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!

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!

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.

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 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) .

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!

Due to the fact that I’ve basically been in a coma for the last 12 hours or so, watching Raw live last night was something that didn’t exactly happen for me. I’m sure the majority of you have already seen it, formed thoughts about it, and are so excited to read my thoughts on it to see if they match your own. They probably won’t, but you never know. Today you’re going to get a treat because I’m going to be writing while watching, so everything you get is going to be my live reaction. I haven’t a clue what happened last night, and haven’t been to any sites, not even this one, to see results. The last thing wrestling-wise I witnessed was the scary ending to Beth Phoenix-Kelly Kelly from TLC. I literally thought someone was going to die during that exchange but no matter, let’s just get on with Raw, shall we? I’m going to cue up  YouTube now!

I can honestly say that Raw has been amazing thus far tonight. It makes me kind of sad that I went to bed last night, but when you have a two-day hangover and haven’t had any sleep since Friday night, say the odd five or so hours, something’s got to give. Unfortunately, it was Raw last night. But nonetheless, backstage we see a split screen of Beth and Alicia Fox. That match is what we get tonight, and if you’re like me, you kind of hoped it would have been the TLC match. Much like the night before, Beth comes out solo and she looks great. Coming out second, is Alicia, and she has the dead animal on her head again. I do love her ring gear, so it’s okay this week.

Beth and Alicia lock up with one another, and Beth tries to work over the Foxy One’s wrist. Alicia nails the champ with a few decisive kicks, but Beth is too powerful to just go away like that. She ends up flattening Foxy with a side-walk slam. She begins punching her in the stomach, and kicking her decisively in the back. Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler feel the need to tell us that Alicia is the number one trending topic on Twitter. That’s not a surprise, she’s been trending since her SmackDown days. Of course, Alicia is still on SmackDown but you know what I mean.

Is it just me or does the WWE make you hate Twitter as well?

Anyway, the match is still continuing and it’s gotten a bit dicey. Beth has picked Alicia up and looks to bounce her off the ropes. Foxy uses the momentum to stop the move, but she ends up losing her footing in the process. She recovers nicely, but the Philadelphia crowd isn’t impressed. She takes care of Beth and hits her finisher, then gets a huge pinfall win over the champ. Alicia celebrates, while Beth rolls out of the ring and is being checked on by the referee.

When the replays are over, Alicia has a mic in her hands. Oh wow. She gives a coy little “Hi…” to the crowd and they greet her with a barrage of boos like she’s the biggest heel to ever walk the face of the Earth. She just beams and tells everyone that she hopes they have a very “Foxy holiday.” Yikes.

I don’t know what’s more painful, watching Beth take the finisher or being wished a Foxy holiday? I have looked around now, and those pictures Beth posted of the injury are pretty nasty. But things like that happen in wrestling and the Glamazon is clearly fine. She probably just has a really bad headache today. That said, I wasn’t really crazy about the match. They tried to do too much in their little bit of time and it didn’t come off as clean. But as we saw at TLC, even having a lot of time doesn’t stop mistakes from happening. I’d like to see what Beth and Alicia can put together with more than two minutes allowed. I think it could be fun to watch, and it wouldn’t have to be so rushed or fast-paced. Alicia is not a bad performer, and Beth just goes without saying. She’s gotten amazing matches out of Kelly and Eve, why not Alicia?

The Diva goodness didn’t stop there. Rosa Mendes, the lovely lady who’s been accompanying Epico and Primo to the ring as of late, made an appearance with her men while they took on Jimmy and Jey Uso.

Managing is absolutely what Rosa should do. She’s great at ringside with her exaggerated reactions. These past few weeks we’ve even seen her get involved in Epico and Primo’s business and help them win. Her place in the WWE has always been hit or miss. Rosa’s never really had a solid role. She’s managed to outlast the likes of Maria, Mickie, Gail, Melina, and Maryse, so clearly there is something there that the company likes about this woman. She’s stunning to look at and having her as a manager is the best possible thing. I’m not entirely sure if this is a heel faction or a face faction, but I hope we get to see more of them on Raw in the future. I really enjoyed their match at TLC with Air Boom, so more please. And more Rosa with her Spanglish and horrible Latin dancing. It’s fun.

Speaking of fun, we have more Divas, which is a nice surprise to me. Brie and Nikki are backstage arguing with Johnny Ace in between them.

The Bellas go back and forth, apparently fed up with one another over who knows what? I suppose they’re tired of looking alike, because they talk about red lipstick and curled hair etc. I can see how that would get boring. Johnny Ace, ugh, gets them to settle down, and the girls tell him that they don’t appreciate how Teddy Long spoke to them at TLC. The SmackDown GM did seem to have a little too much spiked egg nog, and it’s understandable the Bellas are upset. They say they’re not floozies, and Nikki adds that at least she isn’t. Brie takes exception and this causes another argument between the two. Johnny Ace to the rescue again. He stops the fight, wishes them both a ‘Merry Christmas’, and they both kiss him on his unusually pink cheeks before walking away. Gross.

As the Bellas leave, Vickie Guerrero comes into the picture and she is irate. Her appearance wipes the smirks off the faces of Ace and his sidekick, David Otunga. Thank God. Vickie is violently screaming ‘Excuse me’. She’s pretty annoyed that Dolph was cheated out of his title last night and she demands that Johnny Ace book a rematch. Unbeknownst to Vickie, Hornswoggle has come up behind her. He has some mistletoe and when he finally gets Vickie’s attention, she turns around. He lays one on her, much to her horror, and that sends Johnny and David fleeing from the room. Hornswoggle scampers off too and Vickie stands there shaking and screaming from having just been violated. Ugh, poor woman.

I really do not like Hornswoggle one bit.

That said, Raw was a lot of fun tonight. For once, they had a great post-PPV show and I really enjoyed the added bonus of the backstage segment and Rosa. The match was eh, but it was what it was. It’s already caused a bunch of drama, and will no doubt cause a lot more.

Until next week, Cryssi out!

I can honestly say that this will NOT be a Slammy Award worthy edition of the Raw Redux, but if Zack Ryder can win a Slammy for simply trending on Twitter (that was so not scripted, right??), then anything is possible. Alas, I’m not going to hold my breath and coincidentally, there’s really not a whole lot to talk about. We always knew there wouldn’t be, so there shouldn’t be any disappointment in anyone today. That said, I fully expect a barrage of negative comments and whiny moans over the fact Kelly Kelly won ‘Divalicious Moment of the Year.’ I’ve prepared myself, reminded myself that we all have the right of freedom of speech, and now I’m ready to get on with the show.

If only I could shake the visions of Christian from my head. Swoon!

Firstly, let me just say that Lita looks absolutely fabulous. She’s in great shape and still has a body to starve die for. I wouldn’t exactly call myself her biggest fan (except for when she got to have a live sex show with Edge, and then fandom was born from jealously and the need to wear my baggy skater pants low on my hips once again just to show off my thong…), but it was really great to see her last night. Obviously she was presenting the aforementioned ‘Divalicious Moment of the Year’, and the nominees were as follows…

* Beth Phoenix taking Eve Torres down and out with that most amazing Glam Slam from the top rope.
* Kelly pinning Brie Bella to win her first ever Divas Championship.
* Natalya placing Eve and Layla in a double Sharpshooter.
* And perhaps the most talked about Diva moment of the year, the debut of Kharma, or just anything involving her.

Lita announces Kelly as the winner, and the bubbly blond comes out looking absolutely fabulous. Love her dress, and well I just love Kelly. All you haters can just piss off. Anyway, fangirl aside, Kelly goes to accept her award and start her speech, but Beth and Natalya are quick to interrupt. Clearly, Beth feels as if she should have won (and since the award was for ‘moment’ of the year, and not for ‘Diva of the Year’, she has a pretty legit argument), and she snatches the award from Kelly’s hands. When Beth raises the Slammy in the air, Kelly takes exception and slaps her foe right across the face. She seriously slaps the heck out of Beth, like whoa. Beth is absolutely stunned, as well as Natalya, and Kelly takes her little gold statuette back. Beth has to be restrained by her bestie, and Kelly takes the chance to pose with Lita and give the crowd a nice photo-op.

Perhaps a teaser for a future match?

I definitely wouldn’t mind a Beth versus Lita match, or even a tag match. Any match with Lita involved would do it for me at this point. The Divas could only benefit from her presence, and she definitely looks like she would have no trouble getting back inside that right. As of right now, there’s nothing announced for the Divas at TLC (I think…), but we have SmackDown taping tonight. It will be interesting to see what goes on there, seeing as how they completely axed a huge angle that happened last week. Personally, I never thought it was a good idea to turn Kaitlyn heel. She has to way to much chemistry with AJ, and breaking them up would be a huge miscarriage of justice. I love the Chickbusters , and I know a lot of other people do as well.

In other Slammy news, Vickie Guerrero managed her main man and mine, Dolph Ziggler, to a win in a very impressive fatal four-way match that determined who would win a Slammy for the first superstar to trend on Twitter. To be fair, Ziggler and Ryder both trended at the same time, but since Ryder was higher I reckon he won by default. At least he lost, and Dolph won. And Rhodes and DB never once trended. Oh well. Dolph stole Zack’s Slammy, and proved once again why he is the most delicious heel ever.

Brie and Nikki presented an award, alongside Santino Marella.

He called them out on their Alberto Del Rio obsession and both girls got highly insulted. Both looked beautiful in red, which seems to be one of their trademark colors, and well, they were on TV. I’ll take it.

Eve and Alicia Fox were stage escorts for the evening. Eve’s dress was so fetch (Mean Girls reference), but Alicia continues to disappoint me when it comes to fashion. I do like the fact she took a risk for the Slammys, but I wasn’t exactly fond of it. The glam pants outfit just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Vickie also took to the stage to present an award alongside Goldust for ‘A-Lister of the Year’.

Goldust cracked a mean joke at our favorite cougar, but we won’t give him too much heat for it. He is the Golden One, after all. The nominees for ‘A-Lister of the Year’ were Hugh Jackman for managing Ryder to win over Ziggler, and I guess for punching my boo in the face. Snooki for competing at WrestleMania and shocking the world with the ‘Snooki Splash’. Random Cee-Lo Green for performing at (uhhh, which PPV was that again? Meh, I’ll just make something up…) for his sequined preacher’s robe. And last, but not least, The Muppets for hosting the Halloween edition of Raw. Snooki snatched up the prize, but couldn’t attend the show. She did, however, send a pre-taped message to the WWE Universe.

I’m not happy with her Zack Ryder support.

That was basically it, folks. It was a night of glitz, of glam, the best of Johnny Ace video package, of Christian’s return, and Masked Kane. The Divas were always going to be an after thought, but at least we got a sweet little teaser of what 2012 could possibly hold. I’ll take it. And because I’m Khaleesi, all of you will as well. Good day!

As if Raw wasn’t already confusing enough with all these EPIC Diva matches to catch up with (who can forget the 48-second instant classic a few weeks ago?!), things got even more dramatic this week when Eve Torres finally returned to the ring, having last been seen eating a top rope Glam Slam, to team with Kelly Kelly in a tag team match. They were accompanied to the ring by Alicia Fox, clad in a sequined shirt sporting Beyonce’s face and accessorized by a pink tutu skirt (errrr yeah….), and they took on the Divas of Doom Sisters of Destruction Female Stable Name Goes Here team of Divas Champion Beth Phoenix and her BFF, Natalya.

The face tandem is out first, with Kelly leading the way. The Maxim covergirl and her friends are all smiles on this happy Monday night. They hit the ring and almost immediately Beth’s music begins to play. DoD makes their way out and shockingly enough, we’re taken to a video package that is brought to us via the Pin-Up Strong Movement. What’s not so shocking is the package is interrupted by another, yet slightly cryptic, video package. Ho hum.

What’s sad is that Beth and Nattie don’t even look upset that their video was messed up. Nattie is smirking at Kelly, ready to start the match. Since I’ve literally covered this match thousands of times, I feel like I can just close my eyes and write what’s going to happen. But nonetheless, here we go…

Nattie picks up Kelly and carries her to the corner, where she promptly tags in Beth. Reckon Nattie thinks the quicker she tags in Beth, the least likely she is to get pinned? Hmmm…

The champ comes in and goes after the former champ. (Side note: Every lady involved in this little feud has held the Divas Championship, with Eve being the only woman left on the roster who can call herself a two-time Divas Champ.) After a quick double team, Beth goes for an early pin. It doesn’t work in her favor. She stays on Kelly and keeps her grounded, while Alicia and Eve try to rally the crowd. Kelly seems to draw inspiration from somewhere and fights her way back up. The mood is promptly killed when Beth scoops Kelly up and lays her out with a back breaker, but at least the effort was there. Kelly withers in pain and Beth decides to ignore the “Be a STAR” campaign and kick the ropes at Alicia. Foxy backs up and when Beth turns her attention back to her opponent, a not-so-incapacitated Kelly rolls up Beth! She gets the three count and quickly rolls out of the ring.

DoD are furious. The faces are happy.

Same thing, but hey, Beth got pinned this week. That said, is Kelly now the rightful number one contender? We have less than two weeks until TLC and no Diva match announced. Hell, until last night we hadn’t really had any matches announced, but that’s another gripe for another day. It seems like Eve’s push is stalled for now, she didn’t even get in the match, but with Kelly pinning Beth, Alicia may very well get shoved to the side. Kelly, by rights, has a legit claim now, so what the ‘E does with it will be interesting to see. The match itself was fine. Not a lot went down, so there’s nothing to really pick apart or critique. It was what it was, and it was longer than 48-seconds.

As far as the rest of Raw went, well, it didn’t make me very happy. But it did have one sweet gem of a segment featuring our favorite cougar, Vickie Guerrero, and our favorite guy, Dolph Ziggler. (Jack Swagger was there too.)

If this man doesn’t lose that United States Championship and move on to win the Royal Rumble, I will cry tears of heartbreak. Not really, because I don’t cry, but you get my point!

Enjoy the rest of WWE programming this week, my friends. NXT always delivers, and SmackDown has the on-going Chickbusters saga going on. I’ll see you all next week.

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!

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!

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!

Last night’s Raw from Liverpool, England seemed to work on paper, but in execution, fell flat. A nice break from the standard two minute tag team matches, last night’s Raw instead featured an in-ring segment positioned around Kelly Kelly‘s unveiling of her new Maxim magazine cover. With the Divas rarely getting mic time, this segment could have advanced the storyline, pushing the upcoming Eve vs Beth title match or setting something up for Survivor Series, instead it didn’t really accomplish anything. Well, it made this writer yearn for LayCool, but that’s about it.

Let’s watch:

We see Kelly Kelly with a huge grin on her face walking to the ringside area, and she has good reason for the smile — she’s on the cover of Maxim! As Jerry Lawler introduces her as his “favorite Diva” (hmm, we’re sensing a pattern: The Kat, Trish, Kelly), Kelly comes out to a big applause from the crowd. (Fashion sidebar: I’m not feeling Kelly’s dress.)

Kelly begins giving us an Oscar speech about growing up in front of the WWE Universe and having her ups and downs. That’s great, Kelly, but this isn’t a retirement speech. You’ve still got plenty of years ahead of you. Just show us the cover!

Of course, you can’t have such a joyous moment for one Diva without another crashing the party. In fact, make that two, as out come Beth Phoenix and Natalya taunting little Kelly and calling her a Barbie doll. Kelly’s comeback? “I wouldn’t interrupt you if you were on the cover of National Geographic”. Womp womp.

Beth says that Kelly being on a magazine cover is a false impression of what it takes to be a Diva. “A WWE Diva is more than just a pretty face and a bucketful of perkiness”. Beth and Natalya attempt to corner Kelly and tell her it’s “cry time”. However, before they can lay a hand on K2, out come Eve and Alicia Fox (Fashion sidebar: Alicia looks fierce), making the save, as the Divas of Doom flee the ring.

Alicia & Eve tell Kelly that this is her moment, not Beth and Natalya’s, unveiling her cover for all to see.

Thoughts: Two words: Not impressed. I’m not impressed by the direction that WWE has taken Beth and Natalya, having them come across as a LayCool tribute act, mocking Kelly as they came down the ramp. I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy it. Layla and Michelle McCool were great at what they did because they had the snobby heel routine down pat. Beth and Natalya are not snobby heels. They are physically intimidating, break-a-b*tch-if-she-looks-at-you-wrong heels. At least they should be. The theatrics that WWE had Beth and Natalya do as they came down the ramp fell flat, if you ask me. I just don’t believe that this is the direction these characters should be going in. I much preferred the second half of Beth’s promo, talking about how magazines covers etc. give a false representation of what a Diva should be. It felt more “true” to their characters.

Comparing this to the Christy Hemme Playboy unveiling in 2005, this segment lacked. Trish Stratus had the charm and flair to really put a verbal hurting on Christy (as well as a physical one), but neither Natalya or Beth are Trish on the microphone. That’s not a knock on them, because the Divas can’t get better unless they’re given more mic time to improve, but it just didn’t have that wit to it in the same way as Trish had, nor did it tick the “annoyingly heel-ish and snobby” box like LayCool.

I would have liked to see Beth cut the second half of that promo, and then have them physically intimidate Kelly, perhaps put her in that stretch submission until Alicia and Eve made the save.

I love Beth and Natalya, but WWE seems to be missing the boat on what these characters should be.

And what about Eve’s title shot? No mention of it at all last night. They could’ve done something with Eve and Beth to tease their title match, such as Eve & Alicia making the save, and then Eve and Beth having some sort of altercation.

Cryssi will be back next week, but for this week… Melanie out!

I’ll be honest, it took me a good minute to find the motivation to begin this Redux. Lack of motivation had nothing to do with the fact that the Divas were in Halloween costumes, or the fact that the entire match was predicted by yours truly in last week’s Redux. It had absolutely NOTHING to do with the fact I trolled YouTube for videos of Tristan MacManus from Dancing With the Stars because I have a thing for a hot Irish man, and my God. He’s pretty much as hot as they come. What it all comes down to is quite simply a Halloween hangover, and the fact that I absolutely despise the Muppets. They’re scary, and weird, and I’ve never really been a big fan of puppets. I don’t like cartoons, really, except for Archer and South Park, and it’s absolutely unnecessary to have them on Monday Night Raw. I suppose it’s only fitting that the best video I could find has Kermit and Miss Piggy on it, so lets just get on with, shall we?

Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy are out to kick off Raw or whatever it is they’re doing, and luckily for me, Vickie Guerrero comes out alongside Jack Swagger.

Uhhh… where’s my Dolph?

Vickie is shrieking excuse me, and Swagger just looks a big blond hulk. Vickie complains about how bad it was when Hugh Jackman took over, and she’s even more miserable that she has to share the stage with livestock. I’m going to assume she’s just directing her comments at Miss Piggy (God, I can’t believe I’m writing about a freakin’ puppet) because Kermit is an amphibian. But anyway, Swagger decides to speak, which is always hit or miss. He brings up frog legs, and ham sandwiches, and says ‘wocka wocka’ which I’m going to go out on a limb and assume has something to do with said Muppets. This is so painful. Vickie and Jack deserve so much better than feuding with puppets. Miss Piggy fights back, and Kermit tries to play peacemaker, he tells Swagger he doesn’t want anything to do with him or his mother.

Okay, I kind of giggled there. Ugh.

Vickie is irate over this, but hey, the crowd pops and that’s what the WWE is going for I guess. Vickie ends up in a chest bumping match with Miss Piggy and as if things can’t get anymore random (especially since the title of this video was Diva Halloween Battle Royal), Santino’s music hits. I can’t.

He tells Swagger he needs to go warm up because they have a match, and Kermit basically pops for this. Swagger shuts him up and starts to brag about himself. He claims he doesn’t need to warm up because he is a former World Champ and an All American American. Of course that’s not why he doesn’t have to warm up. Because as if his resume versus Santino’s wasn’t enough, he drops ever so coyly that he will have Dolph Ziggler in his corner. Having Dolph in your corner is a heck of a lot better than being a champion and a collegiate champ, isn’t it?

Of course Santino has a rebuttle for this and it basically rip’s poor Swagger’s heart in two. Ziggles won’t be at ringside because he has his own match tonight. And then Santino drops the bomb. It’s against the notorious, the popular, the amazing internet sensation… the guy who lost to Ziggler at whatever the last pay-per-view was (apologies for not knowing the name, still on a Tristan MacManus high)… ZACK RYDER!

“Woo woo woo you know it.” Kermit/Miss Piggy zing Swagger/Vickie.

Cue ‘ha ha I got you’ laughs from the faces and shocked/angry looks from the heels.

Kelly Kelly‘s theme music!

The former Diva’s champ walks out dress in a snow pirate costume and holding a sword. I reckon this battle royal is next? Kelly walks over to the gaggle of random on stage left and kisses Kermit right on the lips. Well that was just rude. How you gunna make out with another woman’s man? Or frog… or puppet. Oh Lord. What is this recap?

Cut to commercial break as the snow pirate makes her way to the ring.

