As you all know, this week’s ECW was pre-empted from it’s usual Tuesday night spot and instead will air tonight at 7pm ET on the rebranded Syfy network. However, why wait? The whole episode has leaked online and below we have this week’s Divas action as newcomer Nikki Bella [with sister Brie] takes on the scarcely-seen Katie Lea.
Click in for video & thoughts:
Women’s wrestling finally returns to ECW with the arrival of the Bella Twins and to be fair, they are being used a whole lot more usefully than they ever were on SmackDown or ECW. Last week they delivered a solid segment with newcomer Abraham Washington and now this week, they get a promo and a match too! Joining us for the occasion is Katie Lea, who seems to be getting a day release from sitting in catering.
So we kick things off with a silly Bella promo. “We’re the Bella Twins.” No shit, ladies! It was an unnecessary promo but these two are pretty good on the microphone, as seen last week.
I have to say, this wasn’t a bad little match from what is essentially the step-child of the WWE shows. No one can expect a match on the caliber of Raw or SmackDown, but the girls involved didn’t do a bad job at all. It’s great to see Katie getting some ringtime finally… I can’t tell you the last time I saw her wrestle [maybe one of you guys remember?], she’s a great talent and is possibly one of the company’s hidden gems. Katie was sporting a rather different look for her TV return, with some funky makeup — not to my personal taste, but it sure does make her stand out from other Divas, right? It works for her and Diva Dirt is a big advocate for being unique.
So while Nikki is the one wrestling, both she and Brie coming out wearing the exact same thing — surely the audience, referee and commentators might question that? They should know given their track record, they pull a switcheroo? Oh WWE logic, how you defy me.
Katie is hungry for some screentime and is not playing from the outset, as she throws Nikki viciously throught he ropes onto the floor outside. I always like when the Divas go to the outside, Katie leaps off the apron with a double axe-handle on Nikki and continues her aggressive streak, throwing her back in the ring and hitting her face first against the mat by her hair.
Interesting spot here as Katie kinda tangles Nikki around the ropes and uses her leg to do something or other, not sure what was going on there.
Nikki then begins to fight back, with a very nice Gail Kim-esque armdrag, climbing up the turnbuckle. Nicely done, Miss Bella. Definitely was not expecting a spot like that from one of the Bella Twins. This leads into a one-legged dropkick into a backflip, while the dropkick was ‘eh’, her movement was on-point, it looked really nice and aerobatic.
Nikki launches at Katie, who throws her over the top rope, Nikki lands on the apron but loses her balance and falls to the floor. Ruh roh, not sure if that was planned… Katie then hits a nice neckbreaker through the middle rope.
The end sees Nikki and Brie swap and Brie hits the facebuster for the win… Nothing too spectacular about that.
There was some really good work from both Divas, Katie showed some really good aggressive wrestling while Nikki surprised me with her athletic nature, I’m still taking in that really nice armdrag.
I wonder if this will continue in coming weeks, I hope so, it’s not like ECW has much to lose in booking Divas as the rest of their programme seems to be filled with newcomers at least these girls are established names and faces.
