will finally walk down the ramp into matrimony as she exchanges her vows to the great Dirty (Jonathan) Curty. Some of you may be BateMax fans and are highly against this marriage, but stick around because you may just leave off on a high note as well! Now before I waste any more of your time blubbering on about this monumental day, please enjoy this stunning video package highlighting how the future Mr. and Mrs. Dirty Curty came to be:

Now if you didn’t shed a tear for that beautifully done video, I don’t know if you can consider yourself a human being!

We are taken to an invitation which grants us access to the wedding of the CENTURY (You heard me, William & Kate) between Princess Maxine and Sir Curty of Dirty. As I sit awaiting for my popcorn to finish popping, we spot the groom putting on his tuxedo… designed shirt. He kisses a mirror as Michael Cole dubs him “Dexter like” which immediately makes me gasp for air that someone on my favorite wrestling show is compared to someone on my favorite television show. It’s like worlds colliding! From there, we transition to Maxine in a robe as she takes her dress to be put on before running into Jimmy and Jey Uso! They apologize, but our bridezilla snaps at them that her dress has come all the way from Italy! She explains that each bead took all day to complete, before one of the Usos has the gall to SNEEZE all over this one of a kind original. Maxine becomes enraged at the fact that she’s going to be wearing his snot all over her dress on her big day. They back off, as Maxine looks on in anger.

Following that pure joy, we head backstage to see the benevolent Maxine attempting to rush along her seamstress into finishing her, what looks to be, fishnet gown. The seamstress LUDICROUSLY tries to drown Maxine’s angelic voice out, which only serves to add more stress to an already tiresome bride to be. She turns away and goes to leave when Dirty Curty, the scoundrel that he is, breaks wedding tradition and sees the bride before the ceremony. Such a rebel. Dirty Curty tries to calm her down by assuring her Derrick is not present, as Maxine puts over the importance of tonight’s wedding in that everyone on Twitter and Facebook are talking about it. Curtis attempts to shush her, which only frustrates her as she throws her arms in the air as if she wants to shoo him away. Once Maxine walks off, fellow Diva Kaitlyn walks in sporting her finest skull cap, as Dirty Curty asks Kaitlyn to get weird with him! Kaitlyn dubs him creepy and heads out much like Maxine, as I question if Dirty Curty just rents stalker type vans instead of rental cars whenever he drives from city to city.

We proceed to the ring where WWE employees are seen putting together the decorations, which I must say prove to be the one disappointment in tonight’s event in comparison to Aksana’s wedding back in season three. Nonetheless, some funky music hits as out walks an Elvis impersonator! I’m sure you all proceed to shake your hips, as we discover that Elvis is none other than Matt Striker!~ Following a short Elvis monologue, he introduces the groom and out comes Dirty Curty and his best man, independent wrestler, Johnny Yuma! The two strut out to the ring, as Elvis giggity giggitys Maxine to the ring following some rump shaking. The lovely bridal music begins as out walks the beautiful lady of the night!

She sophisticatedly steps into the ring as that fool Michael Cole dubs this the “white trash wedding”. Maxine quickly puts a stop to this and begs to know who this man with Sir Dirty Curty is. Curtis explains that this is Chad… before turning the name into Chris from last night. Chris informs us all that Dirty Curty promised him he would get to meet Hillbilly Jim, as we hurry along with the ceremony. ElviStriker begins to sing his speech in Elvis tones, before Maxine snaps at him to hurry it along! He asks Dirty Curty if he takes this talented, jaw dropping, magnificent woman to be his lawfully wedded wife (until he gets bored). Dirty Curty points to the bride to be and exclaims, “Yes!” From there, ElviStriker asks Maxine Sylvestry Emminger Perez (which amuses me as those are the last names of Kaval and Lucky Cannon of all people) if she takes Dirty Curty as well and she says that she does… until ElviStriker asks if there is anyone who feels they should not be joined together!

The crowd starts to boo as ElviStriker begins to finish up the ceremony until we hear that oh so heroic voice pop out from the back with a big “WAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!” which brings our poor Maxine to sheer anger telling by the sound of her grunt. Derrick claims that this must end! Maxine and Curty question what he’s doing here, as he explains that he knows she is only mad because she thinks he sent an email to Teddy Long, but he has proof that he did not, and not only that, but the man who did is… is… DIRTY CURTY!! A loud gasp from you all comes at this point, I’m sure, as Sir Bateman tells the jumbotron to roll it!

We head to the titantron at a security camera marked 12-27-11 which shows Dirty Curty walking into the dressing room and opening Derrick’s locker up. Maxine begs to know why Derrick is watching Johnny and asks if he’s a pervert, but before we find the answer out, we spy Dirty Curty opening the door to see a bunch of BateMax photos as well as Derrick’s USA pants from the critically acclaimed (and by that, I mean by me) double date he and Daniel Bryan went on with the Bella Twins last season! Maxine demands to know why there are photos of her, but she then claims those pants are hideous! We then spot Dirty Curty pull Derrick’s iPad out and send the email to Teddy Long (which I’m assuming he typed out prior to this footage being taken and had to hide the iPad until later on to send).

Derrick tells Maxine that he always will love her, and assures her that if she really is done with him that’s fine, but he would never try to sabotage her career. She asks Dirty Curty if it’s true, as Curtis explains that he’s on his way to the top and he wants her to come with him. Sir Jonathon just demands us all to know that he wants to make her feel good, okay?! She pushes him off of her and tells him that the only thing that would make her feel good is this… before slapping him across the face! Derrick taunts Dirty Curty, as Curtis spears him to the ground and they brawl around the ring! Our god, Maxine, proceeds to get involved as she starts to scratch Dirty Curty’s head while even in her wedding gown (seriously, is there anything she can’t do?) before hooking his mouth open with her hands which begins to kill me from laughter and spark 20 replays. This distracts him long enough for Derrick to hit the Mantastic DDT, as he informs Maxine that he always wanted her on top. He goes to head out, but Maxine stops him, slaps him across the face, and proceeds to make out! BateMax is BACK! REJOICE WORLD! The two hug it out over Curtis’ fallen self, as I recount this as the greatest segment known to man.

Thoughts: As if you couldn’t tell already, this was everything I wanted and more. I can’t express my sheer admiration of this program enough, and seeing a wedding that had so many random amazing moments is the icing on the cake. I really do believe whoever writes NXT sneaks around my Twitter page looking for ideas. (Or who knows, maybe I write it and you all will never know until I’m fired and can give a shoot interview?) Nonetheless, I’m thrilled to see BateMax back because I think they mesh so well together. I randomly want to see Dirty Curty go after Kaitlyn now that Maxine has rejected him, and possible do a storyline with the two of them. Hopefully BateMax can perform on both SmackDown and NXT since Derrick has that match he won earlier to guarantee him another appearance on the blue brand, but if this ends the “Maxine’s Choice” story, then I want to thank them for the greatest few months that wrestling has given me in years. The three of them (and everyone who has had a supporting role throughout) truly made me look forward to seeing NXT every week and I hope and pray they all go on to more things. If this isn’t the end, then I will buy myself a cake next week and eat it in celebration of its continuation!

This week on SmackDown, we get a second helping of Tamina vs Natalya in a return match from last week. We also are blessed with a triple shot of SmackDown’s resident pocket rocket, AJ. Let’s kick things off with our Divas match for this week.

Tamina was able to surprise us all, when she pulled out an upset over Natalya last week. Can the Polynesian Princess shock us all once more, or will the First Lady of the Hart Dungeon have her revenge? Check out the match below:

The Divas segment starts off with Natalya already in the the ring, looking pissed off, just like last week. Tamina is out next with a new entrance video and theme and new gear as well. The second generation Diva stops at the top of the ramp, to do her father’s iconic pose, before heading down to the ring. The referee signals for the bell and the match is underway.

Natalya wastes no time slapping Tamina across the face, before leveling her with a vertical suplex for a two count. Nattie tries to whip Tamina off of the ropes, but Tamina reverses it, leapfrogs over her and hits her signature Samoan Drop. With Natalya laid out, Tamina goes up to the top rope and hits the Superfly Splash to pick up the victory for the second week in a row.

Well, that was… quick…

It looks like Tamina is definitely a babyface now, but I still don’t know exactly why she’s feuding with Natalya. To be fair, there is a interview on WWE.com that explains Tamina’s newfound attitude, but I think there should be some sort of explanation on the show for those who won’t be bothered to look up the interview.

While I am happy that Tamina is seemingly finding her place in the Divas division, I can’t help but feel bad for Nattie, who has been really been racking up losses in the past few months. Nattie’s position in WWE feels a lot like Victoria’s (TNA’s Tara) last year in WWE, being used to elevate newer talents. The difference however, is that Victoria got to have a few solid storylines, feuds and title reigns; opportunities that Natalya has never really gotten. Nattie is one of the most talented, well-rounded Divas on the roster and it’s a damn shame to see all her potential go to waste as a glorified enhancement talent. Hopefully, this won’t be her permanent role as a Diva.

Next up, we have a few backstage segments with NXT3 alumna, AJ. First up AJ proclaims her love for fellow NXT graduate and WWE Heavyweight Champion, Daniel Bryan:

Next we see AJ appeal to the softer side of The Big Show, as she tries to save her boyfriend from imminent doom:

Last, but certainly not least, AJ takes one for the team (and by team, I mean Daniel Bryan), as she’s damn near killed by a stampeding rhino… erm… I mean, Big Show, when she accompanied Daniel Bryan to the ring for his main event title match:

They say love will make you do crazy things, and jumping in front of a charging 400 pounds of man has to be near the top of that list of crazy things. By the looks of things, it seems Daniel convinced AJ to jump in front of Show to help him keep the title and she did it to prove her love. It’s an interesting dynamic, this good girl/bad boy pairing, and I think it will get AJ over as a babyface and get Daniel some legit heat as a heel champion. Hopefully, we get some more AJ/DB interaction next week… If AJ isn’t in a coma after that bump, that is…

Hit or miss show for the Divas this week for the Divas this week, in my opinion. While the 30 second match was definitely a miss for me, AJ’s backstage segments and near death in the main event was a big hit. If we can get a decent match for the Divas next week AND a few segments backstage, we could have a good show next week. Fingers crossed, guys! Until next week!

First we head backstage to see Winter and Angelina Love chatting it up. Winter claims that all the drama in the Knockouts Division about looking for a new leader (which took me a few times to understand she wasn’t saying Lita), is ridiculous. She dubs Gail Kim a twerp that thinks she can come in and take over, and says that she thinks it’s time that people remember who Winter was. She’s a former two time Knockouts Champ for crying out loud! Tonight, when she faces that Old Demented Broad, and her little boy bear, people will never want to forget again. Angelina then interrupts and says it’s also time people remember who she is, being a former five time champion. As far as the match with ODB, they agree that they have this down, as Angelina twiddles with Winter’s hair. The two ladies then head out to the ring and get things underway. A video package promoting ODB and Creepo Beard then follows.

Backstage once more, ODB and Creepo Beard are seen arguing about the kiss, which she claims she was just hot and horny. ODB walks off and then returns to slap him on the ass and drag him along for her match. We then head to the ring where Christy Hemme announces the following Knockouts Contest and out comes Winter and Angelina to the greatest theme song ever. After some in ring poses, the pumped up tunes of ODB hits, as she makes her way out in her finest camo alongside Creepo Beard. They step into the ring as Creepo locks up with the referee and becomes the Santino of our prized Knockouts. The bell sounds, as ODB hands her lime green flask off and we get started.

They lock up to some ODB chants, as Winter backs into the ropes. Winter with a waist lock, but ODB breaks it, slaps her ass and boobs, and then charges forward with a chest bump. She goes for the bronco buster, but Winter moves out of the way and drags ODB out of the way, before locking her in a tree of woe. A stern boot to the face causes ODB to spit into the ring, as Creepo Beard tries to get inside the ring. Winter pulls ODB by the hair ont the outside, before sliding in and taking control with a sleeper hold until ODB breaks it and takes Winter down with some shoulder blocks.

She Irish Whips Winter into the corner and avalanches her, before finally being able to hit the Bronco Buster, followed up with the Fallaway Slam into the Kip Up. Angelina then slides into the ring, but Creepo Beard steps in and Airplane Spins her to send her outside. The referee then sends Creepo out of the ring, as Winter tries to grab ODB from behind, but ODB reverses it into the “BAM” which is a TKO. ODB covers and scores the victory, as she and Creepo Beard celebrate to Winter, (my) and Angelina’s utter disgust.

Sting is backstage about to give a press conference it seems, when Madison Rayne interrupts him and asks how he’s doing. She compliments him, before stating that she wants to talk to him for a second; dubbing she was overzealous to assume the Knockouts V.P. role too soon. Rayne asks him to make it official, and he overreacts sarcastically, before saying he can not do that. Madison claims when there is a job to get done, she gets it done…which Sting relates to her helping Gail cheat to retain her title at Genesis. He then decides to book Madison in a big steel cage match against Mickie James next week! Madison tries not to panic, but Sting refuses to change his decision and she FREAKS before calling out for Gail to help her!

Also, check out this video package promoting resident TNA Knockout, Brooke Tessmacher:

Thoughts: It’s so great to see Winter and Angelina back on television. I think it had been over a month since that car wash segment with my ruler, Miss Karen, but I like that they used Gail as their reason for not being on in such a long time. I know the feud before was about Miss Karen vs. The Knockouts, but I think it could translate nicely into Gail and Madison against the roster since they all have reasons to dislike the two. The match was fine for what it was, and I loved seeing ODB and Winter go at it to throw me back to their OVW feud, but I really don’t like Creepo Beard because he just reminds me of a worse version of when Santino used to be involved in all the female matches. I like that they still got a nice time, but when he’s randomly running into the ring every five seconds, it’s hard to keep focus on the match. I know a lot of people love the two, and I get that, but I’ve never really been a fan of his, so it just doesn’t warm to me. But opinions are different for all, and so I am glad to at least see the focus being given to some forgotten faces for the time being.

Following a very pink match graphic and perky theme music, we head to the arena where Kelly Kelly makes her way out to the ring in her finest blue gear. She poses on her way down the ramp, slaps a few hands, and climbs into the squared circle as we are taken to a brief commercial break. Upon returning, out comes the devilish duo, Brie and Nikki of the Bella Twins. Luckily for Kelly, this is only a singles match, but with two Bellas dressed in the same thing, is she really going to be facing only one of them? The Bellas flip into the ring, as their music stops and the bell sounds.

They immediately take the fight to one another, as Kelly flings Brie across the ring and slams her head into the mat. She shoos Nikki away from the ring apron and sends Kelly into the corner, but K2 boots the Bella in the stomach and locks in a necklock modified hangman’s neckbreaker. She then flips outside the ring and trips Brie up, before sliding back in and running off the ropes with a clothesline. Brie takes cover with Nikki, but Kelly basically spears Nikki off the ropes…which provides enough distraction for Brie to take advantage.

She begins to work over the arm, as Scott Stanford informs us that the Bella Twins have informed him of a possible break in friendship between Kelly and Eve. Nikki continues to make her presence known throughout the contest, as Brie hooks the leg for a two count. From there, she locks in an arm lock, as we continue to find out that it’s possible Eve ditched Kelly for Zack Ryder considering he now has a title and Kelly does not. The crowd tries to will Kelly on, but Brie slams her back down by the hair and continues to add pressure to the arm. Nikki cheers Brie on, as Kelly rolls her up out of nowhere for a one count.

Brie with a brutal knee to the arm, as she just taunts K2 in the ring and has some fun at Kelly’s expense. She rubs Kelly’s head in the ring and hooks the leg for a near fall, as Kelly continues to show her resilience. Brie then tries to go for a pin with the arms, while Kelly fights out. Brie with a nice bridge cover, but the two Divas continue to lock arms. Kelly then hits a nice monkey flip to send the Bella Twin flying through the air, as she begins to mount a comeback with a thesz press off the second rope! Mounted punches follow up, continued with the whirlybird headscissors.

A bulldog to the corner of the ring, as Kelly executes her signature stink face to a rousing cheer of applause. K2 then backs up and charges forward with a handspring elbow, while she then follows up with an assortment of kicks to the face. The referee must physically restrain her from causing permanent damage to Brie’s face, which gives double trouble enough time to peform twin magic, as Nikki rolls Brie outside the ring and assumes her position. Kelly stomps forward, but Nikki slams her face right into the turnbuckle and rolls her up using the ropes for added leverage! One…two…three! The Bella Twins steal the victory from a feisty Kelly, as they celebrate on the ramp to end tonight’s show!

Thoughts: A fun showing from the Divas, and definitely much better on the time length. I felt like this was pretty much what you would expect from these two ladies, but I did love the monkey flip spot and thought it was a nice touch. Hopefully the feud between these three continues on with more Superstars outings, being I would love to see Kelly and Nikki go at it with a lengthier time given to them. Overall, I enjoyed the contest for what it was, and I very much like seeing the Bella Twins picking up wins to help build them back up (hopefully in time for a possible Kharma program leading to Mania!~)

What’s up, all you loyal NXT followers? If you’re like me and still on a magical high from seeing Naomi, Cameron Lynn, and Brodus Clay make their phenomenal, brilliant, tremendous debuts on Monday Night Raw, you too questioned how NXT could possibly live up to that joy. But honestly, who are we to even doubt this Wednesday afternoon treat? NXT lived up to the hype as always as we saw a tremendous segment between Alicia Fox and Maxine that certainly straddled the PG line. On top of that, the two also faced off in a match, as we got some added backstage segments between many of the people involved in “Maxine’s Choice”. Clearly this is Maxine’s world and we just live in it… and you know what? I’m perfectly fine with that.

Enough of my babbling, let’s proceed on!

Following a BRAND NEW OPENING VIDEO which finally seems to confirm that my god, NXT, is staying around for the long haul as an official brand, we head to the ring where Matt Striker stands microphone in hand. He reiterates that next week is the 100th episode of the program, which emanates from Las Vegas, Nevada! Striker continues that for the past few weeks he has been bringing back former talent, before welcoming a former pro from Season 3, Alicia Fox. Foxy makes her way out to the ring in her fancy fox hood and struts down the ramp while pa-pa-pa-partay serenades us in the background.

Matt takes pleasure in her Fancy Fox Hood, as she then begins to purr like a cat which randomly amuses me. He mentions that on Season 3, she was a pro, and her rookie has since taken NXT OVER! She claims that she tried to sell Maxine on eBay so many times before (what?!)… but she is then cut off by the green stage effect and dance club remix theme of the woman in question. Maxine makes her way out from the back and states that she’s so happy Fox could join them tonight, however this is her ring and Alicia was no use to her during her rookie season of NXT, much like how she’s a waste of space now! Fox says that when she tried to help Maxine as her pro, she was stubborn, rude, and belligerent, but Maxine begs Alicia to tell her something she doesn’t know already.

Matt Striker tries to calm them down, but Maxine tells him to “SHOVE IT SEACREST”, as Alicia Fox apologizes and asks how she is doing… or better yet, who is she doing? (Insert my “Oh, hell no” moment number one of the night) Maxine declares that Alicia just gets lonely at night without a tender touch, so she has to stick her nose in Maxine’s business. She continues that it doesn’t matter who or what she does, because she always ends up on her feet. This amuses Foxy because she thought Maxine was more comfortable on her back! (Insert “Oh, hell no” moment number two.) Fox then pushes Maxine onto her back, but Maxine regains her composure and says that she actually prefers being on top, before spearing Alicia to the floor and going at it! The two have to be separated by a referee, as Matt Striker announces they will square off right now!

The ladies circle around the ring, as the bell sounds and they lock up. Maxine backs Fox into the corner until she is forced to back up, as the two lock up again. Alicia shoves her former rookie back, but Maxine connects with a kick to the abdomen. Fox sends Maxine off the ropes and leapfrogs over her, to which Maxine somersaults underneath the legs! She charges off the opposing side, as Alicia bends down into a split hoping to trip her up, but Maxine shows her improvement by stopping herself and dropping a vicious knee to the backside. From there, she locks in a choke, but Alicia snapmares her out of it. Maxine quickly gets up and DRILLS Alicia in the face with a big boot for a few two counts, as the two back up into a corner and Maxine slams her head into the stomach.

Maxine proceeds to throw Alicia down with a hairmare, but Fox kicks her off. Maxine shoots back up and hits a sick European Uppercut, before taking her former pro to the corner and lifting her leg up with a nice chokehold. Alicia hilariously screams for Maxine to get her stinky leg off of her, which sparks Maxine to attempt an Irish whip. Fox reverses it, and sends Maxine flying, but Maxine leaps onto the second rope and proceeds to hop over Alicia. She wraps her legs around Fox’s back and locks in a vicious hold, but Alicia thankfully managed to grab onto the ropes before she could be taken to the center of the ring. Maxine fakes Fox out with an Irish whip and rolls her up with an O’Conner Roll, but Alicia manages to roll through and score the victory! She celebrates her win, as Maxine locks on angrily from the ring at her former pro and we head to a commercial break.

(Note: I am aware that no Divas are in this segment, but they are mentioned and it plays a part in the “Maxine’s Choice” saga so I am including it so that nobody is lost if they don’t see.)

Following a victory for Trent Barreta as he faced off against Tyler Reks, we head backstage to see Derrick “Sweet Meat” Bateman and Justin Gabriel coercing together about Gabriel’s jacket. They fist bump to being on Team Single, as Derrick finally seems to have given up on Maxine and wants to let her marry Dirty Curty. He says the only thing that bothers him is that something happened between he and Aksana, but Gabriel corrects him that he believes it had to do with the text he sent to Teddy Long. Derrick seems lost and pulls out his phone to check the message. He claims he never sent this, as Justin Gabriel claims he either left his phone at the bar again, or someone hacked his email. He continues to tell Bateman that perhaps his password should no longer be “1234″ anymore, as Derrick lets out a large “CUUUURTTIIISSSSSSSS” scream, and we head to a break.

Backstage, we see Maxine and Aksana standing together as Maxine claims that Alicia’s victory over her earlier was a fluke. She continues on that she is so sick and tired of all of this drama, but Aksana says that she is here for Maxine, and any help she needs she can ask her. Suddenly, Sweet Meat walks into the picture and demands a moment alone with Maxine. They both try to talk over each other, but finally Maxine takes control and says that they are DONE. She adds that she knows what he did, and as he tries to correct her, she silences him and announces that her new fiancée and herself are going to go to the top and leave Derrick down in NXT so he can enjoy the 200th show while he’s still stuck here. She then excuses herself to go watch her Johnny’s match and pulls Derrick’s nifty skull cap over his eyes before heading out.