When Raw returns, all the Divas are in the ring with Robin Eve Torres being the last one out. Standing around we have Cave Woman Rosa Mendes, AJ as Mortal Combat’s Kitana (my favorite costume), Kaitlyn as Dog the Bounty Hunter (epic), Brie and Nikki Bella as Mario and Luigi, Tamina as Cleopatra, Natalya as the Queen of Hearts, Alicia Fox as a sailor (the cutest costume), and Aksana as Morticia Addams. I think I got all of those. We already know Kelly is a snow pirate.

Anyway, Beth Phoenix is on commentary with huge hair and a gothic looking queen dress in my favorite color purple (the color of royalty might I add) and she is the Queen of the Ring tonight.

The bell rings.

AJ is quick to try some video game moves out in the ring, but the other Divas don’t react kindly. Rosa gets dumped over the top rope first continuing her streak of being the first woman out in every battle royal, sans a few. Kelly, Eve, and Alicia team up to try and get rid of Natalya. Tamina is going after AJ and the Bella twins work together to get rid of Aksana. Kaitlyn comes to AJ’s rescue, but it’s a little to late. Tamina rids the ring of the popular SmackDown cutie pie. Kaitlyn does end up dumping Tamina out, which is good for her. The Bellas get rid of Kaitlyn, which brings Eve and Kelly to their neck of the woods. The BFFs go for the sisters, which leaves Alicia and Nattie alone in the corner. The Bellas end up slammed on top of one another, and Eve just has to booty pop. She also does a standing moonsault which is kind of pointless because you have to throw your opponents out of the ring in order to win. Oh well.

The poor Bellas end up whipped into the corner where they become victims of a 2K stinkface. After that, the twins are eliminated which leaves us with Natalya, Alicia, Eve, and Kelly. It’s three-on-one which is kind of funny since Natalya is supposed to be the heel in all of this. The three faces slap her around, and Nattie fires back with a spinning clothesline to Eve. Alicia and Kelly jump her and want to throw her out of the ring, but Nattie is able to dump Kelly, who hangs on, and then Alicia who doesn’t. Nattie sends Kelly out of the ring, but while she’s doing that, Eve comes from behind and gets rid of her.

Eve wins!

I’m going to assume Beth is furious because she has to face Eve again, and I know. This Redux has me assuming a lot of things. Natalya just can’t believe that she continues to lose over and over, and finally both Divas of Doom get in the ring to give Eve a piece of their mind. Kelly and Alicia hit the ring which causes DoD to retreat. Robin and her band of friends, the snow pirate and the sailor, end up on top on this Halloween night.

I honestly don’t think I need to make any comments tonight but since that’s my job, here we go. The Battle Royal was completely predictable but I didn’t mind it. Halloween is fun, so that’s what they went for, and it was a good time had by all. If anyone expected anything other than Divas in Halloween costumes, then I feel for them. It was never going to happen. Lets see if anything happens on SmackDown this week.

If you’re anything like me (and if you’re not, you should be) then you came away from Vengeance on a Diva high, having thoroughly enjoyed the Beth Phoenix and Eve Torres title match. It was hands down the best match of Eve’s career, as well as my personal favorite Diva match this year. Both girls put on one hell of a show on Sunday, and it actually made me excited for Raw. Now as I’m typing this, I’ve yet to watch the match, but knowing that Natalya is in the ring is a step in the right direction. Much to my delight, the rarely seen Alicia Fox is her opponent tonight so let’s see where this match goes. Follow along with me and enjoy the live commentary! My gift to each and every one of you on what has been a fun-filled birthday week thus far. Anyway…

Natalya makes her way to the ring and I can only assume that Beth is with her. We don’t see the Divas Champion, but regardless, Nattie looks fierce tonight. Her opponent, whom I affectionately refer to as Alicia Fierce, is out next, and duh, she always lives up to her name. I also believe she has new theme music, but of this, I can not be sure. She’s only been off my television screen for the past 23947203947239057 days. Slight exaggeration but you get the point. Oh! There’s Beth. She’s joining the commentary team tonight and oh my gosh… I want her dress more than any other dress in the world. Good grief, that garment is stunning. I don’t want to turn this Redux into a fashion blog, but Beth has NEVER looked better. More pink, more sequins, more glam, please Beth, on the off chance that you’re reading this! P.S. What store did that come from?

Ahem.

So Nattie and Alicia get set to square off, while the champ puts herself and her victory over on commentary. Natalya is quick to try and get the better of Alicia, but the leggy Diva unleashes a flurry of offense on Natalya. But that’s only temporary because Natalya manages to push Alica off into the corner. Alicia, thinking the third-generation Canadian is behind her, jumps on the ropes and wants to leap frog over Nattie, but the smart blond isn’t there. She immediately takes Alicia out at the knees, and Foxy is down in the corner!

Natalya takes advantage by driving Alicia face first into the mat, and follows it up with an unnecessarily painful stomp to Alicia’s poor hand. Nattie’s heel tactics are legendary. She mounts the Foxy One and begins driving her head into the mat, and once Alicia is able to force Natalya off, both women get to their feet. Alicia doesn’t stay up for long, though as she eats a clothesline. With Alicia down, Natalya has the opportunity to reach into her pocket of submission holds. I think she’s going for the Sharpshooter, but apparently she’s not done with Alicia. Nattie begins softening Alicia up. To her credit, Foxy tries to fight out of it and manages to nail Nattie in the face, but that just infuriates one-half of the Divas of Doom. Natalya verbally rips Alicia a new one and locks that leglock in even tighter. Poor Foxy.

She doesn’t give up though! Alicia fights back and slips under Natalya’s leg, effectively reversing the hold, and forces Nattie to fight to the ropes. Once the blond grabs a handful, Alicia has to break her own submission move. Nattie is livid and kicks Alicia half-way across the ring via the ribcage, and forces her back into the corner. She’s screaming and yelling, and probably telling Alicia mean things. The ref forces Nattie back, but she charges forward anyway. Alicia puts a stop to that and is able to flip over Nattie, getting her in a pinning position.

Oh wow. She got a three count.

Cut to backstage where Eve and Kelly Kelly are watching on a monitor. They’re pleased, to say the least. Alicia goes to celebrate but a furious Natalya (and she has a right to be pissed seeing as how she’s not won a match in years it seems) attacks her from behind. Beth ditches her heels and is quick to back up Nattie. They want to double team Alicia, but Alicia hangs on to the ropes for dear life and manages to escape! Score one for Foxy. Divas of Doom are not happy campers.

Hmmm. Well, I’ll be honest here. The match was kind of decent sans the ending. I’m not a huge fan of surprise victories, especially when Natalya and Beth are trying to push this pin-up strong movement. But, Alicia winning was completely huge. It was big for Foxy and I hope it gets her into the title picture with Beth. The more opponents Beth gets, the better it is for the division and for the belt. She’s so experienced and so accomplished that she can have a match with anyone. And all it does is help these girls as they try and improve in the ring. I’m a huge Alicia fan so I want more from this.

That said, I’m not convinced we’re going to get it. They were all to quick to cut to Kelly and Eve backstage. I think next week on Raw, we’re going to get some stereotypical Halloween costume contest battle royal, or whatever, because it is Halloween and it’s an excuse to get Divas in costumes. I’m okay with that since Halloween is my favorite holiday. What I’m not okay with is that Alicia probably won’t be winning said battle royal, which could very well end up being for title contendership. I think they may push Eve for another month, or Kelly could get the nod one more time. I just don’t think we’ve seen the last of the Divas of Doom versus Kelly/Eve.

Personally, I’d like to see Alicia get the nod this month, or have a DOD versus Chickbusters feud. I’d also love to see the Bellas versus DOD. There’s so much they can do with Beth and Nattie. The possibilities are endless so Johnny Ace, if you’re trolling my Redux, which you could very well be doing since this is DIVA Dirt, make the creative team CARE ABOUT THE DIVAS. They’re more than just pretty faces and really ridiculous hot bodies. They can wrestle and they can fight. And Beth and Eve proved that they can produce great matches given the chance and the time.

That’s it for this week… Cryssi out!

P.S. More Vickie please. I miss writing about her.

It’s that time again. Time for another awesome rendition of the Raw Redux! This week, our match features Eve Torres and Natalya in singles competition while Kelly Kelly and Beth Phoenix are at ringside, and it came with a surprise announcement of a match this upcoming Sunday at Vengeance. Beth will defend against Eve, in a match I called happening thanks to Eve’s recent string of pinfall wins in tag matches.

Eve and Kelly are out first and I love 2K’s dress. She’s usually pretty spot-on with her out of the ring fashions, so my love for that little black dress does not surprise me. The crowd gives them a pretty warm greeting, and then the ‘Sisters of Salvation’ (coined by Sir Michael Cole) come out. I love any chance Nattie gets to wrestle so this should be fun. DoD (which is what us normal people call them) pose with the belt on the outside of the ring. After a moment, everyone gets settled and Eve versus Natalya is about to kick off!

The Divas lock up and jostle for position, with Nattie pinning Eve in the corner. She levels her with an uppercut and talks some trash, which does nothing but annoy Eve. Eve fights back against Natalya, gets her in the center of the ring for her bicycle kick, and goes for the ropes. Nattie is able to spina round and flatten Eve with a pretty clothesline, then hooks the leg for a pin. It’s only a two count.

Natalya maintains her control by locking Eve in a painful abominable stretch. After a moment, Eve fights out and tries to take control, but Natalya is able to lift her up in the air. Eve slithers down Nattie’s back and tries to bring her down for a pin, but Natalya heartlessly stomps down on Eve’s chest. While Eve is down for the count, Natalya adds insult to injury by spanking her opponent, something 2K doesn’t seem amused by. Natalya starts trash talking again and she follows it up by slamming Eve’s head into the mat, and then kicking her half-way across the ring. Ouch.

When Natalya comes at Eve in the corner, the brunette tries to fight her off. Unfortunately she misses a kick off the ropes thanks to Nattie ducking it, and that allows the third-generation Canadian to scoop Eve up in the air. It appears Nattie wants to take Eve down with some type of power slam, but Eve wiggles out of that and crushes Nattie with a clothesline. Or maybe it was just a club to the chest. Either way, I’m trying to right this while my DayQuil is kicking in and it’s making me sleepy. Eve jerks Natalya into position and goes up top for the moonsault. Kelly makes sure Beth doesn’t get involved and Eve picks up a huge victory days before her title opportunity against Beth.

After the bell rings, Beth comes flying into the ring and that sends Eve right out. The champ is pretty horrified that Eve picked up that victory and rightfully so. Perhaps she’s having visions of her future?

I don’t think Eve will win Sunday, especially after seeing SmackDown results, but it was nice seeing Natalya in a singles match against the challenger. For me, the match was kind of basic wrestling 101. There wasn’t anything special to it. It was pretty even, way too short (but isn’t that always a complaint?), and both of them are capable of more. I would have liked to see Beth and Kelly get into it, but that didn’t happen. It was just basic and that’s a shame. It was the second week in a row we were getting something new. I suppose we should all just look ahead to Sunday, because Lord knows I don’t want to talk about the Bella Twins being reduced to a segment with Johnny Ace.

Beth and Eve started off in the ring pretty bad, but lately they’re getting better with each other. I hope that SmackDown ends up being good, and that Vengeance is even better. Eve is still hit or miss for me, but she’s clean in the ring for the most part, and working with Beth again will only help her keep improving. Working with Beth did wonders for Kelly, and Eve always has something new anyway. I’m actually excited to see what she can put together with Beth for Sunday. It should be a good match.

This week’s Raw was pretty lackluster in terms of storyline continuation and just overall performance, and honestly it has nothing to do with the ladies involved. We were actually treated to a fresh new match-up that I kind of enjoyed, but there was something lacking. Can’t quite put my finger on it, but lets just take a look at how the match played out. This week we saw Kelly Kelly and Eve Torres take on SmackDown’s Rosa Mendes and Tamina.

To start things off, we were treated to a video package highlighting what happened between Kelly, Eve, and the Divas of Doom last week. It set us up for the match, which had both teams already in the ring. Rosa decided to start things off against Kelly. She begins her attack by shoving the former Diva’s Champion, which does nothing but infuriate the blond bombshell. Kelly takes Rosa to the corner and starts working her over by slamming the brunette’s head into the turnbuckle. Kelly resorts to kicking, as well, until the referee gets involved and sends her back. A feisty Kelly goes to the opposite side and comes back with her handspring/back elbow combo which Rosa nearly mucks up by coming out from the corner too early. No surprise there. Kelly’s not fazed and simply climbs to the top, wraps Rosa in a choke, and bends backwards over the ropes. The referee counts down and the Florida native flips onto the ground, reaches in, and jerks Rosa’s legs out from underneath her. Kelly climbs back into the ring, stomps the crap out of Rosa, and eventually has to be restrained by the referee. That allows Rosa to make the tag to Tamina.

Tamina lumbers into the ring but is met with a Thesz Press. Kelly takes some of her aggression out on Tamina, but the stronger competitor overcomes it and finally knocks Kelly off her game. She clubs the former ECW dancer in the back to bring her down to the mat and drops a knee across Kelly’s throat. Tamina backs up to the ropes and uses the momentum to go for a splash, but Kelly is able to move. She crawls to her corner, makes the tag to Eve, and for some reason, Eve hesitates before getting into the ring. Tamina, who is back up to her feet, brings Eve into the ring herself, but Eve dodges the flip attempt by landing on her feet and turning Tamina’s offense into a beautiful arm drag takedown. Both ladies get back to their feet, but it’s time to show off her flash. Tamina is sent to the mat and Eve backs against the ropes only to come back with a front somersault. She lands squarely in Tamina’s mid-section and hooks the leg for a cover. Rosa makes the save.

As Rosa is celebrating, Kelly takes exception to her actions, and lets her know about it via a running bulldog. She kicks Rosa out of the ring, follows her to the outside, and lets Eve have the spotlight. Eve brings Tamina up, but the daughter of WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy Snuka drives Eve into the corner. Eve battles back with an elbow to Tamina’s jaw and springs off the middle rope with a fancy little kick that sends Tamina into the perfect position for one of Eve’s finishers. Eve checks behind her to make sure all is well, and then she climbs to the top rope. One perfect looking moonsault later, Tamina is pinned, and the tag team of Eve and Kelly have picked up yet another win.

Kelly climbs back into the ring to celebrate with her BFF, and backstage we see that Beth Phoenix and Natalya, fresh from the Occupy Raw rally, are watching and making faces at the monitor.

I had kind of hoped we were past the point of DoD standing backstage and making faces, but that’s what we were treated to tonight. Their outfits were lovely if I could be superficial for a moment, and Beth just look fantastic. Normally, Nattie is my fashionista, but I think she got upstaged by the champ tonight. That aside, the match wasn’t bad sans Rosa’s timing issues. Tamina has improved a lot, and I noticed that last week when I watched her match with AJ in person. I think she’s going to end up being someone I like watching, and I will say that this match-up was truly a breath of fresh air. It was different, and the chemistry was there for the most part. I kind of want to see Eve and Tamina in a singles match. Tonight was the first night Eve’s moonsault blew me away. It was picture perfect. The match was good, it sucks that it came at a time where it meant absolutely nothing. I wish the Divas would have had more time, and I wish there was actually more for me to write about.

Sadly there’s not. It was just a throw away night for the Divas, and a perfectly good match ended up wasted. Lets hope SmackDown is a little better. Until next week… Cryssi out!

Tonight, Vickie Guerrero and her stable of mostly hot men, aired their grievances to the world about why they’re suing the WWE. Vickie’s main claim was that she felt that as a woman, she was especially vulnerable to the supposedly unsafe working conditions that the WWE represented. It’s a fair point, right? Taking a look back at Vickie’s history in the ‘E, she’s been involved some questionable angles to say the least, and out of everyone in that ring, she has the best argument for their case. Of course, Triple H comes out and he doesn’t care about what they want. He just tells them that they have to fight in their 12-man tag team match tonight, and leaves. As long as these people keep making him money, I suppose?

There’s a commercial break and before I can rest a bit, Kelly Kelly and Eve Torres come out to the ring. It’s going to be yet another Diva tag team match, and my concern with these ring entrances is that Kelly is smiling. Do we really need to get into the argument as to why babyfaces shouldn’t smile immediately after losing their title? I want to sue the writers. Paging Harvard grad David Otunga!!!!

Nevermind Otunga, Jim Ross and Michael Cole just covered for Kelly saying her smile is a front for her fans and that’s she extremely upset and hurting inside. I feel a little better now.

Anyway, Eve and Kelly play to the crowd and then wait for their opponents. I’m just going to take a wild guess here, but I bet they’re facing Beth and Natalya! Oh look, I’m right. Beth sure does look pretty with that butterfly belt. Can we please decorate it with spikes now?

DoD plays with the title outside of the ring, much to Kelly’s disgust, and she gives them the glare of DEATH! Seriously, if looks could kill, Beth and Nattie would be six feet under right now while Kelly tried to send them a few more feet under. Sheesh. Beth and Kelly start the match off and Beth happily throws the lavendar clad 2K outside of the ring. As Michael Cole tries to make the comment that Beth will make an example of Kelly tonight, Kelly slams Beth into the announce table. That was unexpectidly fun. Go Kel!

Oh look, she does it again. Oh wow, Kelly goes completely ape shit on Beth and starts screaming bloody murder. Google translate says she was saying all sorts of things I can’t write about, so lets just say she called Beth a very mean person for beating her last night. Natalya attempts to save her girl, but Eve uses her cat-like speed to break that up. She goes nutso on Natalya and begins beating the crap out of her. Meanwhile, Kelly is still in the midst of her psychotic breakdown and my goodness, that poor referee. He just tried to get in the middle of things and Kelly busted his eardrums with more things that Google translate won’t allow me to post. Thank goodness JR, Booker T, and Michael Cole have on headphones.

The deaf referee calls for the bell, having no other choice. Psych Ward Kelly and Crazy Eve Torres have lost their minds. I’m actually scared for criticizing Kelly’s smiling now. Please don’t hurt me, best Diva’s champion ever. Kelly doesn’t stop on her attack. Oh no! She slams the back of Beth’s head into the front of the table and when the new champ slumps to the ground, Kelly gets on top of her and starts punching her in the back of the head. She’s absolutely snapped. It takes the ref and Eve to pull Kelly off Beth and for some weird reason, the sound guy starts playing Kelly’s music. I’m in tears of laughter and amusement because this is honestly the greatest thing I’ve ever seen on Raw.

MORE OF THIS EVERY SINGLE WEEK AND ON SMACKDOWN TONIGHT BECAUSE I’LL BE THERE LIVE TONIGHT.

Wow.

Now that is logical Diva booking 101. Nothing else really needs to be said.

The 12-man tag team match seems like it’s next on agenda and as far as cluster-you-know-what tag matches go, it was pretty epic. Vickie was ejected mid-way through the match but it’s still worth a look if you want to see pretty good male in-ring action. If for nothing else, just enjoy Vickie rocking her adorable little black shorts.

As far as the rest of Raw goes, I reckon it’s time for Triple H’s vote of confidence. I don’t really care about this, but we’re going to watch it and see if the Divas get a chance to say anything. You know, I’m only going to assume that people will be allowed to speak. If they don’t, well never mind this at all. We are live, for the most part, after all.

The Raw superstars are led to the ring by the coalition against Triple H, sans Christian and Cody, as they’re SmackDown talent. Vickie is there and it switches to SmackDown. Still no Christian and Cody, but here come the Divas! They’re out to Beth’s music and its a mix of SmackDown and Raw girls, including Beth, Nattie, Brie and Nikki Bella, Aksana, Alicia Fox, AJ, Kaitlyn, Tamina, and Maxine. The referees follow out the Divas and now more Superstars from SmackDown and Raw come out. Jerry Lawler, for some reason, gets his own ring entrance, and we’re still missing a few main eventers. We have a commercial and now I see Christian! I’m happy Cryssi again, and now it’s time to wait for Triple H I suppose.

TIME TO PLAY THE GAME!

Upclose camera shot of Christian. I approve. I also love how the Divas are out too. It’s their lockerroom too. Triple H starts to talk and says that everyone has a chance to speak about his job tonight. Please let a Diva talk so that this entire part of my recap isn’t pointless. Triple H continues to speak and Wade Barrett tries to interrupt. Trips puts a stop to that despite the fact he said everyone had a chance to speak. He finally allows the talent to speak. Wade Barrett has apparently been appointed the spokesperson for the talent. Oh dear. Thankfully his accent is so sexy. What he says doesn’t even matter at this point. Barrett makes some valid points. Now Triple H is going to run him down. SHOCKER!

A referee starts to talk and since it’s not the hot one or Scott Armstrong, I don’t care. This guy doesn’t like the fact the refs have to take bumps. Good point, I guess.

Hunter wants to reply to the refs, but Beth tries to get his attention. Phew. This isn’t pointless on my behalf. Yay! She calls his name but he continues to try and address the angry referees. Beth finally does get The Game’s attention and she’s speaking on behalf of all the Divas. They’re worried that since they’re girls something will accidentally happen to them, or worse, something will intentionally happen to them. She has a good point but personally, I think it would be awesome to have Divas and Superstars mixed up in some type of storyline. Hunter replies with all due respect to the Divas, he wants Beth to name one thing that has happened to them since he’s been in charge. Beth replies that she’s just saying it could happen, and that’s a great point.

