I’m not usually one to purchase shoot interviews or DVDs of the wrestling variety at all for that matter. I guess I’m satisfied (or less satisfied) with what I see on TV and online, so have never felt the need to go out of my way to buy a WrestleMania DVD or anything. As a consumer, I’m very particular about the products I buy - case in point - I haven’t bought a CD in nearly 10 years until last November, when Leona Lewis released her debut album ‘Spirit’. But when I found out that my favourite Diva of all time, Torrie Wilson had her own shoot interview in the works, I placed an order immediately. To me, you’ve got to really admire the person to want to buy their product. Having watched the DVD in full earlier today, it brought back many memories. Torrie is the first and only Diva who I’ve ever felt a real profound connection to, enough so to want to purchase this shoot. Hearing her talk about her career for the first time like this, it took me back to where I was when such-and-such happened or remembering updating my now neglected fansite with such news. The one and a half hour long shoot and the “face-off” between Torrie and Dawn that follows it, was a great watch for me as an avid Torrie fan but even I felt a little unsatisfied.

I put it down to having a male interviewer, who like most wrestling journalists, isn’t as absorbed in all things Diva in the same way that we true die-hard Diva fans are. The questions that I, as a Diva fan and as a Torrie fan, would know to ask, aren’t asked. The interviewer perhaps doesn’t have the extensive knowledge of Torrie’s background, her friendships in the business and such as we do and the things that I think would interest me and things that I would like to find out about, I couldn’t look to this DVD for an answer. Instead, the interviewer skirts around briefly on subjects rather than really getting into detail about key moments in Torrie’s career. Where I would focus on her thoughts on her WrestleMania matches, appearing on covers, appearing on FHM’s 100 Sexiest list and such - a more in-depth focus on the person herself. It seems that some of these questions are pretty generic and I wouldn’t be surprised to ask the same question asked to other shoot DVD participants. What was Vince Russo like? What was Kimberly Page like? Blah blah… Sure interesting enough, but to me it wastes time that could be used on really getting to know Torrie more personally. More after the cut »

‘Tis the birth of a new feature: This Week in History…, where we’ll be taking a match that happened this week in history. (See what we did there?) Who knows? Maybe our trip down memory lane will make you say, “it’s been THAT long?!”

This week, on the November 14th, 2005 Raw, the Divas of Raw and SmackDown competed in a Battle Royal in tribute to the recently deceased Eddie Guerrero. The outcome lead to a short but sweet Women’s Championship feud between Trish Stratus and the winner of this match:
 

With today’s news of numerous roster cutbacks, one must wonder if Eve is next. I know, I know.. She won the Diva Search, so she’s safe, right? Well, tell that to Christy and Ashley. With her TV use just barely ahead of the late Lena’s, maybe Eve’s crossing her fingers and hoping that her latest photoshoot, “In Navy” is good enough to prove her worth. (Yeah, let’s just imagine that photoshoots hold that kind of weight.) I love the navy combined with the gold accessories, but the makeup is a huge distraction. Frosty lips? Have we fallen into a timewarp and landed back in the 90s? Eeek. Ponder the photoshoot for a moment and tell me - with the string of releases expected, would you want Eve to land on the cutting block? For me, I probably wouldn’t care either way. She hasn’t had the opportunity to show her worth, but I’m not sure she amounts to much, talent-wise, anyways.

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We are down a useless Diva! Lena Yada has officially been pink-slipped by WWE. The Diva was part of the 2007 Diva Search before being introduced as an ECW backstage interviewer. The release comes just one week after Lena was involved in her first match on WWE television (don’t quote me on that) on Raw, when she was on the winning heel team of the 16-Diva tag team match.

Other than that, Lena hadn’t done much of note. She did appear in the Halloween Costume Contest at Cyber Sunday and surprisingly, her ninja outfit was my favourite of the night. Lena was briefly involved in the year-long Kelly Kelly-Layla feud earlier in the year also.

Due to the economic downturn, WWE is hoping to cut $20m worth of costs and thus, releases have been handed out left, right and centre. With Lena gone, I’m hoping for Tiffany to go next, as all the other Divas seem to be in prime television roles.

Last week on SmackDown: The Bella Twins were revealed as Brie beat Victoria in one on one action. And Michelle McCool continues to be “frenemies” with Maria.