Following Dirty Curty’s victory over Alex Riley, he and Maxine begin to celebrate in the ring until Sweet Meat makes his way out from the back and says this doesn’t concern Maxine, before calling her “toots” and outing that he knows what Dirty Curty did. He adds that he’s not sure how he did it, but that next week, this all ENDS. (Insert me pounding my fists on the ground in fury at the thought of “Maxine’s Choice” not gracing my computer screen any longer.) Derrick then walks back up the stage, as Maxine and Johnny question what he could be talking about and we come to a close.

Thoughts: I’ll start with the brilliant segment to open the show between Alicia and Maxine, which I think proved that when she isn’t short on time or rushed, Alicia is actually pretty funny on the mic. Her delivery on the lines to Maxine were on point, and I think Maxine was top notch as always. As much as I love Maxine being on NXT, I really think she could benefit the division to be placed in it. I feel like WWE will see that she is a tremendous talker, and actually allow her to cut more promos than the usual Diva because she has the skills. But overall, the segment reminded me of something we would seen in the “golden age” of the division, and I thought they both came off great in it.

The match, though shorter than past NXT matches, I thought was better than their first outing together. They seemed to mesh better, and given that we got an actual segment between the two to set it up, I don’t really mind it being only two minutes. It feels so weird to actually see two females in a WWE ring get seven minutes to open a show with a promo and match, but that’s why NXT is the hidden gem of the company.

I also beg Derrick Bateman to please take this week and reconsider putting an end to this saga. I don’t know what I would do without getting to recap “Maxine’s Choice” every week, although thanks to the Funkasaurus’ debut, it’s not to the level of extreme depression I would have faced since I now have a backup plan. Still though, I beg this story to go on forever and I hope it never ends.

So here we are once again, and I, your Khaleesi, is putting her fingers to the keyboard and doing her first Redux of 2012. I want to extend my gratitude to my sweet little Bobbita who filled in for me last week and wrote a Redux so beautiful it nearly made me weep tears of joys. And speaking of tears, there were many shed last night as I drowned myself in sloppy kisses and expensive tequila while watching LSU absolutely SUCK against the disgusting babyface team of the SEC, Alabama. Thanks to LSU FAILING I have to endure the heartbreak and trauma, and year-long idiocy of Alabama fans everywhere praising their Coach Nick Satan as the second coming of Paul Bear Bryant, and how Alabama is a juggernaut of superiority in the state, and blah blah blah. It’s enough to make any Auburn want to throw themselves off a cliff, but we shall overcome and beat those sorry pieces of sh-

Whoa… this is supposed to be a Raw Redux right? Yeah, well, back on track. I missed Raw last night thanks to the BCS National Championship game, and once again I stayed away from spoilers despite my longtime wrasslin’ buddy telling me how good Dolph Ziggler was in 140 characters or less. That means it’s time for another “live” Redux so to speak. So lets get to watchin’ Raw, so I can see how everything went down last night!

Thus far, there have been no Diva sightings, but I want to take a moment to congratulate Edge on being the first person announced for the 2012 Hall of Fame. As a life-long Edge fan, this means the world to me. We all know he could still be competing if his body would have allowed it, and as someone who was in Atlanta last year, I’m so grateful that I got to see his final ever match. This is so richly deserved even if it’s coming sooner than it should thanks to his abrupt retirement. Edge was someone who gave us memorable matches, wonderful moments, and let’s not forget that he was almost always involved with a Diva there towards the end. Congratulations, Edge!

Now, on with the show.

We’re brought almost immediately to our first Diva sighting of the night. Yay! Backstage, the United States Champion, Zack Ryder, is on the phone with his dad.

Zack is telling his dad that after almost losing his life last week on Raw, that he’s understandably afraid of what Kane might have in store for him this week. No doubt, the Long Island heartthrob has suffered from severe nightmares thanks to Kane’s violent antics, but at least his boo, John Cena, saved him. Nonetheless, Zack is pretty upset, but when he notices the lovely Eve Torres standing behind him, he promptly changes his tune. He hangs up and turns his charm on, but Eve’s not buying it. She wants to Zack to get serious for a moment and she asks him if he’s alright. He spouts some song and dance about not living in fear, and that brings him to something he wants to ask Eve. He takes a brief moment, and then finally asks her out. He says he doesn’t have a match and they can just go out right now. Eve looks like she wants to reject him, but she just blurts out yes. Zack can’t believe it, but he’s excited. Eve tells him that he has to wait because she has a match with Beth Phoenix tonight. Eve also reveals that if she can somehow beat Beth, she’ll get a shot at the Divas Championship. Zack wishes her luck and tells her he knows she can beat Beth. Eve gives him a flirty little sideways glance and goes “…you know it” before walking off. Zack stares at his crush, and then as if he senses someone has been watching them, he glances behind him. Not seeing anything, he just shakes it off and walks off.

Cue Kane being creepy and walking out from behind a door.

Let me play fantasy booker for a minute. Kane wants to end John Cena. Kane doesn’t seem to like Zack Ryder either. Kane tried to take Zack Ryder down to the fiery depths of hell last week but John Cena saved Zack Ryder. Now Kane is stalking Zack Ryder. Maybe Kane should go after Eve to get to Zack Ryder?

That needs to happen.

What never needed to happen, however, is the debut of Brodus Clay. Or maybe it did. I just never needed to write about it. But yes, here I am, about to sit here and embed a video with the debut of Brodus, and his dancers. Yup, you read that right… his dancers.

For weeks, the debut of Brodus Clay has been Raw’s long running joke. For seven hundred weeks now, Clay has been tapped to debut, or re-debut since he ran around with Alberto and Ricardo on SmackDown for awhile. Lo and behold we finally got to witness the massive beast from NXT make his presence felt on our favorite flagship show. And he didn’t come alone. The suddenly happy, jovial dancing ‘Funkasaurus’ busted through the guerrilla curtains in all his glory. In what is no doubt a tribute to the wonderful Flash Funk and the Funkettes, Brodus and his dancers, NAOMI and Ariane Andrew, surely made an impression.

They made an impression on me, anyway. I’m not entirely sure what to make of this. Maybe it’s a one-off thing, but I highly doubt it. A lot of time and effort appears to have gone into this and well at least it gets Naomi on the main roster. It’s kind of ironic that fans have cried and cried for the better part of forever to get this woman on the main roster so she can have actual matches and such, and she shows up in the role of dancer. I guess we all have to start somewhere, and if it’s as a dancer, then so be it. Alicia started off as a wedding planner, and then a manager for DJ Gabriel. Victoria/Tara made her debut as one of the Godfather’s “hos.” Kelly started as a stripper on ECW. And last, but not least, Trish Stratus once had to get down on all fours and bark like a dog. It’s wrestling, and it’s business, and that’s how it goes sometimes. Naomi is perhaps one of the most gifted pure athletes the WWE has ever had. I think that in the end she’ll end up being fine.

And before all the cries of outrage happen, just remember, you are all getting what you wanted: Naomi on Raw. And welcome to Raw to you too, Ariane! Both of them looked smoking hot in the little red catsuits and boots.

The Diva goodies keep on coming, but first an update on Zack/Eve. Zack is in the bathroom brushing his teeth when it finally dawns on him that he is indeed going on with Eve later on tonight. He’s praising himself for being the man for finally getting himself in her good graces when something eery comes over the bathroom. Zack kind of freaks out. I can’t say I blame him. Kane is messing with him.

Meanwhile, The Miz is continuing his quest for help in his personal battle against Uncle Troof. He was unsuccessful with Mason Ryan earlier, so this time he tries to convince Primo, Epico, and the lovely Rosa Mendes to help him.

All I have to say is that as brief as this was, it was pretty wonderful. Rosa’s broken Spanish/English always makes me laugh, and the fact she used it to curse out Miz is absolutely brilliant. Rosa was born to play this role and I’m so happy she’s finally getting used properly. I didn’t have to watch her dance, and her dress/fierce ankle bootie combo was hot. Loved this so much. I only wish these three would get more and more screen time. They deserve it, and a tag team title reign as well.

Goodness, so much epicness already and we haven’t even had that match yet! I’m absolutely loving this Raw so far.

What makes me love it even more is that it’s finally given me my first sighting of Vickie Guerrero, Dolph Ziggler, and Jack Swagger! With Ziggler facing Punk in three weeks at the Rumble, his stablemate, Swagger is squaring off against Punk tonight. Vickie and Dolph came to ringside with him.

John Lauricantbebotheredtolookuphowtospellhisname decides to rain on the parade, and since he is the special guest referee for the match at the Rumble, he wants to prove he can be impartial. He tells Punk that if he can beat Swagger, Vickie and Jack will both be banned from ringside come January 29th! I think we all know what happens, especially if you watched the video provided. A beautifully blown call leads to a Swagger loss, and both Vickie and Dolph are beside themselves. Lets be honest, Vickie is the key to Dolph’s success when it comes to title matches. She’s handed him a world title before and with her banned at the Rumble, our favorite heel’s back is against the wall. No doubt Vickie and friends will try and fight the call, but we can only sit on pins and needles and wait to see what happens. The match itself was amazing, and the next few weeks are going to be quite significant for Vickie and her men.

Up next, we have yet more Divas, and this time it’s my favorites! Brie and Nikki Bella, of course.

They are arguing backstage, as per usual these days, and Brie name drops Stacy Keibler. Before their argument can get any further, Ricardo Rodriguez walks into the scene and demands to know why the twins summoned him all the way to Raw while he was back home in Mexico. Brie tells Alberto’s faithful servant that they want him to personally deliver a message to his employer. Ricardo wants to know why they’ve never heard of cellphones, but Nikki cuts him off. Right as she’s about to give the message, The Miz shows up. He’s still trying to get people on his side in his feud with Troof, and this time he tries a different approach. He basically forgets about the STAR campaign and bullies Ricardo into doing his dirty work for him. He demands that the chambermaid head to the ring and offend R-Truth so bad that he comes out to the ring, presumably so Miz can ambush him. He threatens poor Ricardo with bodily harm and Ricardo, bless him, tries to get the girls to accompany him to the ring. They not-so-politely turn down the invitation, and walk off, leaving Ricardo with no other choice than to do the Miz’s dastardly deed. Oh dear.

Another home-run for Raw. Not only did this segment give me Bella Twins in fierce dresses, but it lets me know that the WWE hasn’t forgotten about their crush on Alberto Del Rio. This is the perfect example of storyline continuation despite the main player being injured. I love this Raw so much. Seriously, what else can happen?

I’ll tell you what… a Divas match can finally happen! It was teased earlier in the night, and now it’s time. Beth versus Eve.

Eve’s theme music starts to play and she makes her way to the ring. She actually gets a pretty good reaction from the crowd this week, and that’s nice to see. She plays it up, gets in the ring, and now we get to see Beth, who’s not been on Raw since being injured by Alicia.

Uhhh wait a second, that’s not Beth’s music!

Kane’s music starts to play and immediately Eve starts to panic. She looks around frantically trying to find the Big Red Machine, but to no avail. She gets out of the ring, crying from fear I assume, and Zack rushes to the ring. He grabs Eve’s hand and takes off running, not wanting any harm to come to his lady love. It’s so cute, yet so cheesy, and he takes her to the parking lot. They rush towards what can only be assumed is Zack’s waiting rental car, but of course, OF COURSE, it has a flat tire. Eve is freaking out and like any good, and when I say good I really mean bad, horror movie, Zack has a solution. He reaches in the back of the SUV, grabs a spare tire that just happens to be there, as well as one of those things you use to get the lugnuts off a tire. Eve is telling him to hurry, Zack make sure she locks the door, and he goes to work trying to yank the tire off.

Dun… duuuuuuuuuuuun… duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!!!!

Cue graphic for John Cena versus Dolph Ziggler which is up next! We’re just going to keep going with it. I refuse to believe I’m going to be left with such a daunting cliffhanger.

Raw returns with Eve screaming at Zack to hurry. He’s still struggling with the tire, except he’s trying to get the spare on now, and Eve is growing more and more frightened by the minute. Dolph has made his way into the ring, back inside the arena, and he looks like he’s ready to go! Vickie is staring at her man with stars in her eyes, and I don’t blame her. Dolph is one hell of a man. Oh my.

Anyway, ahem.

Cena makes his way to the ring, and he has a thunderous ovation. He’s ready to rise above the hate tonight, I reckon, and get a victory over The Show-Off. The match gets underway after Cena proves that his skill set is not limited to running the ropes during his entrance. Dolph breaks a potential lock-up with a show of arrogance, and Cena just looks amused. The men lock up again and this is where I tune out and just picture my own wrestling match versus Dolph Ziggler.

Dolph is perfect. Grass is mostly green. Water is wet. The sun is hot. He keeps Cena grounded with a headlock and decides to see if he can do a headstand while keeping his grip on Cena. He succeeds. After dropping a series of elbows on Cena, Dolph decides to show us all the proper way to do crunches. The man does have nice abs. Vickie is swooning on the outside. Cena moves when Dolph goes for another elbow, and this gives the 23498203498-time champ time to get in the five moves of doom. He starts doing his thing and right when he goes in for the kill, or whatever it is that Cena does, he is distracted by the titan tron. Zack Ryder is still outside, unable to get that tire on completely. Cena stops to watch. Cena asks the referee what is going on, and suddenly we hear Eve’s shrieks of horror.

Kane has come up and starts beating the tar of out Cena’s bestie. He’s pretty much killing Zack in front of Eve, and Dolph uses what’s going on and Cena’s worry to his advantage. He locks in the sleeper hold and starts to bring Superman down to his knees. I swear I know how this is going to happen. SuperCena is somehow going to overcome this and save Zack. I can’t even handle this right now.

Okay, well, he may not save Zack since the champ just got choke slammed off the loading dock. For the love of God, can we make sure Eve is okay?

Meanwhile, Cena has indeed gotten rid of Dolph, and he’s looking at the titantron with tears in his eyes. Cena wants to go save the day (despite that fact it’s too little, too late for Zack), and he leaves. Dolph catches him and tries the sleeper hold again. He just ends up slammed into the steel ring steps. Cena takes off running to the back and the referee begins to count. Vickie begins to scream at Dolph to get in the ring, but he’s wounded and moving a little slow. Cena storms the back where Kane is waiting and they fight while the camera gets a creepy look at Zack Ryder’s unconscious body. Cena ends up getting choke out. Ryder is like I said basically dead for now. Eve is probably still in the car, with the doors locked, screaming. And my only question is, did Vickie urge Dolph into the ring so he could get another win?

Oh Raw… 2012 is being so good to you so far!

As hilariously awful as the Eve/Zack flat tire fiasco was, I absolutely love her being involved in this. If this wasn’t the greatest episode of Raw ever, then I don’t know what is. It’s going to be hard to top this, but man. I’m really excited for next Monday and I definitely won’t be missing it!

Until next week, Cryssi out!

Greetings everyone and welcome to your official TNA Genesis recap extravaganza! Impact Wrestling rang in the new year with a pay per view last night and what a show it was. Knockouts-wise, we saw Gail Kim defend her Knockouts Championship against challenger, Mickie James, in a match that was sure to be top notch from the get go. Velvet Sky, however, did not let this go down like their previous showings which saw Madison Rayne hijack Mickie’s hopes and dreams of becoming a nine time champ. Just what did she have up her sleeve? Why scroll on down and have a gander before I sic some bitches and skanks on you.

We head backstage to see Jeremy Borash awaiting Sting’s arrival… until he is stopped by our very own Velvet Sky! She tells JB that she knows Sting is due here and she’s been looking for him all day. Velvet mentions that she would like to be the new Knockouts VP since she displays loyalty as a VP should as she’s been here, consistently, for five years now and never went away. Sting can’t seem to get a word in before Velvet turns the attention to Madison Rayne, and says that she sticks her dirty paws in all of the matches. Velvet claims that Mickie James needs to have a fair chance in tonight’s match, and that won’t happen with Madison Rayne standing behind Gail, therefore she’s come up with a brilliant plan to keep Madison away. Velvet then whispers it into Sting’s ear, but Sting says the crew could never pull it off in this short amount of time. Velvet understands and says that all she needed was his approval because she had it built earlier in the day. She then dubs it the “Velvet Touch”, as Sting agrees to support it and Velvet heads off!

Up first, we see a great video package highlighting the feud between Mickie and Gail, in which Gail calls herself “The Chosen One” and Mickie claims Gail has politicked her way through the division since she got here. Following a tale of the tape which basically summarizes points in their feud, we finally shoot to the arena and focus on a cage that I personally think Diva Dirt’s own Cryssi constructed, considering that it is covered with pink and white bars!

HAAAARRDDDDCURRRRR COUNNNTREHHHH then blasts over the sound system as the plaid lass, Mickie James, two steps her way on down to the ring and poses for the loud crowd. Following her entrance, the (still addicting) theme of Gail Kim hits, as she and Madison make their way out with all of their titles in hand.

They step around the ring as Gail poses on the apron with the belts. The referee tries to inform Madison that she must enter Velvet’s Touch, but she refuses! She demands the bell be rang, but then out comes the possible new Knockouts VP, Velvet Sky! Velvet basically backs Madison up near the cage, and once the referee opens it, she shoves Rayne inside. The referee locks the door as the cage begins to rise! Poor Madison shrieks for her life, as Velvet relishes in her torment. Finally, the bell sounds, as Gail and Mickie take control of the action. Gail shoves James back into the corner and applies her boot to the throat for a choke. She then runs forward with a nice clothesline, following it up with a sharp running knee to the back.

Kim taunts the fans a little as she goes for a clothesline that Mickie ducks. James with the bridging roll up for a close call, as she then slides under a kick attempt and snapmares Gail over. Running dropkick to the face gets the challenger a two count as Madison screams in fear. Mickie is sent into the corner, but elbows Gail in the face. She goes for the Mick-A-Rana, but Gail hoists her over the ropes and then drags her through them to slam her face down hard for a two count. The crowd begins to chant about 75% Mickie, 25% Gail, as Kim goes for her elastic type corner move, but Mickie gets out of dodge. Gail then snaps Mickie’s jaw off the ropes and begins to knee her in the stomach!

Gail sends Mickie flying and hits her elastic move after all. A few kicks to the back, as Gail flies towards the corner and catches herself on the second rope. She goes for a crossbody, but Mickie dropkicks her in the abdomen! Mickie then goes for another slide under the leg, but Gail drops her knee down. Velvet then starts to scream for Madison to shut up, as Mickie connects with a nice arm drag and begins to mount a come back with a pair of clotheslines. The crowd goes wild, as she connects with the flapjack into a kip up! Gail with a knee to the face, as she then runs forward into the Octopus Stretch. Mickie ends up dropping her into an awesome slam. Hook of the leg for a two count! Mickie goes for the Mickie-DT, but Gail shoves her back into the ropes. Gail charges, but Mickie moves and Gail is sent flying to the outside. Velvet Sky walks up to her, but Gail pushes her away and trips Mickie up.

Mickie kicks Gail in the face and connects with a nice Mick-A-Rana off the ring apron. James throws Kim back inside and goes to the top rope… can she? YES! Thesz Press into the split pin for a two count. James then goes for the arm trap neckbreaker, but Gail counters into a hair pull backbreaker (shades of my Knockout queen, Winter) and Madison drops a pair of brass knucks into the ring! The referee spots them before Gail unfortunately, and removes them from the equation. Madison then takes advantage to toss Gail another pair, but as she goes to hit Mickie, James kicks her in the stomach and DRILLS her in the face for the disqualification. The referee calls the bell, as Gail retains her title and a “bullshit” chant erupts. Gail and Madison relish in their victory, as Velvet and Mickie plan for another day.

Thoughts: I’m pretty torn on this ending. In one sense, I liked it because I didn’t see it coming. To be honest, I thought for sure when Mickie was outside, Velvet was going to screw her over and turn heel because Mickie basically invaded Velvet’s push without her even getting her rematch. I like when wrestling is unpredictable, so in that way, I kind of liked being surprised. On the other hand, I don’t think Mickie and Gail have had enough stuff happen in their feud for Mickie to say “screw it” and just beat her down with the brass knuckles. I could see Traci doing that and it would make sense, but the feud hasn’t really been about Mickie per say. For instance, the segment on Impact focused on Traci, and Traci shows that fire and aggression in the ring when she faces off with Gail. I could have easily seen Traci run down the ramp when the second pair of knucks came out and SHE wuould whack Gail causing the DQ, which would’ve been perfect in my opinion because it would’ve made more sense and Mickie/Traci could have some tension which could’ve developed into a triple threat to mix things up.

Actually, I don’t understand why Traci wasn’t given the role Velvet had tonight anyways considering she’s been lobbying to be VP since the storyline began, and Velvet hasn’t even been on TV in a month, but I really like Velvet so it was good to see her back. The match was solid though, and I’d rank it second or third of their past showings because I enjoyed the main event on Impact last week a little bit more, but it’s pretty close to their Final Resolution bout for me. I think there were too many distractions, but I loved that Gail retained because I want the title to have lengthy reigns. It seems like she is the person who they’ve put their stock into, so I’m glad that the hot potato games have stopped. I don’t know where they go from here, whether or not Mickie will continue to face Gail, or maybe Velvet will step up to the plate? Anything really can happen, but for now I’m just going to sit back and wait to see.

Match Rating: 3/5

After a small disagreement between generational Divas, Natalya and Tamina ended in fisticuffs on last week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown, both Divas had something to prove as they face each other in singles action this week. But first, two of my favorite Divas, AJ and Alicia Fox were featured in a backstage segment with the WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Daniel Bryan. Check it out below:

First of all, it’s always good to see the Divas get some screen time with the Superstars. It’s damn near impossible for them to get any time in the ring, but I digress… I’m really interested to see where this relationship between AJ and Daniel is going. It seems that Daniel has been getting douchier and douchier since capturing the World Heavyweight Championship, which makes me wonder if AJ will be the angel on his shoulder, trying to keep him from straying off of the path of righteousness or if she will tap into her heel past in FCW and join Daniel on the dark side, becoming SmackDown’s newest power couple. Only time will tell, but this would explain why we never got that Kaitlyn heel turn… Just sayin’

Now that we’re done with the appetizer, let’s move right on along to the main course! Watch below as Tamina and Natalya face off in the clash of the generational Divas!:

We kick things off with Natalya already in the ring, looking pretty pissed off, and to be honest, can you blame her? I’m convinced that Tamina tried to take off her head with that superkick last week. Before Tamina comes out to the ring, we are treated to a video package focusing on Nattie’s father, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart.