Triple H kind of brushes her off and he wants to know if anyone else has anything to say. Jerry Lawler, the victim of anal bleeding just a week ago, takes the microphone. Actually no, he gets in the ring and then takes Hunter’s microphone. I really wish Stephanie were involved in this. Anyway, Lawler thinks there’s a conspiracy involved. He thinks someone is behind the scenes, pulling the strings, trying to sabotage Triple H’s reign as COO. I vote Stephanie.

Anyway, my boyfriend gets the mic and says it’s time for the vote of confidence. Christian votes for the Superstars and says no confidence. The referees vote for no confidence. Beth votes for the Divas and they also have no confidence in Triple H as COO. Jerry Lawler puts the final nail in the coffin and also votes no confidence. Lawler says that actions speak louder than words and he is reluctantly walking out. Who will follow him?

Our stable of Vickie and mostly hot men follow out Lawler. No surprise there. SmackDown goes, no shocker there. Raw isn’t even their show to begin with. Beth leads the Divas out. The Superstars crew, as well as FCW/NXT, and the referees leave. Mark Henry and Barrett leave, and all that’s left around the ring are the Raw stars who are seemingly never pushed. Michael Cole walks out, and finally what’s left of Raw disperses as well. Booker T tosses down his headset, gathers his things, and starts to head for the back as well. Jim Ross is shaking his head and Triple H looks so bummed out. The cameramen put down their equipment and they hit the bricks as well. All that’s left is good ole JR and Triple H.

Damn, who’s going to be at SmackDown tonight?! Want to cry right now.

Double damn. You know it’s bad when even Jim Ross decides to get up and walk out on you. Oh God, here comes Johnny Ace. Should we just end this Redux right here? Yes, because his appearance was completely pointless.

Well that was one interesting edition of Monday Night Raw. I’m kind of excited, nervous, and confused to see what happens on SmackDown tonight. I’ll be there live and tweeting what goes on, so if you want to know follow me @HEELCryssi. Until next week where the Redux won’t be live, Cryssi out!

Beth Phoenix. Natalya. Kelly Kelly. Eve Torres. Vickie Guerrero. Dolph Ziggler. These six people are Redux regulars every week. Personally, I think we should just give Ziggler his own honorary tag, but that’s something that the other team members keep ignoring me on. I can’t imagine why, but nonetheless, our fantastic six were once again in action this week. We had another tag match, and more epicness from Vickie and Dolph. The latter pair were joined by their new partner Jack Swagger, and Zack Ryder was in on the action as well. What  I didn’t expect coming into this was that Triple H, Cody Rhodes, Mason ‘freaking’ Ryan, DAVID OTUNGA, and my boyfriend Christian would be involved as well. Oh my. Lets get on with it, shall we?

Before I even get into this recap, I want to start off by saying that before the match even began, I was already appreciating it. That rarely happens when it comes to the Divas and let me tell you why I was amped up. First, they showed Beth and Natalya walking backstage like they were on their way to the ring. That let us know immediately that they were on their way out and that they were clearly furious from last week’s debacle. Then, it cut to a video package highlighting Kelly, which was so well done. The ‘E has the best video packages anyway, but this one was especially great because it featured the Divas Champion, and that’s something we need. Divas who are given a chance to be champ, need to be built and showcased as one. They have done everything right so far for Kelly and it’s such a breath of fresh air. Point three that made this so right is the fact that after the video, we didn’t go to commercial. Kelly made her way to the ring, with Eve, and when it did finally go to break, they were still waiting in the ring. That gave us a chance to watch the Sisters of Destruction make their way out and what shocks me more than anything, is the fact that commentary put over the fact Beth and Natalya demanded this rematch after what happened last week. Right there we know this match isn’t random, or for lack of effort on the ‘E’s part. There is a reason we’re seeing a repeat and it’s because Beth and Natalya wanted it.

Storylines and reasoning make the WWE Universe a better place.

The match officially kicks off with Beth and Eve, and the Glamazon gains the early advantage on Eve and begins to work over the arm. This goes on for a bit before Eve pulls off a nice reversal. Beth backs the former 2-time champion against the ropes and once the referee makes her break the hold, Beth nails Eve with a vicious little elbow to the face. She whips Eve against the ropes, but instead of putting herself in harm’s way, Eve is smart enough to hold on but Beth capitalizes anyway with Nattie’s help. Eve gets taken down to the canvas and Beth grabs her, and makes the tag to Natalya.

The third-generation Diva gets in on the action and with Beth’s help, they hoist Eve high in the air. After letting her scream for a moment, they viciously drop her down to the ground leaving her in a whole world of hurt. Things get worse for Eve when Natalya decides to use her new submission hold, which she called Pin-Up Strong, on Twitter. Eve is practically crying and in a predicament where she can get pinned. Natalya gets two near falls before she breaks it up herself. Eve gets a kicked to the ribs, a slap across the face, and handed over to Beth as Natalya tags out.

Beth comes back into the match and looks to continue using Eve as a whipping girl. Things don’t go according to plan as Beth attempts to lunge at Eve while she’s resting against the ropes. Eve moves out of the way which causes Beth to do some damage to her own self, and the hot tag to the champ is made!

THE CHAMP IS HERE!

Kelly scrambles to the top rope and flies off, connecting with a nice Thesz Press. She beats on Beth before both women make it to their feet. Kelly slaps Beth on the booty to get her attention and that absolutely infuriates the Buffalo, New York native. She wildly swings at 2K but the younger blond ducks the clothesline and goes on offense. She ends up throwing Beth in the corner and after another trademark Kelly move, Beth eats a face full of mat thanks to a bulldog. Kelly goes for a cover, but Nattie runs into the ring to break it up. Eve comes out of nowhere and launches herself in the air at Nattie, but she misses so bad. Eve rolls out of the ring and leaves Kelly at the mercy of the Divas of Doom.

With the heart of a champion, Kelly fights out of a double team move, and ends up disposing Natalya to the outside so she can wither around with Eve. With her back turned, Beth sneaks up behind her and absolutely clubs the crap out of Kelly, sending her down hard. I think we all know what comes next. Beth finally gets the chance to set Kelly up for the Glam Slam, and unable to fight anymore, Kelly eats it and she its hard. Her shoulders are pinned for the one… two… three, and the Sisters of Destruction get a very convincing and much needed victory.

Amaaaazing!

This match was great and just what Beth and Nattie needed. I have absolutely nothing to pick apart because the match was pretty flawless. Eve and Beth were great together, and the hot tag moment to Kelly was perfect tag team wrestling. I’m happy the WWE has female tag teams that keep working together, it’s kind of what they need. This makes matches seem more important and not just thrown together, and I want more. My only regret is Beth versus Kelly III was announced for Hell In A Cell, and not Vengeance. I think a backstage segment would have been enough for HIAC and would have made the match at Vengeance seem that much more important. But regardless, we have Diva action on Sunday and I’m excited.

As far as the rest of the show goes, well Vickie was everywhere for the second week in a row. It seems like the WWE wanted to capitalize on what happened last week between the sexy Dolph and Wolverine, and despite the sheer randomocity of it all, I’m not even going to complain. Vickie worked it once again in a fierce little outfit, got to interrupt the COO of the company, Triple H, ended up screwed over by Mason Ryan (whom Ziggler referred to last week as a robot, mind you), and at the end of the night, ended up involved in a lawsuit spear-headed by Christian and advised by David Otunga against the WWE.

I’m sorry, what?

Just take a look at the videos and the whole hot mess will be explained.

How good is Ziggler getting on the mic?! I’ll be perfectly honest, I wasn’t at all interested in this segment. Triple H talking about Miz and R-Truth, fines, suspensions, firings didn’t do anything for me. I was kind of tuned out until Vickie began shrieking her catchphrase. It still amazes me how much heat she gets and if there is going to be a woman involved in this whole conspiracy angle then I’m glad it’s her. She’s perfect for this, no matter how random it seems. I had to laugh when the Phantom of the Opera came out and started to talk, I can’t help it. Cody is so hit and miss for me. Sometimes I enjoy his gimmick, other times I just shake my head. Other than that, I got to see Christian. I’m happy!

Anyway, as the night continued on, it was revealed exactly why Vickie decided to get involved. Triple H tried to screw over her man, Teddy Long screwed over her stable, and hell, why not join forces with bb Christian and Cody Rhodes and fight the good fight? Here’s why Vickie ended up so infuriated.

I think it’s safe to say that Vickie has good reason for being so pissed off.

But should Vickie really be so pissed off that she takes legal advice from David Otunga? I guess having the wool pulled over your eyes by Baby Batista means desperate times call for desperate measures. Christian wanted a law suit, and now he has Vickie, Dolph, and Cody Rhodes backing him up. What is this going to lead too? Perhaps it’s going to be a double rainbow for all involved and they’ll end up getting the WWE to give them what they want. I say it’s going to backfire horribly for each of them and they’ll suffer the same fate as Miz/Truth. Either way, it’s completely interesting to me and Vickie is the greatest character on WWE TV.

That’s it! Tune in Sunday for Hell in a Cell. Until next Monday, Cryssi out!

So last night Raw turned into the Vickie Guerrero show, and no one is complaining! Mrs. Fierce did her thing last night in the most amazing way possible and personally, I couldn’t be happier. Vickie has morphed herself into one of the best personalities, male or female, in the WWE right now and seeing her dominate the show last night made me a very happy writer. There was also a confusing tag team match, featuring Kelly Kelly and Eve Torres taking on Beth Phoenix and Natalya. No witty opening today, guys. I do apologize for that. Let’s just get on with the action.

Divas Champ, Kelly (how impressive was she at NOC?) and Eve made their way to the ring first, and yes, Kelly is still the champion. She’s sporting the hometown jersey tonight making sure no one has any reason to jeer her a la the Buffalo crowd, and she’s proudly holding her title in the air. Eve just seems happy to be there and that’s fine; 2K is a pretty good meal ticket these days. Out next are the Divas of Doom sporting some awful looking Demolition/LOD-esque shoulder pads. Neither of them look thrilled and Cole puts over Beth’s reaction to losing last night. Apparently she wasn’t happy that she kinda choked when it mattered the most.

Beth and Kelly kick things off, with Beth temporarily getting the better of the bubbly Divas Champion. She tosses 2K into the corner, but when she charges Kelly is able to stick her foot up and knock Beth away. Kelly follows it up by trying to run the ropes, manages to duck a Beth clothesline attempt, and ends up sending Beth into the corner where Eve is waiting for the tag. The ex-champion comes in looking to capitalize on the fact Kelly has gotten Beth in a weakened state.

She does get the better of Beth, but only for a few seconds. The Glamazon is quick to knock Eve down with a mighty kick to the chest. Eve withers in pain, and that gives Beth the chance to tag in Natalya. DoD double team Eve with a brutal clothesline before Beth is ordered out of the ring. Nattie goes for the first cover of the match, but Eve has more fight in her than that. That fight doesn’t stop the Canadian from putting a hurtin’ on Eve. She works her over on the mat before tossing her into the corner. Beth backs up, but the referee doesn’t trust the situation. Natalya picks an argument with him, and that gives Beth a chance to cheat. Eve, to her credit, isn’t having it. She knocks Beth back with an elbow and when Nattie comes flying at her, she fights her off as well.

Eve doesn’t just fight off Natalya, she manages to roll her up.

Oh wow, she won.

Well that was interesting. Hmmm. Last night I wasn’t to keen on Eve and Kelly winning yet another match, but the morning after, well… it depends on where they go with it. I have the hole dug, ready to bury this DoD storyline, but I’m not quite ready to start filling it with dirt. I want to believe that this is going to lead to Beth and Nattie going on an absolute tear and destroying Divas left and right, but I can’t be that positive about it. So in this case, I’m just going with if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. I do, however, feel like the match had the best Beth/Eve interaction we’ve seen, and I didn’t hate. Just confused by the outcome and where this could possibly be going.

Maybe some answers on SmackDown?

Meanwhile, Vickie temporarily forgot about Dolph last night with Hollywood hunk, Hugh Jackman, around. While Wolverine was in the ring cutting a promo, Vickie and her hot blond man-candy interrupted, both with microphones in their hands.

“EXCUUUUUUUUUUUUUSE ME!”

The heat Vickie gets from that simple phrase is amazing. The crowd is all over her and the United States Champion as they walk to the ring. Once Vickie sees Jackman, she turns on the charm. She calls herself his biggest fan and claims he should agree she is the hottest WWE Diva (we agree!), and Vickie references that People magazine was right when they named Jackman the sexiest man alive. Dolph isn’t impressed.

His jealously is so hot.

Dolph is glaring at his manager/lady friend and finally it dawns on Vickie that she’s supposed to be introducing Dolph. Jackman starts to speak, but she interrupts, but when he sees her ‘Cougar’ necklace, Vickie gets all giggly. Dolph warns Jackman to watch his hands and he apologizes. Dolph has had enough anyway. He wants to put himself and his victory from Night of Champions over, so he does just that. He even manages to get in a few wisecracks as well; little gems such as referencing Mason Ryan as a robot (we agree) and purposely mixing up the title role Jackman has played. Love it. He calls himself the greatest United States Champion this business has ever seen and he’s getting a ton of heat. Love this.

Dolph’s rant continues on, while Vickie keeps on making eyes at Hugh Jackman. The celeb’s movie is plugged and Dolph basically claims he can beat anyone tonight that Jackman would coach in a match against him. The crowd only wants one person, Hugh Jackman confiscates a sign, and low and behold… we’re going to end up having Dolph Ziggler versus Zack Ryder later on tonight.

The match itself is a standard guys match, except better because it has Dolph and Ryder in it. I’m not going to recap it, because that’s not what I do, but it’s worth the watch the see Vickie looking hot at ringside in her romper and my baby getting sucker punched at the end. So sad.

And just when we thought that was it, Vickie shows up backstage and this time it’s with Jack Swagger. Uh oh.

The whole segment is so well done, that a recap isn’t even necessary. Swagger has been after Vickie’s services for weeks and finally she accepts him into her stable. Cue camera shot of the sullen, beaten U.S. Champ rubbing his jaw and looking jilted. This is great. I absolutely LOVE that Vickie, Dolph, and Zack got this kind of push tonight. Working with someone like Hugh Jackman is kind of a big deal and in my opinion, these three people should be pushed to the moon. Vickie is brilliant and both guys are the total package. Celebrity appearances aren’t normally my thing but if all of them come off this well, then more please.

As far as Vickie now having her own stable, well you go girl. Ultimately, it is not going to end well for you, but enjoy it while you can. I fully see Ziggler/Swagger exploding into a huge feud with our girl right in the middle of it. I don’t know how I feel about it, to be fair. Dolph/Vickie is one of my favorite pairings of all time. It works on so many levels for both of them and I don’t want it to ever end. This storyline is no doubt going to be the only thing I care about for the next few weeks, so yay. Excited.

Raw wasn’t a top show tonight, but Vickie’s presence definitely saved it for me. She’s the best in the company right now. Great night for her. See you guys next week… Cryssi out!

Just six days before the Divas Championship match between Kelly Kelly and Beth Phoenix, you might expect a match that foreshadows events to come. Divas of Doom vs Kelly & Eve, perhaps? No, instead last night’s Raw pretty much gave the current Divas feud a night off — save for a fleeting appearance from Beth at the end — as Kelly faced off against… Vickie Guerrero?

Watch below:

It all kicked off backstage when Kelly somehow got involved in a conversation between Vickie and SmackDown General Manager, Teddy Long. (SmackDown being the operative word. This is Raw!) Vickie channels her inner-LayCool calling Kelly a “ditzy Barbie doll” and that she makes a “pathetic Divas Champion”. “Even I could beat you…”

And those, folks, are the magic words when it comes to WWE.

Before you know it, Vickie vs Kelly is booked for later in the show. Somewhere the Bella Twins are weeping.

Fast forward an hour or so, and it’s the match we all haven’t been waiting for. Vickie prolongs her inevitable humiliation by ‘warming up’. She then gets in Kelly’s face, shoving her but gets hits with a Thesz Press before she can say “Excuse me!”

Kelly follows up by licking her hand and smacking Vickie’s butt which only fires up Vickie more. Kelly with a bulldog and oh dear… Ahem… Well, ‘wrestler’ is not the first thing on Vickie’s resumé, is it?

Vickie backs into the corner and you know what time it is — stinkface.

Meanwhile, our match has been hijacked by the guys as Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger argue outside of the ring, causing Vickie much distress as she gives Kelly the advantage to roll her up and take the victory.

Well, that was scintillating.

After the match, Beth attempts to run into the ring and attack K2 but gets kicked off the ring apron. Well, at least they did a little something to promote the PPV match on Sunday.

I adore Vickie and she’s looking more phenomenal by the week, but did we need to see this? I think if you’re going to put Vickie in a match it should be a tag match or a match with a more experienced opponent. It should also be built up over time, not just booked for the same night. She is such a heat magnet that people would love to see her comeuppance after a long feud.

And as for the male involvement? Usually I would be annoyed that the one Divas match on a card of 5-6 male matches gets the focus pulled away and put on the guys, but not this week.

I guess they did try to tease the Night of Champions match this Sunday, but when you think of all of the other things they could’ve done with this three minute segment — perhaps a really heated in-ring promo between Beth & Kelly — that isn’t saying much.

A blah week for Raw.

This past Sunday, all hell broke lose on Twitter as several of the Divas used the social networking site to their advantage to express their opinions over a certain controversial article posted by WWE.com. To say things got out of hand would be an understatement, but it left us fans on the edge of our seats practically begging the WWE to turn the article into a storyline. While it didn’t necessarily get turned into a storyline, the ‘E mentioned the article and the Divas’ reactions to it which is a huge step for them and the direction of the division itself. Raw continued on with the crowning of a new, yet familiar number one contender and a Night of Champions match was set. Kelly Kelly will take on Beth Phoenix in about two weeks, as Beth defeated Kelly’s BFF Eve Torres in a forgettable match. What wasn’t forgettable about the night was the fact that third-generation Diva, Natalya, absolutely took it to the champ on commentary. Lets take a look at what went down…

The match starts off pretty quickly with Eve and Beth locking up, and Eve falling victim to Beth’s strength. Nonetheless, Eve gets back and goes in for more, and the two girls begin jostling back and forth for position. Eve tries to get Beth in a side-headlock, but Beth sends Eve across the ring and when she comes back off of the ropes, Beth takes her down a hearty clothesline. She goes for a quick cover while the camera stupidly cuts away to shot a Natalya, but Eve is able to bridge out. Beth launches herself in the air, but Eve catches her with her feet while the two girls have their hands still locked together. What happens next is something I can’t really describe because I’m not sure what Eve and Beth were going for. It ends up being a clear botch, but they compensate pretty well with Eve kicking Beth in the stomach, bringing her down, and flipping over for a pretty pin. Beth powers out and both girls get back to their feet. Beth swings wildly at Eve and misses, and the booty-popping Diva takes advantage by nailing Beth with a kick and forcing her back to the ropes with a forearm.

Trying to keep her momentum going, Eve attempts to throw Beth across the ring. It doesn’t work, and Beth uses Eve’s advantage against her and slings her shoulder first into the turnbuckle. Beth gets out of the ring and begins yanking and jerking Eve’s arm, then she takes it and slams it right into the steel. Ouch. We get another shot at commentary so I can’t tell you what happens next, but we cut to the middle of another pinfall attempt. This time is Beth over Eve, but Eve is able to get her shoulder up. Again we go back to a camera shot of Natalya and Kelly, but once we return to the match, Eve gets laid out with an absolutely sick kick to the face. She goes down like a ton of bricks and Beth keeps trying to injure Eve’s already hurt arm.

Eve, bless her, somehow manages to fight back and levels Beth with a kick of her own. She goes back on offense and gets Beth down with a clothesline, then follows it up with a running somersault. She hooks the leg and nearly gets a three count, but Beth is able to kick out. Reckon the jolt of almost losing fires up Beth because she bullies Eve in the corner and starts choking her. Eve fights back and once Beth staggers back, Eve leaps on the bottom rope and tries to nail Beth with a cutesy little kick. The Glamazon ducks and is able to catch Eve in her clutches. She pulls her to the center of the ring while Eve struggles, and ends up laying Eve out with a painful, sloppy looking Glam Slam. Beth picks up the victory and celebrates her win, and Kelly leaves the broadcast area to go check on Eve.

Beth sees this going on and kicks the ropes to get 2K’s attention. Kelly isn’t amused, and the newly crowned number one contender begins to trash talk the current Diva queen. Kelly fires back with words of her own but she is quickly taken out by Natalya, who comes up behind her. The Canadian takes Kelly and slams her head off the apron, then to add insult to injury she jerks her down, causing Kelly to strike the back of her head on the mat. Eve and Kelly wither around on the mat in pain while Natalya and Beth celebrate how awesome they are in the ring.

First, can I just say that Kelly and Natalya looked amazing! I wonder if our favorite shopaholic Diva picked up her gorgeous dress while in Paris this weekend? Any comment, Nattie? Oh, and I want Kelly’s ankle boots.