Thoughts & Reactions
First of all, welcome back to the Redux feature at Diva Dirt! Our weekly Raw and SmackDown Reduxes have been in limbo for the past few weeks, I’ve been so busy and haven’t had a chance to write the column. But things seem to have settled down now and I’m back in a routine so the Reduxes are back too! I felt particularly compelled to write a review of last week’s SmackDown because I felt it was an awesome show Diva-wise. So let’s take a closer look…

Welcome to Friday night folks, the home of the best Divas action you’ll see each week. There are a lot of fans out there who watch Raw every single week and don’t watch SmackDown at all. Whether they go out on Friday night or they agree with the mantra that SmackDown is the B-show, who knows. But if you’re one of those people and you’re reading this, I strongly urge you, as a Diva fan, to start tuning into Friday Night SmackDown. Last week’s SmackDown was one of the best of the year and trust me, there’s been some great episodes to choose from in ‘08. For storyline purposes, I would rank last Friday’s show very highly. It’s been a long, long time since the Divas on either brand have had a fully fledged storyline and that’s exactly what’s unfolding on SmackDown at the moment. In the main plot we have Divas Champion, Michelle McCool and Maria. And in a sub-plot we have the Bella Twins. It seems that WWE is hinting at a third plot too, Eve’s journey to become a wrestler. There’s a little something for everybody! SmackDown has really upped it’s game and all of our gorgeous SmackDown Divas are getting decent ring time and promo time each week.

Let’s start off with Michelle and Maria, who will go head to head this coming Friday for the Divas Championship. This plot is very intriguing to me and I haven’t really written much about it thus far, but for the first time in a long, long time we have an actual Divas storyline and one that is rather unpredictable at that. Since the Mickie-Trish feud going into WrestleMania 22, there hasn’t really been a big Divas storyline that’s festered over weeks and that’s exactly what this has become. However unlike that feud, which was predictable - I mean we all knew Mickie would turn on Trish - there’s no real indication in this one. For the past few weeks fans have been speculating that Michelle’ll turn heel after reading spoilers, however when the actual show airs, her comments - while sort of mean - don’t come across as too heel-ish. Despite implying that Maria is dumb, Michelle still manages to come across as a friendly face. So it’s anyone’s guess if Michelle will actually turn heel. Because to be really honest, I have no idea where this is going and you know what… I love it!

As for the actual segment, I thought Michelle looked smokin’ hot from head-to-toe, I loved her look. Her hair looked fabulous. I remember a few weeks back I said that Michelle’s line delivery was almost robotic and she had no charisma - well I’m pleased to say that I think she came across very well in this segment. I liked the little quip at the end to Maria, “Don’t get carried away now”, sounded good. Her acting was a vast improvement. I also thought there was some irony to Michelle’s line, “She’s a Playboy covergirl and that’s what she does best…”, because that sort of describes WWE’s whole hiring process when it comes to Divas. And it actually rings true for Maria, that is what she does best. Bless her cotton socks but she’s not the best wrestler, but extremely popular nonetheless for other things she’s done.

I think this is the second time also that WWE has hinted at getting Eve in the ring and I’m looking forward to it, more the merrier, I say! A few weeks ago there was the backstage segment with Vickie and now with Michelle. It’s great to see the writers building Eve up to her eventual in-ring debut rather than just thrusting her into the ring and going, ‘Hey, the backstage interviewer wrestles now’. By having her do these segments saying she wants to get in the ring, she wants to train, they’re building her up for that eventual in-ring debut. SmackDown has proven that you can have a large Divas roster but find a way to use them all on a weekly basis and make them relevant to the product, so Eve’ll fit right in.

The match between Victoria and Brie was once again, good. They’ve had quite a few match-ups now and this one was just as good as the others. I think the big pay-off here was the twin reveal, which was nicely done. I liked the symmetry of the two sisters performing the same moves at the same time! I guess we’ve got a built-in feud now: The Bellas vs the BFFs. Plus we also have that underlying storyline teaming the twins with Carlito & Primo. I like the idea of these four being one big Latin group, SmackDown does have a huge Latin demographic so they could get crazy over.

Really fun week, last week. This week the attention turns to the Divas Championship, Michelle vs Maria. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get two Divas matches with the tag team match also. In which case, the show would be loaded! Looking forward to it! More after the cut »

Jim Ross is never one to mince words and now we have some juicy gossip from under that big ole hat thing (Sorry, I forgot the actual saying). JR is known for ‘outing’ backstage happenings through his blog, most recently noting that newer Superstars are usually seen talking in catering or trying to score a date with a Diva rather than approaching the legends and trying to get ahead in the biz. So it was just a matter of time till his direction turned to the Divas! In his latest blog, Jim writes:

Do you know the most cunning and dangerous area of the SmackDown arena before show time? That’s easy; it’s the Diva locker rooms. I’m hearing some interesting stories coming out of those locker rooms and they are not overly flattering. Something big may be brewing in Divaland.