Tamina is out next and we get another video package, this time on Tamina’s dad, Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka. So I’m guessing this feud is based on their families? A little forced if you ask me, but it’s better than nothing, I guess.

The bell sounds and Natalya goes after Tamina without hesitation, taking the Samoan warrior princess off of her feet with a double leg takedown, followed by a flurry of forearms to the head. Natalya berates Tamina about messing with her family, before pummeling her again with vicious strikes to the head.

Natalya looks to finish off Tamina with the Sharpshooter, but Tamina fights her off and gets back to a vertical base. Nattie tries to get the upperhand with a clothesline, but Tamina ducks it and goes for a crossbody. Unfortunately for Tamina, Natalya had the same thing in mind and the Divas collide in mid-air and crashed down to the mat.

Both Divas struggle to get back to their feet, but Tamina makes it there first and flattens Nattie with a Samoan drop followed by her Dad’s finisher, the Superfly Splash, to pick up the upset victory.

Not a bad match, but is anyone else confused about who is the face and who is the heel in this rivalry? I know I sure am. Although I feel like using Natalya and Tamina’s lineage as reason for a feud is a bit of a stretch, it’s nice to see some kind of effort made on a Diva storyline. I’m not exactly sure where else things could go from here, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Hopefully, this isn’t just a one shot deal, because Tamina has a lot of untapped potential and getting to work a program with one of the best female wrestlers in North America could be just the thing she needs.

All in all, not a bad night for the Divas, but not a particularly good one either. Hopefully we get some more development in this Nattie/Tamina feud and AJ’s relationship with Daniel Bryan on next week’s edition of SmackDown. Until then, I leave you with a lesson in the Spanish language by the one and only, Rosa Mendes!

Leave your thoughts, theories and rants on SmackDown in the comments…

Greetings everyone, and welcome to the recap of your Thursday night delight… Impact Wrestling’s Knockouts division. Surely you’ve all heard the phrase “expect the unexpected” before, and tonight, Impact surely gave us some rather unexpected segments, but is that always a bad thing? Match wise, the Knockouts Tag Team Titles were up for grabs as Gail Kim and Madison Rayne defended against Traci Brooks and the top contender for Gail’s Knockouts Title, Mickie James! We also had some segments featuring the four ladies above, and even one ODB… BAMMMMMMM. Let’s get started before we all lose control at the mere thought of an ODB segment.

Right before their tag team bout, we see footage shot earlier today by Gail Kim of Madison Rayne posing in her itsy bitsy teenie weenie blue decorated bikini. She beckons Gail’s approval. (Shades of our missed forgotten middle child act with Miss Karen.) Suddenly, they spot Traci Brooks lounging in the pool behind them as the two walk over and taunt her. Madison climbs into the water and starts flinging it at Traci whilst teasing her, which sparks Traci to try and get her to stop. Suddenly, she pounces on Rayne like a cheetah to its prey! Gail then hurriedly drops the camera and leaps inside the pool! She begins to dunk Traci underwater as Madison screams for her to breathe and for Gail to drown her! Mickie then leaps inside like the Tarzan to Traci’s Jane as the Tag Team Champions scurry away. Note to TNA management: Do not book your feuding Knockouts at the same hotel. You almost had a lawsuit on your hands courtesy of Traci!

We then head to the ring where the Tag Team Titles are up for grabs! Harrrrdcorrree Country and Traci Brooks make their way out first as Traci seems all business tonight due to what happened earlier. Mickie slides into the ring as the two then proceed to pose for the crowd until the still-addicting theme of Gail Kim hits and the Tag Team Champions make their way out in matching red gear. They taunt the crowd with all of their title glory, but Traci and Mickie have had enough as they attack before the bell! Traci and Gail fight on the outside, as Mickie spears Madison inside the ring. All hell has broken loose, with Traci countering an Irish whip attempt by Gail and instead, sending Gail flying into the steel steps!

Meanwhile, back in the ring, Mickie drops Madison with an arm trap neckbreaker to send the Queen Bee outside the ring. Traci rolls Gail back inside, as the challengers exchange hits, slaps, and kicks to the Knockouts Champ. Mickie proceeds to boot Madison in the stomach and send her flying into Gail as both Champions seem to be down and out… and we head to commercial break. Once back, Mickie can be seen in full control with some brutal kicks to the midsection. She follows it up with a Monkey Flip, but Madison then takes advantage until Mickie slides under a boot and snapmares Rayne. She goes to fly off the ring ropes, but Gail kicks her in the back!

Traci then runs outside the ring after Gail as Madison locks in a nice cravate. The crowd gets behind Mickie as she tries to escape, but Rayne with some knees to the face. She goes for a kick but Mickie forces her into a split and connects with a baseball slide dropkick! Gail breaks up a two count, as Traci then spears Gail inside the ring. Mickie with the bridging roll up for a near fall, but Madison then capitalizes with a clothesline for another two count. Rayne locks in a sleeper hold on the fan favorite, and the crowd attempts to do all they can to help Mickie out. This proves no use though, as Madison slams her down by the hair.

James with a quick roll up for a two count, but Madison then takes control once more with some shots to the face. Mickie crawls into the corner and Rayne chokes her with her boot, before running forward with a hip splash into a facebuster! Traci tries desperately to get the tag, as Rayne goes for the facebuster again, but Mickie throws her off. Tag into Gail Kim who destroys all hopes of a tag. She goes for a powerslam, but Mickie escapes and tags in Traci! Traci goes wild on the Knockouts Champ with some running clotheslines and a jawbreaker! She follows it up with a running set of knees to the back, before countering a neckbreaker attempt into a sick clothesline. Madison breaks up a near fall, which brings Mickie to leap off the top rope with a Lou Thesz Press. Gail then takes control with the Eat Defeat for the victory, as Madison restrains Mickie from entering to make the save. The champions retain in this hard fought bout!

In a quest to hunt down ODB, Creepo Beard accidentally bursts himself into the Knockouts dressing room and finds Madison Rayne and Gail Kim in their gears. They begin to scream, or in Madison’s case, shriek, for him to get out, but he fails to do as instructed. He then tries to lock up with Gail (I still don’t understand why he does this every week, if someone can explain in the comments?) but she shoves him away as Madison leaps onto his back to try to take him down. He then proceeds to take Rayne off of him and stuff her in a locker! Gail eventually rushes him away and lets Madison out. The two then ask each other what the hell is wrong with him.

Later on, he finally finds ODB with photographer, Lee South. She’s decided to turn the tables on him and take some modeling snapshots! Creepo Beard again tries to lock up with him, until ODB gives him the camera back and he heads out. He then questions why ODB’s gear isn’t on because they are here to win the belts. (I’m guessing he spaced out when they lost last week.) ODB explains to him that much like March Madness, they are one and done. He attempts to lock up with her as I’m starting to question if he has some creepy lock up fetish or not, which brings ODB to toss him onto the photoshoot paper and proceed to make out on top of it!

Thoughts: A fun night for the Knockouts in my opinion. I thought the segment by the hotel pool was extremely unique and fun to give this match a little more meaning than just being thrown together. You could tell Traci wanted retribution throughout, so it was good to see that segment build up to the match. I also thought Madison shrieking “BREATHE TRACI!” was hilarious!

Onto the match itself, I enjoyed it a lot. I love that Traci brings this fire and aggression every week, and I thought they all performed great together. Mickie and Traci blended well together as a team and I loved that they took advantage before the bell rang. Not only did it show they wanted revenge on the champions, but they also were smart to know that this is a title match and you have to do whatever you can to get the upper hand against two crafty people like Madison and Gail. I hope to really see more of these four together, although I would like to see the new forgotten middle children — Velvet, Winter, and Angelina — back on TV where they belong. I feel like it’s been years since any of them appeared!

Fans will be able to watch “No Man’s Land: Sjodin vs Alpha” exclusively on Diva Dirt on Saturday, February 18th at 7pm GMT (2pm ET). The Internet pay per view will mark the first pro wrestling iPPV emanating from Europe.

Speaking on the big announcement, Diva Dirt’s Editor in Chief, Melanie Rob said: “We are honored to be working with Pro-Wrestling: EVE to present this historic event. Diva Dirt has always broken barriers and set the bar high, so presenting a full Internet pay per view seems just up our street! We can’t wait to see what Pro-Wrestling: EVE brings to the table on February 18th.”

Fans can pre-order “No Man’s Land: Sjodin vs Alpha” from tomorrow, Saturday, January 7th, for just £9.95 (approx. $15). More details on ordering information to come.

Full press release below:

In a week filled with the controversy over a comedienne’s comments and the heartbreak of a former wrestler’s quest to lose weight, let me take you on a ride to sheer peace for the next few minutes with the delight that is this week’s episode of NXT. You see, not only did we have a match between Kaitlyn and Maxine, and NOT ONLY did we get one of the greatest backstage segments I’ve ever witnessed, but — hear me out — we also get to once again plan for an NXT wedding! Maxine tries her luck once more in two weeks on the 100th episode of the show which emanates from sin city: Las Vegas! Although, I do stand behind BateMax, it seems that Curtsine is the way of the future, so let’s delve right into this week’s show!

We first spot a brief video recap of the BateMaxTis (trademark to my good friend, Shirlz) shenanigans from last week which saw Maxine dump Derrick for that whippersnapper, Dirty Curty. Following the masterpiece, Derrick can be seen chatting up resident bounty hunter, Kaitlyn! He talks about how everyone keps telling him how crazy Maxine was but that he kind of liked it until it got to be too much. Kaitlyn tries to pump him up, as the two agree he will no longer write in his dream journal. After she dubs him Derrick “Sweet Meat” Bateman and they share a baseball reference, Maxine and Dirty Curty pop up like a pimple on prom night!

Maxine accuses Derrick of doing the deed with Aksana as Dirty Curty and his sweat pants seem to be executing some funky dance moves behind his lady. Derrick tries to tell Maxine he doesn’t understand where this rumor came from, but this only fires her up. Dirty Curty tries to calm everyone down, but Maxine shrieks at him to SHUT… UP! He attempts to proclaim they are all friends here, but Derrick corrects him that they are not. Kaitlyn then chimes in and calls Maxine a hussy! Maxine retaliates by questioning if anything Kaitlyn says is interesting because no one cares! Kaitlyn then makes a sound to try and drown Maxine out, but Maxine fights it with the greatest come back I’ve ever heard… “What? Are you giving birth?!” Genius.

As I try to regroup myself after 20,000 replays of Maxine asking if Kaitlyn’s giving birth, Derrick interrupts the two by informing Dirty Curty that he’s going to enjoy watching their relationship go down in flames. He tells Maxine that when she comes crawling back, he’s not going to be there, to which she says that will never happen. She says that she knows what Derrick did, and that after crossing her, he’s going to regret it. She lays a big ol’ kiss on Dirty Curty right in front of Derrick and Kaitlyn, before walking off and leaving the three together. Derrick then decides to follow suit and head out, as Dirty Curty tries to make a move on innocent Kaitlyn. She informs him that she’s not getting in his van (once again, genius comeback) before heading out and leaving Dirty Curty all alone to grovel in his cloud of dust like Pig-Pen of Charlie Brown fame.

We’re told that if we want it, come and get it, and I do want more NXT so let us continue on with a match pitting Kaitlyn against Maxine. The arena turns the greatest color in the world, bright green, as out walks the star of the season, Maxine herself! I take great joy in hearing the voice of William Regal grace our computer screens once again, as the red headed greatness climbs into the ring and poses for the camera. The green then turns to pink, as out pops the benevolent, Kaitlyn, to grace us with her baseball themed presence. She skips down the ramp and slides into the ring, as Maxine gives her a pretty devilish look. The bell then sounds and we get underway!

They lock up and circle around the ring until Kaitlyn shoves Maxine back and breaks the hold. Another lock up as Maxine takes advantage this time and slams Kaitlyn’s head into the turnbuckle. Kaitlyn reverses Maxine’s hair pull attempt into an arm lock that she then uses to hoist Maxine in the air and drop her in the corner! She tries to Irish whip the lady in black, but Maxine counters with a knee to the mid-section. She then goes for an Irish whi herself, but this time it is Kaitlyn who counters and lifts Maxine up with a bodyslam. She follows it up with a leg drop for a few two counts, before striking with a great European uppercut. Kaitlyn looks to go for a power slam but Maxine smartly counters into a beautiful reverse dragon sleeper! Kaitlyn tries her hardest to fight out, but ultimately falls to the hold and submits. Maxine then proceeds to make her way up the ramp as the referee tries to help Kaitlyn regain her composure.

As Derrick Bateman competes in the main event against Darren Young, he is suddenly interrupted by the voice of an angel, as Maxine screams out his name from the stage. She and Dirty Curty walk out hand in hand, as she questions if this is a distraction for him during his match? Following that, Maxine informs the world that in two weeks for NXT’s 100th episode, Maxine and Dirty Curty are having a LAS VEGAS WEDDING! The world celebrates at this magnificent news, which ultimately provides distraction for Derrick as Dirty Curty chimes in that they’re in “looooooveee”. Derrick tries to exit the ring, but Darren Young capitalizes with the finishing move that Jinder Mahal used in FCW (sorry, but that will forever be how I remember it!) to pick up the victory. Bateman then stares at the two, who proceed to make out on the stage to close the show.

Thoughts: I feel like a choir should stand around me just repeatedly singing “Hallelujah” over and over. This show seriously has to be written for me. I firmly believe that WWE creative stalk my Twitter page in order to find ideas of what to do next because this season has been everything I’ve wanted in wrestling and more. The backstage segment rivals Agnes Bateman and Portia Perez in hilarity, especially with Dirty Curty’s random dancing, Kaitlyn’s “sweet meat” and “hussy” comments, and Maxine asking if the sound Kaitlyn was making was her giving birth. I legitimately don’t have enough good things to say about this because I’ve already re-watched it so much my computer might be facing a possible meltdown.

The match, unfortunately, was insanely short, which is a shame because these two have proven in their earlier showing a few months ago that they can have a solid bout given the time. I loved the fact that Maxine finally won though, because I can only recall two matches against AJ since her return that she emerged victorious. Her dragon sleeper finisher was killer, and I love how unique she is from all of the other Divas. From her ring gear, to her moveset, to her mannerisms, she stands out possibly more than almost anyone else on the roster. Kaitlyn was also solid, albeit, like I said, the time didn’t really give them a lot to do together. Much like Maxine, I think Kaitlyn stands out a lot too in the sense that she uses a lot of power moves instead of the usual one legged dropkick of doom, haha. Overall, I do wish it got more time obviously, but I’m fortunate for anything that gives these two screen time.

The wedding of Dirty Curty and Maxine will be an event that I look forward to covering. We never got to see Maxine’s big day with Derrick, as the duo ultimately split before their rings were exchanged, and it would be a travesty to not get an NXT Wedding. The 100th episode will surely deliver in every way possible, and I can’t wait to see just who attends this ceremony. Could Aksana be Maxine’s flower girl? Could Tyson Kidd be the best man? Could a random return of Naomi as the maid of honor happen?! So many questions… but like all of you, I must wait another two weeks to find the answers.

Greetings potentially new audience who has no idea that I ever existed at Diva Dirt, it is I, Bobby, here to take over Khaleesi Cryssi’s Redux this week. Thankfully, it was a week where the Divas segments of Raw weren’t too shabby and I was able to watch with a smile on my face as Brie and Nikki Bella took on the team of Kelly Kelly and Eve. If you’re curious as to the reason I was smiling, why it’s because everyone got — brace yourselves — an actual ENTRANCE! Yes, clearly a gift from the heavens above for the New Year, but don’t get too comfortable just yet as we all know it won’t last.

In other news, we had some brilliant backstage segments with the Bellas, Eve, and Vickie Guerrero, who also managed the Khal to Cryssi’s Khaleesi (Game of Thrones reference score for me), Dolph Ziggler in a WWE Championship match!

Now without any further ado, let’s kick off the first Raw Redux of 2012 with things that make Cryssi happy: Bella Twins and Khaleesi approved ring gear!

As we become informed that we can look, but can’t touch, out pops Brie and Nikki B (sorry, I have that Super Bass video stuck in my head right now) looking killer in their black catsuits. The duo shake and shimmy down the entrance ramp which nearly gives Jerry Lawler palpitations. They then flip inside the ring and taunt the fans, as suddenly it’s time to “holla, holla, holla”, and the crowd does just that as out comes Eve and Kelly Kelly. The two looks top notch in some awesome new orange/gold type gear. (I’m not the best with clothes, but per contract negotiations with Cryssi, I must acknowledge this.) They walk down the ramp and into the ring, as the fans continue to go wild for the two. From there, the bell sounds and we get underway!

Brie and Kelly start things off, as our Bella applies a waist lock to Kelly and smacks her off. This does nothing but anger the feisty K2, who in turn, smacks Brie across the face and on the booty! Kelly shoves Brie into the corner and proceeds to slam her head off the turnbuckle padding until she falls coincidentally in place for a good ol’ fashioned ‘raise the roof’ stink face! Kelly then signals for her trademark bulldog, but this Bella Twin has been hit with it so much that she has prepared herself! Brie proceed to lean back and shoves Kelly down by the blond locks. She drags the former Divas Champion to her corner and makes the tag in to Nikki, as the twins proceed to hit a fancy double team maneuver to Kelly. Nikki makes the cover, but only garners a two count.

Nikki shows off the personality that I know and love by screaming out, “Huh, you like that little girl?!” She applies a submission hold, albeit brief, as Kelly manages to counter it into a nice jawbreaker. K2 tries to slide over for the tag, as Nikki goes for a clothesline to stop her. Kelly, like Brie’s earlier bulldog counter, has studied her opponents well and ducks the clothesline to get the tag in to Eve Torres! Eve runs in with a clothesline of her own, followed up with one of the, what I believe are, best dropkicks in wrestling. She then kicks Nikki in the face and runs off the ropes with a sit down clothesline. With Nikki down, Eve pumps up the booty and pops for the crowd in attendance. I begin to fear whats to come because Nikki is not in the right place for a moonsault, but thankfully, the savior that is Brie Bella distracts Eve and prevents possible injury!

Eve sets her sight on Brie, as she charges forward and dropkicks her off the ring apron. This allows Nikki to regain composure and attack Eve from behind. She sends Torres into the corner, but Eve hits a beautiful kick off the ropes and starts to climb. We all know what’s coming… Can it be? YES! The Torresault connects. One.. two… thr… wait a second! Brie Bella just charges on in and breaks up what would have been a mirror end to most all of their other tag bouts together. Props to you Brie for this rapid improvement on stopping Kelly and Eve’s signature moves! Kelly Kelly runs in and gives me memories of her brilliant segment on NXT Season 3 (come on, you know I had to sneak in an NXT mention somewhere) as she screams out, “Are you freaking kidding me right now?!” Ultimately, this gives the Bellas enough time to pull out Twin Magic, as Brie rolls up Eve for the shocking victory! The twins celebrate their momentous win, as Kelly and Eve plot their next move of revenge!~

Now let me take you on a ride back in time to before the match we just recapped had yet to happen. Brie and Nikki Bella are seen sporting their ring gear backstage with The Miz, as they argue about whether or not the recent issues between Miz and R-Truth are the fault of well, Miz or R-Truth. The Miz interrupts them and asks if they’ve seen Truth, to which they proclaim they haven’t. Brie then adds that they did see Little Jimmy though (I laughed), which brings chuckles from the devious duo. This fool then tells the Bellas he’s glad Alberto Del Rio got hurt, which makes their jaws drop as he makes his way over to find R-Truth.

Again, this segment is back in time before the match took place, but after the Bellas segment with Miz did. Eve Torres is seen speaking to her recent fling, Zack Ryder, as he informs her that he watched their victory last week on loop. Eve admits that’s rather sweet, although kind of weird. Suddenly, Jack Swagger interrupts the two fan favorites, as Zack asks him how it’s going. Jack tells him there’s an impostor walking around with the U.S. Title, which ultimately fools Ryder into thinking someone swiped his belt (despite it being on his waist right that second). Our philanthropist, Eve, informs Zack of what he actually means, as Swagger calls him a dork. Ryder claims that just because both he and Swagger’s names end in “E-R” doesn’t mean that he isn’t going to send him to the ER!~

As Eve and Zack briefly fist bump each other, Jack says he will take Zack’s title and his girlfriend. (Just because I stand up for all that is right, I must inform you that Eve and Zack are not quite there yet.) Suddenly, the garbage that I refuse to name anything but Laryngitis walks into the scene and informs us of his unfortunate job title. He decides to book a six man elimination tag. This greatly excites me as I begin to think some midcard talents will be used! The GM then names the teams as Swagger, Mark Henry and Kane against Ryder, Big Show and John Cena. Welp, there went my joyous hope.

After a brief recap of last week’s monumental occurrence where Dolph Ziggler pinned WWE Champion, C.M. Punk, we are taken backstage to Josh Mathews as he stands by with the challenger in tonight’s title bout, Dolph himself! As I sense Cryssi’s Ziggler senses going off at the mere thought of his name being typed, the camera pans out to reveal Dolph (brilliantly) doing a headstand! He flips over as Vickie Guerrero enters the mix and Josh asks him if there’s any way he can become the new WWE Champion after the controversial finish last week. Dolph says that last week he pinned the WWE Champion just as easily as doing the headstand we witnessed. He adds that he believes if you got it, flaunt it, and nobody flaunts it better than he does every single night. (Insert Khaleesi Cryssi approval here.)

Dolph begins to explain how our country is in debt, and our kids are out of shape. He adds that they can’t read and test scores are brought down below Japan by states like Tennessee! He dubs himself a walking surplus of talent, athleticism, charisma…you name it he’s got it! Dolph continues on that everything he’s ever wanted, he’s got… except the WWE Championship. He tells everyone to hang on to their ticket stubs because they are going to want to know where they were the moment Dolph Ziggler became the new WWE Champion. With that, he and Vickie head out to the ring as Josh Mathews is left with a history lesson courtesy of Professor Ziggler!~

And, since Vickie Guerrero is present throughout, be sure to watch Dolph’s Championship bout against C.M. Punk below:

Thoughts: What a way to ring in the new year! I thought the match was better than usual for Raw standards, although I must admit I’m still in shock that everyone got an entrance. Somewhere, you know that backstage Eve, Kelly, and the Bellas were thanking all that is right in the world they went on before Chris Jericho hammed it up for 10 minutes. I loved that it was different than all their other tags though, like I felt like all of the Bellas vs. Kelly and Eve bouts have been the same formula with the Bellas doing submissions until Eve and Kelly fight back with their signature moves, so it was very refreshing to see something different. I don’t really mind what some may nitpick about the ending, it still worked and that’s good enough for me. Overall, I enjoyed the tag bout and thought all four ladies did stellar together.