Now that the superficial comment is out of the way, let me just say that normally I’m not a fan of commentary catfights. This time, I’m glad we had one because Beth and Eve do not mesh well together. I’ll admit that watching the match a second time with Kelly/Nattie on mute made me realize that it wasn’t as bad as I originally thought, but it still wasn’t great. When one girl is selling for the other, the action is great. But when they hook up to try and pull off something flashy things just don’t go well. They aren’t on the same page, timing wise, and that’s unfortunate because Eve and Beth are both great workers. They showed it in what I’m going to call their solo parts of the match. Eve grows on me the more she competes in singles matches and Beth just goes without saying. Unfortunate match with a predictable outcome but the commentary and post-match shenanigans were great.

I kind of wish it was Natalya who was going to get the chance to challenge at Night of Champions because she’s just such a phenomenal heel. The girl oozes sass and attitude, and of course I appreciate that. Either way, Beth and Kelly have already proved they can bring it at a pay-per-view and I’m looking forward to seeing part two. I loved their match at SummerSlam and I’m hoping that this one will be even better. Congratulations to Beth on her victory.

But that wasn’t all. The Bella Twins, Brie and Nikki, fresh from their Twitter controversy on Sunday, were in a backstage segment with WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio.

This one doesn’t really need any commentary, does it?

Until next week, Cryssi out.

Perhaps it’s the psychotic fan girl inside of me, but in my opinion Raw was complete garbage last night. I realize that I have a slightly biased opinion but I can say with all honesty that the Divas were one of the very few bright spots. Sure, you can make the case that you’re sick of seeing Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres, and Brie and Nikki Bella face each other with the Divas of Doom, Beth Phoenix and Natalya, just watching, and that would be completely fine. It is getting redundant but at least last night we got some type of storyline explanation from Beth and Natalya. We also got a fairly decent match with a surprising outcome, and yes, Vickie Guerrero was involved her own drama as well. Lets recap all the action!

Kelly and her BFF, Eve, make their way to the ring first. They are followed by the Bella twins who are dressed the same this week, so it’s quite obvious that twin magic is going to be used this week! The bell rings and Kelly is immediately in Brie’s face. They go back and forth until Kelly shoves her opponent away and starts nailing her with some nice looking forearm shots. Brie doesn’t take to kindly to 2K’s attempted offense and she fires back by taking Kelly down by her hair. Brie stomps away at the champ and hits her in the back with a stiff looking kick. She follows it up by stepping on Kelly’s hair and pulling her up by the arms. Ouch. Brie lifts Kelly in the air by her arms and slams her down, laughing at all the damage she has caused 2K thus far.

While the match is going on, the camera switches to the backstage area where Beth and Natalya are watching on a monitor. Natalya mentions that “they’re just as much part of the problem” and Beth just seems to want to rant to about Kelly. She says that “they” cheer her every week, making her popular and she just doesn’t get it. Beth and Natalya claim they’re not jealous but they say they’re good Divas and they should be in the ring having the match.

I can only assume that “they” is referring to the Bella twins in the first reference and in the second, the fans. Although after listening to the little promo the second time, “they” seems to directed towards the fans for both. Personally, I think referencing the Bellas is more effective but nonetheless..

There is a match going on and Nikki is able to get a cheap shot in on Kelly during the DoD conversation. Eve goes over to confront Nikki and while the referee has been busy with Brie, Kelly has been laying against the ropes. Brie goes to slam her leg into the blond, but Kelly is able to move and just seeing Brie in pain is enough of a motivational tool to get Kelly back into the match. She mounts Brie and begins beating her down, but luckily the younger twin is able to throw Kelly off. Both girls get back to their feet and of course, Kelly has to slap Brie on the booty to get her attention. Brie acts like this is the worst thing that has ever happened to her and it leads to her swinging at Kelly. Kelly is able to block it and send Brie to the ropes. She wants to whip her across the ring, but Brie reverses it and sends Kelly flying instead. The champ is ready and is able to use Brie’s momentum to her advantage and send the ex-title holder to the mat with a badly done head-scissors.

Oh well.

Brie rolls to the ropes and Kelly goes to capitalize, but Brie sends her crashing hard to the outside. Kelly lands with an exclaimated “ooph!” Nikki runs over to Kelly, but Eve takes off in Nikki’s direction to protect her friend. Brie sees what’s going on and Eve is taken out with a baseball slide that hits her right in the side of the head. Brie taunts Eve on the outside and Kelly tries to decapitate her opponent with a nasty clothesline. Kelly sends Brie back into the ring and goes to check on Eve. The referee is counting out Kelly with his back turned to Brie to she slithers out of the ring, Nikki goes in, and oooooh boy. Twin Magic is about to go down!

Kelly crawls back into the ring, no doubt looking to finish off the twin whom she assumes is Brie. Sadly for our champion, it’s not Brie. It’s Nikki and she ends Kelly’s winning streak three seconds later after nailing her with the Bella Buster. Brie climbs into the ring and the twins celebrate beside the champ’s fallen form like they just won the World Cup.

(Funny note, watching the replay of the match breakdown, the baseball slide missed Eve completely in a great LOL moment. Not going to lie, I laughed out loud.)

LOVED this outcome for so many reasons. First, it shows us that the Kelly/Eve tandem is not invincible which is the way it’s been going since 2K won her championship. This is a loss that needed to happen. It also makes me think that perhaps the Bella twins may end up in this storyline. They have heat with Kelly and Eve, obviously, but what about Beth and Natalya? They’re not wrestling because the Bellas keep taking their spot. How long is it going to be before they snap and go after the Bellas? I really don’t see Kelly and Eve coming to the defense of the Bellas, and I don’t want to see the Bellas go back face… not that Divas of Doom are actually heels. It’s all so confusing and that’s not a bad thing. At least it’s getting us thinking about the Divas and wondering what direction this storyline is going in. A lot of people think the Beth/Kelly feud is kind of fizzling out, and that’s fine. I don’t agree. I think they’re going for a slow build to make this actually mean something in the long run and isn’t that what we want for the Divas?

As wrestling fans we’re programmed to be passionate and impatient, and at times, downright negative about the stuff we view on television. It’s kind of hard not to be that way. I know that I absolutely care far to much about scripted sports entertainment but when you invest your time and energy into liking so and so, you get upset when you feel like they’re not treated fairly. It always seems as if the Divas aren’t treated fairly, and trust me, I’m not saying that things are on a permanent upswing. But in this case, this little feud or whatever you want to call it, the slow progression and lack of immediate action on the part of Beth/Nattie is not a bad thing unless this gets randomly dropped. Honestly, I don’t see them randomly dropping this angle. I believe they want it to succeed. Beth and Natalya will only be able to take so much of seeing the “pretty people” dominate the television time. And finally when they snap, it will be epic. And it will be beautiful. Surely that type of pay-off will be worth it. Personally, I can’t wait.

(If only I could take my own advice when it comes to other aspects of the WWE… *shakes fist* “Deceived by my eyes and all I was taught I should be… opinions not mine, the person they taught me to be…)

Anyway, everybody’s favorite love triangle continued to build last night, and no, there was no signs whatsoever of ‘domestic violence’ tendencies by Dolph Ziggler. It’s completely laughable that some people are hating on this storyline because Vickie tripped last week and set Dolph up to look like he pushed her. Vickie was just being a vixen but everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Lets check out the latest antics in this on-going drama.

Technically, everything got started earlier in the night when poor Dolph had to job to the man who stole Christian’s title lost to World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton in a predictable an exciting match. (God, I’m really freaking bitter…) Bias aside, the match really was great but despite all that, Dolph’s loss didn’t settle to well with Vickie. Heck, our favorite cougar even did her best to help her man win. So later on in the night, it was only natural that Vickie checked out Swagger’s match with Fake Cara. Swagger did watch Dolph loser earlier in the night.

Long story short, Dolph came out, cost the All American American a much needed victory and demanded that Vickie leave with him right now. He would storm to the back and a few minutes later, Vickie would turn around and leave as well.

So, not much going on with these three this week. Maybe another slow build? Again, I don’t mind this and no, I’m not bothered by Dolph’s jealous rages. It’s not domestic violency, people. He’s not done anything to Vickie. She’s the one who set him up last week when she failed to get up and that’s fine. Vickie truly has done a lot for the career of Dolph Ziggler and it’s natural that he would feel threatened at this point. However, he should also see how having Swagger around could benefit him. Where this is going is anyone guess and I suppose if something happens “domestic violency” I’ll be eating a slice of humble pie, but whatever. This is PG-WWE. And either way, who cares?

Lets be honest, I was kind of just enjoying Dolph under the Sin Cara mood lighting, haha.

I realize that this has been a rather feisty little Redux but somethings have gotten me kind of fired up lately. At the end of the day, it’s only my opinion and yes, you guys are entitled to yours. I do, however, ask that you express those opinions in an adult matter and most importantly, do not hurl insults at one another. As much as I bitch, moan, and groan about things not going my way in regards to the product, it’s never personal towards the performers. These women and men go out every single night and give it their all to entertain us and none of us know what goes on backstage. It’s important to remember that what these people do isn’t easy. If it was, then everyone would go out there and do it. Some may be better than others, but every one of them works hard every single day. You can dislike their characters, but always respect them as people.

Until next week… Cryssi out!

Sunshine and rainbows. Puppies and kittens. Raindrops on roses. These are just a few of my favorite things. And last night, my favorite things gained another addition; soap-opera like editions of Monday Night Raw. In my humble opinion, randomocity makes the world a better place and Raw had a little bit of everything this week. We got Divas, storyline continuation, a fierce halter-top worn by Vickie Guerrero. There was a lot. To sum it all up in one dramatic little phrase, Raw was perfection this week. I almost want to name it Dolph Ziggler…

This week we’re kicking things off with our Diva match and surprise, surprise… it was filled with a little bit of controversy. Earlier in the evening it was announced that Brie Bella would be taking on Eve Torres in a singles match, but in all actuality it was Nikki who wrestled tonight. She took on Eve, who had her Diva’s Champion BFF, Kelly Kelly, with her. Nikki and Brie were in the ring when Raw returned from break, and Eve and Kelly walked onto the stage.

Is it just me, or is this Diva’s Championship reign making our sweet Kelly a little cocky?

Anyway, as Eve and Kelly make their way to the ring, Michael Cole lets us know that earlier in the day, Beth Phoenix and Natalya taped a special little message for the fans. Beth says people think the Divas of Doom want to be pretty, popular, and have voluptuous bodies like Kelly, and Natalya denies those accusations. Natalya then says that neither herself, nor Beth, are going to tell the world what they want.

Yes, that’s it.

The bell sounds and Nikki immediately goes on offense. Eve fights back and sends Nikki into the corner, but when she charges her opponent, Nikki is able to send her over the top rope. Eve skillfully lands on the apron but before she can capitalize on catching Nikki off guard, Brie runs interference. Nikki is able to hurt Eve using the ropes and the Colorado native falls to the outside. Nikki distracts the referee for a second to allow Brie to get a cheap shot in, and then goes to the outside to grab Eve. The older twin tosses her opponent back inside the ring and begins to work on wearing Eve down. Kelly rallies the crowd behind Eve, and the ex-Diva Search winner begins to fight back. She manages to slam Nikki into the back and both ladies are down.

They take their time gathering their energy, and both end up back on their feet at the same time. It’s Eve who takes over this time and she finally grounds Nikki. Eve decides to get the crowd going and unfortunately, we all know what that means. She does the infamous booty pop that we all love oh so freakin’ much. It’s followed up with a standing moonsault, and Eve goes for the cover. She almost gets a two count.

Eve gets back up to her feet and fends off Nikki, then heads for the top rope. We all know she’s going for her moonsault finisher, but Brie interjects herself into the mix again. Eve is distracted and this allows Nikki to jerk her foe off the ropes. Eve takes a terrible tumble and Nikki goes for the cover. Eve is somehow able to kick out and Nikki is not happy about that. She yells at the referee but nonetheless goes back to work. Eve fights her off and sends her back into the ropes, and when Nikki comes back at her, Eve is able to get her with a pretty looking swinging neckbreaker thing. Nikki is down for the count and Eve picks up a solid win. Kelly gets into the ring to celebrate with her bestie while Brie tries to check on her sister. For whatever reason, Brie’s presence annoys the champ and Kelly takes it upon herself to lay Brie out with her finisher.

Ummm, okay. Random.

Eve and Kelly celebrate and just like de ja vu, its cut short by an appearance from DoD. Beth and Natalya walk out onto the stage and clap for their rivals. An interesting little stare-down takes place and that’s all she wrote folks.

Same ole, same ole. The match itself was okay this week. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate. I suppose it served its purpose and really, there’s no other Divas on Raw to use in matches right now. I don’t mind it. What I do mind is that Nattie and Beth keep showing up and not really doing anything. It was okay one week, this week… ehhh. I think their promo should have taken place after the match and given us a little more to go on. My mild complaints are probably do to the fact I lack patience and I want this story to progress. If they want to take the time to develop it more, fine. I won’t complain. Someone needs to take their time with the Divas and if I have to see Beth and Nattie stand on the stage and clap for three more weeks, I’ll suck it up. Big SmackDown this week, followed by Raw, and a live Tuesday SmackDown. So fingers crossed that something amazing happens on one of these three shows.

The on-going sage of Vickie and Dolph continued this week as well. Last week, our sexy United States champion was upstaged by Vickie’s ringside antics. Those antics caught of the eye of the All American American Jack Swagger and an idea was thrown to Vickie backstage by the aforementioned Swagger.

This segment is amazing. Vickie is such a vixen. Part of me wants to scream at her and be like “how dare you come out and announce Swagger when Dolph is your man” and the other part of me wants to stand up applaud how vicious and ambitious she is. Every manager should have more than one client and I don’t see anything wrong with surrounding yourself with handsome blond men. Business is business, and there’s nothing wrong with mixing a little bit of pleasure in it as well. Besides, a woman has to be able to look at the people she works with, right? All superficialism aside, Vickie tripping and just sitting here was brilliant. It was only natural that Swagger jumped to the conclusion that Dolph pushed her. And the fact that Dolph and Vickie continue bicker makes me think that Vickie is about to stab her champion in the back. I fully expect to see this continue to Night of Champions where Dolph is going to have to defend his title. Swagger and the equally yummy Alex Riley are his likely opponents and it wouldn’t shock me one iota to see Vickie cost the Dolph the match.

Of course if I were Vickie, I would try and lure Alex into my clutches as well. A woman can never surround herself with too many men, especially ones who are talented and destined for glory.

That’s it for this week guys. Overall, I LOVED Raw this week and I hope this momentum keeps on keeping on. I’ll be back next week and until then… Cryssi out!

What a fantastic 48 hours for the WWE as a whole, as well as the Divas. A lot of us doubted that the ‘E could keep their momentum after Money in the Bank, but they’ve certainly proven me wrong, and I hope all of you as well. SummerSlam provided us with the return of the top you-know-what to ever grace the squared circle, Mrs. Stephanie McMahon. And it also gave us a shocking Kelly Kelly victory over Beth Phoenix in one of the most beautiful ways possible. Raw had a lot to live up to and it absolutely smashed a home run right over the center field wall. Kelly teamed up with her BFF Eve Torres to take on Brie and Nikki Bella. The Divas of Doom, Beth and Natalya, made their presence felt in two drop-dead flawless outfits, Stephanie continued to baffle all of us, and Vickie Guerrero, the reigning Queen of Fierce, could have very well stolen the show last night. Let’s hurry up and get on with the action!

The first thing we’re going to get into is the tag match. I can admit that I totally popped for the Bella Twins (in their DB colors no less…) when they came out as I wasn’t expecting to see them. After all four ladies are in the ring, the Divas get into the usual trash talking. Kelly parades her championship in the twins’ faces, and finally it’s decided that Kelly and Brie will start the match off. 2K follows up her victory from last night with some impressive offense in the early stages of the match. She ends up getting Brie in the corner after hitting a sweet looking bulldog, and then she delivers a stinkface to her brunette opponent. Nikki walks over and provides a distraction which gives Brie a chance to strike Kelly from behind. The champ goes down, and Brie begins to work over Kelly’s leg. Brie pulls her to the corner, where she tags in Nikki, and the older Bella hurts Kelly just a little more. Nikki tags her sister right back in and that gives Brie a chance to mimic Nikki’s motions. They’ve got Kelly grounded. The merry-go-round of tags continue with Nikki coming into the match for good now and the work on Kelly’s hurt limb continues with a sick looking submission type of hold. Kelly is actually folded into a wicked looking triangle. That’s just not normal. Kelly, to her credit, is able to kick Nikki away with her good leg and she crawls over to her corner and makes the tag to Eve.

The ex-Divas Champ gets involved now and she takes control over Nikki. Not even a distraction from Brie can stop Eve from changing the course of the match. Nikki attempts to lift Eve up for a powerslam, but Eve wiggles out of it and lays Nikki out with a backwards neckbreaker (yes, I still give wrestling moves their own names, haha). Brie tries to come in to help, but Kelly is all over that. She takes Brie down which gives Eve an opportunity to go to the top rope and hit a moonsault on Nikki. She goes for the cover and that’s all she wrote, folks. The team of Kelly and Eve pick up a big win. They celebrate in style but that celebration is cut short when the Divas of Doom make their way out onto the stage. Beth and Natalya sarcastically applaud the victory of Kelly and Eve, and from there it’s just an intense stare-down. Love it.

First of all, how amazing did Beth and Nattie look?! OMG, wow. Beth’s whole look from last night needs to get into my closet right now and Nattie, well she always brings the fierce. We know she’s a little fashionista with her Louis Vuitton and Louboutin tweets so you just keep on keeping on girl. The Divas of Doom make me happy because as great of a face tag team as they were, Beth and Natalya are amazing at being heels. I truly hope these two stay together through thick and thin and perhaps when Kharma makes her return, they can all be a sick and twisted stable and continue to raise hell in the Divas division. Then and only then can they all turn on each other and give us an epic triple threat match at WrestleMania 29… but again, I’m getting way ahead of myself.

The Divas had another good match. The Bella Twins always impress me and I love the way they told a story in this match. They picked apart one body part and stayed with it, and that’s great. Kelly is proving that when given a little extra time she can pull out new moves, and I love her for it. Eve getting the pin was an interesting surprise and I’m excited to see where this is going.

And speaking of exciting, Vickie was given an interesting proposal by a former World Heavyweight Champion.

What sets up the backstage segment you’ve just watch is the fact Vickie and her main man, Dolph Ziggler (my man, haha), came to ringside to do commentary for the Alex Riley and Jack Swagger match. The couple spent the majority of the time bickering between themselves with Dolph putting the announcers in their place everytime they tried to diss Vickie and her appearance. Dolph and Vickie were great, as usual, but eventually Vickie grew tired of it and she left the broadcast booth.

But she didn’t go far.

Vickie took good ole J.R.’s hat and put it on her head. She strutted around in it for a little while, getting everyone to look at her. When Riley was in good shape to win the match, Vickie provided a hilarious distraction. She jumped on the apron and put the hat on the referee and that allowed Swagger to recover. To failed gut-wrench powerbombs later, Mr. I Couldn’t Unhook The Money in the Bank Briefcase on the Grandest Stage of Them All got a much needed win. And no, I’ll never let that go, ever. Vickie seemed pleased with herself and the greatest thing of all, Dolph had to sit there and watch his woman help another man win a match. Vickie is soooo vicious.

As far as the backstage segment goes, a Vickie and Swagger union would be epic. Vickie clearly loves her blonds and Swagger, despite his little fails (MiTB, ahem) is super talented. He’s being wasted on Raw and getting involved with Vickie would be amazing for him. I’ve never understood why the art of managing has died out, but having Vickie help bring the movement back is great. Managers can absolutely have more than one client and I’d love to see the two men fight over Vickie and have an eventual feud. The idea of a Dolph/Swagger match makes my mouth water and if you throw A-Ry into that mix, oh baby. Lets make this happen at Night of Champions.

I love great Raws.

And the greatness didn’t stop there. Stephanie, who shocked us all with her return at SummerSlam, showed up on Raw and she had yet another little segment with Diva Dirt favorite, CM Punk.

The 37 seconds of awesomeness left all of us with more questions than answers and honestly, I’m okay with that. I would love to sit here and speculate all day about what Stephanie meant when she told Punk that people always get what they deserve. In fact, we talked about it a lot on DD Live last night. I don’t know where this storyline is going. And I have no idea what it means. But what I know is that I love having Stephanie back on television. It’s where she belongs because until Vickie came along, no one could get a reaction quite like Stephanie. And a cryptic Stephanie is the absolute best Steph of all.

Again, I love great Raws. I’ll be truly shocked if SmackDown is able to top what we saw tonight. Good luck to them and I’ll see you guys next week! Until then… Cryssi out!

Last week, Beth Phoenix sent shockwaves throughout the Divas division as she became the new #1 Contender for the Divas Title — and made one hell of a statement by declaring that the days of the ‘cute, blonde little bimbos’ are over.

With anticipation high to see how WWE would follow through on this final episode of Raw before SummerSlam, the new attitude Beth was in singles action against Eve Torres. Let’s watch and review…

Beth was out first followed by Eve and as the bell rings, the two Divas lock up and fight for position. Eve tries to lock in an arm submission but Beth backs her into the ring ropes. The referee breaks up the pair but Beth sneaks in a cheap shot back elbow.