Seems all is not well in the SmackDown lockerroom, who do you think is starting the fight? We have some very strong headed Divas on SmackDown: Michelle, Maryse, Victoria and Natalya. Or maybe even Eve or Maria or the Bella Twins? And what exactly is it that our girls are quarelling about? One could argue that the blue-brand Divas are in a very plum position at the moment. Their product is miles ahead of that of their Raw counterparts. Actual storylines, consistent matches on a weekly basis… What’s to complain about?

The newly revealed Bella Twins are contributing to a not-so-slow news weekend; as Nicole has been given her very own SmackDown profile at WWE.com and evidently, is now going under the name of Nikki Bella. And if that’s not enough for you, WWE.com has even posted a whole photoshoot featuring the twins for those of you with a fetish out there. Just kidding. (I think).

Check out the pictures here.

Parents Television Council, on guard! Disney Channel has seemingly recruited former Women’s Champion, softcore porn star and Playboy covergirl Candice to appear on one of their shows. WTF, Disney? W…T…F! Unfortunately though, Candice won’t be “laying the SmackDown” on that pesky little brat, Miley Cyrus but will be appearing on Wizards of Waverly Place a series starring rising Disney star, Selena Gomez. The episode airs on January 4th, 2009.

Regardless of my personal opinion on Candice, this is just inappropriate. If someone were to simply show the PTC a clip of Candice’s entrance, I think that’s all they need to see to revolt against Disney!

Let’s face it, it’s happened to the best of us: the good, the bad, the beautiful, and well, quite frankly, it’s just makes the ugly; bad hair days! For the most part, when there just isn’t a thing to do with your hair, you could always throw it up in a bun, wrap it in a scarf, or even hide it under a baseball cap. But when you’re a WWE Diva or a TNA Knockout, there’s just no exception to those inexcusable mane events!

Join me as I countdown the Top Ten Worst Hairstyles in the world of WWE and TNA. From Divas To Knockouts, this is a Top Ten list you wouldn’t want to be apart of. In an extended version of Diva-Dirt.Com’s Project Diva, I’ll be ranking fahion: the best and the worst! So who will be in our mane event? Can you take a guess… think you know who it is? Well, join me, shall you, and let’s talk hair…

#10 - Mickie “Don’t Call Me Melina” James - Now face this; when Mickie James made her debut, a whole load of us had to do a double take. Was that Melina that just attacked Victoria, coming to the aid of Trish Stratus? The comparisons seem to have been endless on the Internet, which only added further flames to the fire in a much publicized backstage feud between the two. Ah, the good ole days when Melina’s Internet ignorance got the best of her with a shoot blog… and Mickie’s graphic Arby’s photoshoot first surfaced. Good times, I’m telling ya. So which side did you belong to? Team Mickie or Team Melina. Regardless of your preference, caught in-between was the thought: “That’s the best she could do with hair… DEBUT night?!” She has since come so far and has done so much… but I’m still thinkin’ Arby’s.

#09 - Awesome King Kong Braids - How do I even begin with this one? I get that Kong is supposed to be some ‘monster’ wrestler and the biggest threat to Women’s Wrestling, but really? With hair like that? To me, she’s just a seemingly robust woman with a speech impediment, and a really bad case of the braids - yeah, TNA means nothing to me, I don’t watch it. A shout out to all of our Clueless fans; remember when Dionne found that strand of “cheap polyester hair” in the back of Murray’s car… yep, looks like Kong gets her ‘hair did’ with the same slut. There’s nothing intimidating about braids, in fact, nothing good about braids either - NOTHING. Kong should grow out a fro ala Macy Gray, then she’d have the rest of us running like hell like we’re in pursuit of hair relaxer. Yikes!

More after the cut »

Diva Dirt is proud to announce the launch of our first annual Year-End Awards, celebrating the very best in all things Diva! You, the readers, will make all the choices by voting for your favourite Divas and Knockouts to determine who wins what! Who will win Diva of the Year and Knockout of the Year? Which match will be crowned Match of the Year?

Voting begins on December 1st, but before then we need to finalise our nominees and we’re giving you an opportunity to get involved too with your suggestions! Each category (except Diva and Knockout of the Year awards) will feature 4-5 nominees. We want your help to suggest what you think should make the shortlist. Keep reading below for all our categories and how you can have your say!

THE BIG FOUR
Diva of the Year
There are over a dozen Divas on the current WWE roster, who will you crown as the Diva of the Year?

Knockout of the Year
2008 has seen many Knockouts come and go, but who has that special something?

Match of the Year
As WWE will tell you, there’s no off-season in wrestling - just think of all the match possibilities that could win Match of the Year!

Brand of the Year
Raw, SmackDown, ECW, FCW and TNA - which brand puts on the best women’s action? More after the cut »