The backstage segments were pretty fun as well. The Bella Twins shine on the microphone to me, and putting them in segments to continue their Alberto Del Rio stuff is what I want. I thought they looked great beside him and Ricardo last week, so as long as its occasionally brought up while Del Rio is out with injury, I’m fine with it because that way fans don’t forget about it. Eve also seems to shine in her segments with Zack Ryder. I loved the WWE.com one, and thought this was great as well. They seem to mesh off one another easily and she really seems to be coming into her own with both ring work and personality as of late. Kudos to Eve indeed! The Vickie/Dolph segment was beyond words brilliant. I like that Dolph shows off in both actions and words, because hell if I knew all that information he was spouting out. He taught me more than school ever did! Anyways, to sum this up, I thought the diva related portions of Raw were great for raw standards. I hope to see this trend continue (and please, give us entrances more often) .

The 38-year-old mother of three was one of the most prominently featured female wrestlers during TNA’s early Nashville days. Prior to that, Kim was under a WWE developmental deal but released in 2002 before ever getting called up to television. Going to TNA thereafter, in an era before the word “Knockout” existed, Kim was part of some of TNA’s early boundary-pushing women’s matches including the first ever stretcher match against Trinity.

Breaking her back during a match, Kim soon left TNA and the spotlight all together, and has only just resurfaced over 100lbs overweight.

Below, Kim explains the reason behind her weight gain, why she decided to join The Biggest Loser, her tough journey over the past seven years, breaking her back in TNA, her thoughts on the Knockouts division and more.

What has life been like since your days in the business?
My career kind of ended with breaking my back in the ring. I went back [to TNA] after that, about 10 months later, and that was about it. Things just really weren’t the same for me. I was kind of afraid of being in the ring and trusting people with my body, so that was kind of career-ending for me. I got pregnant soon after that with my third child and have just kind of been home taking care of my kids.

Can you tell us how your back injury happened?
It was during a dark match before the show had started when I was with TNA. She [her opponent] had put me up into a fisherman suplex and she bumped on the very edge of the ring and when I came down, my back… I just heard it crack. I heard it snap. I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t really know what to do. I was just in so much pain. I don’t think she knew that I was hurt, but she said: “Get up, finish the match.” The only thing that really made sense at that moment would be for her to cover me, but I don’t like to lose. I actually got up and I finished the match. She threw me across the ring, I hit the ropes, and I picked her up and slammed her into a Rock Bottom and covered her. I rolled out of the ring and walked to the back, and that’s where I just fell apart. They called the ambulance, [I] got to a hospital, and my back was actually broken.

We haven’t seen you in the spotlight since then. Why did you decide to do The Biggest Loser?
First of all, when I had gotten pregnant with my third child, I think a lot of people can probably relate — I had been on TV every week, I had been at the gym every single day, and I thought: “Well, I’m pregnant. This is my third child. I’ll just go ahead and let myself eat, be pregnant and be happy.” I gave myself leeway to just do whatever I wanted and not really work out, and eat whatever I wanted to. What happened was, I ended up gaining 80lbs being pregnant with my daughter. I had two kids before that and with them, I had gotten right back to the gym, I had worked out [but] with my third child, not really having wrestling to go back to, which is what I love and what really motivated me to stay in shape, I didn’t have that anymore. I didn’t have that passion anymore to go back to. So I find myself not really knowing what I was going to do and just ended up not losing that [baby] weight at all. As a matter of fact, I ended up gaining even more weight than that.

It was Sonny [Siaki] — I had wrestled with him [in TNA] — he’s the father of my smallest child, the one that I was pregnant with, and he’s the one that actually encouraged me to go try out for the show. I really didn’t want to do it. My daughter is like six years old now, so I had been away from the industry, away from my fans and out of the spotlight for those seven years and I had gotten overweight, unhealthy and not happy. I was really hiding from my friends, my fans, my family. My Facebook page still had all my skinny pictures and my wrestling pictures which I was so proud of, but I wasn’t proud of what I had done over the last seven years — hiding, gaining weight and just not being healthy, or a very good role model. When Sonny suggested that I try out for the show, they were actually here in Atlanta where I live. There was an open casting call. It took him a little bit to convince me, but I decided that I would go ahead and try out. I was just tired of living this way, tired of being overweight and not being a good, fit role model for my kids.

Losing weight is such a personal thing. Were you self conscious about doing this on TV?
Oh, my gosh – hugely. It was one of the downfalls for me of doing this show. I would actually have to get on the scale and you’re very out there. You have a sports bra and some shorts on, you know? This is the first time that anyone’s ever seen me [since TNA] and I’m going out there and doing it in a big way. What’s really worse than having been on TV before — I’m there every week, I’m fit and I’m in shape — and now I’m having to get on the scale over 100lbs overweight and just showing the whole world what I’ve done? That was huge for me and that was one of the biggest reasons I didn’t want to do it. But I also feel like I owe it to myself. This is what I did. It’s a huge step for me. A really brave step to actually to do this at all, to let anyone know at all [that she was overweight] was my biggest fear. To do it in this huge of a way, it’s just kind of who I am — I either do it all the way or just not at all.

Continue to the next page for more…

Your answers to all this and more below…

As we head out to the bluely lit arena, some peppy party music starts to play alongside a pink camouflage titantron, that of which can only mean one thing…FOX! Out comes Alicia, but alongside her is none other than Kaitlyn, as the two ladies get ready for some tag team action. Following their introduction by Lilian Garcia and a brief recap of Alicia’s dominance, out walks their opponents in Natalya (without the tissue box…pardon me as I cry) and Tamina, both of whom look stellar tonight. As all four walk to their respective corners, the bell sounds and we kicks things off.

Tamina and Kaitlyn begin the bout together, as Tamina goes for a clothesline that Kaitlyn ducks. She runs off the ropes and hits a nice crossbody for a pinfall attempt, following it up with a dropkick for another. A kick to the midsection, proceeding on with a snapmare to Tamina, before charging off the ropes and getting hit by Natalya. Kaitlyn turns her attention to the pink and white clad diva, which allows Tamina the sneak attack advantage from behind. Tamina then tags in Natalya, as they double team Kaitlyn to make her pay for messing with them. Hook of a leg gets a one count, as Nattie slams Kaitlyn’s head down and applies an awesome submission. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last long as the hair is being grabbed to initiate a count of five.

Following that, Natalya hoists Kaitlyn up with a sick sit down bodyslam, as she then goes for a legdrop that Kaitlyn rolls out of the way from and makes the tag to Alicia Fox! Fox hops over the ropes and leap frogs over a charging Natalya. From there, she runs forward and BAM! The return of the Scissors Kick which scores the victory for Kaitlyn and Alicia. As they celebrate, Tamina seems very upset with Natalya for their loss. She backs up and DRILLS Nattie with an indescribably hard super kick! Tamina then proceeds to ascend to the top rope and leap off with her patented Superfly Splash! She poses over her downed tag team partner, as we are left wondering if 2012 will be the year that Tamina makes her presence known in the divas division.

And just because I can, check out everyone’s favorite pocket rocket, AJ, as she briefly talks to Daniel Bryan:

…And since I do support the FCW Divas, you can also view Aksana in a segment alongside her Teddy Bear and the phenomenal Drew McIntyre:

Thoughts: This is what I like to see with Smackdown. I know we’re lucky to get a minute or two of ring action, and I’ve come to accept that. I just like seeing some variety in the matches. Nothing against any of the girls who are prominently featured, but it’s fun to see divas like Kaitlyn and Tamina being used on the blue brand because it gives the matches some freshness. I thought what they did was fine, although it was kind of odd that Alicia only did one move. I’m guessing maybe they were running low on time, or something was possibly edited out, but nonetheless, I’m glad she’s bringing the Scissors Kick back. Natalya was great in the moves she was able to show, and I loved the submission and sit out bodyslam.

Onto Tamina, what can I say? I’m ecstatic that they are finally using her as a threat. She has such a unique look and demeanor about her that I always thought she could be something special for the WWE if given a chance. We all know how fast things can change week to week, so I hope they continue to do something more with her. Overall, in terms of time, it was the usual, although maybe a little bit longer, but in terms of action, I say it’s a definite step up over the past couple of weeks. I’m interested to see where things go from here.

Greetings my loyal Larry’s Cabaret dancing floozies. I hope you’re having a good last few nights of 2011… BEFORE THE WORLD ENDS IN 2012!~ TNA certainly did their best to make sure this year went out with a bang, and boy, did they deliver! Not only did we get to see Knockouts Champion, Gail Kim, defend her title against Mickie James in the main event of the show, but we also got a hilarious segment to kick us off involving those two females, along with Sting, Madison Rayne, Tara, and Brooke Tessmacher.

In other action, ODB and Creepo Beard tried to advance in the wild card tournament, but did they get the job done? Let’s find out…

After a video package highlighting the past weeks of agony involving the beautiful, talented, sorely missed, Miss Karen, Madison Rayne and Gail Kim make their way out to the ring — Madison with a mic in hand. Once Gail’s strangely addicting theme song stops, Madison lets her plans be known to the world with four simple words:

TARA. TESSMACHER. RING. NOW.

… Okay, so she repeats “NOW” a few times, but you get the drift. The two ladies that compose TNT follow through as Madison informs them that she’s going to cut to the chase here because the longer they are out here, the longer they are susceptible to the diseases that Tara and Brooke are carrying! (Insert my first, “Oh, hell no!” of the night.) She then tells them that since they disobeyed her orders *in a screechy voice* LAST WEEK, they are now fired! TNT begin to get angry at Madison, until the maniac who fired my beloved Miss Karen, Sting, steps out to the ring.

Madison tries to persuade Sting to head to the back because she has this all under control and he’s a very busy man. Sting tells her that it’s not over until he says it’s over, and he hasn’t said anything yet. He informs Madison that Miss Karen had a legally binding contract when she was Knockouts VP that gave her the right to make decisions, but that Madison has no such thing! Madison tries to scream that Miss Karen gave it to her, but Sting claims she has no power at all. The two have a hilarious screech war back and forth that leaves me gasping for air from laughter. (And let me add, Sting is still on bad terms with me but it was brilliant.)

Sting says that he’s in charge tonight, and that means Gail is going to defend her Knockouts Title against this woman… when suddenly out chimes my Southern national anthem, HAAAARRRDCCOOORREEEE COUNNTRYYYYYY. Gail and Madison lose their marbles in the ring, as Mickie James walks out looking top notch, and I sit here jamming on about backwoods, uptown, and thrillbilly sound! With that, Sting informs Madison that he’s going to keep an eye on her tonight, and if she isn’t careful, he will scratch her eyeballs out… Oh my. I’m pretty sure that could result in a lawsuit.

We head backstage as Mickie James warms up for her upcoming title shot against Gail Kim. The camera man asks her what she learned from the last time the two females faced off to which she replies that she has a better feel for Gail’s move set. She adds that it’s one thing to watch tapes and study, but it’s another to actually be in the ring with someone. Mickie claims that she feels confident tonight because she knows Gail is an incredible athlete, but she knows that she’s a better one! The camera guy questions if there’s a different style she has to use against the champ as opposed to the other Knockouts, but Mickie says it’s tough to say because every one of the girls wants to be champ so she gives 150% every time she goes out there no matter who she faces. Miss Hardcore Country says she wanted the title at Final Resolution and she didn’t get it, so she wants it a little more now and that she’s ready. The segment comes to a close as we head into the big fight!

We go to the ring as the Knockouts Championship logo flashes across the screen, before we get our second dose of HARRRDCOORREEEE COUNNNTRRYYYYYYY! (Backwoods or uptown, mind you.) Mickie James skips her way to the ring and poses on the turnbuckle, as the once again strangely addicting theme song of Gail Kim hits, and the lady of the night makes her way out with both titles in hand. Gail poses on the ring apron with her belts, and we get things underway with the main event style introduction of champion and challenger! The crowd heavily cheers our southern belle, as they boo the devious double champion.

The bell sounds as it looks to be Gail wanting a lock up, but Mickie quickly rolls under her with a pinfall attempt that Kim hurriedly kicks out of. Gail gets back up to two feet, as Mickie connects with a jackknife roll up for another near fall! Kim goes for a kick, but James shoves the leg away… so Gail then goes for a strike, but Mickie blocks it and starts laying in some punches to the champ. Mickie sends Gail off the ropes, but Kim fires back with a kick to the shoulder. She then charges again, but James leaps onto her with a nice Thesz Press! Gail shoves Mickie off, but James is fired up and keeps herself on the Champ.

Mickie is sent to the turnbuckle and connects with an elbow to Gail’s jaw. Gail goes for another move, but Mickie hoists her legs up and scores with the Mick-A-Rana! She follows it up with a running dropkick off the ropes that sends Gail cowering to the outside. Mickie then decides to run off the ropes and go for a baseball slide! Gail moves out of the way and goes for a strike, but Mickie catches her arm and hits a SICK arm-trap neckbreaker on the outside as we head to a commercial break. (Insert my second “Oh, hell no!” moment of the night.)

Once we return from the ad break, that I’m sure was used to pay Madison Rayne’s hefty salary, we see Gail and Mickie exchanging kicks and punches by the barricade. Mickie tosses Gail back into the ring, but Gail hits a dropkick to the knee as James tries to get back in the ring. She then proceeds to superkick Mickie outside the ring, while the referee begins his count. Mickie slowly manages to climb back inside, but Kim grabs her as she is half way there and levels her with some wicked kicks. She then proceeds to slam Mickie face first onto the canvas in a move that makes my face hurt from the sheer pain, much like the similar spot at Final Resolution.

The referee tries to back Gail up, but she remains on her opponent. Kim throws James into the corner of the ring, before following it up in the second turnbuckle. Gail taunts the heckling fans, which gives Mickie a brief moment to regain composure, although not long enough as Kim levels her with a clothesline for a two count. Both women get to two feet as the challenger tries to make a comeback behind the sound of this roaring crowd! Gail is the champion for a reason though, as she catches Mickie by the hair and drops her down before any comeback can be made.

From there, Kim goes to lock in an arm submission, but Mickie rolls through and counters with an arm drag. She can’t even get to two feet before Gail runs right into her to send her back down. Kim then taunts her with some slaps to the head, as the crowd fires Mickie up and she starts decking Gail with some punches. She goes for a bridge pin, but Gail holds onto the ropes and Mickie falls back. From there, Gail charges forward and locks in her Flying Dragon submission maneuver! James falls to one knee as she struggles to not give up.

Mickie somehow manages to flip over onto the ropes, but Gail remains on top in this match… well, until Mickie shoves her into the corner. Gail with an elbow to the jaw, as she goes back into the Flying Dragon again! Mickie tries to back Kim into the corner, but she ultimately falls again until Mickie connects with a unique cover for a two count. As she tries to regain composure, Gail drills her with a sick kick to the head. Both women get to a vertical base, as Kim sends James into the corner and connects with her elastic type move. She then climbs to the top rope and lays Mickie out with a missile dropkick for a near fall! Gail argues with the referee, as she awaits her prey to get back to two feet. Gail then goes for the Eat Defeat, but James blocks it and scores with a huge Mick Kick!

Both women remain down now as they struggle to get to two feet. Gail charges for the corner, but Mickie sidesteps her and scores with some punches. She then throws Gail into the corner and drops her with a few clotheslines! The crowd gets behind the challenger, as she drops her with a flapjack into a kip up and signals the end is near. James climbs up to the top rope, but Gail slides to the outside… therefore James changes her tune and drops Kim with a clothesline off the top rope to the floor! Following a replay, James slides Gail back into the ring just as a masked person with blue face paint slides in and drops Mickie with the Rayne Drop. She slides under the ring, as Gail slides back in and covers Mickie for the victory! As Gail exits, we see that the woman actually was Madison Rayne.

Also, check out a clip of ODB in action as she teams up with Creepo Beard to face Samoa Joe and Magnus in the second round of the TNA Tag Team Title wildcard tournament:

Thoughts: What a jam packed night! The promo at the start was hilarious, and I loved seeing Sting and Madison screech back and forth. I do wish Gail would have gotten to speak once though as I liked her the last time when she had the match with Tara. Going into the main event, TNA made it feel important with the introductions, which is a big thing for the females to get on Impact. I thought the match was excellent! It was fast paced, never slowed down, and even better than the pay per view one in my opinion. I’m guessing the ending with Madison in face paint was because Sting said he was going to be watching her closely, therefore she posed as Jeff Hardy to avoid being caught? I do wish Gail would get some clean wins because she is a veteran of the ring. I don’t think she should have to cheat to win every match. That works more when you have someone who’s not really a wrestler involved in a match, but I’m not going to let small things ruin what was a tremendous showing. This was definitely a great way to end the year, and I hope 2012 brings even more.

Just when we think we have all the answers, NXT changes the questions. I love this show more than any other in wrestling, and it’s no secret that a big part of it is the saga between Derrick Bateman, Dirty (Johnny) Curty, and Maxine. Say what you will, but this is the best thing going in the entire company, and tonight we had a big step forward in discovering “Maxine’s Choice”… but like always, NXT is very unpredictable. Could what transpired tonight mean Maxine has made her decision? Or will something else happen leading to another twist in this tale of treachery? There’s only two ways to find out… Either watch NXT or scroll on down and check out this recap.

Let’s get started!

We first head backstage to see Derrick Bateman with his head up against a strategically placed purple trunk. Suddenly, up from behind walks his ex-fiancée, Maxine, as he abruptly turns to her and tells her to hold on. Derrick claims that he knows she doesn’t want to see or hear from him at all, which she agrees with, only he calls them both crazy, citing that the craziest thing about them is the love they share. Maxine sheds some insight on the weekends of BateMax, that of which consisted of pillow fights and Derrick sobbing on Maxine’s shoulder during their viewings of Titanic as he got snot in her popcorn! Derrick claims that he didn’t cry, and that popcorn is delicious no matter what!

Maxine tells him that this is his problem — he doesn’t listen to her. She claims that right now he should be preparing for his match with Dirty Curty later tonight. Derrick says Maxine just proved why he loves her so much, because she keeps his eyes on the prize! He then proclaims that once he beats Dirty Curty tonight, they will become the power couple that the WWE so desperately needs. (Side note: They already are everything I’ve wanted in WWE for so long.) Maxine begrudgingly agrees with him and goes to walk off, but he stops her and immediately pulls her in for a big ol’ make-out session. She tries to fight it at first, but decides to just let it happen. Once they come up for air, Maxine smacks the taste out of Derrick’s mouth as both of them head off. Suddenly… the camera pans over to that scoundrel, Dirty Curty, as he stands behind a corner scouting their every move.

Continuing on in our backstage segments this evening, Maxine is shown once again walking through this never ending hallway. She stumbles upon her former fellow NXT rookie, Aksana! Aksana stands against a wall looking on a phone, which she informs us belongs to her Teddy bear. She tells Maxine that she found “some email” on the phone that she thinks Maxine should see. Maxine takes the phone and reads aloud a message sent from Derrick, which tells Teddy Long that he’s looking forward to becoming a SmackDown Superstar, only he’s tired of Maxine dragging him down! She continues on with the message which accuses Maxine of riding Derrick’s coattails and asking to leave her on NXT “where she belongs”. Maxine becomes ENRAGED as she demands to know where Aksana got this. Not only that, but she questions if Dirty Curty put Aksana up to this?! Aksana denies all allegations and claims that she’s just trying to help her. Maxine lets out a scream of fury, before handing the phone back and walking off! I wouldn’t want to be Derrick right about now…

As we join an ongoing match between Derrick Bateman and Dirty Curty, Maxine walks out onto the stage and makes her way all the way to ringside. Curty becomes briefly distracted with her as he locks in a cravate on Derrick. Once we return from a commercial break, Johnny locks in another submission to keep him down. Maxine can be seen scouting the action from ringside, as Josh Mathews tries to get a word with her only she shoots him down much to my approval for his constant disses during her season of NXT. (Payback’s a bitch, Mathews.) Dirty Curty punches Derrick in the head and brings him over to the ropes where he proceeds to choke him out to Maxine’s glare of doom.

Curtis with a snapmare, following it up with another headlock until Bateman fights out and hits a nice back suplex. Both men are down as the referee starts his count and Maxine walks closer to the ring apron. Once they get to a vertical base, Derrick Bateman takes control with some clotheslines and an impressive running dropkick into a snap neckbreaker for a two count. Bateman tries to fire the crowd up, but as he charges for his opponent, Dirty Curty elbows him in the face and hits a spinning clothesline for a near fall.

Johnny picks Derrick up and goes for a suplex, but Derrick escapes and tosses him into the corner where he proceeds to quickly roll him up for the victory! Maxine makes her way into the ring as Bateman drops to one knee, and they engage in a brief stare together until she exits the ring and heads up the ramp. Dirty Curty then walks out from the back and the two meet on the stage. Maxine slaps him across the face, before grabbing his head, and in my finest Jim Ross impersonation… BAH GAWD, she’s on him like a government mule! Maxine and Dirty Curty engage in a huge makeoutmania session as Derrick watches on in sorrow from the ring! The two walk backstage together, as Maxine’s Choice seems to have been made with tonight’s show coming to a close! It’s Dirty (Curty) Times ahead folks…

Thoughts: Maxine. Johnny. Derrick. Brilliant. This is the best thing going in all of wrestling for me. I’m never disappointed in anything these three do together and they pull off each of their segments so well. BateMax will be missed, but Curtsine will be an interesting duo. I really hope tonight isn’t the end of their story together because I feel like wrestling won’t be fun without it. Granted, I do enjoy primarily everyone on NXT, but these three are what make this show for me. They do better stuff than anything I’ve seen on Raw or SmackDown in a long time. I could sit here and say how I wish more people were watching, but that’s not going to get me anywhere. Whatever these three do is gold, and I hope to be entertained by them for a long time. People want to keep asking when NXT is going to end? I hope it never does!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to those of you still celebrating. As always, I am your Khaleesi, the one and only Cryssi, some people call me Cryssi Cryssi (when I’m drunk, usually), and today I’m bringing you a Redux full of Christmas cheer. I realize that we celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ on Sunday, but the WWE was off until Monday, and last night they had plenty of wonderful gifts to hand out. We got Divas galore in all forms; a backstage segment, a fun mixed tag team match, and a promo cut right on the stage. Vickie Guerrero brought the fierce, as we’re all accustomed to seeing, and overall it was just fun a night of pure WWE entertainment. Goodness, never thought I would write a sentence like that. But hey, on a night where people can suddenly praise Johnny Ace, if for one night only, anything can happen. If that’s not a Christmas miracle, then I don’t know what is.