Eve is whipped against the ropes but ducks Beth, instead rolling over her back and hitting her with a dropkick, the force of which sends Beth retreating against the ropes trying to stay on her feet. Eve charges at Beth but gets thrown over the top rope and lands on the apron where she hits Beth with a forearm. Beth, not happy with this, charges at Eve knocking her off the apron to the floor below.

The new, aggressive Beth Phoenix is clearly not playing! The Glamazon grabs Eve by the hair, throwing her into the barricade, much like she did Kelly Kelly last week. Eve lands hard. I think she may have even landed on her head. Ouch!

Adding insult to injury, Beth grabs Eve by the hair (and yes, that sh*t hurts!) dragging her back into the ring. Eve, gurl. You’re gonna need a head massage tomorrow. Beth goes for a cover but Eve resiliently kicks out. Beth again goes for Eve’s hair, slamming her against the mat by her hair, not once but twice. Beth follows up with an elbow drop and another pin attempt but no three.

Beth picks Eve up, clubbing her across the back, and whips her into the ropes. Beth picks her up for some sort of powerslam but Eve wriggles free and hits a dropkick. Well, attempts to a hit a dropkick would probably be more accurate. Eve’s foot just lightly connects with Beth. Beth sells it nonetheless, backing into the ropes. Eve, however, makes up for her faux pas with a forearm and knee shot followed by a lovely kick to the face, wearing down the Pinup Strong Diva. Still, Beth is on her feet.

Eve attempts to whip Beth into the corner but Beth uses her strength and power to stand her position, not budging an inch. Beth reverses the Irish whip, whipping Eve into the corner and she lands face-first into the top turnbuckle. Beth runs at Eve but gets hit with a back elbow from the former Divas Champ. Eve follows up by using the bottom rope for a boost and landing a cool looking kick to the back of Beth’s head.

With Beth finally down, Eve wastes time by not going for a cover — instead she opts to go up top for a moonsault. Eve perches up on the top turnbuckle but before she can hit the move, Beth is behind her, cutting her off at the legs leading to an awkward landing on the ropes. Beth knows what time it is…

Glam Slam! Eve takes the move like a pro and it’s all over.

After the match, the Glamazon grabs the microphone for the second time in as many weeks — clearly a world record for the Divas — and imparts this week’s words of wisdom. “I’m so sick of Divas like you and Kelly Kelly making a mockery of the Divas division,” Beth says to an applaud from the crowd. Wait, I don’t think you’re supposed to like her. “No more booty popping. No more splits. No more stinkfaces.”

Meanwhile on commentary, old perv Lawler: “That takes out 90% of the fun of the Divas division for me.” Don’t you have a high school girl to bother, Jerry? Shut up.

As Beth leaves the ring, she stops on the ramp for one last message to Eve. However, before she can even get her sentence out… BAM! Her opponent for Sunday’s SummerSlam, Kelly Kelly, appears, hitting Beth across the back and sending her to the ground.

We end with Kelly and Beth staredown ahead of Sunday’s big match.

Thoughts: Let’s start with the match. I enjoyed it. I don’t recall seeing these two compete in a match before but I thought they put on a good show last night. Eve took some punishment from the Glamazon and really sold it well. Of course, I still think she needs to work on her dropkicks but I think she kind of made up for that with not one, but two awesome kicks. This was an enjoyable match.

As for Beth’s post-match promo, well, like CM Punk, she pretty much seems to be echoing what the fans want. We don’t want to see stinkfaces. We don’t want to see booty pops. We want competition. And despite Jerry Lawler’s best efforts (okay, I’m sure it wasn’t premeditated) to bury the angle with his comments, I hope that this does indeed mean some change for the Divas with Beth — and Natalya on SmackDown — starting a crusade against stuff like that and demanding better matches. I’ve already said my piece on the splits comment, so I won’t go further into that. I will say, however — when you have characters like Beth and Punk kind of echoing sentiments of the audience, can they really be considered heels? Technically, I guess in WWE’s eyes, Beth is the heel because everything must be black and white. Heels and faces. Good and evil. But for me, Beth (and Natalya), seem to have adopted this new evolution of character that CM Punk recently started where they almost speak for the fans at home and go against the norms and conventions of WWE. Not quite heel, but not quite babyface.

Kelly Kelly’s attack on Beth from behind rubbed me as a heel-like tactic and I think they could’ve gone a different direction. I can see why they did it the way they did; Beth has the strength and size advantage, so it would make sense to have Kelly attack her from behind to one-up her because she probably wouldn’t get one over on her face-to-face, but this goes against the grain of a typical babyface, which Kelly is. I think this made Kelly look kind of cowardly rather than a brave, courageous underdog. I would have had K2 come out and face Beth eye-to-eye in a staredown. Then you could have Beth just walking away, playing mind games, indicating that she’ll wait till Sunday to destroy Kelly. It also keeps Kelly as the brave, courageous, underdog babyface.

Anyhoo, despite my nitpicking, I thought the entire segment was well done this week. There was just enough progression and build for Sunday. I’m excited for SummerSlam.

What did you think of the Divas last night? Tell us in the comments!

When Raw has a good showing three important things happen; angels start to sing, a unicorn sprouts fairy wings and begins to fly, and I get to write a happy Redux. Last night, Raw had a good showing, and I found myself incredibly excited to talk about the show, and write about it. So lets not waste anytime and get right to work.

Last night, we had a battle royal take place to determine the number contender to the Divas Championship which you all know is held by the lovely Kelly Kelly. It involved girls from both Raw and SmackDown and as far as Diva battle royals go, it wasn’t to shabby. Several things about the match surprised me so it deserves the label of ‘good.’

The Good: I mentioned surprises and the ending wasn’t one of them. No one is really surprised Beth Phoenix pulled out the victory, are they? What surprised me about this match is that it was probably one of the longer battle royals the Divas have partaken in. The eliminations didn’t look cheaply done except for the fact Melina seemed to have sneezed and eliminated herself (not really, but you get the point). Despite the fact the thing was billed as every girl from Raw and SmackDown being involved, Maryse (my pick to win…) wasn’t a participant! She would reveal on Twitter the reasons for that later on in the night. The majority of the Divas were eliminated before the commercial break and their order of elimination was Melina, Gail Kim, Rosa Mendes (congrats on not being first, girl!), Kaitlyn, Tamina, AJ, and Natalya. The final five, Brie and Nikki Bella, Beth, Eve, and Alicia Fox continued to battle as Raw went to commercial break.

I can’t really decide if the commercial break was a good or bad surprise, but the fact that all the girls were still in the ring when it returned was a great surprise. The Bellas were working over Beth, while Eve worked over Alicia. The twins had Beth close to elimination but the Glamazon was able to battle back and stay in the match. Alicia was on the brink of being eliminated but she was able to battle back and send Eve over the top. Eve landed on the apron and this is where I got confused. Something happened and all of a sudden Alicia was on the outside of the ring and Eve was still in the match. I’ve watched it a few times and it still doesn’t make sense, so who knows what happened there? Either way, Alicia got eliminated.

That left four girls in the ring, so Nikki turned her attention to Eve, while Brie fought with Beth. Nikki was able to get the better of Eve and dump her from the match, and while she celebrated, Beth scooped Brie up and brought her over to Nikki…

The Great: Yes, we are turning the ending of the match into the great portion of Raw and rightfully so. As I said, Beth carried Brie over to where Nikki was perched on the ropes and not heeding her sister’s screams, Nikki found herself scooped up as well in an amazing show of strength from Beth. Beth toyed with both Bellas on her shoulders for a second, giving the crowd and the announcers a chance to ‘oooh’ and ‘ahhhh’, and then she unceremoniously dumped them from the ring earning herself a shot at the Divas Championship come SummerSlam. Brie hit the floor first, followed by Nikki, and the bell rang for the end of the match.

Before we even move on, wow. Beth never ceases to amaze me with how beautiful and how strong she is. She started a hash tag on Twitter called Pin-up Strong and when it comes to her, I completely believe it. The Bellas elimination has to go down as one of the best Diva eliminations of all time and kudos to all of them for thinking that up. Loved it!

As for what happened afterwards, well that’s just the icing on the cake. Kelly left the commentary table, with her title, and went to congratulate Beth on her victory. The two girls embraced during the post-match celebration and once they pulled apart, Kelly stepped back and clapped for Beth. The Glamazon stared at her for a minute before seizing the moment, as well as the opportunity, to send a message. She grabbed Kelly and chucked her from the ring. Kelly tried to shake it it off and get to her feet, but Beth picked her up and literally tried to throw the blond champ through the guardrail. Kelly hit hard (no one can take an outside bump like this girl, good grief) and Beth went for a microphone. She walked back over to Kelly, dropped down beside her, and delivered a simple, yet effective message.

“Kelly, your days as the perky, cute, blond little bimbo are officially over.”

She dropped the microphone right on Kelly’s chest and her music hit. Beth walked off leaving the champ a sobbing, hurting mess. How amazing was that? Beth does her best work as a heel and I’ve personally loved her matches with Kelly in the past. Kelly is great as a babyface who can take a beating, and as seen on SmackDown, have a magical comeback. The match at SummerSlam has all the potential in the world to be great. Beth can have a great match with anyone. Kelly works very well against evil, uber heels. I don’t want to gush too much, but last night’s heel turn by Beth could be just what the Divas need. So excited!

And just when I thought the excitement of Raw was done, Vickie Guerrero comes out. And she’s given a microphone. Let’s take a look at what I’m dubbing ‘The Amazing’ part of Monday Night Raw.

The Amazing: Vickie is able to garner a ridiculous amount of heat simply from screaming ‘Excuse Me!’ She started off her promo with that and it just escalated from there. She was basically booed out of the building before she could make a valid point and it was amazing. She was finally able to introduce her man, the gorgeous and sexy United States Champion, Dolph Ziggler, and put him over as being better than both CM Punk and John Cena combined. The crowd didn’t agree. Dolph mentioned the challenge he made to the lockerroom last week at the conclusion of his match against Evan and said that no one can top his skills, his techniques, his talent, and his charisma. Vickie agreed. Before Mr. Gorgeous could continue, Alex Riley’s theme song hit and I freaked. Personally, I couldn’t handle the hotness of Dolph/Vickie/A-Ry on my television all at once. Alex had his own microphone and asked Dolph why he always had to hide behind a woman, or in this case, Vickie Guerrero. That comment alone angered Vickie and she snatched the mic from her client’s hand. Vickie, oozing attitude, ran down the list of everything she’s done for Dolph throughout his career and the former NXT rookie failed to look impressed. A-Ry climbed into the ring, looked at Vickie, and said ‘excuse me.’

Vickie wasn’t impressed by that!

Alex started talking again and said that Vickie did bring up a good point. Dolph truly has had a hell of a career up to this point but what A-Ry wanted to know is when the last time Dolph accomplished something on his own? What else is said truly doesn’t matter because they’re men. But what does matter is what this storyline could lead too. A-Ry basically challenged Dolph to drop Vickie, and if I get a chance to see a storyline featuring Alex Riley and Dolph Ziggler, my number four and two respectively favorite wrestlers, oh my God. I can’t even go there. Vickie is the perfect person to use if they wanted to keep Alex Riley’s roll going. The Miz did everything he could for the guy, who I believe is a future world champ, and now I can’t wait to see what Vickie and Dolph can do for him. This storyline is beautiful. And it’s not even really started yet.

From Beth to Kelly to Vickie, Raw was beautiful this week. I have no real complaints. I have no gripes and no coulda, woulda, shouldas. Last night I got to embrace my inner Diva fan and was completely happy with everything the girls got a chance to produce. Good luck topping Raw this week, SmackDown. I never thought I would ever write that!

Until next week… Cryssi out!

P.S. I swear that wasn’t me dressed in a fierce black jumpsuit acting out the Ziggler/Vickie/Riley segment while pretending to be Vickie. Ahem.

You’re all familiar with the good, the bad, and the ugly, right? That could probably sum up Raw last night so I’m bringing the format back and it’s probably going to stay. This week on Raw we were given a backstage segment featuring Brie and Nikki Bella, as well as Eve Torres, and a tag team match that saw Eve team with Divas Champion, Kelly Kelly, to face the duo of Melina and the sexiest of the sexy, Maryse. Lets take a look at how things broke down:

The Good: The good part of the night had nothing to do with the match, or the segment, for that matter. Unfortunately, they make up the bad and ugly of this week but nonetheless… The ‘E went ahead and announced a number one contender battle royal for next week’s Raw. It will be comprised of both Raw and SmackDown girls and the winner will go on to face Kelly for the championship at SummerSlam. This is good because it lets us known right away that there will be a Diva match at the biggest party of the summer. It tells us that the Divas won’t have to sit SummerSlam out and it gives us something to look forward to. But another thing that’s really good about this whole battle royal for next week is that it will give us some direction when it comes to the championship. The girls on SmackDown are all but forgotten and I think it would benefit them more to have a number one contender than it would Raw. SmackDown girls can’t even get on the main show these days (which is good or bad, depending on how you look at it), and having one of them fight for the title could inject some life into their show.

But which Diva?

If we go the SmackDown route, I’d like to see Alicia take it. She’s sassy and feisty, and I think she would match K2 well in the ring and in terms of personality. I’d also have another Alicia and Natalya match, with Nattie challenging Alicia for her number one contender’s spot. I love their work together and perhaps that’s just a selfish little reason for me to want to see them do battle for a third time. And yes, I’d have the match on Superstars just so it could have the proper time and have a fun story to go with it.

If we go the Raw route, I’d probably go with Maryse. The shenanigans between the NXT hostess and the champ were one of the few bright spots of the night in terms of the match and I think they could have a nice, comedy feud. I’m not usually a fan of comedy but Maryse is that type of heel who also has a mean streak so she could also do well with Kelly in my humble opinion.

The Bad: The match itself was pretty bad sans the few bright spots. Unfortunately, those were few and far between. You guys can take a look for yourselves and be the judge.

Right off the bat it’s obvious that Maryse and Eve don’t have chemistry. Their timing was way off to the point where it can’t even be looked at as a mistake. Maryse doesn’t mesh well with everyone in the ring, and neither does Eve. Putting them together to start things off was probably a mistake. I personally think that having Melina and Eve, or Maryse and Kelly begin would have been better but that’s not the route the match took. Kelly and Melina didn’t fare so well this week. The finish of the match was sloppy but I loved the bump Melina took towards the end. She bounced off those ropes hard and landed even harder. It set up the finish very well, and Kelly is being booked as a strong champion. That aside, all four of these ladies are better than what they showed tonight. Hopefully next week will be smooth sailing because this week was anything but!

The Ugly: I think we can all guess what’s going to go here. The backstage segment with Eve and the Bellas was about as ugly as ugly can get. Not only was some of the acting bad (looking at you, Eve, when you held Brie back), but it made Nikki look pretty bad. Maybe it’s my Bella bias talking or the fact I loathe the regular Keith Stone commercials in general, but it’s my opinion. Now, you can make up your own.

I get that it’s a parody of the regular Keystone commercials but why do we have to use the Divas? It certainly didn’t help them in any way and it made Nikki look crazy when she asked, “How do I get if off?” I know that I’m probably over-thinking something that was innocent and seemingly harmless, but it wasn’t. The time used for that backstage skit could have been added to the tag match. Or better yet, could have been used later on in the show to give Kelly some promo time talking about how she’s looking forward to finding out who her next challenger will be next week. Keystone can be your sponsor, just run their commercials during your show. Don’t put Keith Stone in a backstage segment because he just isn’t that smooth!

That’s my two cents for this week. Whether you agree or disagree, sound off in the comments section. Until next week… Cryssi out!

Sigh.

Well, this week’s Redux is going to be short, sweet, and to the point. Even I can’t work magic from a 45 second encounter. For some ungodly reason, the WWE decided to throw all the Divas onto the show and we got a ridiculous seven Diva tag match. All I can say is thank you Jesus that there was no crappy chorus line at the end.

The match itself followed the typical big Diva tag match formula. The heels take on the faces. Rosa Mendes ends up losing. This time it was Beth Phoenix who took the victory. Kind of interesting seeing as how the Divas Champion, Kelly Kelly, was in the background. But trust me when I say that’s about the only thing that was interesting about this debacle.

Oh, and the Glamazon’s lipstick choice.

The face team consisted of Kelly and Beth, as well as AJ, Kaitlyn, Natalya, Eve Torres, and Gail Kim. The heel team is Brie and Nikki Bella, Melina, Maryse, Tamina, Alicia Fox, and Rosa. Each team makes their entrance. And once the shenanigans are over, Rosa and Beth start things off because all the heel Divas drop to the outside leaving Rosa alone with the Glamazon.

They begin in grand fashion. Beth takes Miss Mendes down with a series of clotheslines, and when she goes to slam her down, Rosa just kind of falls down. It’s sloppy and yes, it’s a botch. Thankfully Beth recovers it for both of them, scoops up Rosa, bounces her off the ropes, and slams her to the mat. She goes for the cover but the Bellas come into the ring to break things up.

This prompts all the Divas to get involved. There ends up being a brawl on the outside. Beth and Rosa remain in the ring and after a second or two, Beth makes Rosa eat a Glam Slam. The faces win the match. The heels lose. And while the faces celebrate, Kelly calls for the title and holds it up. Right where Beth can see it. Hmmm.

Do I even want to give my opinion on this? What can I really say? It was completely pointless to have the SmackDown Divas on Raw tonight in a tag team match. Just because you bring them to the show doesn’t mean you have to throw them into a match, especially a tag match like this. If you truly want to have the SmackDown girls on the show, have a battle royal to determine a new number one contender. Brie lost her rematch so it’s time to move on. Tonight was a pointless waste of time in my precious, most humble opinion. I could have done without that. I’m currently trying to squash all negativity from my life and tonight’s Diva offering didn’t help me.

The only thing I can take away from tonight is the mini-staredown between Beth and Kelly at the end. Kelly was holding the title and Beth was staring, and they locked eyes. It could be leading up to a potential feud. But you know, Alicia and Kelly also had a staredown so who knows? Hell, I’d take a triple threat. Just do something. No more 45 second, cluster-you-know-what tag team match.  These girls deserve way better than that and so do the fans.

Yes, it’s me. Not only am I the resident Khaleesi of Diva Dirt Live, I’m also your Raw Redux writer, at least for this week. I’ve overthrown Steven, high-jacked his Redux, and now I ‘m going to grace the minds of each and every reader with my opinions of what went down this week. You’re absolutely on the edge of your seats, aren’t you? It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written one of these thanks to the lack of action of SmackDown, as well as, an out of town trip on my part. Forgive me if it isn’t up to my usual low standards. I’m just giving you all fair warning.

We all follow the Bella twins on Twitter, right (twitter.com/thebellatwins)? Earlier in the night they teased that they were going to reveal the truth about Diva’s Champion, Kelly Kelly, which I reckon was their way of building heat for the Brie versus Kelly title match this Sunday at Money In The Bank. It followed a match featuring the rarely seen Diva known as Melina, who took on the champ. There is also a random guest appearance by Eve Torres. Lets take a look at how everything went down, shall we?

Raw comes back from break with Melina in the ring, playing to the crowd. If you’re anything like me, you were shocked by this (not to mention overjoyed, estatic, happy, insert other adjective here…), and the moment was cut short when they switched to the Bella twins over at the commentary booth. Brie, and Nikki Bella, are being their wonderful selves. We have all the makings of an epic Diva segment, right?!

Kelly comes to the ring, all smiles, proudly displaying her championship. The Bellas start letting the snarky comments fly, and once Kelly gets in the ring and finishes posing, the bell rings. Melina takes charge with a quick snapmare to get Kelly down and slams her foot in the back of the champ. Melina crosses Kelly’s arms and pulls them back and begins to try and wear down 2K. While Kelly is screaming bloody murder, the Bellas start to make comments about how skinny Kelly looks.

Kelly is able to fend off Melina and take her down with a series of clotheslines. Melina ends up tossed in the corner and Kelly nails her with her round-off/slam her body into her opponent combo, and then to further humiliate the five-time former champion, Kelly slaps her own bum and calls for the stinkface. Melina is forced to eat a face full of 2K backside. She rebounds from Kelly’s offense completely horrified and attempts to subdue the spirited blond. It doesn’t work and Kelly puts Melina down with a reverse neckbreaker. She goes for a cover but Melina kicks out.

Both girls make their way to their feet and Melina manages to double Kelly over with a kick to the gut. Kelly downs down and Melina backs up, uses the ropes for momentum, and goes for a kick to the skull. Kelly ducks it and once again Melina proves her flexibility to the world. She lands in a very uncomfortable split and unfortunately, she is slow to get up afterward. Kelly beats her back up and Melina ends up on the receiving end up 2K’s finisher. The champ gets a decisive three count this time, as well as a respectable victory.

The Bella twins are not happy by this outcome and they cut Kelly’s celebration in the ring short. Nikki and Brie make their way to the ring, microphones in hand, and call for the crowd to pay attention to what they’re about to say. They tell Kelly that since her match is over, she should probably go find some food because Kelly’s whole one meal a month diet just isn’t healthy. They claim that Kelly’s skin is just crying for attention, saying ‘feed me, feed me’ and they ask the cameraman to take a close-up of Kelly’s face. They say underneath ‘this painted on, clown face, weave head’ is someone who desperately needs to invest in some Pro-Active.

For those of you unfamiliar with Pro-Active, it’s an acne fighting solution that is popular here in the ‘States and endorsed by celebrities such as Katy Perry and Jessica Simpson.

Nikki says that Pro-Active did wonders for Katy Perry (yes, she botched it) and Brie adds that Kelly isn’t a teenage dream, she’s just a malnurtured nightmare.

The twins congratulate themselves on being mean girls and this prompts Kelly to defend herself. She attacks Brie and begins beating her down but Nikki is quick to come to her sister’s rescue. The twins are able to double team Kelly and apparently their double team is the worst double team in the history of double teams! Kelly is crying like she’s being stabbed and luckily for her, Eve comes rushing the ring in this impressive pair of heels to make the save.

It doesn’t really work out for Eve, sadly. She is able to take care of Brie, but Nikki is right there to put the sexy Latina in her place. Eve eats the Bella finisher and the twins leave the ring having the upper-hand for this Sunday’s match.

Pretty standard match between Melina and Kelly. It certainly one be on anyone’s list of favorite matches (it’s not like it was Melina v. Alicia) but it wasn’t bad. Kelly is good at what she does and tonight was no exception. It was amazing to see Melina on Raw despite the fact anyone with half a brain could figure out she wasn’t going to win. The post-match shenanigans is where things got a bit dicey. The Bellas, who are usually solid on the mic, flubbed their promo and it’s a shame because they play mean girls so, so well. The beatdown was well down, even if I’m still a little confused as to why Eve keeps coming to Kelly’s rescue. Part of me hopes that Eve helps Kelly retain on Sunday and then turns on her, securing herself as the top rival for Kelly’s title. At least there would be a bit of a backstory.

Raw wasn’t great this week, but it wasn’t bad. We got a lot of build-up for a pay-per-view match which is highly unusual so kudos to the ‘E for that. Normally our Diva matches are announced last minute so having this one set and announced in advance has been nice. I look forward to Kelly and Brie, which should be the blow-off match between the two, and I’ll be curious as to wear everything goes from there.

Oh, and how amazing were Vickie and Dolph tonight?! Boy do I miss them on SmackDown. They always made my Friday nights just a little sexier. Here’s their segment featuring a cameo from Drew McIntyre and Vince McMahon simply for your viewing pleasure.

Alright, that’s enough from me now. Until next week because Steven sucks Friday (I hope…), Cryssi out!

Yes, I still jack my goodbye from Ryan Seacrest.

This week on Monday Night Raw, Eve teams up with the Divas Champion, Kelly Kelly to face off against Brie and Nikki Bella. After the beatdown Kelly suffered at the hands of the Bellas after her submission match against Nikki last week, one has to assume she’s out for blood. Especially with her rematch against Brie coming up at the Money in the Bank PPV. Will Eve and Kelly’s teamwork be enough to overcome The Bellas’ ‘Twin Magic’? Check out the match below:

The Bellas make their way out first, looking surly as usual, followed by the team of Kelly and Eve. Without much preamble, the official calls for the bell and our tag match is underway.

Nikki and Eve kick the match off, starting with a collar and elbow lock-up, which results in Eve getting the upperhand and tossing Nikki across the ring. Eve blocks a clothesline from Nikki, but gets caught by a kick to the gut. Nikki goes for an Irish whip, but Eve reverses and hits a clothesline, followed by a booty poppin’ moonsault……. Moving on… Eve goes for a pin, but Brie distracts the referee, prompting Eve to go after her. With Eve distracted by Brie, Nikki seizes the moment and takes her down with a double axehandle from behind.

Nikki pulls Eve to her feet and tosses her out of the ring to the floor. Eve tries to make her way into the ring, Nikki grabs her by the arm and slams it down across the middle rope. Nikki goes for another pin, but Eve manages to kick out at two.

Nikki goes right back to work on Eve’s arm, using the top rope to help her apply pressure, before tagging in Brie, who goes after the arm as well. Brie continues her attack on Eve’s arm, but wastes a bit too much time taunting and gets rolls up by Eve, but kicks out at one. Brie locks in an armbar submission, but Eve fights her way to her feet and levels Brie with a complete shot, sending both ladies to the mat.

Eve crawls to her corner and makes the hot tag to Kelly, who comes in and takes Brie down with a Thesz press, followed by a buttslap/headscissors combo. Before Brie can get her wits about her, Kelly slams her face into the turnbuckle and follows it up with a stinkface and a running bulldog. Kelly goes for the pin, but Nikki makes the save for her team, which causes to insert herself. Eve attacks Nikki and throws her out of the ring, effectively neutralizing her. In the meantime, Kelly Kelly hits the K2 on Brie and picks up the win for her team.

All in all, not a bad match. Much better than last week’s submission match, that’s for sure. I thought that all the Divas involved did a good job in the match. Eve played a great babyface in peril, Kelly played a good hot tag and The Bellas worked together well as a solid team. That said, the match didn’t have the same ‘UMPH!’ that live matches usually have. Perhaps the crowd wasn’t as lively for their second taping in a row.

One complaint I have is the time restrictions. (Surprise!). Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by the lengthy matches we’ve been getting on Superstars recently, but these super short matches just aren’t doing it for me anymore. I really feel like the Divas in the title picture should be able to show what they can do, just like the Divas relegated to Superstars do. But hey, what do I know, right? Here’s to hoping that the Raw Divas can impress everyone at Money in the Bank, because it doesn’t like it’s going to happen on the main show anytime soon…

Kelly makes her way to the ring first, and I must admit, the belt looks good on her. The Bellas are out to the ring next and their sights are set on Kelly and her shiny new butterfly belt. We cut to the Jumbotron, where Booker T spins the roulette wheel for the Divas. The wheel lands on submission match and the official signals for the bell to kick off the match.

Nikki wastes little time going after Kelly, taking her down to the mat with a kick to the gut. Nikki follows up with a hammer lock and throws Kelly into the turnbuckle shoulder first. Nikki stays on top of Kelly, taking her down to the mat and locking in a Fujiwara armbar. After lots of torquing from Nikki and lots of screaming from Kelly, the champion fights back to her feet.

Nikki tries to keep working on the arm, but Kelly fights back with a few forearms to the face of the devious twins. With Nikki stunned, Kelly trips her up and locks in the Boston Crab to pick up the victory. Post-match, The Bellas attack Kelly Kelly, but Eve runs in and clears the ring, making the save for the champion.

I must admit, this was kind of underwhelming for Kelly’s first match as champion. This was the moment to let Kelly show what she can do, but she was undercut by those pesky “time restraints”. Having dodged the Pillow Fight bullet and lucking out by getting a submission match, this was a golden opportunity for WWE to show us something new in the Divas division, but of course they dropped the ball again.

On the plus side, we did get an announcement for Kelly vs Brie at Money in the Bank. Hopefully, Brie and Kelly can put on as good of a match together as they did last week on Raw.

All in all, a lackluster night for the Divas on Raw. With any luck, next week’s tag match will impress more than tonight’s match did.

On this week’s edition of WWE Raw, the people held the fate of Divas Championship in their hands. The fans got the chance to pick the Diva who would challenge Brie Bella for the title via text message. When given the options of Eve, Kelly Kelly and Beth Phoenix, who would the fans pick and would they able to overcome the Twin Magic of Brie and Nikki to snag the title? Check out the match below:

Out first are the Bellas, who enter the ring and wait for the votes to be announced. We cut to the Jumbotron for the votes and Kelly Kelly nets a whopping 53% on the votes, granting her a title match against Brie Bella. Eve and Beth give Kelly a few words of encouragement, despite losing the vote, before she heads off to the ring. As she makes her way to gorilla position, Cole informs us that Kelly is a former Divas Champion who’s itching to get her title back. News to me…

Anyhoo… Kelly makes her way out to the ring to a massive pop from the audience, making the usual hands-around-waist motion to communicate to Brie that she plans on taking her title tonight. After a bit of pandering to the crowd from the challenger, the official signals for the bell and our Divas Championship match is underway.

The Divas lock up and Kelly muscles Brie to the ropes, but the champ turns the tables on Kelly. The official makes Brie break the hold, but she sneaks in a pieface on Kelly. Noticing that this just pissed Kelly off, Brie turns her heel and runs out of the ring. Kelly gives chase, but gets distracted by Nikki Bella, causing her to be knocked to the ground by Brie.

Brie goes after Kelly and brings the fight back inside the ring. Brie slams Kelly into the turnbuckle headfirst and goes to work on her in the corner, choking her out with her boot. The referee makes the champion back off, but not before she gets in a well placed kick to the gut of Kelly. The challenger struggles out of the corner, only to be choked yet again by Brie. After being admonished by the referee again, Brie goes for the pin but only get a near fall.

Frustrated, Brie slaps on a modified abdominal stretch to wear Kelly down. Kelly fights to her feet with a few forearms, but is slammed back down the mat by the hair. After slapping Kelly around for a bit, Brie locks in another submission. This time Kelly fights out with a few butt-bumps before tossing the champ over her shoulder. Brie tries to retain control, but Kelly neutralized her with a well placed kick to the knees and begins furiously slamming Brie’s face into the mat.

After a bit of “hulking up,” Kelly takes Bries down with a Thesz Press, before lashing out with a few stiff shots to the head and a running bulldog. Kelly goes for the pin, but Brie kicks out at two. Kelly tries to whip Brie across the ring, but the champ reverse and takes Kelly down with a vicious neckbreaker for a near fall.

Brie throws Kelly into the turnbuckle and charges in, but gets blasted with a boot to the face. Kelly scales the ropes and goes for a victory roll, which is reversed by Brie into a pin. Right as the referee goes to count three, Kelly reverses the pin and scores the win, becoming the new champion!

Post-match, Jerry Lawler interviews a teary-eyed Kelly Kelly. Kelly thanks the fans for voting for her and promises to make everyone proud. A touching moment, indeed.

While I haven’t been a huge fan of the Kelly Kelly/Bellas matches, I thought both ladies put on a pretty good title match. In fact, I thought this match eclipsed their title match at Over the Limit. It was good to see Kelly abandon her more playful signature moves, in lieu of more serious techniques. Brie also came off quite well. I thought she looked like a serious and credible champion, fighting to keep her title.

It also helped the Kelly and Brie received more time than is usually allotted to the Divas. I think they proved that given a semi-decent amount of time on the main show, the Divas can put on a good show. Hopefully, this will set a trend for the Divas in coming weeks.

As for Kelly winning the title, despite what some people might think, I don’t really have a problem with Kelly Kelly winning the title. In fact, I think it was a long time coming and I’m shocked that it didn’t happen sooner. Kelly is clearly the biggest fan favorite among the Divas and WWE has a tendency to put the belt on their most popular stars, so her winning the title wasn’t a surprise in the least.

That said, I think this title reign will be the make or break moment for the young Diva. While Kelly may be the most popular Diva, she is one of the most harshly judged in terms of her in-ring skills. In my opinion, this is Kelly’s opportunity to prove the naysayers wrong and show that she can be a credible champion now that she finally has the belt around her waist. If she doesn’t, or is not allowed to do anything noteworthy during her title run, it will be no different than some of the less than memorable title reigns over the past year or so.

All in all, a good showing from the Divas this week and a big moment for Kelly Kelly. With the Kharma storyline dead for the time being, it will be interesting to see what the writer have in store for the new Divas Champion, if anything. Hopefully, some of the other heels will be able to step up and take a crack at the title.

This week on a special three hour edition of Raw, all the Divas from SmackDown and Raw are coming together for a good ol’ fashioned 7-on-7 tag team match. Judging from past experiences, this should be quite… er, interesting…

Watch below as Kelly Kelly, Beth Phoenix, Eve, Gail Kim, Natalya, AJ and Kaitlyn take on the team of Brie and Nikki Bella, Alicia Fox, Melina, Tamina, Maryse and Rosa Mendes:

Out first are the heels, clad in black (mostly… Hey, Tamina!), followed closely by the babyface team with Kelly leading the pack. Both teams head to their respective corners, the bell is rung and our match is underway.

Kelly and Brie starts thing off for their teams, but Brie quickly tags in Rosa. Rosa sashays her way into the ring and takes a swing at Kelly. Unfortunately for Rosa, Kelly evades and takes her down with a Thesz Press, followed by an ass slap. Before Rosa gathers her bearings before Kelly proceeds to smash her face into the turnbuckle, sending her down in the corner and gives her a stinkface for good measure. Kelly finishes off her flurry with a running bulldog and goes for the pin, but is interrupted by Brie.

Apparently, this was a signal for all the Divas to storm the ring, because all hell broke loose as the Divas went after each other. When the smoke cleared, Kelly and Rosa were left in the ring. Kelly seized her moment and hit the K2 to pick up the win for her team.

Post-match, the babyfaces decided to have their own chorus line as a tribute to the Tony Awards on Sunday night. Yeah… My words have failed me.

I’ve never understood the point of having these huge Diva tag matches, if most of the girls aren’t going to get used. I would have much preferred to see a normal tag match, to be honest.

The lack of storyline progression is another issue that has plagued the Divas division as of late. As I’ve said before, I think the sudden departure of Kharma really threw a monkey wrench in WWE’s plans for the Divas, but that’s no excuse. There needs to be some sort of contingency plan for when these things happen. And even if there isn’t, there needs to be a better recovery time than this. It’s been several weeks since the Kharma storyline was dropped, and we still don’t have a contender or a clear cut direction for the division, which is a crying shame.

After seeing the treatment the Divas were treated on this edition of Raw, I don’t have high hopes for next week’s 3-hour Raw. Hopefully WWE can spare more than 3 minutes for the Divas next week. Maybe we’ll even get a… *gasp* storyline. Fingers crossed, people.

This week on Monday Night Raw, we have yet another Diva tag team match on tap. *shock horror* This week Kelly Kelly teams up with the elusive Beth Phoenix to take on Brie and Nikki Bella in a match. Will Beth finally make her mark on Raw or will the Bellas chop her down to size? Check out the match below:

Out to the ring first is the team of Kelly and Beth, followed by the Bellas, who are looking fantastic in their new purple gear. The official signals for the bell and our match is underway.

Kelly and Nikki Bella start things off with a basic lock-up, but Nikki quickly gets the upperhand with an arm wringer. After a moment of struggle, Kelly manages to escape with a impressive lucha style armdrag, followed by a hurricanrana for a near fall. Kelly tries to the pressure on Nikki, but gets dropped across the top rope, throat first.

After a few blows to the incapacitated Kelly, Nikki drags her over to the Bella corner and tags in Brie. The twins work over Kelly in the corner, making frequent tags until Brie finally locks in a surfboard type maneuver, looking to make Kelly submit. Unfortunately for Brie, Kelly manages to break free and take he off of her feet with an arm drag. Brie tries to slow Kelly’s momentum with a clothesline, but Kelly evades and makes the hot tag to Beth.

Beth comes in like a house of fire, taking the champion off of her feet with a few clotheslines, followed by an atomic drop and a running double axhandle to the head. Before Brie can get back to her feet, Beth grabs her and plants her with a slingshot suplex. Beth goes for the pin, but it’s broken up Nikki Bella, who is promptly taken down with a bulldog from Kelly.

With Nikki neutralized, Beth grabs Brie and finishes her off with a (slightly awkward looking) Glam Slam to pick up the win for her team.

Not a bad match from the Divas this week. I was surprised to see Kelly working most of the match, while Beth got the hot tag, as the roles are usually reversed. In any case, I thought Kelly did a great job selling the Bellas’ offense and playing the babyface in peril.

Aside from the iffy finish, I thought Beth was on point tonight as well. She’s been on the backburner since her move to Raw, so it’s good to see her in a match. Judging by the outcome of this match and the results of the house shows this past weekend, it looks like she may be in line for a push soon. *Fingers crossed*

Last but not least, the Bellas were also impressive. I think they’re coming into their own, both as characters and wrestlers. Every week, they do a little bit better each week and impress more people. I can’t wait to see how much more they progress over the rest of the year.

All in all, a decent night for the Raw Divas. Hopefully, next week we can get some more progression and maybe even determine a official #1 contender. Is that really too much to ask for?

What did you think of the Divas match? Tell us in the comments!

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Raw Redux! With Kharma out of the way for the foreseeable future, the Divas are able have their tag team matches without fearing for their lives. HOORAY!!! This week Kelly Kelly and Eve team up to take on the Bella Twins. Who will come out on top? Check out the match below:

We start off with The Bella in the ring, clad in leopard print gear. Kelly and Eve make their entrance next to a good pop from the crowd. As they make their way to the ring, we’re treated to a video package of Kelly Kelly on the red carpet of the Maxim Hot 100 party. Back to the ring, Brie Bella and Eve are kicking things off for their respective teams. The referee signals for the bell and our match is underway.

The Divas start off with a lockup, and Eve gets the upperhand on Brie, locking in a side headlock. Brie manages to fight out and levels Brie with a shoulder block. Eve hits the ropes, but Brie see her coming and rolls out of the way. Eve transitions into a nifty hands-free cartwheel, followed by a deep armdrag into an armbar.

Firmly in control of the match, Eve tries to whip Brie of the rope, but is countered by the devious Divas Champion. Eve comes back with a counter of her own, leaping over Brie and rolling her up with a sunset flip for a near fall. Brie tries to reverse the pin, but Eve quickly transitions into a really nifty submission hold.

Seeing her sister in trouble, Nikki baits Kelly into coming into the ring, distracting the referee. With the official’s attention on Kelly, Nikki runs in, kicks Eve in the head and switches places with Brie in the process.

Nikki drags Eve to the Bella corner and the twins work over Eve with frequent tags, before taking her down with a double team maneuver for a two count. Brie throws Eve into the ropes and chokes her out, prompting the referee to pull her away. Nikki uses the distraction as a chance to land a stiff kick to Eve’s head. Ouch.

The Bellas tag once again and Nikki kicks Eve in the head once again, before locking in a front chancery. After a bit of struggle, Eve counters with a modified Northern Lights suplex, taking Nikki off of her feet. Nikki tries to get back in control, but Eve crawls between her legs and makes the hot tag to a fresh Kelly Kelly.

Kelly comes in like a house of fire, taking Nikki down with a Thesz Press, followed by an ass slap. Kelly followed up with her whirlybird headscissors, followed by a stinkface in the corner. Finally, Kelly lands a bulldog out of the corner and goes for the pin, which is broken up by Brie. Before Brie can do any more damage, Eve comes to the rescue, taking her out with a dropkick. With Brie neutralized, Kelly finishes Nikki off with the K2 to pick up the win for her team.

All in all, a pretty good match from the Divas this week. I thought Kelly played her role well as the hot tag and did better than she has in past weeks. I was really impressed with Eve tonight. You can tell she has been working on her craft and is getting better and better as a result. I really wish we would have seen this side of Eve when she had the Diva Championship a while back.

The Bellas also impressed me this week. They’re starting to work like an actual tag team, and not just like two Divas tagging together, which is a good thing. I was pretty skeptical when Brie won the belt, but I think she’s she’s starting to come into her own as a champion and as the top heel on Raw. Not bad for someone who was just eye candy last year. Hopefully, WWE doesn’t drop the ball with the Bellas, as they’ve done with countless other Divas.

Also on this week’s Raw, Kharma addressed the WWE Universe and dropped a bomb on them. Watch the segment below:

Wow. A very touching moment from Kharma. I never expected WWE to let Kharma talk about her wrestling past (or say the word ‘wrestling’, to be honest) or her personal life on the air. I assumed WWE would have some way to write Kharma out of the division for the time being. Very classy move on WWE’s part to let Kharma have that moment with the fans.

I also have to give an honorable mention to the Bellas, who piggybacked on Kharma’s announcement to get some realy good heat from the fans. If the audience was indifferent to the Bellas before, they definitely hate them now (which is a good thing). If the Bellas are going to be the top heels, they need all the heat they can get and this was a great way to get it.

In closing, excellent Divas action this week. With Kharma out of the picture for now and Kelly Kelly pinning the Divas champion tonight, I see a Kelly/Bella feud in the near future. Or maybe someone new will step up to the plate? Or maybe we’ll have another tag team match… yay… In any case, we’ll have to wait till next week’s Raw to find out.

After a great showing by Kelly Kelly and The Bella Twins at Over The Limit on Sunday, all the Raw Divas come together for a 8-Diva Tag Match on this week’s Monday Night Raw. Will Kharma be brave enough to make an appearance when there’s 8 Divas in the ring or will she take the night. Watch below as Kelly Kelly, Eve, Gail Kim and Beth Phoenix take on The Bellas, Maryse and Melina:

Out first to the ring is the heel team. I’m not sure how I’m feeling about The Bella Twins’ new cape accessories, but kudos to them for trying something new. However, Melina looked great in her new black on black gear. It looks it could double as an actual outfit outside of the ring. I wonder if this is a permanent change of styles or if she just lost her luggage. Either way, I’m loving it!