Kicking us off tonight are former SmackDown buddies Kelly Kelly and Big Show. There wasn’t really a point to this segment other than for Kelly to put over the Diva fitness and beauty tips on another website. Big Show seemed shocked he needed beauty tips, and the segment was interrupted by my favorite referee Scott Armstrong. He told Big Show that Johnny Ace needed to see him in his office. Both Show and Kelly ignored the plucky ref, but Armstrong was insistent that it was incredibly important. Show finally relented and Kelly teased him that he was probably in trouble. Big Show handed Kelly back her iPad and that was that.

Nothing wrong with the segment. They put over something the Divas had done, and really, who can complain about that? Big Show and Kelly were also adorable on SmackDown when they had segments together. He always watched her back like a big brother and it was fun to see it again, even if it was so brief. Love it.

Moving on, we had a special treat last night with our match. It was longer than two minutes (because it was a mixed tag, I realize that) and it featured the reunion of two very popular stars – Miss Natalya Neidhart and Tyson Kidd! They took on the team of the new United States Champion, Zack Ryder, and his crush, the lovely Eve Torres.

Zack and Tyson kick things off for us, and Tyson shows off his ruthless Canadian aggression by getting Zack in the corner and absolutely pummeling him. Ryder is beat down, kicked, has his head stepped on for a count of four. It’s not pretty, but male wrestling usually isn’t. Tyson backs off, gets Ryder up, throws him across the ring, and takes him down with an elbow. Tyson follows it up with a sick kick to that spot right between the shoulder blades, and he goes for a cover. He barely gets a two count before Zack is kicking out. Tyson gets them both to their feet and he brings Zack across the ring again. This time, the champ slams into the opposite set of turnbuckles, and Tyson charges. Ryder manages to get his knees up and he catches Tyson in the face. Kidd stumbles back and that allows Zack to scale the ropes and launch himself off. He catches Tyson with a beautiful drop-kick and that sends Tyson to the corner to make the tag to his girl.

Natalya comes in looking to have some fun, and since it’s just a mixed tag, Eve comes in as well. Nattie screams at Zack to get out of the ring, which made me giggle, and she sorta locks up with Eve. It’s more like a shove, but then the ladies end up locking horns. Nattie gets shoved into the corner, and that prompts the referee to break it up. He forces Eve back, which also Nattie to collect herself. She goes right for the former 2-Time Diva’s Champion, but Eve is ready. She brings Natalya down with a nice little arm drag, and follows it up with a kick to the stomach and a snapmare.

(Don’t you guys love that I’m actually using the real names of moves this week?!)

Eve spins around and levels Natalya with another kick, and unfortunately that gives her time to do her God-awful booty pop. I hate it. Zack likes it. She adds a standing moonsault in there, and then goes for the second cover of the match. Natalya is able to get her shoulder up. The blond Diva crawls to the ropes, and Eve follows her. But Natalya is finally able to mount some offense and drops Eve across those very ropes. Eve is temporarily out of commission so Natalya takes advantage and kicks her opponent in the stomach. Eve flops over on her back and Natalya decides she wants to go for the Sharpshooter. She wastes a little to much time playing to Tyson, and Eve is able to kick her back. Natalya goes flying into the ropes. Eve makes the tag to Zack.

Zack comes into the match, and Tyson launches his own self off the top rope. The champ anticipates this and is able to duck, then catch Tyson with a clothesline. It’s a flurry of extreme fast-paced offense from Ryder, and poor Tyson is forced to suffer from it. Ryder has the crowd in the palm of his hand. He wants to finish things off, but Tyson is able to get in one last ditch effort of offense. Ryder ends up turning it to his advantage and gets Tyson in a pinning position. Natalya makes the save, but Eve makes sure she doesn’t do that again when she makes Nattie eat a drop kick. Side by side, Zack and Eve fist pump to the sky. They go for their respective opponents, and Eve ends up booting Natalya clear out of the ring. Zack gets Tyson in perfect position for his finisher, and he scores a huge win for himself, and his crush!

He got the win, but can he get the girl?

If some of you are wondering why they did such a random pairing with Zack and Eve, then just stop. It’s not random. If you’re viewers of the WWE.com videos, and of Z! True Long Island Story, then you’ll know that Zack has a little crush on Eve. She’s a pretty good replacement for the evil Princess Leia who dumped Zack a while back, so it’s cute that the WWE put them together in a tag match. I actually really liked this match, and this team. I hope we get to see more of it.

On the other side of the coin, Tyson and Natalya are so darn adorable. Having them reunite onscreen was such a treat. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of that either. Perhaps he can run around with Nattie and Beth? I don’t know. I just know it’s a shame the WWE seems to waste Tyson. Maybe this match will catapult him into a feud with Ryder for the U.S. Championship since my baby Dolph is now going to be involved in the main event?

The hits keep on coming. My girls, Brie and Nikki Bella, made their presence felt. For weeks we’ve seen them crush on Alberto Del Rio. And this week they decided to join him while he and Ricardo Rodriguez were cutting a pretty sad promo on the stage.

Alberto is injured and apparently that means he won’t be around for awhile. He has a pulled groin. The Bellas come out and Brie is quick to get on the crowd. She wants them to show Alberto some respect. Nikki agrees, but she also says that once Alberto has fully healed, she is going to throw a party in his honor. I can only assume that it will be a welcome back party. Brie gets a little miffed and claims that she was going to throw the party. Nikki just shrugs and reminds her that basically anyone can throw a party. That leads to Brie accusing her sister of copying her, and the twins arguing over Alberto in his wheelchair. The former WWE Champion gets really annoyed by their bickering and sends them away.

It’s nice that the WWE acknowledged this storyline, instead of just pretending like it never happened thanks to Del Rio getting injured. I’m all for random segments, and storylines, especially when the Bella twins are involved, so this segment was a lot of fun for me. I like the twins constantly arguing and I’m curious to see if it will spill over into a future match. Surely if they’re not on the same page, or just fed up with each other, they’re not going to be able to get along in the ring? Lets hope this doesn’t just abruptly stop.

And speaking of things that should never stop, Vickie and Dolph. This week, our blond hero was involved in a gauntlet match along with his stable-mate, Jack Swagger, and the World’s Strongest Man, Mark Henry. If any of those three men would be able to defeat CM Punk, they would become the number one contender to the WWE Championship. No doubt this left Vickie salivating, as she had a two out of three chance to get one of her men into the title picture. When Swagger failed, it was up to Dolph. Lets take a look.

Words can not express how perfect Vickie Guerrero is in her role. She’s the type of manager every heel wrestler should want, and they just happened to put her with the best heel on the roster. In my opinion, a lot of Dolph’s success is to her credit. She’s gotten him so over with the crowd. His wrestling skills just back up why he should be over. Vickie was perfect tonight. She saw Swagger eat defeat, and she certainly wasn’t going to let Dolph suffer the same fate. When things started breaking down Ziggler, Vickie involved herself in the match. She held on to Punk for dear life, giving her man another chance to try and make a comeback. She got caught, too. Johnny Ace stormed the ring and ordered Vickie and Jack from ringside. But lets be honest, he just wanted to distract CM Punk. It ended up working in Dolph’s favor and next week we get to see him in a championship match. I can only hope that Vickie plays a huge role in that match. Surely that’s not to much ask? As someone who has always been a fan of managers, she’s such a throwback to the glory days of wrestling. I definitely put her right up there with the likes of Bobby “The Brain” Heenan and Sherri Martel, two of the all-time great heel managers. Dolph and Vickie actually remind me of young HBK and Sherri in a lot of ways. The WWE needs to keep these two together, forever.

What a happy Redux this has turned out to be. See, WWE. It is possible to do the right thing when it comes to your Divas. Now just give us single matches that last for over five minutes on Raw and I’ll never write another bad word about you again. That probably won’t happen but I’m going to remain optimistic. 2012 is a chance to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. I have faith in this company. I have always had faith in the Divas. Lets see if next week we can ring in the new year right.

Until then… Cryssi out!

Last Friday in Philadelphia, PA, Diva Dirt inducted the second member of its exclusive Legacy Award winners’ circle — arguably the best female wrestler in the world, the iconic Manami Toyota.

We were honored to team up with CHIKARA to present the award as part of JoshiMania Night 1, in the historic building formerly known as the ECW Arena.

Watch our exclusive footage of the award presentation below:

CONGRATULATIONS, MANAMI!

A big thank you to CHIKARA for their help. Please be sure to pick up JoshiMania on DVD. More details at www.joshimania.com.

RELATED:
- JoshiMania Night 1 Results & Extensive Photo Gallery: Del Rey vs Aja Kong, Manami Toyota & More
- JoshiMania Night 2 Results (Everett, MA): Aja Kong vs Ayako Hamada & More
- JoshiMania Night 3 Results (Manhattan, NY): Sara Del Rey vs Ayako Hamada & More
- Detailed JoshiMania Night 3 Report & Extensive Photo Gallery: Del Rey vs Hamada & More

We get all the details on Maryse’s new venture, her release from WWE, whether she’d go to TNA, if a Playboy return is in the cards and much more. Maryse also discusses her entire WWE career in great detail, from the Divas Title victories to the infamous Gobbledy Gooker outfit! Maryse shares some one-of-a-kind stories from her time in WWE including the Diva Search, OVW and from live events. Plus, the Sexiest of the Sexy goes on record discussing the Divas division and the lack of time/development it receives, her relationship with The Miz and the scary situation with a stalker earlier this year.

Listen to the interview below:

Download the interview by right-clicking here and selecting ‘Save Target As’ or stream the interview below:

Visit Maryse’s official website at www.frenchkissmaryse.com and the official website for House of Maryse, www.houseofmaryse.com. Follow Maryse on Twitter at @maryse0uellet and ‘like’ her on Facebook.

Follow Melanie on Twitter at @MelanieLDN.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! NXT has put another episode into the books of this (thankfully) never-ending season, which produced one of the greatest segments I’ve ever seen as a fan… but we’ll get more into that later. The main story we have tonight is a match pitting one of my favorite Divas, Maxine, against her NXT Season 3 pro, Alicia Fox, in what is sure to be a refreshing bout. On top of that, we also have appearances from Tamina, Kaitlyn, and the woman I want to be signed immediately following her award-worthy performance, Agnes J. Bateman.

Let’s get things underway!

First up, we head backstage where Dirty Curty can be seen chatting up the lovely, Kaitlyn, as they discuss both putting up and sprucing a Christmas tree. Suddenly, out pops Maxine who questions why Johnny is settling for someone like Kaitlyn. Our more calm, demeanor version of Kaitlyn asks Maxine what her problem is being she has nothing to do with this. Dirty Curty tells Kaitlyn to simmer down and find him in his bus after his match because she knows where it’s at, and she heads off.

Maxine screams good luck to Kaitlyn in finding it, considering he doesn’t even have a bus! (Ouch) Dirty Curty then sniffs her and asks if he detects the scent of jealousy. She proclaims that it’s not jealousy, more like an insult to her that he settles for someone like Kaitlyn. Dirty Curty informs her that there is enough of him to go around town and go back again, but Maxine says that he wouldn’t have to do that if he knew how to treat a real woman and would stop settling for little girls like Kaitlyn!

Dirty Curty proceeds to kiss his fingers and place them over Maxine’s lips, issuing that this is the best he can do, before walking off as she spits the taste out of her mouth. Maxine begins to become frustrated, as Master Bateman walks in wearing his finest cardigan trying to issue an apology, before he is cut off by Maxine and told to shut up as she plants one on him. When she finally comes up for air, Derrick proceeds to introduce Maxine to his MOTHER, the greatest female appearance on a wrestling show since Cryssi’s brief on air Raw moment earlier this year, AGNES J. BATEMAN!

Maxine engages in a hug with her future mother-in-law, as Derrick says how happy he is to have the two most important women in his life. He kisses them both and then heads out to prepare for his match, as Maxine tries to tell Mrs. Bateman how glad she is she could come tonight. Agnes cuts her off right away, and tells her to listen up. She says how she’s been watching NXT for the past few weeks and has witnessed Maxine show feelings for Dirty Curty. She informs Maxine that if she hurts one curl on Derrick’s hair, she will TAKE…HER…DOWN! Mrs. Bateman then leaves, as both Maxine is left stunned with her actions…and I submit this scene for a possible Emmy nomination.

We head out to the arena as the stage turns bright green and I applaud heavily at the fact Maxine has a match tonight. She walks out in her Kitana style finest, as her opponent, Alicia Fox, makes her way to the ring in her finest Fancy Fox Hood! The bell sounds as we get things underway in this “former Pro vs. Rookie” match! They go to lock up, but Maxine takes the early advantage with a knee to the midsection. She then tosses Alicia face first into the ring canvas and backs her into the turnbuckle. Maxine shoves her head into the stomach of the Foxy one a few times, before Alicia uses her freshly fixed paws and claws to shove her backwards.

Maxine picks herself up and charges forward, but Alicia leaps onto the top turnbuckle in a split leg fashion and rolls the NXT starlet up for a near fall. Both ladies get to a vertical base, as Maxine executes a double punch to the stomach and throws Fox into the ropes. She then goes to Irish Whip Alicia, but Fox reverses and sends Maxine flying. Alicia with a leapfrog, followed by a split onto the canvas to try and trip Maxine up, only Maxine manages to dodge it with an awesome roll through into a dropkick! She hooks the leg but only gets a two count.

Maxine begins to scream with fury, as she goes for another pin, but does not emerge with the victory. She then grabs Fox and begins to choke her on the ropes until the ref reaches a five count, before planting Alicia with a snapmare and locking in a rear naked choke hold. Alicia struggles against her former rookie, but she manages to get to two feet before Maxine tosses her back down by the hair. Hook of the leg, but Alicia’s shoulders are not down so the ref refuses to count. She tries again, and becomes furious with the referee for not counting. (Who cares if the shoulders are down? You are supposed to just do as Maxine wishes!)

Maxine goes into a chin lock with the knee to the back, before both Derrick and his mother, Agnes walk out onto the stage to scout his bride to be in action! Agnes gives Maxine a death point as if to say “I’m watching you!” as Derrick cheers her on. Fox tries to break out of the hold, but Maxine capitalizes on it and goes for a standing dragon sleeper… only the two of them on the stage distract her long enough for Fox to counter with a snapmare and then run into the Fancy Fox Leg Drop for the victory! She hightails it out of the ring and celebrates, as Maxine lets out some of the most furious sounding screams I’ve ever heard. She makes her way up the ramp, but continues to yell at Derrick the whole way. Maxine then walks past him and to the back, while NXT heads to a commercial break.

Following the main event, in which Derrick Bateman defeated Titus O’Neil and Darren Young in a triple threat with the winner receiving a future match on SmackDown, Derrick calls out Maxine to the ring to celebrate! Her theme song hits… but nobody walks out to the ring. A few moments pass to no avail, but suddenly… YES, THERE SHE IS! The other star of my weekly recaps, Tamina, makes her way out to the ring with JTG. Tamina tells Derrick that she’s sorry to let him know that Maxine packed up all her stuff… and… well, she would rather tell Derrick in private. Bateman refuses to wait, and demands to know where she is. JTG snatches the mic from his girl, and informs Bateman that his girl, his fiance, his boo boo, she left with Johnny Curtis. Derrick is left SHOCKED in the ring, as this week’s show comes to a close, and we move one step closer to finding out Maxine’s choice!

Thoughts: Oh NXT, if you were the only show I watched every week I would never have a bad thing to say about wrestling. This has everything in it I’ve ever wanted, from the fact that it’s filled with people from FCW, or people from the main show who never get air time elsewhere, all the way to the entertaining storylines and time given to everyone. The segment can not get enough praise from me, and I pray to God that Agnes becomes a recurring character in the storyline. I’m interested to see if Kaitlyn plays any sort of role as well, but I’m not sure where it will go.

The match itself was pretty solid. It wasn’t given as much time as before, but it’s understandable because Derrick and Agnes took Maxine off her game and cost her the bout. I like that they finally gave us another match to cover because it’s been a looong time without one. Maxine has become a new person in the ring since NXT ended one year ago today, and it’s great to see her get to wrestle against her former pro. They also seem to be using Alicia pretty much everywhere, which hopefully helps the fans to get behind her in a possible feud with DoD. I really can’t say enough about how much this show amuses and entertains me.

Without any further ado, let’s kick things off with some Santa suits!

After an in-ring segment to open the show, Saint Mick declares that we will continue the night with a divas match, as he beckons for them to come out. Strutting their finest red and green is Alicia Fox, AJ, Kaitlyn, Rosa Mendes, Natalya, Aksana (who gets extra points for giving me Katie Lea vibes), Tamina, and the Bella Twins. We head to a commercial break, but upon return, Mick announces that this will be a Mistletoe on a Pole match where the diva to climb up the pole and retrieve the mistletoe will be able to cash it in before Christmas for a prize that he believes we can all allude to.

The bell sounds as all women go crazy. AJ tries to climb first, but Natalya manages to knock her down…as um…well…basically they all attack each other in the ring with various holds. Tamina manages to sweep Natalya’s legs out from under her as she falls to the canvas, and Kaitlyn tries to keep the Bella Twins away from the mistletoe. Everyone’s favorite mamacita, Rosa Mendes, makes her way towards the pole but she is soon taken down. Alicia Fox makes it up a few steps, but Nikki Bella manages to pull her off and toss her to the side. The Bellas look to work together, but Brie drop toe holds Nikki and climbs on top of her head to grab the mistletoe! The Bella Army rejoices as they believe Brie to be getting a future Divas Championship match…but what a scandalous surprise Mick Foley has in store for us all.

The Bellas attempt to celebrate Brie’s victory, before Mick cuts them off and tells them that he never said the match was for a Divas Title shot, but rather she will get to cash it in and kiss a Superstar of her choice. The Bellas try to argue over the Mistletoe, as we end this marvelous segment.

Backstage we head to Mick Foley standing by with Jimmy and Jey Uso practicing their entrance. He turns his attention over to Rowdy Roddy Piper as they embrace and chat up a few things, before Mick then focuses on the diva that I wish WWE would push to the moon, Maxine. He asks her if she has been a good girl this year, to which she replies that of course she has. That annoyance, Hornswoggle tries to serve Maxine a glass of Egg Nog, but she brushes him off like the perfection she is and walks off. After some chatter between a few of the superstars (featuring a cameo from Goldust!) Roddy Piper comes back on screen as he kisses Maxine’s hand and talks to one of the most underrated sports entertainers there is, Trent Barreta. (Note: Apologies if I begin to insert some opinions that I want to be taken as facts here) David Otunga interrupts my dream team scene, and blubbers about WWE music licensing with the Christmas tunes, before Mick Foley books him in a Miracle on 34th Street Fight against Randy Orton for tonight!

Up next, we open to…Hornswoggle trying to place an ornament on a spot of the Christmas Tree that he can not reach, which sparks the phenomenal brilliance that is possibly a new bad side of Kaitlyn to emerge and tell him that maybe he should ask Santa to be a little bit taller next year. (Note: Insulting Hornswoggle is only going to make so many people like you even more Kaitlyn) After some chatter between Teddy Long and Sheamus, the Lithuanian Beauty, Aksana (complete with saxophone music and pink lighting) walks into the scene with some mistletoe in her hand.

Teddy excuses Sheamus from the conversation, as Aksana apologizes for being late due to her match. T-Lo tells her that it’s alright, to which she can’t believe the size of this party. Back in Lithuania, all they got each year was a new shovel, (I’m assuming to beat people with) therefore Aksana does not quite understand exactly what mistletoe is. Teddy says that since they are standing under it, she should just do what comes natural. He puckers up for a smooch, but Aksana proceeds to tear a leaf off and eat it! She claims it tastes good and tickles her amazingly misunderstood pronunciation of tonsils, so let’s all hope that it’s non-toxic. We get some shots of Kaitlyn & Curt Hawkins (lighting the menorah) as well as returning backstage couple, Alicia Fox and Justin Gabriel, to close this segment.

We head backstage yet again, to see Ricardo Rodriguez chatting up the Bella Twins, as they ask what they should get Alberto Del Rio for Christmas. Ricardo suggests that the three of them go to dinner to discuss this, but Brie orders him to get them some egg nog. He begrudgingly takes their glasses and goes to fill them up, as Mick Foley, Dusty Rhodes, and Roddy Piper talk some. Saint Mick then heads over to Hornswoggle and gives him a hug which unfortunately gives him the gift of gab and he is able to finally dub the Bellas as being twins, and also states that Vickie Guerrero is a grandma. Natalya looks on in the background as if she is very unamused (Assuming because this is supposed to be a party, yet she’s not buying shoes or snapping Gismo photos), as Vickie and Hornswoggle engage in an Excuse Me-off until she walks off.

Finally, we round up this night’s events with a shot of Daniel Bryan preparing for his Cage Match where he could become World Heavyweight Champion, when he is approached by resident goddess, (Hopefully Tamina doesn’t see me use her title on someone else) AJ. She wishes him good luck and gives him a kiss on the lips before walking off and saying that she knows he can do this. Could D-Bryan be getting his fourth diva hook-up within the span of 11 months?!

Thoughts: To begin with the match, I was actually rather entertained. It was ridiculously short, but it was something different and I like different. I’m not a fan of seeing the same match week after week after week, so even if it was under a minute long, at least we got to see some fresh faces take the center spotlight. The segments were really enjoyable overall, and I think each had some standout moments. Clearly Aksana eating mistletoe was the highlight considering I love all unexpected, random moments, and if anyone tells you they thought she’d chomp down on it, they are lying through their teeth. I’m interested to see where this Daniel Bryan/AJ romance is headed, but anything that gets her airtime every week works for me. Heel Kaitlyn, I’m still bummed that you’re likely going to split from AJ, but like I said with her, as long as you get air time, I’m okay with it.