The babyface team is out next, marking Beth Phoenix’s first appearance on Raw since being drafted to Raw. The faces head to the ring and Kelly Kelly makes it no secret that she is pissed about being cheated out of the title on Sunday. I love that Kelly is showing that faces can be angry too. Too often, we see the face Divas smiling and having a great time, even though they gotten screwed. Good to see Kelly Kelly showing a little spunk and fire.

After the usual taunting between teams, the referee rings the bell and our match is underway. Kelly waste no time going after Brie Bella, taking her down with a Thesz press. After a few mounted punches, Kelly follows up with a ass slap-bulldog combination. Before Kelly can get any more offense in, the familiar music of Kharma hits and the match comes to a screeching halt.

As Kharma makes her way to the ring, the 8 Divas decide to put their differences aside and unite against the monster that has been picking them off one by one. Kharma walks into the center of the ring and just when it looks like all hell is about to break loose… Kharma drops to her knees and starts crying. Yes, you read that right. CRYING.

As Kharma has what seems like an emotional breakdown, the Divas (and the audience) look on in confusion. Kharma cries her way into the commercial break, ending the Divas segment for the night.

Um, what the hell just happened?! For weeks on end, we see Kharma destroying Divas left and right, and now she crying in the middle of the ring?! I’m utterly confused. I’m have no idea what WWE was thinking with this swerve, but I’m not sure if I like it. In a matter of minutes, WWE may have destroyed the ‘Diva Killer’ persona Kharma has built over the past few months.

And how could I forget poor Kelly Kelly? It looked like Kelly was getting the breakout feud of her career against Kharma, but this new development may have just pulled the rug out from under that budding rivalry. I have a feeling that it has just become less about Kelly and Kharma and more about Kharma and the entire Divas roster.

As I said earlier, Raw confused me tonight. WWE pushed the past couple of weeks aside and hit us with a huge swerve. I have no idea where this is going, but I’m sure we’ll find out more on next week’s edition of Raw.

This week on Monday Night Raw, the perpetually perky Kelly Kelly found herself in a non-title match against the Divas champion, Brie Bella with Nikki Bella at ringside. As we have seen in weeks past, Kelly has made her way onto Kharma’s list of potential victims. Will Kharma finally get her hands on Kelly this week, or will Kelly manage to slip through her fingers once more? Also, can Kelly Kelly pull out a win over the Divas Champion and move herself into title contention? Check out this week’s Divas segment below and find out:

Out first is Kelly Kelly, looking absolutely stunning in blue and not a teensy bit concerned about the fact that Kharma seems to show up in every one of her matches. I’m just saying if I was K2, I’d be looking to enlist some protection from Kharma. And by protection, I mean someone to distract Kharma while I run for my life. The Bellas are out next with the Divas title in tow. They do their usual entrance and our match is underway.

The ladies start things off with a basic lockup, but Brie gets the upperhand with a hip strike to the gut before locking in an arm wringer. Kelly fights out of the hold with a forearm to the face, followed by a backflip into a armdrag reversal. Before Brie can get back in control of the match, Kelly takes her down with a Thesz press and unleashes a flurry of mounted punches. The referee pulls Kelly off of the champ, giving Brie a chance to regroup. Brie catches Kelly off guard with a kick to the gut and throws her against the ropes. Brie begins choking Kelly, prompting the referee to interfere. While the official’s attention is drawn away, Nikki snaps Kelly’s neck against the ropes, giving her twin an opportunity to go for the pin, which Kelly kicks out of at two.

Frustrated, Brie locks in a modified abdominal stretch, looking to wear down her opponent or perhaps make her submit. Kelly fights to her feet, but Brie slams her back down to the mat headfirst. Brie tries to go for a leg drop (or was it an elbow?), but Kelly retaliates with an… ass slap? Great offense there…

An embarassed Brie charges at Kelly Kelly with a clothesline, but Kelly evades and takes her down her patented headscissors, followed by a handspring elbow. Kelly finishes off the combination with a running bulldog for a one count. Kelly pulls the champion off of the mat, but Brie breaks away and hits another hip strike to the midsection, bringing Kelly to her knees. Brie goes to hit the ropes, but Kelly trips her up and uses a unique and impressive (even though it was a bit slow to start) roll up to put the champ away.

So Kelly Kelly has a pin over the Divas Champion, but she can’t celebrat just yet, as the bitter Bellas attack her from behind. The Bellas beat Kelly down for a bit, but it all comes to an end when Kharma’s music hits; A sound that has become synonymous with
brutality in the last month.

While The Bellas made themselves scarce last week when Kharma appeared, they decided to stand their ground this week. Logically speaking, they should have a better chance since there’s two of them, right? Right? Yeah… I didn’t think so…

Kharma enters the ring and makes a beeline straight for Kelly who is laid out in the corner, completely disregarding The Bella Twins. The Bellas take their opportunity to attack the monster Diva from behind. As you probably guessed, that plan didn’t exactly work out.

After a few affecttive strikes from Brie, Kharma shoves her down to the mat full force. Nikki tries a different approach, coming off of the top rope with a crossbody. Unfortunately for her, Kharma catches her with ease. Brie sees her sister impending doom and takes off, leaving her twin to suffer a bodyslam and a brutal implant buster. And then there was one…

Kharma finally sets her sights on Kelly, who is cowering in the corner (Why didn’t you run?!). Kharma closes in on her and just when you thinks she’s about to become a permanent part of the mat, Kharma simply flicks her in the forehead and walks away laughing to end our Divas segment.

While I love me some Kharma, this squash tour is becoming a bit stagnant. I think it’s high time we get Kharma in a match, and if Kelly Kelly is going to me the one who eventually feuds with Kharma, I don’t think she should be her first opponent. She should definitely be saved for last, if that is indeed the case.

Speaking of Kelly and Kharma, I’m not suire exactly where this interaction between them is going. Kharma was on Kelly’s ass for the past few weeks, yet passed on a chance to attack her. Does she want to be allies? Does she deem Kelly unworthy of her beatdowns? Would she like to keep her as a pet, perhaps? I hope there can be some solid progression and some clarity in this Kharma/Kelly storyline next week.

As for the match, I will admit it was WAY better than last week’s affair, but there are still a few things that could be worked on. For example, Kelly and The Bellas, along with a few other Divas could stand to brush up on their fundamentals, such as basic bumps and rope running. It would really make the difference in their matches, as those are the things that stand out the most during their matches. I think Kelly needs to especially, since seems to be getting a major push against Kharma and she going to need every bit of credibility she can get if people are to believe she can go in the ring with Kharma. Besides that, I don’t have too many criticism about the match. As much as I hate to say it, it was just the standard Diva fare.

That’s it for Raw this week. Hopefully, next week we’ll get the Kharma match every one is waiting for, as well as some more direction in this budding Kelly/Kharma storyline. Until next time!

All the Divas on both Raw and SmackDown have been put on notice in the past few weeks by the force known as Kharma. Last week on Monday Night Raw, Kelly Kelly barely managed to escape the wrath of Kharma. Can she get a reprieve for a second week in a row, as she teams with Eve Torres to face The Bella Twins? Speaking of The Bellas, with the Divas Title in their camp, could they be the next targets for Kharma? Check out the match below and find out!

We kick things off with The Bellas in the ring, Divas Champion in tow. Eve Torres make her way out next to a lukewarm reaction, followed by Kelly Kelly, who gets a big pop from the crowd. (Awkward…) After a quick Maxim Hot 100 plug, the official signals for the bell (Is that Nunzio?!?!?!) and our Divas tag match is underway.

Kelly and Brie (I think… Seriously, can you ladies get some monogrammed gear please?) start off the match for their teams with a lockup, which sees Kelly getting the upperhand. However, before Kelly can capitalize, she’s distracted by Nikki on the apron. Brie takes advantage of the distraction and lays Kelly out with a double axehandle followed by a few stomps. Brie drags Kelly to her corner, tags in Nikki and goes for an awkward looking team dropkick for a near fall.

Nikki tries to ground Kelly with a clubbing blow to the back, but Kelly manages to retaliate and hit her signature headscissors. Before Brie can interfere, Kelly takes her out with a forearm and goes back to work on Nikki. Kelly come charging across with a handspring back bump, followed by a bulldog, taking down to the mat once again. Instead of going for the pin, Kelly decides to play it up to the crowd, which allows The Bella to attempt “Twin Magic”. Unfortunately for the twins, they get caught and Eve runs in and takes out Brie Bella.

In all the confusion, Nikki tries to get the jump on Kelly with a rollup, but K2 reverses it and picks up the win for her team. Eve and Kelly rejoice in their victory, but the celebration is cut short when Kharma music hits. As Kharma makes her way up the ramp, The Bellas hide behind the ring, waiting until the just the right moment to take off Roadrunner style (Smart girls!) In the meantime, Kelly is cowering in the corner much like last week, but Eve Torres decided to try and fight off Kharma. Bad move.

Kharma lays out Eve, as Kelly jumps outside the ring. Kharma gives chase, but Kelly takes off, leaving her partner, Eve, at the mercy of Kharma. Kharma gets back in the ring and finishes Eve off with an Implant Buster to end the segment.

First off, let’s get into the match. I didn’t like it at all. It started off very sloppily, especially the dropkick combo by The Bellas and Kelly’s rope running. I’m not sure why things went so awry, as I think these girls do well in the ring, but it was borderline painful to watch. Hopefully, they can redeem themselves next week.

As for the Kharma segment, I’m in two minds about it. I loved the fact that she attacked a babyface Diva this week. It shows she has no alliances and that no one is safe. That said, I’m confused as to who WWE is planning to have her feud. You would think that she would be gunning for the Divas title, but up until now Kelly Kelly and Layla have been the common denominators whenever she appears. Hopefully, next week on Raw or this week on SmackDown, we can get something a little more clear cut in terms of direction.

This week Raw was pretty mediocre, in terms of the Divas. While the segment with Kharma was really good, it was canceled out by a poor showing in the tag team match. Here’s to hoping that the SmackDown Divas can pick up the slack on Friday.

On this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw, the newly drafted Kelly Kelly steps into the spotlight on her new home of Raw, facing off against the rarely seen Maryse. Can SmackDown’s former golden girl make a splash in her Raw debut or will Maryse take her to school? Check out the match below:

Out first is Maryse, and I must say she’s is looking fantastic! Really loving the white gear. Kelly makes her way out next, to pretty good reaction from the live crowd. Love her or hate her, you have to admit not many Divas can illicit a reaction from the crowd like Kelly can. After the usual pandering to the crowd, the referee signals for the bell and our Divas match in underway.

Maryse starts things off with some jaw-jacking and a pieface to Kelly Kelly, but Kelly comes back with a kick to the gut followed by a modified bulldog. Kelly continues by smashing Maryse’s face into the mat, but before she can continue her assault, she’s interrupted by the laugh that has haunted the Divas for the last few week. You guessed it. Kharma is making her way to the ring and she does not look happy at all.

As Kharma slowly makes her way to the ring, Kelly Kelly cowers into the corner, frozen in fear. (RUN! RUN KELLY!!! SHE GON’ KILL YOU, GIRL!!!) Kharma enters the ring and looks back and between Kelly Kelly, who still has not left the ring and Maryse, who still hasn’t recovered from Kelly’s attack. Just when you think Kharma is about to snap poor Kelly in two, she charges at Maryse and levels her with a Implant Buster. Kharma makes her way back up the ramp, leaving Maryse a crumpled heap and Kelly and emotional wreck.

As I said on the Post-Raw Show last night. I LOVED this match/segment. For once, WWE has done something right by keeping the former Awesome Kong’s image more or less intact. This is what she does best: Destroying any and everyone in her path. Honestly, I would be happy seeing Kharma run through the entire Raw Divas’ lockerroom until she makes her way to Brie Bella, who is the current champion.

The only problem I had with the segment was the the fact Kharma let Kelly get away. Now don’t get me wrong. It’s not because I want to see Kelly get beat up or anything. I think this scary, monster heel gimmick works best if you have no allies. Kharma needs to be seen as a threat to ALL the Divas, not just the faces. Hopefully, Kharma takes it to one of the babyfaces next week.

Also on Raw, Lilian Garcia returned to give a rousing performance of the national anthem:

All in all, the Divas segment was a bright spot in an otherwise dismal edition of Raw. If the events that took place on Extreme Rules and tonight’s Raw are any indication of what’s to come, all the heel Divas better looks out, because Kharma is a bitch, indeed.

On this week’s special draft edition of Monday Night Raw, SmackDown’s Layla squared off against Raw’s Eve, with a draft pick on the line for their brand. To top things off, Layla’s former friend Michelle McCool is at ringside. Will Layla be to score a pick for the blue brand or will Michelle’s presence ensure a victory for Eve? Check out the match below:

We kick things off with Eve already in the ring, representing the red brand. Layla makes her way to the ring next, sporting a customized Smackdown T-shirt. While Layla does her usual entrance, Michelle makes her way out to ring to watch her former friend’s match. After a quick recap of Layla and Michelle’s fight on Smackdown, the official signals for the bell and our cross-branded Divas match is underway.

Layla and Eve start things off with a lockup, but Layla gets the upperhand with a knee to the gut, followed by a few clubbing blows to the back of Eve. Layla goes to whip Eve off the ropes, but Eve reverses and counters with a pretty sloppy STO for a one count. Michelle starts yelling at Layla from the apron, distracting her enough for Eve to score the win with a surprise rollup.

Oh, and some douchebag got on the microphone and interrupted the match… Anyhoo.

Post match, Michelle gets in Layla’s face and gives her a pieface, but Layla spring right back up and slaps the taste out of Michelle’s mouth, before throwing into the barricade. After bashing Michelle’s head into the barricade, Layla slams her into the apron and finally tosses her over the announce table; all the while crying hysterically.

While the actual match was short and nothing to call home about, I really enjoyed the post match fight between Michelle and Layla. I was surprised to see Layla being so aggressive, as she’s usually the more passive member of Lay-Cool, but I enjoyed the change of pace. With both members of Lay-Cool staying on the blue brand after the draft and several new Divas moving to Smackdown, it’ll be interesting to see where this storyline goes in the next few weeks.

We also got a new vignette featuring Awesome Kong, who has officially been renamed Kharma. With every Kharma vignette, I get more excited for her debut. Needless to say, with all the Diva draft moves and the impending Kharma debut, the landscape of the Divas division is about to change drastically.

After losing her Divas Championship to Brie Bella last week, Eve Torres is looking to get back on the winning track. Who’s her first target, you ask? None other than the twin sister of the new champ, Nikki Bella. Can Eve redeem herself by taking out Nikki or will she chalk up another loss? Check out the match below:

Out first is the former champion, Eve, decked out in gold. Not to nitpick, but seems to have loss some of that spark and fire she had last week in that backstage segment. I would have liked for her to come out with a bit more attitude, considering the shady way she lost her title. Then again, that’s WWE for you.

Out next is Nikki Bella, accompanied by her sister Brie and apparently they have something to say. Brie says how much she’s looking forward to their rematch, but it might never happen because of the draft. First of all, that “promo” felt really forced and shoehorned in. The only explanation I can think of is that one of these three women will be getting drafted next week. Mark my words.

Second, I’d just like to point out the fact that just a few pay-per-views ago, the Divas Championship changed hands in a cross-branded match. Just saying…

Anyhoo… Now that we’ve gotten all that logic out of that way, let’s get into our Divas match for the night, shall we? The referee signals for the bell and our match is underway.

Nikki wastes no times going after Eve with a clothesline, but Eve evades and follows with a forearm and a kick, sending Nikki down to the mat. Eve tries to finish Nikki off with a senton, but Nikki rolls out of the way. Luckily, Eve switches things up mid-air and lands on her feet and takes Nikki over with a deep armdrag. Impressive.

Eve bars Nikki’s arm and pulls her to her feet, but Nikki fights out of the submission with a few forearms. Before Nikki can get the upper hand over the #1 contender, Eve takes her out with a kick and ties her up in the ‘Tree of Woe’. Eve tries to follow up with a baseball, but Nikki pulls herself up and out of the way. Nikki goes after Eve again, prompting the referee to get involved. While the official is distracted, Brie takes the opportunity to slam Eve’s leg against the apron.

With the damage done by her sister, Nikki goes on the attack with several stomps and goes for the pin, getting only a two-count. Frustrated, Nikki locks in a modified abdominal stretch submission, looking to make Eve tap out. Eve fights to her feet, only to get grounded once again by a knee strike/hair pull combination. Nikki tries to bash Eve’s face in with a double knee drop, but Eve rolls away to safety.

Before Eve can even get back to a vertical base, Nikki grabs her by the hair and throws her into the corner and rushes after her. Eve sees her coming and hits her with a elbow strike followed by a jumping kick off of the ropes. While Nikki tries to get her bearings, Eve quickly rolls her up and scores the pinfall.

Honestly speaking, I enjoyed this match WAY more than I enjoyed the title match last week, which is a damn shame. I thought Eve and Nikki shared a chemistry, that Brie just didn’t have last week. After this match, I’d like to see more of Nikki vs Eve. Not to take anything away from Brie as a champion, but I was really impressed with Nikki.

As I mentioned earlier, I was kind of upset that Eve dropped that sassy attitude she had last week. Last week in that backstage segment, I was more interested in Eve than I’ve been in ages. Hopefully, after the draft sassy Eve will make a reappearance.

All in all, I enjoyed this week’s Divas’ action. That said, I’m really excited to see how the impending draft shakes things up. In my opinion, both Raw and Smackdown’s Diva’s division have become really stagnant and they really need an overhaul. Hopefully, WWE doesn’t give all the draft picks to the JTGs and the Primos of the roster.

Also on this week’s editions of Raw, we had a brand new Awesome Kong… excuse me. A brand new ‘Kharma’ vignette, where she violated yet another Bratz doll. Check it out:

Is it just me, or do these dolls represent specific Divas? Hmmmmmm…. I’m just saying, that split position the second dolls was in looks really familiar. (Hey Melina!) In any case, these vignettes are getting me really excited for Kharma’s debut.

In closing, solid night for the Divas. Hopefully, once the draft takes place and Kharma debuts, we can get a even better quality show on Monday nights.

Get your Monday night Divas fix by tuning in to Raw tonight at 9pm ET on the USA Network.

Be sure to tune in to the Post-Raw & Tough Enough Show LIVE at 11pm ET!

Discuss the show in the comments!

After a couple weeks of Trish Stratus goodness, the Divas Champion, Eve Torres is back in the spotlight. On this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw, Eve defends her belt against one half of the Bella Twins, Brie Bella. Does the champ have a plan to combat The Bellas’ twin magic? Check out the match below:

We come from commercial to find both Bellas in the ring, both in ring gear (surprise, surprise). Out next is the Divas Champion, Eve and she’s come prepared. Eve whips out a permanent marker and has the referee mark Nikki Bella‘s hand, so she knows which one is in the ring. Very smart strategy from the champ. With the twin Divas successfully sorted, the official signals for the bell and out championship bout is underway.

Brie goes right after the champ with a kick to the gut, followed by a few forearms to the face of the champion. Brie stays on top of Eve, whipping her across the ring into the turnbuckle, and laying her out with a northern lariat. Brie continues her assault by stomping the champion out in the corner, before taking her down with a snapmare/facebuster combination. Instead of going for the pin, Brie locks in a modified abdominal stretch to wear down Eve.

Eve manages to fight her way out of the submission with a couple of forearms and a impressive bulldog, sending both Divas down to the mat. Eve follows up with a dropkick to the face, a flurry of strikes and a standing moonsault for a nearfall. Brie scrambles to the corner and avoids a clothesline from Eve, but the champion get the upperhand and ties her up in the tree of woe and hits a running clothesline.

Eve continues attacking Brie, prompting the referee to pull her away. While the referee is distracted, Brie and Nikki switch places, but Eve isn’t fooled. Eve takes Nikki down with a dropkick and grabs her hand, showing the ref the mark from earlier. The official ejects Nikki, but Brie is able to take advantage and level Eve with a facebuster for the win, becoming the new Divas Champion.

Post-match, Eve is approached by Gail Kim in the locker room about her loss. Eve proceeds to tell Gail off, saying everyone in the Divas locker room only cares about themselves and their next shot at the title. Natalya comes up next and gets the same treatment before Eve storms out of the locker room. While Gail and Natalya are left to ponder Eve’s words, Tamina comes by and steals someones BlackBerry out of their cubby. Bad Tamina!

Honestly speaking, I was pretty disappointed with the match overall. While there was no botches, the match just felt like it was missing something. I’ve seen Eve have much better matches with The Bellas Twins, and I hope when they have a rematch, it’ll be a bit more impressive.

Of course the big story here is the title change and it was just as lackluster as the match, in my opinion. This title match seemingly came out of nowhere and title change meant nothing to anyone. I would have much rather seen this feud develop some more over the next couple of weeks and culminate in a title match at the next PPV. In any case, let’s hope WWE has a plan for Brie Bella as champion, because they sure didn’t have one for Eve.

On the other hand, I really liked the backstage segment. I was good to see Eve finally show some personality and even tease a heel turn. It seems like they are teasing a “every woman for herself” concept, so it’ll be interesting to see when that goes in the next couple of weeks.