If the WWE is giving us the gift of amazing Diva matches this holiday season, then they fell short on Raw this week. I’d like to sit here and say that what was offered to us was short, sweet, and to the point, but it was just short. There was no point that I could find, and it was about as sweet as a piece of freeze dried tangerine. That analogy really makes no sense whatsoever, especially since I have no idea if freeze-dried fruit is sweet or not, but I’m grasping at straws this week for something witty to write and nothing is coming to mind. I guess that happens as you get older, or your brain gets fried from trying to think too much. Lets get on with it, shall we?

My beloved Bella Twins returned to wrestling this week in tag team action. Brie and Nikki faced off against Kelly Kelly and Alicia Fox. All four girls started off by taunting one another, until it was decided that Kelly and Brie would begin the match. The bell rang, and the twins used stall tactics to delay the inevitable. While that mess was going on, the Divas Champion, Beth Phoenix, and her partner-in-crime, Natalya, jogged out to the ring. Yes, jogged. Work-out clothes, the works. Kelly got distracted and that allowed Brie the opening she wanted, and she attacked the blond from behind. Beth and Natalya continued their run around the ring, perhaps they were just bored that creative had nothing for them, and Brie threw Kelly in the corner. She tagged in Nikki, and they used the chance to double-team the Maxim covergirl. Brie stepped out of the ring and Kelly got back to her feet. She leveled Nikki with a hearty slap to the face, and tried to follow it up by whipping the sassy twin across the ring. Nikki was able to reverse it, but it still worked in 2K’s favor. Alicia was able to make the tag while Kelly took Nikki down with a spinning head-scissors.

Foxy bounded into the ring, Nikki withered in the corner, and Kelly called for her patent stink face. Brie ran interference and pulled Kelly out of the ring, and Nikki took advantage of Foxy and bullied her against the ropes. Foxy fought back, and Nikki sent the future Mrs. Husky Harris (that’s for you Bobby) across the ring. Alicia came flying back and smoothly slipped under Nikki, baffling the brunette, who then ate a face full of mat. Alicia pulled off a beautiful heel-hook take down and ended the match with a nice front somersault into a leg-drop. My favorite referee Scott Armstrong counted to three, and the tandem of Alicia and Kelly scored a nice little victory. The Bella twins went off to lick their wounds, and the victors celebrated their victory.

Just another day in Diva-Land I suppose.

The match was fine, just short and pointless, and I’m left with more questions than answers. That’s not always a good thing. There was no Eve-sighting this week, so I guess she’s still selling the top rope Glam Slam? With Alicia getting the pin, I’m more convinced than ever that she’s going to be the next challenger, but what in the bluest of hell was the point of the DoD around the ring jog? SmackDown is live tonight, so maybe something will happen there, but I’m not holding my breath. They seem content with continuing the AJ/Kaitlyn storyline, and I’m fine with that. Whatever gets AJ and Kaitlyn more TV time. Sadly, I’m more interested in AJ/Kaitlyn right now, than anything going on with Raw, and yes, throw Daniel Bryan in that mix as well. Who even knows at this point what will happen. I certainly don’t. Maybe next week will be better.

On a more happy note, Dolph beat Randy Orton. I’m still working on that honorary Diva Dirt tag.

Until next week… Cryssi out!

Hello all and welcome to this week’s edition of the SmackDown Redux! After picking up a win over Eve Torres at Survivor Series, Divas Champion Beth Phoenix, teams up with her fellow Sister of Salvation, Natalya in tag team action on this week’s edition of SmackDown. Who are their opponents, you ask? Their favorite punching bags, AJ and Kaitlyn, of course! Can the Chickbusters live up to their name this week, or will they be the ones to get busted? Check out the match below and find out:

We start things off at the commentary booth, where the lovely Alicia Fox has joined to give her opinion on this week’s Diva action. Beth and Natalya make their way to the ring first, sporting matching camouflage gear. As they head down the ramp, Alicia comments that Beth “…has more muscles than Mason Ryan”. Oh, no she didn’t!

The Chickbusters are out next, and the commentary team makes sure to point out that AJ and Kaitlyn are best friends, as well as Kaitlyn’s anger at AJ last week, after their loss. Both teams head to their respective corners and the official signals for the bell and our match is underway.

Kaitlyn and Natalya start things off for their respective teams with a basic lockup, but Nattie quickly gets the upper-hand and forces Kaitlyn into the corner. After a hip bump, Natalya charges at Kaitlyn in the corner, but Kaitlyn manages to escape and uses the opportunity to bring Nattie over to the Chickbuster corner for a tag.

After a quick double team splash in the corner, AJ keeps the pressure on Nattie with a quick kick to the leg and a fake out hurricanrana, that sends Natalya flying into the ropes. AJ tries to follow up with a roll up, but Nattie holds on, sending AJ to the mat.

AJ tries to back on offense, but Natalya grabs her by hair and pulls her down to the canvas. Before AJ can get her wits about her, Nattie slaps on the Sharpshooter, causing her to tap almost immediately.

Post match, a frustrated Kaitlyn leaves AJ at the mercy of Beth and Natalya, but Alicia makes the save.

Two things stood out to me in this match, and one of those things I’m not too thrilled about. Let’s start with the good: It looks like they’re setting Alicia Fox up to be the next challenger to the title, which only makes sense, as both Kelly and Eve had both had their shots. With any luck, Alicia vs Beth will be just as good as Kelly vs Beth and Eve vs Beth.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about the bad: It looks like the Chickbusters may be officially heading to Spiltsville. For some reason, WWE seems to thinks that it’s time to go their separate ways, which is a damn shame. AJ and Kaitlyn have a pretty good chemistry with one another and I think they compliment each other really well, but I don’t think either of them are quite at the point where they can be split up without one or both of them getting lost in the shuffle. Hopefully, that won’t be the case. On the other hand, I gotta give WWE kudos for at least attempting a secondary feud with the Divas. I love Beth, Nattie and Kelly’s Krew just as much as the next guy, but it’s nice to see someone else get a chance to shine every once and a while.

Hello everybody, and welcome to another thrilling, chilling edition of your weekly Impact Write-Up. As you all wind down from your large meals and early bird shopping specials, Impact rewards us with a dose of THANKSGIVING…THONG…THUNDER! That’s right, say it three times fast and a thong clad turkey appears before you a la Beetlejuice or Bloody Mary. Everyone’s favorite VP of the Knockouts division, Miss Karen Jarrett took it upon herself to book a six Knockout “Lingerie Bowl” involving Tara, Brooke Tessmacher, and Velvet Sky against Winter, Angelina Love, and Madison Rayne, but on top of that we also get to see the bright and shining faces of Mickie James, Aunt Traci Brooks, and the gold clad, Gail Kim!

Alright, let’s get things going before that thong wearing bird shows up to hijack our write-up.

The first Knockout related segment takes us to a recap of last week’s well received gauntlet match, that showed Mickie James emerge as the new Number One Contender. From there, we take it to the arena where the beautiful angelic theme of Miss Karen plays across the sound system. Out walks the benevolent queen herself, along with her cohorts in this battle for Knockout Supremacy, Madison Rayne and Gail Kim. Also close behind is none other than Aunt Traci, whom we’ve all come to know and feel jealous of, in that she gets to work alongside Miss Karen.

The four ladies execute their weekly entrance where Aunt Traci is forced to hold the ropes open for her three fellow Knockouts, as Miss Karen takes a microphone and demands that Angelina, Winter, Tara, Brooke Tessmacher, and Velvet Sky get their booties out to the ring right this second! The five ladies do as told, as they enter the squared circle and listen to what the stunning starlet of Impact has to say. Miss Karen tells them all to stop, before directing her attention to Velvet. She claims that they have a dilemma before them, as despite all of Miss Karen’s efforts to clean up the division, the nasty, disgusting, horny, perverted freaks in the crowd want to see more skin!

Miss Karen states that there are a few of the ladies who won’t have a problem with this being they walk around flaunting themselves all day long, but that there are some of the knockouts who think they are real athletes. She provides them with a newsflash, in that there is only one real athlete in this division, and it’s the woman holding both titles, Gail Kim! Miss Karen proclaims that tonight will be the first ever Knockouts Lingerie Bowl, which is soon to become a Thanksgiving tradition! She orders them to go in the back and get their skimpiest pieces of lingerie and bring them back out here.

Miss Karen says that Velvet should know exactly what she’s talking about due to the pole she slides up and down on when the perverts shove dollar bills in her bottom! She says that if anyone has a problem with this, they can walk out the door because there are hundreds of girls who would kill to have their spot on the roster! With that, Miss Karen and Velvet have a stare off, as all of the knockouts exit the ring and head to the back and get ready for their upcoming match.

As we return from a commercial break, we head back to Christy Hemme, as she stands by with Velvet, Tara, and Brooke to discuss their feelings on Miss Karen’s decision to book a lingerie bowl. Tara proclaims that she is sick of being treated like a joke; that she thought she left this crap behind her! She runs down a list of degrading matches females have taken part in, questioning if TNA just wants them to wrestle naked. She says that they aren’t here to be nude, rather they are here to be the best wrestlers there are. Tara wraps it up by claiming that she is not happy with this decision at all.

Brooke Tessmacher then takes the mic and says that this is a slap in the face to the division. She says that at home, she takes pictures and she models because she enjoys to do it, but when she’s here at her job, she wants to wrestle and become a serious athlete that can whoop some ass. She says that this is a joke to the division, as Velvet takes over and says that this is very degrading for her considering she just came off a Knockouts Title Reign. She brings up that a week ago, she was Knockouts Champion, and now she’s wrestling in lingerie.

Velvet relates this back to that “monster” (her words, not mine) Miss Karen; how she’s had a personal vendetta against Velvet for months now and she’s begun to drag Tara and Brooke into it as well. Sky says that she’s sick to death of Miss Karen, but that right now she’s going to keep her cool. They agree to go out there and show that they won’t let Karen get to them and vow to put on the best damn lingerie match possible. With that, they head out to the ring and get ready for competition.

Before the match, we head backstage again to see the intelligent being that is Gail Kim, as she praises Miss Karen and claims that she would NEVER question a decision made by her. (you and me both Gail) Out of nowhere comes the country lass, Mickie James, who storms into the room and demands to talk to Gail in private. She tells Madison to back off, as the two head into a room in the back, and Mickie states that she can’t believe what Gail is doing. She says that of all people, everything Gail said and did prior to coming here is wasted by agreeing to support this idea of a lingerie match.

Mickie believed that Gail was going to come here and make a positive impact on the division instead of setting it back ten years. Gail claims that she has made a great impact, as Mickie says this is crap and she knows it. She cant believe Gail would stand for such a stipulation after everything that she said in various interviews, as Gail gives the BEST ‘WTF’ face I have ever seen in my life. She orders Gail to go to Karen and put a stop to this right now, but Kim claims if Mickie isn’t happy that she can just hand in her notice and leave.

Mickie says that perhaps if Gail wasn’t shoved three feet up Karen’s backside, she would see what a hypocrite she’s being. James goes to two step her way on out the door, but Gail tries to attack her from behind and the two ladies brawl around the room. Mickie throws Gail into a wall, but the ever so caring, Madison Rayne quickly charges inside and slams James into the lockers. Gail tosses Madison out of the way and begins going crazy on Mickie, screaming “HOW DARE YOU, YOU TRASH!~”. As I wish to relive how brilliant this segment was, we must now go to the match itself.

The frightening chime sound effect plays, as a cold chill runs across the Impact Zone. Christy Hemme announces both Winter and Angelina to the ring, as they walk out… but it seems the brilliance that is Winter decided to try and cover up as much as possible. The duo steps into the ring, as out next comes Madison Rayne, dressed in her pink robe. Rayne enters the fray and removes the robe to reveal something that actually does cover more than almost all of her wrestling gears. Up next comes Brooke, sporting a men’s striped shirt, and Tara, sporting actual lingerie like Angelina. Velvet Sky follows, displaying a large shirt like Brooke.

Once all six females are inside the ring, the bell sounds and Winter takes it upon herself to pose on the turnbuckle. This sparks Brooke Tessmacher to follow suit, and remove her men’s shirt to reveal some blue get up. She tosses the shirt outside but misses the camera, only to blatantly see the camera man catch it and cover the lens up himself. Angelina is up next with her posing to boos, before Tara joins in to cheers. Madison finishes it up for her team to a not so good reaction, as Velvet removes her shirt to cheers and reveals what I think is a dress? The bad female trio poses together to more boos, as the fan favorites follow suit to cheers…until finally Angelina, Winter, and Madison attack each of them from behind.

All six go at it in the ring, until Madison kicks Brooke out and Angelina does the same to Velvet. Winter chokes Tara on the ropes with her boot to a count of four, as the crowd begins to get behind the veteran. Winter slams Tara into a corner and begins to punch her relentlessly. She tosses Tara around some more, as we head to a commercial break. Once we return, Tara is in control as she drops Winter with a few clotheslines and a bodyslam. Tara sets herself up and executes the Standing Shimmy Moonsault for a two count.

Tag into Tessmacher, as they double team Winter with a clothesline/asstastic combo in which Brooke screams for Winter to eat it! A pair of armdrags follow, as they trade Irish Whips and Brooke connects with a dropkick to send Winter into her corner. Madison tags in and attacks Tessmacher from behind, before sending her into the corner and choking her with her boot. She waves to her adorning fans, and goes to charge into Brooke, only Tessmacher moves and takes control with some punches.

Rayne sends Tessmacher into the opposing corner, but meets a boot to the face for her troubles. Brooke then goes to kick Madison, but the Killer Queen throws her legs over the middle rope and slams her head into the canvas. Madison chokes Brooke in the ropes as the crowd begins to get behind her and Winter tags back in. Winter with a backbreaker to the knee for a near fall, before the pasty wildcat toys with Brooke and tags in Angelina. The two of them connect with a double team clothesline, as Angelina covers for a two count.

Brooke tries to fight back, but Angelina drags her away and drops an elbow. She then begins to choke Tessmacher out, before going for a Suplex that Brooke counters into a roll up for a two count. Angelina locks in a submission hold, before driving her knees into Brooke’s back. She Irish whips Brooke into the ropes, but the two connect with a double facebuster to send both ladies down. They crawl to their respected corner, as Angelina tags in Madison and Brooke tags to Velvet Sky! Velvet charges with a series of clotheslines to all three of her opponents, before running off the ropes with a bulldog on Madison. Sky looks to go for the Sky High Facebuster, but Winter stops it and is met with a spear by Tara.

All six ladies are going at it in the ring now, as Angelina, Madison, and Winter try to send the three to collide in the center of the ring, only they stop each other and take down their evil opponents with clotheslines. Tara and Tessmacher take out Angelina and Winter, as Madison hits the Rayne Drop on Velvet. She notices the referee’s back turned, and goes to grab her title, but out of nowhere, Mickie James runs out and snaps Madison’s head off the ropes, leading towards Velvet hitting the Sky High on Madison for the victory! She, Tessmacher, and Tara pose for the fans, as we wrap up the first ever Thanksgiving Thong Thunder match.

Thoughts: A jam packed, surely controversial week in Knockoutland. I don’t even know where to begin with all of this. I will say that I think TNA handled the Lingerie stipulation well, and gave us a multitude of great segments to show that they weren’t just pleased to be there and do it. I think it helped a lot to know that the faces want to be taken seriously, and so they don’t just agree to go out there, smile to the crowd, and wave to say look at me. The Mickie/Gail segment was my favorite, and it was definitely needed to keep the momentum for their feud building. I can’t wait to see what they do next week, but I demand more of this because I think they work insanely well off each other in segments. Gail’s attitude towards Mickie’s claims that she expected more from her was stellar and I can’t say enough good things about that segment.

The match was what it was. I think it was pretty much a standard Knockouts match anyway, and like I said, some were wearing more than they do for gear anyways. It was still fifteen minutes long (shh, i’m disregarding that five of those were for posing), and I thought all six looked and performed great. TNT is becoming one of my highlights of the show, and I think they are a great team that works so well off one another. I do wish they still had the tag team titles because I would love to see them feud with Winter & Angelina, but as long as I keep getting to see them every week I’m good. Enjoyed the show even if it was surrounded with controversy.

We talk to the former WWE Women’s & TNA Knockouts Champion about her runs in WWE and TNA, her current project writing for Chicago Athlete magazine, her debut for Billy Corgan’s RESISTANCE Pro promotion on Black Friday, teaming with Brooke Tessmacher, the first ever Divas steel cage match, Gail Kim‘s return to TNA, her longevity in wrestling, as well as her future in wrestling, and much more!

Listen to the exclusive interview below:

Download the interview by right-clicking here and selecting ‘Save Target As’ or stream the interview below.

Please Note: This audio is the exclusive content of Diva Dirt (diva-dirt.com), for which we hold copyright. By downloading our audio you agree not to repost the content elsewhere including but not limited to other websites, blogs or message boards. Failure to respect copyright may result in legal action.

Visit Lisa Marie’s official website www.reallisamarie.com. Follow Lisa Marie on Twitter at @REALLiSAMARiE and ‘like’ her on Facebook.

See Lisa Marie live tomorrow in Chicago at RESISTANCE Pro. Tickets and more information here.

Once upon, in a land far away, two Divas stood backstage, viciously playing the new WWE ’12 video game. Kelly Kelly, clad in designer jeans, jerked and yanked at her controller, while she played herself on said video game. Alicia Fox stood at her side, direwolf absent from the top of her head. She was playing as Beth Phoenix, but not faring so well. With every enthusiastic ‘bam, bam’ Alicia as Beth continued to go down. The game paused as the champ and Natalya arrived on the scene. They plugged the game, bragged about beating everyone, not really mentioning Eve. That was it, it was all said and done. Beth and Natalya took their leave. Alicia and Kelly went back to their game…

That was it. It truly was. I was shocked, but not for the reason you’d think. Let’s be honest, last night’s Raw was about two people, the newly crowned WWE Champion, CM Punk, and the delicious United States Champion, Dolph Ziggler. The match they put on last night was simply spectacular, and something all of us need to feel fortunate that we got to see it on free TV. And honestly, having seen it, nothing else really mattered to me last night. That’s why the Divas appearing in a commercial for the new WWE ’12 game didn’t bother me. I actually kind of liked it. Kelly was adorable and both Beth and Natalya fared way better this time. They have a right to brag after Survivor Series. They put Eve out, even if it’s just temporarily, and now they get to move on to whatever challenge awaits them next. Sometimes a pointless backstage segment is a hell of a lot better than a stupid, 48-second BS match. Survivor Series pretty much spoke for itself. Eve took one hellacious bump and it was the right thing to keep her off television. It was also the right thing to just halt the storyline for the time being and leave us all to ponder where DoD and Kelly/Alicia go from here. Should Survivor Series hadn’t gone down the way it had, and had Ziggler/Punk not given us one orgasm of a match, then perhaps Raw could have been different. But alas, what’s happened has been written in stone. And we can’t go back.

But what should happen next?

We have a lot of Divas, but not very many will be pushed. That’s just how it is in Diva-Land. The most obvious scenario in my opinion is that Alicia will get the next crack at DoD. Beth has taken care of Kelly and Eve, so it’s natural that the third member of the model trio gets the next shot. I’m not for or against this, but I think the possibility of an Alicia/Beth match is amazing. We’ve not really seen Foxy in a proper match in quite some time, and with the Divas actually getting time on pay-per-views, I’d be very interested in seeing it. Foxy is underrated as a competitor and Beth has the ability to bring her opponents to a whole nother level. Her matches with Kelly and Eve, two people who are constantly criticized for their so-called lack of skills, were nothing short of amazing. And that’s a testament to Kelly and Eve, as well as Beth. Alicia can only benefit from working with Beth in a couple of lengthy matches. These girls should benefit from working with Natalya as well, but the WWE has seemingly forgotten how to use their third generation Diva. It’s really unfortunate.

Should Alicia not get the rub, then perhaps AJ and Kaitlyn can step up. I refuse to believe the ‘E would do something as stupid as try and split up the Chickbusters, but if it comes to that, then it better be one damn elaborate plan concocted by AJ and Kaitlyn, to throw everyone else off their game. They can have this pretend feud which spills over to DoD when AJ randomly wins a title shot at whatever the December PPV is. Kaitlyn could seemingly help on the AJ beatdowns and make her presence felt in said title match. Botched interference could lead to this shocking victory for AJ, and she could look at Kaitlyn with a smile on her face. Kaitlyn smiles back, they embrace, and hold up AJ’s newly won title, having pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes. I will throw myself at Uncle Truth in Miami — should he not be suspended — if that scenario actually happens (sorry Saint Tyler Black), but it’s not likely. It would be so much fun to watch though.

Whether it’s Alicia or AJ, or maybe Eve or Kelly again, the fact of the matter is, the ‘E needs to add a little spice to DoD. They shouldn’t just be getting pay-per-view victories, and AJ and Kaitlyn don’t need to be the only Divas they can collectively beat as a team. Whoever gets the next shot and whatever direction the ‘E decides to go in, I truly hope they do everyone involved justice and let them have a proper storyline. That said, let’s have a moment of real talk. I think we can all agree that no matter what happens next, the end result of all of this needs to be Beth vs Natalya at WrestleMania. There’s a reason they’ve never faced each other and I like to believe it’s so they can face each other on the grandest stage of them all…

Goosebumps.

And speaking of goosebumps, as well as other immediate reactions, the aforementioned Punk/Ziggler clash is worthy of a spot right here in my Redux. I realize this is not Diva-Dirt-and-Dolph.com (can it please be, Melanie?) but Vickie Guerrero, our favorite manager, got involved. So yes, I’m using that as an excuse to pimp this match to the masses who may not have seen it last night or may want to watch it again. If this were ESPN, it would be an instant classic.

Enjoy my friends. Until next week… Cryssi out!

Divas Champion Beth Phoenix has tweeted several times during her title reign that she will be “Divas Champion forever”, and last night she certainly certainly proved that she’ll do whatever it takes to make that eternal title reign happen — nailing her challenger, Eve Torres, with the biggest Glam Slam in history!

Let’s catch up on all the action…

As Kelly Kelly‘s theme hits, she leads out the entire Divas roster to ringside where they will serve as lumberjills for the Divas Title match. Oddly, they’re all in ring gear which lead me to wonder if the match would be turned into an impromptu Survivor Series elimination match, but alas, it wasn’t to be. Random thought: Oh my, Maxine‘s ring attire could very easily be non-PG.

With that out of the way, it’s time to meet the challenger, Eve, clad in white. Not sure if I like this color on her. But before I can decide, the Glamazon hits the ring with her BFF Natalya in tow.

As Natalya joins the lumberjills at ringside, Eve has a look of sheer determination on her face. She certainly looks like a worthy challenger. The champion confidently walks right up to Eve, hoisting her Divas Title in the air in an intimidating manner as the referee tries to keep the pair apart.

The Divas lock up as the referee calls for the bell and it’s Beth who gets the better of the move, shoving Eve. However, Eve fights right back with a forearm shot to Beth. Beth goes for a forearm of her own but Eve ducks and runs the ropes. She launches herself at Beth, who catches her mid-air and drops her. Beth goes for an elbow drop on Eve but before she can hit it, Eve uses her quickness to cut her off at the feet and Beth lands on the canvas. Eve with a nice strike kick, showing off her martial arts background, and a pin attempt but no dice. Eve again hits another nice kick before showing off her patented booty pop. “Shucky ducky!” Beth rolls out of the ring before Eve can hit her standing moonsault, however. The babyface lumberjills play their part, tossing her back into the ring where Eve goes for a nice neckbreaker. Eve finally gets to hit her standing moonsault and goes for another pin attempt but the mighty Glamazon kicks out.

Beth kicks Eve away as she tries to catch her breath, leaning against the ropes. Eve comes at her but gets tossed over the top rope. Eve, however, doesn’t fall to the piranhas below, instead landing on the apron as the Bella Twins and Natalya clamour around her hoping she lands on the floor. Eve with a shoulder tackle through the ropes on Beth. Natalya tries to pull Eve off the apron but gets kicked away. As Eve re-enters the ring, Beth hits her with a hard kick and begins stomping into her. Beth places Eve under the bottom rope, guillotining her windpipe. The Bellas and Natalya take great glee in this as Beth pulls her back into the ring for a pin attempt but Eve shows resilience and kicks out.

Beth now applies a camel clutch, hoping to make Eve tap out but the challenger continues to hold on. Eve fights her way out of the hold. Beth whips Eve into the ropes, but Eve hangs on. As Beth comes at her, she kicks Beth away. Eve then shows off some lucha-esque, jumping onto Beth and then launching her into the middle turnbuckle. Eve continues to keep the momentum going with a dropkick and back elbow and a hard kick to the face. Eve runs the ropes and hits a nice sit-out clothesline. With Beth down, Eve goes for a running senton splash off the ropes but Beth puts her knees up, which sends Eve down to the mat. Beth goes for the Glam Slam but Eve butt bumps & elbows her way out of it. Eve then applies that beautiful triangle choke submission hold that we saw at Vengeance, as Beth slowly slumps to the mat. Natalya tries to reach out to Beth to help her reach the ropes but the referee catches this. However, Beth finds a counter, flipping out of the hold and holding onto the ropes.

Natalya trash talks Eve from the outside, trying to distract her. She then jumps up on the apron and as Eve goes to knock her off, she quickly jumps down while Beth hurries behind Eve and rolls her up for the pin, but Eve counters into a pin of her own, however, Beth kicks out.

Eve hits Beth with a back elbow and then uses the bottom ring rope for a boost as she hits a nice kick to the side of Beth’s head. Beth looks to be out cold as Eve climbs to the top for the moonsault. As Eve climbs up top, Beth jumps back to her feet, pushing Eve off the top and the challenger lands in a precarious position on the top rope!

Beth climbs up to the second turnbuckle too. The two two exchange some blows, but Beth manages to hook Eve’s arms as we realize what she’s going for… YES! A Glam Slam from the turnbuckle! SUPER GLAM SLAM! And that’s all folks.

Beth emerges victorious as Madison Square Garden comes alive for the biggest Glam Slam in history. Now that’s an MSG moment!

Beth and Natalya celebrate the successful title defense as Kelly and Alicia try to scrape what’s left of Eve from the mat.

Thoughts: While not as long or as technical as their previous bout at Vengeance, I really enjoyed this match. The chemistry between Beth and Eve was once again on show. I feel like we’ve seen Eve’s potential really explode in these two matches with Beth. Every week on Raw or in matches with the likes of the Bella Twins, we see little sparks of Eve’s potential, but being in the ring with a veteran like Beth, she’s able to go balls to the wall and have a great match. We always say that the less experienced girls should be wrestling with the veterans like Beth and Natalya so they can get better and show the world what they can do, and both Eve and Kelly have done that with Beth. Eve is looking more comfortable and confident in the ring than ever before, and I think that Vengeance match last month really solidified her as a “wrestler” and not just a “former Diva Search girl”. Few Divas have been able to really shake off that tag — Michelle McCool is perhaps the best example of doing so — but I think Eve has turned the corner and is now heading in that direction too. Her performance last night was strong.

I would’ve liked to see the match get more time, but I think that they more than compensated that by doing a big spot at the end which will have everyone talking. The two matches between these two have been very different. The last one was long and technical, and this one was short and about the big finish. I think that given the time they were given, they did what they could to have this match as memorable as the last one. You can’t have a great long, technical match given the time, so why not go the other route and do the big finish? The finish was magnificent. There are no other words for it. Madison Square Garden is all about historic moments for WWE, and last night Beth had her historic MSG moment. That’s one for the highlight reel.

Was it better than Vengeance? No. Was it a good Divas match, however? Certainly, yes!

Match Rating: 3.5/5

What did you think of Eve vs Beth?

Diva Dirt presents live, ongoing coverage of WSU’s Breaking Barriers 2 Internet pay per view tonight. The show kicks off at 7pm ET. Click here to order the iPPV.

All times are Eastern.

Welcome to our live coverage of WSU Breaking Barriers 2! Follow the coverage here on Diva-Dirt.com and our Twitter page, @divadirt. Tonight, WSU presents a stacked card including the first ever steel cage War Games match, as well as former WWE Divas Champion, Melina‘s return to the ring. Plus, Becky Bayless (TNA’s Cookie) will be in action as well as many other stars.

Diva Dirt will be the official media partner for WSU Breaking Barriers 2. Diva Dirt’s Steven is the official correspondent, conducting exclusive backstage interviews with the WSU stars during the pay per view.

Good video package promoting the War Games match opens the show. Opening contest is Jetta & Rain vs Boston Shore for the WSU World Tag Team Championship.

WSU Tag Team Championship: Boston Shore vs Rain & Jetta
Before the match, Jetta & Rain engage in a dance-off, joking around with the Boston girls. Jetta & Rain do “rock, paper, scissors” to determine who will get in the ring first. We start with Lexxus and Rain.

Rain & Jetta with good tag team working, tagging in and out a lot, controlling Lexxus and not allowing her to tag out to her tag team partner, Amber.

Lexxus finally tags in Amber who works over Rain by raking her eyes over the top rope. Amber with the control on Rain now. Rain finally manages to break free and hits a unique submission on Amber. Lexxus hits the ring and breaks it up by kicking Rain.

Stream dropped. Looks like we’re having technical difficulties.

I’m told that Boston Shore won.

Winners Boston Shore

Loser Leaves WSU: Niya vs Jennifer Cruz
Niya with a lot of fast paced action taking it to Cruz. Crowd is firmly behind Niya too. Niya with a nice dive to the outside on Cruz. Very impressive in this match.

The two women get back into the ring. Cruz grounds Niya with a hard clothesline and begins working her over. Cruz goes up top but Niya gets to her feet and hits a snapmare on Cruz to the mat. Pin attempt but Cruz kicks out. Niya with inside cradle, but Cruz kicks out again. Cruz takes Niya down again & goes up top again. This time she goes for a headbutt but Niya rolls out of the way.

Niya with a nice belly-to-belly suplex. Niya with a beautiful handspring splash, goes for a cover but only a two-count.

Cruz gets up and hits a chokeslam variation and goes for pin but Niya kicks out.

Niya with a kick to the head and goes up top & hits Cruz with a crossbody and goes for pin but Cruz reverses and pins Niya.

Winner: Jennifer Cruz

Niya is out of WSU!

Cruz cuts a promo about beating Niya and sending “that piece of crap” back to New Mexico. Jennifer Cruz makes a challenge and April Hunter answers!

April Hunter vs Jennifer Cruz
April mocks Cruz, by kneeling down to meet her height and then chest-bumps her with her er, ample assets.

April with multiple suplexes and a pin attempt on Cruz. One sided match. Hunter controls Jennifer and makes her tap.

Note: Video exclusive from WSU pre-show now up here. Altercation between Team WSU & Midwest Militia.

Backstage, Diva Dirt’s Steven holds a coin toss between Jessicka Havok and Mercedes Martinez to determine who will enter the War Games match first.

April Hunter back in the ring saying she feels she’s earned a regular spot on the WSU roster.

NYWC Starlet Championship: Violet vs Bonesaw Jessie Brook vs Gabby Gilbert vs Nikki Syxx (Elimination Rules)
Syxx and Brook fighting outside. In the ring, Violet and Gabby. Violet with a bulldog on Gabby and a pin attempt. Gabby kicks out. Gabby with a Samoan drop on Violet. Violet eliminated.

Brook goes for covers on both Gabby and Syxx but both kick out. Gabby & Brook team up on Nikki, then fight each other. Brook with a nice armbar submission on Gilbert. Submission broken up. Gilbert in the corner and Brook with a running knee. Pin attempt but Gilbert kicks out. Gabby with a crossface on Brook. Jessie Brook eliminated.

Syxx vs Gilbert now as the last two standing. Syxx with a side chokeslam and pin attempt but Gilbert kicks out. Backbreaker by Syxx. Nikki with a senton attempt from the top but misses. Gabby takes advantage and goes up top and tries a senton of her own but also misses.

Both ladies try to rise to their feet and exchange blows. Gilbert with an overhead suplex on Syxx. Syxx goes for a kick but misses. Gilbert with Samoan drop attempt but Nikki reverses into a roll-up and wins.

Winner: Nikki Syxx

Next up Belle Saints vs Soul Sisters.

Belle Saints (Marti Belle & Tina San Antonio) vs Soul Sisters (Jana & Luscious Latasha)
The two teams shake hands before the match. Marti and Jana kicking things off. The two have a back and forth exchange. Marti with a headscissors and tag out to Tina. Jana takes control of Tina with a leg-scissors wrapped around her opponent’s neck. Jana tags out to Latasha.

Tina with a powerslam on Latasha for a pin attempt but no three count. Side headlock. Latasha now begins offense with a dropkick, snapmare and nice front dropkick. Tina blind tags Marti and they hit a tag team clothesline on Latasha. Marti with a front headlock on Latasha & tags in Tina. Double team side-Russian leg sweep. Tina with a snapmare and neck snap. Pin attempt but no three. Tina with a cartwheel bump into the corner on Latasha & Marti with a running knee. Suplex by Tina. Commentator says tension between Belle Saints.

Latasha begins fighting back but Tina wrenches her arm and tags in Marti, but does it in a harsh way, teasing dissension. Marti back in the ring against Latasha. Frustration between the Belle Saints. Marti tags out to Tina. Latasha tries to tag Jana but Tina blocks her. Latasha finally begins fighting back and Tina tags out. Marti now taking it to Latasha but Latasha counters into a neckbreaker.

Tina and Jana get hot tags. Jana with lots of offense on Tina and hits a cartwheel splash. Pin attempt but Tina kicks out. Tina begins fighting back with elbows to the stomach, she runs the ropes but Marti blind tags herself in. Marti & Tina argue. Meanwhile, Latasha & Jana hit a double team dropkick on Marti which knocks Tina off the apron. Jana with a front headlock submission and Marti taps.

Winners and new No. 1 Contenders for Tag Team Titles: Soul Sisters

Tina takes to the mic and begins trashing Marti. Marti grabs the mic and says she knows Tina’s secret and it’s time it comes out. Amy Lee hits the ring and shows some footage on the titantron which reveals that Tina faked her attack earlier in the year. Marti begins crying and says Tina turned her back on her and the WSU fans. Tina asks for forgiveness. They hug but Tina takes out Marti and leaves her lying in the ring.

Really great angle. Strong acting from both ladies.

Rick Cataldo vs Becky Bayless
Before the match, Cataldo takes the microphone. I love this guy! So funny… He says he doesn’t give a f**k about Becky and will break her nails, face etc. He calls her a “drunk whore” and brings up her past DUI.

Out comes Becky and gets on the mic. Becky says he’s a joke and while she was working and traveling around the world in TNA, he was watching gay porn in his mom’s basement. She says he’s disrespecting WSU, the women backstage and the fans and she’ll beat some respect into him.

Cataldo slaps Becky but she fires back with several slaps of her own and a hard chop. Cataldo leapfrogs Becky and tries to pin her but she sits on his face which makes him squeam! He jumps out of the ring and Becky gives chase. They get back in the ring & Cataldo takes control now. He chokes her over the middle rope. He rakes her eyes and then tries to bite her nails off but Becky hits a jawbreaker and goes for a pin but doesn’t get a three. Cataldo rakes her eyes and goes to work on her but Becky with a hard slap and a bulldog. Pin attempt.

Becky with an Oklahoma roll but Cataldo kicks out. Cataldo hits her face first against the mat. Side backbreaker over Cataldo’s knee on Becky. Cataldo in control, but Becky soon fights back by slamming him head first several times on the top turnbuckle while she’s sitting there… Pin attempt but Rick grabs the ropes.

Becky with a neckbreaker, snapping the back of Cataldo’s neck over her shoulder (like Layla’s Layout).

Becky with the pin.

Winner: Becky Bayless

Such a fun match! The pre-match promos were epic. Best segment so far.

Out next is WSU commissioner Amy Lee. She teases the reveal for Melina’s opponent. She brings out Serena to address the fans. Serena apologizes for not being able to perform tonight. She says she was looking forward to the match with Melina and calls her an amazing performer. She says she had a bad concussion. Serena says she gives it everything she has when she gets in the ring and never half-asses. Serena says she will be back and we will see the best of Serena.

Serena says she came here tonight to warmly welcome Melina to WSU and is excited to see who her opponent is. Serena says she wants to join Cindy Rogers on commentary for the match. She says she’s excited to see this match.

Amy Lee announces Lexxus as Melina’s opponent. Amy says she picked Lexxus because she survived 73 minutes against the greatest champion in Mercedes Martinez. Tonight is her chance to wrestle a former WWE Women’s Champion and not to make her regret the decision.

Melina vs Lexxus
Lexxus trash talks Melina. Melina gets back in her face. They tussle on the mat for a moment and then begin locking up. Melina with an arm lock submission but Lexxus breaks out of the hold. Melina and Lexxus exchange blows.

Lexxus begins offense on Melina with kicks and an Irish whip into a hard clothesline. Pin attempt but no three for Lexxus. Lexxus begins stomping on Melina and slaps her in the face. Lexxus rams Melina’s head into the turnbuckle and begins choking her out with her foot. Lexxus trash talks as Melina recovers and hits her with a back elbow and then hits a move off the second rope. Pin attempt by Melina but no three.

Melina with a running shoulder tackle in the corner on Lexxus. Melina hits her double-knee smash on Lexxus in the corner. Pin attempt but no three.

Lexxus gets to her feet and begins taking it to Melina. She goes for a baseball slide but Melina moves out of the way and Lexxus ends up on the outside. Melina with a clothesline from the ring apron on Lexxus. Melina rams her into the side of the ring. Lexxus begins fighting back and slams Melina against the hard floor face-first.

Back in the ring, pin attempt by Lexxus followed by a camel clutch. Lexxus chokes Melina over the middle rope using her leg, then Melina reverses and does the same to Lexxus. Lexxus with a back elbow and snapmare on Melina followed by a hard kick to the back. Pin attempt by Lexxus but no three.

Lexxus with a hair toss on Melina. Melina begins fighting back and gets to her feet as the crowd will her back into the match. Melina with a backslide but Lexxus kicks out. Lexxus takes control again and goes for a pin attempt of her own. Lexxus with a strike across the chest. Melina fights back with forearm shots. Melina goes for her splits kick but Lexxus moves out of the way. Lexxus hits her with a dropkick and pin attempt but no three count.

Lexxus begins choking out Melina. Melina gets to her feet and hits a hair toss and dropkick on Lexxus. Melina fights back with forearms and another hair toss. Melina whips Lexxus and hits a spinning heel kick. Eye rake by Lexxus. Melina with a drop toe hold onto the middle rope. Lexxus with a double knee smash. Front faceplant by Melina and a pin attempt. Lexxus reverses an Irish whip and hits a jawbreaker on Melina.

Both women try to will themselves back into the match. Melina goes for the Sunset Split but Lexxus’ tag partner Amber comes out to ringside with a chair. Serena leaves commentary and flees Amber from ringside. Lexxus hits her finisher and goes for two pins but Melina manages to kick out.

Melina finally hits the Sunset Split for the 1, 2, 3!

Winner: Melina

After the match, Amber jumps in the ring and attacks Melina. Melina is laid out. Serena can’t make the save due to her concussion, but Rain comes out and chases off the Boston Shore.

Rain and a referee help Melina to the back.

Backstage, Steven interviews the Midwest Militia about the War Games match.

The WSU Hall of Fame Class of 2012 announced: Cindy Rogers, Georgiann Makropoulos, Jana and TNA President Dixie Carter. Yeah, you read that right… Dixie. Um…

Backstage, Steven interviews Jana & Latasha. Interview interrupted when Lexxus attacks Serena backstage.

Video package for main event.

Tina San Antonio cuts a promo on Marti Belle. She challenges her to a match at the 5th Anniversary Show next March.

A lot of time needed to set up the cage.

Steel Cage War Games Match: Midwest Militia vs Team WSU
In all honestly, I have no idea what the rules are for a match like this and they were read out too quickly for me to understand. Anyhoo, Stephie and Martinez kick things off while the other four ladies stand outside the ring. Martinez with the early control, taking it to Stephie. Martinez lights Stephie up with hard chops. Stephie with a nice sitout takedown. Stephie with a headlock but Martinez hits a jawbreaker on her and gets out of it. Martinez in control now, smashing Stephie’s head against the cage. Stephie eventually begins fighting back & has a chinlock applied as another entrant enters the match — Allysin Kay. Stephie and Kay double team Mercedes but she begins fighting back and lights up Kay with chops. Mercedes clubs Kay across the chest several times and then grates her forehead on the cage. Kay reverses and grates Martinez’s forehead on the cage. Stephie & Kay work over Martinez as a double team. They try to keep Martinez grounded with chokes and smashing her head against the mat. Kay with a camel clutch as Stephie talks trash.

Brittney Savage now enters the cage with a clothesline on Stephie. Kay goes for a backbreaker but she reverses into a backstabber. Stephie vs Brittney now. Clothesline from Savage. Kay attacks her from behind. Martinez back on her feet and chops Kay again. Kay chops Martinez back. Exchange of blows. Meanwhile, Stephie is battling Brittney.

Jessicka enters the cage now and goes straight after Martinez with a kick and several forearm shots. Jessicka tosses her across the ring. then she picks up Brittney for a twirly-birdy and slingshots her into the cage. Kay & Havok pick up Brittney and ram her into the cage. Another double team move as Havok hoists up Brittney and Kay hits her with a codebreaker. Havok with a superplex on Martinez.

Alicia hits the ring and takes down Kay & Stephie. She throws Kay into the side of the cage. Two Michinoku drivers on Kay and Stephie. Alicia whips Stephie into Kay and then hits a superkick on them. They slump to the canvas and she hits a running butt bump. However, Havok then hits her with a big boot. Brittney hits Havok across the back but Havok picks her up by the throat, pinning her against the side of the cage. Martinez makes the save and hits several suplexes on Havok.

Kay is trying to climb over the top of the cage but Alicia and Martinez try to bring her back in. Kay ends up in tree of woe position hanging from the top of the cage!!! Martinez hits her with chops. Brittney climbs up on middle rope and hits her with kicks to the stomach. Martinez with a running kick to the head and Kay falls to the floor.

Brittney applies a camel clutch on Kay, and Alicia does same to Stephie. Meanwhile, Martinez and Havok brawling. Martinez grates Havok’s head on the side of the cage and kicks her in the head.

Havok and Martinez find themselves on the outside of the cage!

Kay once again cimbs up top and Alicia tries to pull her down. Havok has a pair of handcuffs and cuffs the doors shut while Martinez is still stuck outside!

Allysin Kay attacks referee Amy Lee!

Mercedes Martinez tries to climb into the ring over the top.

The Militia take out Alicia & Brittney but then Mercedes hits a triple crossbody on all three members. She tosses them into the side of the cage. Team WSU makes a comeback by taking it to all three members of the Militia.

Martinez and and Alicia hit a double team move on Stephie. Alicia holds her up in powerbomb position & Martinez jumps off the top rope to assist.

Alicia & Havok battling. Havok is busted open.

Kay unlocks the handcuffs that had locked the cage door. Kay flees and Brittney runs after her. Back in the ring, Martinez climbs the turnbuckles and hits a missile dropkick on Havok.

Allysin Kay returns to ringside with a MACHETE!

Havok & Martinez on the top rope against the cage, Havok with a side-Russian leg sweep off the rope and to the canvas below.

Havok & Stephie handcuff Brittney to the bottom rope. Alicia is also handcuffed on the other side of the cage.

Havok tries to get on the mic. Havok says “now the takeover starts” and Amy Lee is no longer the top dog in WSU.

Kay & Stephie prop up Mercedes as Havok screams at her. She says come March at the 5th Anniversary Show, Martinez will no longer be WSU Champion. Havok begins trashing all the women and laying in kicks to the handcuffed women. Havok gets in Martinez’s face but she spits in Havok’s face. Havok goes crazy and grabs the machete and threatens Martinez.

Havok hits a Samoan drop on Martinez. Kay & Stephie hold down Martinez as Havok stands over her threatening to stab her with the machete.

Not sure how the finish came, but I believe Brittney said “I quit”, giving the Midwest Militia the win.

Winners: Midwest Militia

Havok holds up the machete and WSU World Championship over Martinez’s fallen body.

The Militia admire their handiwork before leaving ringside as officials come to check on Team WSU and Amy Lee.

I really don’t know what to make of that ending. It was extremely dramatic and over the top to the point of WCW flashbacks, but at the same time, Jessicka Havok is so deliciously evil, that it somehow works. I really don’t know how I feel about the ending…

Final Thoughts
I felt this show was more hit and miss than some of the past couple of iPPVs. I have to say, the June iPPV, from top to bottom, was very cohesive and this one seems to have lost that cohesiveness throughout the show. I definitely enjoyed the Becky/Rick match, which was the highlight for me. Just an entertaining match. Not exactly technically brilliant, but very fun and lively. The pre-match promos were great. The ending of the main event was just crazy — I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. The match, however, featured a ton of hard hitting action. Good stuff, but kind of hard to keep track of everything that was going on. Melina vs Lexxus was okay. Serena’s promo was very heartwarming.