Finally, the big story of Monday Night Raw. We finally got our first glimpse of Awesome Kong in WWE, and it delivered big time. Check out the first Awesome Kong vignette below:

Wow…. Just wow… It’s great to see the WWE is sticking with the monster heel gimmick that Kong is known for. It’s also good to see WWE putting so much effort into a Diva debut. I’m excited to see what we get from Kong next week.

All in all, a decent episode of Raw this week. While we didn’t get the most impressive title match, the segment backstage and the Kong promo made up for it. With a new champion, a budding heel turn and a new Diva on the horizon, next week’s Monday Night Raw promises to be a really interesting night for the Divas.

Fresh off of her WrestleMania win last night, seven time WWE Women’s Champion, Trish Stratus teamed up with John Morrison once again to face off against Vickie Guerrero and Dolph Ziggler this week on Raw. Can the ‘Diva of the Decade’ and ‘The Shaman of Sexy’ pull out another win? Check out the match below:

The segment starts off with Vickie and Dolph coming down to the ring and pinning the blame for their loss at WrestleMania on Lay-Cool and challenges Trish and John Morrison to a mixed tag match. Never ones to pass up a challenge, Trish and JoMo accept (after a short commercial break).

John Morrison and start the match off, and after a bit of back and forth, Morrison gets the upperhand, sending Dolph scrambling to his corner to tag in Vickie. In an attempt to mock Snooki’s back handspring at WrestleMania, Vickie tries her best to hit a cartwheel. Vickie celebrates her acrobatic feat, but takes her eye off of Trish and get rolled up for a nearfall.

Frustrated, Vickie charges at Trish with a clothesline, but Trish evades with the Ma-Trish, followed by another rollup for a nearfall. Not happy with the way the match is going, Vickie gets in Trish’s face and piefaces her. Vickie seems pretty proud of herself until Trish lays into her with a few chops to the chest. Before Trish can follow up, Dolph jumps in the ring and distracts her, allowing Vickie to take control of the match.

Vickie slams Trish around the ring by the hair few times and goes for the pin, but only gets a two count. Vickie tries to finish Trish off with a leg drop, but Trish rolls out of the way and tags in JoMo. After some more action between the guys, Trish rushes the ring to break up a pin and gets cornered by Dolph Ziggler. Trish fights her way out with a slap, allowing Morrison to hits his signature flying kick, followed by Starship Pain, to pick up the win for his team.

A decent match, in my opinion, but as with most matches involving Vickie, there was a lot of fluff. That said, it was a nice follow-up to the WrestleMania and it neatly tied up all the loose ends. With the match out of the way, let’s talk about what wasn’t on the show: The rest of the Divas.

I would think with WrestleMania over and done with, WWE would want to start building up some sort of storyline revolving around the Divas Title. I mean, they don’t even have a #1 contender. On the other hand, with the WWE Draft right around the corner, WWE might be reluctant to start up any new storylines just yet. In any case, let’s just hope we get to see some more action from the Divas on next week’s edition of Raw.

Holy F-bomb, Batman! Last night’s Raw needed a lot of censoring when it came to the Divas in a last effort to attract interest before Sunday’s WrestleMania pay per view.

In a taped segment, Trish Stratus and Snooki were spotted at a bar in New Jersey with the latter looking in no fit state for live TV. (Glug, glug, glug!) Lay-Cool didn’t know what was about to hit ‘em…

Trish and Snooki are drinkin’ it up (well, one more than the other) at Miami Mike’s when some dude comes up to them and pesters our pint-sized (pint… *cough*) MTV star. Snooki tells Josh Mathews that she’s ready for ‘Mania (“Bring it on, bitches!”). The interview is interrupted by the lurker — who, by the way, is named Danny E (vital information right there) — and he ends up getting a smack from Snooki for his efforts. A change from being on the receiving end, eh?

The interview comes to a close but wait! The cameras go back to the bar where Lay-Cool have appeared. Snooki throws a drink all over poor Layla and things disseminate. Before you know it, Trish and Michelle are mounted on a pool table exchanging blows. But the real victim is Layla as she has to deal with slizzard Snooki. What a brave woman. *Tips hat*

Lots of non-PG words later, Trish, Snooki and Lay-Cool make Bad Girls Club seem tame!

So does this do the trick in getting one excited for ‘Mania on Sunday? Kind of. It wasn’t quite what I was hoping it would be. On paper it sounded epic, but in execution — as with most things Diva — it felt far too short & you couldn’t really catch all of the action. It was definitely cool to see the Divas acting rough and tumble for a change, but it certainly contradicts the image that WWE usually likes to portray for its women.

Still, it was a decent effort in inciting some heat going into ‘Mania and something different, though it didn’t totally work for me.

After being shafted from Raw last week, in favor of Snooki, Divas Champion, Eve, is in action this week, taking on Maryse in a non-title match. We even get a mid-match interruption by Michael Cole. Oh joy… Check out the match below:

We come from commercial to find Maryse already in the ring, doing the usual preening. Eve makes her way out next to a pretty good reaction, while Maryse mocks her from inside the ring. The official signals for the bell, but Maryse stops to do a very over-dramatic hairflip before the match begins. Eve brushes Maryse and does a little mocking of her own. Maryse offense and goes for a slap, but Eve dodges and strikes back with a slap of her own.

The referee tends to Maryse, while Eve plays up to the crowd. While Eve is distracted, Maryse rushes her with a forearm and slams her into the mat face first a few time for good measure. Maryse pulls Eve to her feet and whips her to the corner, smacks her around a bit and smashes her head into the turnbuckle. Before Eve can get back to her feet Maryse throws her into the ropes and chokes her out. Maryse charges for a butt bump, but Eve dodges, sending Maryse crashing into the ropes. While both women struggle to their feet, Cole decides it’s a good time to grab a mic and interrupt the entire match. Go figure…

Eve does her best to ignore him and continue the match, taking Maryse down with a crossbody for a nearfall. Cole continues to rattle on while Eve slams Maryse into the turnbuckle repeatedly and follows up with a nifty throw. Eve then hits her signature flurry of strikes before going for a standing moonsault, which Maryse block with her knees. Maryse tries to take advantage with a neckbreaker but Eve counter into her corkscrew neckbreaker to pick up the win.

Post-match, Eve gets feisty with Cole for interrupting her match and even goes as far as to slap him. That’s what I’m talking about!!! As for the match, it was nothing special. More of the same from both ladies, in my honest opinion. Don’t expect to see much happen in the Diva’s division until after WrestleMania is over and done with.

Later on in the night we had a very confusing special 4-on-2 intergender match that stemmed from Lay-Cool, Vickie, and Trish’s involvement in John Morrison vs Dolph Ziggler. Watch below as Dolph, Lay-Cool and Vickie Guerrero take on JoMo and Trish Stratus:

After an exchange with JoMo, Dolph scrambles to his corner and tags in Layla, which means Trish has to come in… even though this match is under intergender rules… So you mean to tell me no one knows the difference between intergender matches and mixed tag matches? Not even the referee? Anyway…

Trish comes charging into the ring like a bat out of hell, dodging a clothesline from Layla and blasting her with a few solid forearms. Trish whips Layla across the ring and charges in, but Layla stops her in her tracks with a kick to the face. Layla sits atop the top rope to celebrate, putting her in the perfect position for a Stratusphere. Bsck in control, Trish chops Layla a few times, before whipping Layla across the ring again. Layla manages to reverse and Michelle kicks Trish in the back as she hits the ropes.

Layla quickly tags Michelle in, who hits Trish with a running knee to the head. Michelle stomps Trish for a bit before goes for the pin, which nets her a one count. Michelle goes back on the offense, lifting Trish off the mat, but Trish reverses into an impressive head scissors. Trish scrambles to her corner, but Michelle recovers just in time to stop her from making the tag.

Michelle drags Trish back across the ring and tags Layla in, who hits a spin kick to the gut for a two count. Layla slams Trish down to the mat a few times, before tagging in Vickie. Oh, boy… Vickie goes for a leg drop, but Trish rolls out of the way and tags in JoMo, forcing Dolph to come in (Once again, incorrect).

JoMo and Dolph face of for a bit and Layla runs to the other side of the ring and pulls Trish off of the apron. Distracted by the scuffle outside of the ring, JoMo goes for the Starship Pain, but Ziggler avoids it and hits the Zig Zag. However, instead of going for a pin, Ziggler remember the definition of a intergender match and tags in Vickie to let her pick up the win for their team.

Truth be told, aside from the confusion in regards to the rules, I really enjoyed this match. I thought Trish would be a little rusty after so much time away from the ring, but she is looking as good as ever. This has actually given me some hope for the mixed tag match at WrestleMania. Hopefully, they can put on as good of a show on the grandest stage of them all. That said, we also have to factor in Snooki, who is the unknown variable. We’ll just have to wait and see.

In other news, don’t hold your breath for a Divas Title match at ‘Mania. I expect a big battle royal to be announced on next week’s Raw. Hooray! Or maybe the rest of the Divas won’t even make the card. Let’s all hope that isn’t the case.

It’s here! The day we’ve been waiting for all… week? Snooki of the Jersey Shore made her long awaited and highly anticipated WWE debut as a guest host last night. Oh yeah, and someone named Trish Stratus — you may have heard of her — had a match against Vickie Guerrero. But that’s not why you’re reading this, right?! You want to hear about all the hard-hitting Snooki action, so let’s get right into it, shall we?

First we have a backstage segment featuring Snooki and Vickie with Dolph Ziggler and John Morrison playing supporting roles. Let’s see how the drama unfolds:

The segment starts off with Snooki and JoMo chatting backstage for some reason. I wasn’t really paying attention to what they were saying, but I’m assuming they were comparing spray tans. Right as Snooki offers Morrison a spot in the Jersey Shore house, Vickie and Dolph make their entrance. Vickie tells the ‘Princess of the Poof’ to keep her hands off of Dolph. Confused, Snooki asks Vickie what her problem is and Vickie tells her that Snooki getting the cover of Rolling Stone is her problem. Vickie goes on to say that she was offered the cover of Playboy, prompting Snooki to make a predictable crack on Vickie’s weight. (Insert pot and kettle joke here).

Offended, Vickie goes to slap Snooki, but Snooki blocks it and lays Vickie out with a slap of her own. Ouch. John Morrison quickly rushes Snooki away, leaving Vickie to stew in her rage and punch poor Dolph in the chest.

Not a terrible segment to be quite honest. I was expecting much, much worse. Also, Snooki’s slap looked like it hurt like hell. Guess she was taking out some of pent up anger from that time she got punched in the face…

Next up, we have Trish vs Vickie and if Vickie wins, she gets a spot on the Raw roster. But first… MORE SNOOKI!!! Aren’t you excited?! Check out the match below:

Snooki makes her way to the ring first and tells everyone how excited she is to be the guest host of Raw and to see Trish Shatus Stratus shut Vickie Guerrero up. After pandering some more to the crowd, Snooki leaves the ring and makes her way ringside to watch the match.

Vickie makes her way to the ring next and Justin Roberts announces that this match will be No DQ. Hmm… I smell shenanigans. Vickie gets on the mic and says she WILL beat Trish tonight, before setting her sights on Snooki. Vickie reads off a checklist of issues she has with Snooki, which culminates with Snooki’s Rolling Stone cover popping up on the titantron. It’s all starting to make sense now…

Vickie goes on to say that Snooki stole her cover and shows what the original cover looked like, which got a good laugh out of me. Vickie finishes off by saying that she really is a good person. Heartwarming to say the least.

Out next is Trish, who is looking fantastic, by the way. The referee signals for the bell and this dream match is underway. Before Trish can lock up with her opponent, Vickie stops her and decides to do some warm-up exercises. Vickie makes the mistake of turning her back and Trish takes advantage with a school boy for a 1 count. Vickie tries for a kick to the gut, but Trish blocks it and piefaces her to the mat. Vickie tries to crawl away, but loses a shoe in the process. Vickie runs around the ring but Trish cuts her off, forcing her her to enter the ring again.

Back in the ring, Vickie retrieves her shoe and uses it as a fencing foil to fend off Trish. How clever!!! When that fails, she throws the shoe at Trish, who easily dodges. Vickie takes off her other shoe and goes on the attack, but Trish levels her with a kick to the gut. With Vickie down, Trish grabs her lost shoe and proceeds to spank her with it, prompting Dolph to make the save for his woman. Before Dolph can do anything else to interfere in the match, JoMo runs out and takes him out of the equation.

Trish turns her attention back to Vickie, but is interrupted by Lay-Cool. Trish tries to fight them both off, but she falls victim to the numbers game and is laid out with a vicious kick from Michelle. Vickie immediately rushes over and covers Trish for the win and a spot on the Raw roster.

Lay-Cool and Vickie proceed to take picture over the fallen Trish Stratus, before Michelle notices Snooki is still ringside. Michelle gets in Snooki’s face and shoves her (insert random fan: “Hell naw!”) and goes back to celebrate. Unfortunately for McCool, Snooki is not having it. Snooki jumps out of her seat and pulls Michelle off of the ring apron, before hitting a surprisingly decent Thesz press on Layla. Michelle tries to help but Trish takes her out as well.

In other news, Snooki was apparently trying to steal Layla’s boots. Classy.

Vickie manages to escape the wrath of Trish and Snooki, and promises revenge on the grandest stage of the all: WrestleMania! Vickie announces that it will be Lay-Cool and Dolph vs Snooki, Trish and JoMo. (Sorry, Kelly Kelly. Better luck next year!)

To be honest, this segment wasn’t as bad the second time around as it was initially… but it was still pretty hard to watch. As expected, the match was mostly comedy and had interference from Lay-Cool. I thought the interaction between Lay-Cool and Trish was good, and I can’t wait to see more. Also, Snooki’s Thesz press was amusing on several levels. Aside for that, I didn’t take much from the match. As for the WrestleMania match, I won’t go into my feelings on that here, because I can go on for days. Let’s just say I’m not exactly jumping for joy.

All in all, a middle of the road night for Raw for the Divas, in my honest opinion. With less than three weeks left until ‘Mania, I sincerely hope WWE can scrape together another Diva match, because it’s not looking great for the ladies so far.

After winning a No.1 Contenders’ Battle Royal on last week’s edition of Raw, I’m sure Brie Bella was primed and ready to take on Divas Champion, Eve, in a title match this week. Unfortunately for her, she was replaced by her twin sister, Nikki in the match. There’s a joke in there somewhere about ‘Twin Magic’. In any case, this week Eve went one on one with Nikki Bella with Brie Bella in her corner. To even up the odds, Eve brought along Gail Kim for back-up. Will the Bellas’ ‘Twin Magic’ score them another victory over the champ? Check out the match below:

We come from commercial to find Eve in the ring getting a pep talk from Gail Kim. I know I’m always getting on Eve for not showing much personality, but she is oozing disgust and disdain for The Bella Twins tonight. I must say I’m impressed. Out next are The Bellas and despite being in singles action, both are dressed for in-ring action. Come on, ref. You have to see what’s coming from a mile away…

Nikki climbs into the ring, the official signals for the bell and our title match is underway. As soon as the bell rings, Eve charges at Nikki for a lock-up. After a bit of back and forth, Eve muscles Nikki into the ropes and take her down with a throw. Nikki tries to get some distance between her and the champ, but Eve grabs her by the hair and smashed her face into the turnbuckle repeatedly. Still dazed, Nikki stumbles right into Eve, who tosses her across the ring by the hair a few times.

Nikki makes it back to her feet again, only to receive a flurry of strikes from the champ for a near fall. Eve goes after Nikki once again, but the referee pulls her away, giving Nikki the opportunity to pull Eve into the ropes throat first. With the match now in her favor, Nikki chokes Eve with the ropes, prompting the referee to intervene. While the official is busy reprimanding Nikki, Brie slaps Eve across the face and Nikki rushes over and lays in a few hard stomps to the back of Eve.

Nikki pulls Eve to her feet and gives her a taste of her own medicine, tossing across the ring by the hair for a two count. Frustrated, Nikki steps on the champ’s hair and pull her up by the arms, before picking her up and slamming her to the mat for another near fall. Nikki goes right back on the attack, but the entire match comes to a standstill, when Michael Cole gets up on the announce table and starts calling for this match to be ended, so he can make his announcement. Are you serious? Really?

Nikki Bella slaps on a modified abdominal stretch to wear the champ down, Eve fights out of it and both Divas start laying into each other with stiff forearms. Eve gets the upperhand and whips Nikki into the ropes, but Nikki stops short and lays Nikki out with a facebuster. Of course, most of this goes unnoticed, because everyone too busy focusing their attention to Cole, who’s making a giant ass of himself.

In the meantime, Nikki backs Eve into the corner, but Eve fights out with a slaop and a jumping kick off the ropes. Eve tries to capitalize, but Nikki is in the ropes and the official makes her back away. With the referee distracted, The Bellas try for Twin Magic, but Eve and Gail and the referee catch them in the act. Womp womp.

Eve throws Nikki back into the ring, determined to finish her off. Nikki goes for a clothesline, but Eve evades and hits her corkscrew neckbreaker for the win.

Fairly decent match from Nikki and Eve in my opinion, in terms of ring work. However, I feel the entire thing was shot to hell by Michael Cole’s interference. As a Diva fan, I couldn’t even concentrate on what was happening after Cole stated speaking, so I know the non-Diva fans probably forgot there was even a match going on. Frankly, I’m disappointed with WWE, more so than usual. Something like this should never happen during a match, much less a title match. In any case, It will be interesting to see if this angle with Eve and the Bellas Twins will go any where after this week.

In other news we found out that former SmackDown consultant, Vickie Guerrero will have to compete in a match to earn a spot on the Raw roster. Her opponent, none other than Diva Dirt Legacy Award winner and Tough Enough trainer, Trish Stratus. Check out the segment below:

I have to admit, I’m excited for this match. While Vickie is far from a wrestler, I’m always entertained when she steps into the ring. As we said on the Post-Raw Show last night, expect some shenanigans from Lay-Cool, a save by Kelly Kelly and possibly some build to a WrestleMania match.

All in all, not a bad night for the Divas in terms of ring work, but the Cole interruption put a sour taste in my mouth for the whole segment. Perhaps next week, the Divas can wrestle without getting the NXT 3 treatment.

Title reference here for those who don’t get it.

After picking up a surprising win over the Divas Champion, Eve, one might think The Bella Twins were in line for a title shot, right? Wrong. On this week’s edition on Raw, The Bellas along with Maryse, Tamina, Alicia Fox, Gail Kim and Natalya take part in a Diva Battle Royal for #1 contendership. Can The Bellas strike gold again and net themselves a shot at the strap or will some other lucky Diva come out on top? Check out the match below:

We kick things off with the champion, Eve, on commentary expressing her thought on the battle royal and facing off with the winner. The official signals for the bell and it’s every woman for themselves. Right off the bat, Natalya grabs Brie Bella and tosses her out of ring, eliminating her. Alicia follows her soon after, also eliminated by Natalya. Meanwhile, Melina knocks Tamina out of the running with a stiff kick to the head.

While Nikki Bella and Gail Kim battle in one corner, Maryse and Melina try to team up to take out Natalya. Nattie manages to fend off Maryse and flips Melina onto the apron after her failed attempt at an heel kick. Nattie tries to follow up with a shoulder block, but finds her herself on the apron as well when Melina evade. The former champion scuffle for a bit on the outside, before Maryse charges them and scores a double elimination.

With only three Divas left, Nikki and Maryse focus their efforts on Gail, shooting her into the corner. Nikki charges in with a clothesline, but Gail Kim dodges and lets loose on Maryse with an elbow followed by a sick dropkick. While Maryse is down, Nikki goes after Gail again, but get leveled with a neckbreaker for her troubles. Before Gail can do any more damage, Maryse hits her with a kick to the gut and slams her to the mat by the hair. Maryse picks Gail up and goes for the French Kiss, but Gail reverses it and pulls her out of the ring, leaving us with Nikki Bella and Gail still in the running to become #1 contender.

After being eliminated, Maryse flips out and has to be restrained by both of the officials. While the referees are distracted, Gail eliminates Nikki, but Brie, who has been hiding under the ring the whole time, creeps back into the ring and gets the jump on Gail. Gail tries her best to eliminate Brie, but Bella #1 gets the better of her and nabs #1 contendership.

In the meantime, Eve saw what really when down and rushes the ring to protest. While she’s pleading her case the Bellas jump her and beat her down… again. When all was said and done, The Bellas had be pulled off of the champ and Eve looked a bit like this. Poor Eve… she just can’t get a break.

All in all, I wasn’t too impressed with the match. Five girls eliminated before the minute mark? That’s just sad, even for WWE. What I did like was more storyline progression between Eve and The Bellas. With Brie Bella winning the match, even though Nikki was supposed to be the legal, I wonder what kind of twist they’ll put on the eventual title match. Furthermore, if Brie does manage to win the title, will we have another Lay-Cool on our hands?

Even though I didn’t like the actual match, I really like where the WWE is going with the Bellas. Hopefully, this story this feud can get a bit more direction next week and we’ll have a solid storyline going into WrestleMania, if indeed that’s where this is going (which it probably isn’t).