Well hello there. Yes, it’s me, your resident Redux jacker, Bobby here. Steven is MIA this week… alright he’s really at the WSU iPPV, therefore I am filling in to bring you all of the greatness that comes with Friday Night SmackDown. I like to call tonight’s episode “Adventures in Divaland” because there seems to be a lot going on right now involving many different women. Tonight we had two of my top three favorite Divas, AJ & Kaitlyn, in tag team action against the polarizing duo of Beth Phoenix & Natalya. On top of that, we also got to see appearances from Alicia Fox, Aksana, and my other favorite, Maxine!

Okay enough blubbering. Let’s get down to business.

Because I like to start things off with the match (unless it’s NXT because there’s usually so much going on), we will kick things off with the Divas of Doom entrance. Beth Phoenix & Natalya walk out in their finest pink & black gear, as they pose on the ring apron with Beth’s Divas Championship. During said entrance, we discover that Beth’s match against Eve Torres has been turned into a Lumberjill match, which brings many different reactions from fans I’m sure. Following this up, we finally get to see this new kickass theme of AJ’s on TV, as the Chickbusters step out from the back in some red gear to combat the sinister Sisters of Salvation. Once all four Divas are inside the ring, they head over to their respective corners and the bell sounds as we get underway.

Beth and Kaitlyn start things off, as Beth shoves the plucky NXT winner back into the ropes. Kaitlyn fights back with a punch and a nice dropkick to send Beth into the corner. Phoenix then gets drilled with a flurry of kicks by Kaitlyn, before backing up to the center of the ring and taking control with a bodyslam attempt. Kaitlyn, however, being the improving hybrid diva she is, manages to escape out the back and shove Beth right into the ropes. She runs up towards the Divas Champion, however, Phoenix hoists her up and drops her throat first onto the top rope. Ouch!

As both Kaitlyn and I grasp our throats from the pain of either experiencing or watching that move take place, Beth immediately goes to work on the stomach with some kicks and punches before tagging in Natalya. The two then grab Kaitlyn and slingshot her into the air, before dropping her back first into the ring! I immediately relate this back to the feeling I had riding my first roller coaster, as I imagine Kaitlyn to be very dizzy and loopy after going through it as I was at the time. Natalya hurriedly makes pinfall attempts, but Kaitlyn does not give up.

The two taunt Kaitlyn as if it’s tear time, and Nattie then locks in an abdominal stretch. AJ begs Kaitlyn for a tag, as I believe Kaitlyn spots a mustache in the crowd which gives her the energy to flip the veteran diva over with an arm drag. Kaitlyn struggles to tag into AJ, but Natalya ends up bodyslamming her and going for a leg drop. Kaitlyn manages to roll out of the way and finally makes the tag!

AJ ascends to the top rope and leaps off with a beautiful crossbody onto Natalya, before continuing it up with some punches to the face and kicks. AJ runs off the ropes and goes for a sunset flip, but her small stature isn’t enough to pull Natalya over. Nattie takes it upon herself to lock in the Sharpshooter, before falling backwards to add even more pain and force me to cringe as I watch AJ get bent into a pretzel. Sadly, AJ is forced to submit, as the Divas of Doom take pride in their Diva Dominance. Kaitlyn, however, does not seem too pleased that she lost, as she puts her hands on her hips and questions AJ as to what went wrong…Could the Chickbusters (unfortunately) be heading to splitsville?

Let’s follow up the match with what I’ve been begging WWE to do since NXT Season 3, and that’s put Maxine on SmackDown where she belongs! We head out to the ring to see Ted DiBiase make his grand entrance for an upcoming match against Derrick Bateman, who has the vivacious vixen in his corner. During Ted’s entrance, we head to a video interview with Batemax taken earlier in which they introduce themselves to the crowd as NXT’s power couple. Maxine follows it up by saying that tonight, they are bringing their love to SmackDown! Derrick goes to plant a kiss on his lovers lips, but Maxine stops him and says to save it for later.

Note: I would review the match, but Derrick Bateman does not emerge victorious so I refuse!

Up next with our “Adventures in Divaland”, we stumble upon Alicia Fox, as she is seen chatting up Justin Gabriel backstage. As I frown at the thought of no Fancy Fox Hood sightings this week, she claims that she has never met a South African before and calls Justin dreamy. Zack Ryder then walks into the scene and asks the two to sign his petition so that he can get a US title match against Dolph Ziggler. Suddenly, The Big Show interrupts and signs the petition himself, as Ryder explains to him what happened earlier in the night when Mark Henry attacked Daniel Bryan and claimed he was next. Big Show walks off, as the three stand there in fear of what’s to come.

Continuing on with this trend of “Adventures in Divaland”, we first stumble upon two non-Divas, in Ted DiBiase and Hornswoggle playing the new WWE ’12 video game. Out of nowhere pops my playa, Teddy Long, who asks if they are having a good time. Ted DiBiase, rocking both the movember mustache and the WWE ’12 shirt, says that they just recreated the main event to Survivor Series. Teddy Long then congratulates DiBiase on his recent string of victories, as well as his involvement with the DiBiase Posse Parties, when out of nowhere comes some saxophone music and pink strobe lights!

Here comes Miss Lithuania, Aksana! She calls for Teddy and both DiBiase and Long respond, before the latter excuses both DiBiase and Hornswoggle from the room. Teddy then asks Aksana what is going on, before she states that she heard someone was playing the new WWE ’12 video game. Aksana claims that when she was younger she wasn’t good at them, but as she got older she became more accustomed to handling a… joystick. Teddy asks Aksana to meet him back in this very room later so that they can play the video game, as she kisses him on the cheek and exits. Teddy then clutches his heart as I relive the greatest segment of all time in my head — Teddy Long and Kristal Marshall’s wedding. If only I could have reviewed THAT episode of SmackDown we’d all be in for a treat.

Also tonight, we got to see AJ before her match as she tended to Daniel Bryan in the trainer’s room following his attack at the hands of Mark Henry earlier on in the show. The trainer walks off as she questions whether it feels any better at all, before the Big Show walks in and vows to get revenge for what Mark Henry did. He claims that if he would’ve been here, none of this would’ve happened and that he’s going to go find Mark.

Thoughts: Apologies, but I am currently in mourning at this very time. Don’t get me wrong, I thought the tag team match was great, as well as the fact that it was finally treated as more than just a squash where the Chickbusters don’t get an entrance, but I don’t want to see them split. They put on great matches against one another in FCW, but in a roster where the faces are limited, I fear that if Kaitlyn turns heel she could become lost after a feud with AJ and I don’t want that happening. She really impressed tonight though, as I think she held her own in the tag team match where she was the least experienced of the bunch. Thumbs up to the match (and the fact both teams got an entrance!)

It was also great to see Maxine and Derrick Bateman take to Smackdown. Whether she chooses Bateman or Dirty Curty, Maxine can make anything work in my opinion, and I want her on this show every week making great segments like she does on NXT. The video package was especially nice to see because it gave people who don’t watch NXT some back story of the two and so you didn’t feel like you were just watching a local talent or anything. Thumbs up to them, as well as the AAA (Alicia, Aksana, & AJ) sightings backstage!

Good afternoon, everybody. It is I, the great Bobbito here to bring you your Impact greatness all in this recap. On a day where I should be thrilled due to the worldwide trending of (Miss) Karen Jarrett last night, I am not… but we’ll get into that later. We also had a 10 Knockout gauntlet match featuring the likes of Velvet Sky, Rosita, Brooke Tessmacher, Angelina Love, Mickie James, Sarita, Tara, Winter, ODB, and Madison Rayne to crown the new number one contender for Gail Kim‘s newly won Knockouts Championship, and Miss Karen made her presence known in a segment to tear Jeff Hardy a new one! So much to discuss, and so little time, but why don’t we get started with the segments involved in the match.

First up, we head backstage where we see Miss Karen walking into the official “Karen’s Krusaders” dressing room and greeting both Madison Rayne and the new TNA Knockouts Champion, Gail Kim! Miss Karen seems very pleased with Aunt Traci for finally covering up, but to her disappointment, Aunt Traci spins around to reveal a spot cutout for her girls to breathe. Miss Karen gives up on trying to convert Aunt Traci, before giving Gail Kim the night off due to her wonderful actions at Turning Point. She then goes to instruct Madison on what to do tonight, but Madison already knows so she walks off as Miss Karen orders some champagne. Aunt Traci seems to think this includes her as she gets a glass for herself that Miss Karen proceeds to give to Gail. The two classy ladies toast in a celebration, as Aunt Traci looks on in disapproval.

As we head right to the ring for the upcoming number one contenders gauntlet bout, we spot the fiery Latina, Rosita, standing in the ring. Resident redhead ring announcer, Christy Hemme, then proceeds to announce her opponent, Velvet Sky! The former champion (who really should get a rematch clause) has a stare off with Rosita, who then proceeds to take out her big hoop earrings to show she means business. Before she can properly unhook them though, Velvet kicks her in the stomach and drops her with the double underhook facebuster for the quick elimination! Rosita has been eliminated!

As Velvet moves on, out comes her next challenger, Brooke Tessmacher! Brooke slides under a clothesline attempt and drops Sky with one of her own, followed up with a nice dropkick. Velvet make this awesome loopy reaction as she stumbles backwards into the corner where Brooke takes control with some kicks and the Ass-tastic! She takes too long to capitalize on this though, as Velvet gets back up and plants her with a huge bulldog for the second elimination! Brooke Tessmacher has been eliminated!

Angelina Love then makes her way to the ring as the next challenger, which means the two former BFFs will face off. Velvet takes control from the start with a few kicks, before sending Love into the ropes. Love comes back with a kick, and some clotheslines, followed up with a front slam for a two count as Sky scurries into the corner and boots Angelina in the face. Some chops soon follow, along with a pair of jawbreakers to the knees and a clothesline! Velvet then sets up for the double underhook facebuster again, but Angelina quickly rolls her up and grabs the tights for the win. Velvet Sky has been eliminated!

HAAAARDCUURRRR COUNTREHHHH erupts, as our checkered queen of the Knockouts division, Mickie James, two-steps her way on down to the ring. Before she can reach it though, Angelina Love attacks her on the ramp and lays her out with the Botox Injection. (Okay, that’s awesome to say if you don’t know it’s the name of her finisher.) We return from a commercial break to see Angelina Love dominating Mickie James, but Hardcore Country tries to make a comeback. Angelina sends her flying into the corner and drops her with a nice sidewalk slam, before Mickie starts to make a comeback with some clotheslines! Mickie proceeds to go for the DDT but Angelina escapes… only she soon gets introduced to Mickie’s boot with the Mick Kick for the victory! Angelina Love has been eliminated!

Up next comes a new and improved maskless Sarita, who manages to avoid a quick roll up attempt from the get go and plant Mickie with a sick dropkick. Sarita does some flashy handstand, following it up with a little dance (oh how I’ve missed her dancing), before applying a torture rack submission. Mickie reverses it into a roll up, but only for a two count. Sarita with a knee to the face, before landing a snapmare into a near fall. Mickie starts to fight back, but Sarita continues her domination. She goes to Irish Whip Mickie, only James reverses it and Sarita goes for a springboard crossbody… however Mickie manages to duck out of the way. From there, she plants Sarita with a SICK Mickie-DT for the win. Sarita has been eliminated!

Out comes Tara who runs down to the ring and takes Mickie down. She proceeds to apply a chinlock submission, but Mickie counters it into an armbar that Tara reverses into an armdrag. Tara goes for the Widow’s Peak, but Mickie changes it into a sunset flip attempt… only Tara stops herself from falling backwards and applies a nice leglock. Mickie crawls towards the ropes and manages to grab hold of them, but Tara doesn’t let this stop her as she pulls her to the center of the ring and executes a shimmysault for a two count. Tara chants erupt as she locks Mickie into a tree of woe, before slamming her head into Mickie’s stomach a few times. Mickie then rolls backwards off Tara’s back and hits another Mickie-DT for the win! Tara has been eliminated!

My personal god of life (other than Miss Karen, of course) Winter is out next! As I relish in getting to hear her perfect theme song on TV for the first time in what seems like eternities, she quickly runs down to the ring and drags Mickie into the corner before hitting a Northern Lights Suplex for a few two counts. Winter proceeds to beat Mickie down and tell the referee to shhhhh, as she rightfully should. Mickie goes for another comeback, but Winter takes control with an awesome back-breaker that makes me proud. The crowd begins to get behind Mickie, as she knees Winter in the face but soon gets face planted into the ropes. Winter goes for a Samoan Drop, but Mickie drops out of the back and gets the victory with another Mick Kick! Winter has been eliminated. (I couldn’t show any excitement in this with an exclamation point.)

ODB then makes her grand return and destroys Mickie right off the bat. She nails the fallaway slam, before pounding her down in the corner and hitting a huge splash that looks like it kills Mickie. ODB then executes a bronco buster before dragging the lifeless country gal to the center of the ring and covering for another close call. ODB lifts Mickie up onto the top rope, but Mickie fights her off and lands a huge Lou(ise) Thesz Press for the victory! ODB has been eliminated!

Madison Rayne’s music then hits, but a furious ODB attacks Mickie from behind and hits a nasty TKO. Forgotten Child Madison Rayne makes her way out to the ring, waving to all of her glorious fans as I wave back at my computer screen as if she can see it. Once Rayne steps into the ring, she slowly goes to pick Mickie up, but James manages to roll her up in a quick victory roll for the overall win! Madison Rayne has been eliminated as Mickie James wins the gauntlet! Mickie celebrates, as Madison looks pretty upset with this and heads to the back to claim Miss Karen’s approval like we all should do.

As we head to the ring once again, Jeff Hardy is there discussing something of unrelated note to this website, therefore we will head on over to the grand entrance and surprise of the night… MISS KAREN APPEARS AGAIN! As I’m sure you all jam out to her symphony style entrance music, Miss Karen walks to the ring and says that she was in the back watching him walk out here and all she could think was “My God, somebody with some balls around here needs to put you in your place”, and Miss Karen has the biggest set here!

Miss Karen says what we’re all thinking, only she makes it sound more classy and sophisticated as she claims that Jeff thinks he can just walk in here with his puppy dog eyes and beg everyone for forgiveness?! She questions if he thinks that’s what a man is, as he DISGUSTINGLY takes his eyes off of Miss Karen while she is speaking. Rule number one, Jeffrey, you DO NOT take your eyes off the prize standing before you. I’m legitimately sitting here in shock over the fact that someone had the audacity to do this… however, I then perk up due to the fact our gracious VP of the Knockouts called him out on it and forced him to make eye contact like the educator she is.

Miss Karen wants to make one thing perfectly clear, in that she is not here to fight Jeff Jarrett’s battles because he is the one who wears the pants in their family. She continues on that being a man, or a role model, is not his forte until he can step up and do it right for himself first. As this fool takes his eyes off Miss Karen once again, (seriously, If I was in that ring I could never even fathom doing this) she instructs him back to her sight and explains how her husband is a real man because he started a company to give disrespectful wrestlers like Jeff Hardy a line of employment!

Miss Karen then asks Jeff Hardy if he remembers when she and his wife Beth were friends… or rather, she played the political game and pretended to be her friend. She says that Beth sat at home while Jeff was on the road and needed a friend, so Miss Karen was there like the amazing person she is, and even states that one detail she found out is that Jeff Hardy couldn’t quite deliver the goods or complete the deal! She challenges Jeff to hit her, but even he knows that he better not DARE do anything of the sort while I’m watching this. Jeff Hardy calls himself more than human, as Miss Karen chuckles at the thought.

This nasty fool calls Miss Karen a word that I refuse to repeat, and as she goes to rightfully slap him, he blocks it and… what the hell? He grabs Miss Karen?! Someone get his hand off of her perfect self! Thankfully, Jeff Jarrett shows up and all is right in the world until Miss Karen goes to low blow Hardy and he puts his grubby mitts on her again! Jeff Jarrett then takes control of Hardy until the two Jarretts escape ringside and have a stare off with that pitbull who couldn’t keep his hands to himself.

Now it’s time for the part of the night which dampened my spirits. As Robert Roode leaves the ringside area after a promo, he takes his attention to ringside where my fellow god of wrestling, TNA President and wonderful human being, Dixie Carter, is sitting with the fans. He grabs onto her as I notice a hole in the back of his shirt (we can’t all afford the finer things like Miss Karen or Queen Dixie, I guess), when AJ Styles makes his way back out. This awful person puts Dixie in front of himself as a shield, before shoving her into AJ and hitting Styles with the belt and Styles HE FALLS ON DIXIE! My face becomes upset, as Roode continues to beat on AJ as he lays on top of Dixie (uhh… probably should reword this sentence), before walking up the ramp as officials check in AJ, and more importantly, the incredible Dixie Carter.

Before I get into what I thought of tonight’s actions, I want to take a moment to acknowledge someone very special to me because she managed to do what so few have before… Ladies and gentlemen, MISS KAREN TRENDED WORLDWIDE!

Thoughts: Quite the week of Knockout related segments, might I say! The gauntlet match was top notch material, and although I’m not sure I liked Mickie going through so many women, they did build her up in a great way and the finish was done perfectly. I am looking forward to seeing her face off against Gail Kim in the future because it used to be my dream match way back in WWE and needless to say, we won’t get into their first meeting *cough*. Hopefully it can be redone in a way that will do the Mail (Mickie-Gail) fans proud and deliver the match we always wanted to see.

Miss Karen… need I say more? The name alone is perfection. She is the best thing to happen to the Knockouts division in a long time, and even if she doesn’t wrestle, she makes me look forward to the show every week. I actually have begun to watch the full airing on television again since I don’t want to miss a moment of possible Miss Karen screen time. I know you all must look forward to hearing me gush over how phenomenal she is weekly, so imagine if I missed a backstage segment and forgot to include it in this write-up?! I don’t think I would ever forgive myself…

Welcome everyone to the ‘blink and you missed it!’ edition of the Raw Redux! I’m doing my best to sound completely peppy, because if I don’t try and fake it, I’ll end up drowning myself in vodka and Red Bull while listening to depressing emo music courtesy of my favorite local indie bands at the moment. Yes, Raw really was that bad for our girls but with a three-hour long song, it’s hardly surprising. Logic dictates that more time equals more opportunities, but not in the spandex-clad realm known as the WWE Universe. More time devoted to the show, means less time devoted to the Divas, as was the case last night. Instead of our usual one or two minute match, we got exactly 48-seconds of in-ring action (thanks to Jim for that fact) and a lengthy video package that showcased Kelly Kelly‘s Maxim cover shoot. So without further… ahh hell. Screw it. There’s really nothing to recap.

I want to recap this, I really do, but what can I possibly say? Alicia Fox‘s dress looked like a palette of children’s make-up? Natalya spent 30-seconds of the 48-second match teasing the Sharpshooter on Kelly? Eve Torres and Beth Phoenix looked smoking hot in their gorgeous outfits, but fierce fashions doesn’t make for an exciting build-up to a title match that is apparently happening on Sunday. For all I know, they’re fighting for the coveted title of Best Dressed Diva of the Week. The state of the Divas division is pretty sad right now, and I don’t know how I can sugarcoat things anymore. Each and every one of them deserve so much more than what they’re given. They really do.

Kelly versus Natalya had potential to be interesting but with the way things have been booked lately, you go in not expecting much. Natalya hasn’t won a match in a million years and Kelly is a promoter’s dream girl right now. You know how it’s going to end before it even begins. But it’s sad when even your low expectations aren’t reached. The last thing I ever expected was such a short match with such a cheap ending. Kelly getting a roll-up after Natalya held the pre-SharpShooter pose for such a long time is ridiculous. I really can’t find any positives.

What’s even more sad is there wasn’t much of a saving grace. We got a glimpse of Brie and Nikki backstage with Zack Ryder, and then Alberto Del Rio. They turned up their hooker charm (and believe me, I’m the queen of hooker charm), and that was it.

Sigh. I remember the days of the Bellas wrestling and I enjoyed those days. The Bellas should be in the ring, having storylines, not standing around backstage flirting with Superstar/guest host/random celebrity #2340978120492834. I guess I should be happy that they got a backstage segment. It lasted longer than Kelly’s promo/match combined. Maybe they can just hook up with Albie and Ricardo, or just use the butler to get closer to the lap of luxury. The butler is oddly endearing, and the power-hungry Bella Twins could end up falling for and fighting over him much to the chagrin of the champ. Hey, that storyline needs to happen. I need to work for the WWE.

Moving on and on a much sadder note, Vickie Guerrero made a wretched announcement. She stabbed my cold, black heart with a wooden stake when she announced that bb Christian (hottest of hot, the captain to my khaleesi, future accidental baby daddy) would be unable to compete at Survivor Series due to an injury suffered in a match against Fella. She blamed it on Teddy Long’s incompetence. I blame it on the fact I wasn’t able to run in the ring and distract The Great Ginger from hurting my man.

Ho hum. Taking bb Christian’s place this Sunday, since blondes are a dime a dozen and interchangeable, is the United States Champion, Dolph Ziggler, who I’m still desperately trying to get an honorary Diva Dirt tag for. The very, very fickle part of me is happy that Ziggles will be competing on Sunday now, especially since he has new-found facial scruff. It’s hot, he’s hot. I’m happy.

The only downside is that Mason Ryan is on the opposing team, and unfortunately that’s who Dolph faced tonight. By some stroke of luck, the match lasted about as long as the Divas’ match, due to wonderful Vickie slapping Welshtista across the face. Things got a little fuzzy after that because the guy on the cover of the book I’m reading ran down to the ring shirtless to interfere. I’m not sure why the wealthy Greek tycoon, who’s supposed to be seducing his new virgin bride, got in my man’s business, but it happened.

Oh, that was John Morrison?

I seriously thought it was the guy on the cover of my romance novel. Why else would he be topless and wearing tight jeans?

Good grief, I was so into that previous paragraph that the FedEx man just literally scared the crap out of me. But that also means my new boots are here so lets just wrap this up. In case you missed it, Eve and Beth will square off for the title on Sunday. Their match last month was pretty damn good. Can they top it?

Until next week… Cryssi out!