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 »

SmackDown really delivered a great night of Diva action for this week’s show. Brie Bella facing off against Victoria plus a backstage segment with Eve, Michelle and Maria. Check it out below!

And allow me to take a second to gush over how gorgeous Michelle looked this week! I loved her hair!

EVE, MICHELLE & MARIA BACKSTAGE

Earlier in the week we reported that Gail Kim was backstage at Monday Night Raw this week, but latest reports are suggesting that Gail was introduced to the roster in a meeting as the newest addition to the Divas. This would obviously mean that Gail has signed, sealed and delivered her contract with WWE!

I’m really hoping this is true, but for now I’m treating it as a rumour. Speculate as you will…

EDIT: PWInsider is now reporting that Gail has signed with WWE and was backstage at Raw. If you ask me, PWInsider is the most trustworthy news site out there and I for one trust them as a reputable source. Thus I am as good as sold.

The Divas Championship match between Michelle McCool and Maria has been announced for next week on Friday Night SmackDown. Maria won an opportunity to face the Divas Champ a few weeks ago on the show by winning a Las Vegas Pole Match. I assumed the match would take place at Survivor Series, but apparently not.

Regular readers of Diva Dirt will know that we are huge advocates of gorgeous Raw Diva, Layla. Sure she may be a by-product of the Diva Search, sure she may not be a conventionally trained wrestler - but we just can’t help but love her! So allow me to gush over the fact that London’s finest is finally getting some ring time, something she hasn’t really had an opportunity to do since joining Raw during the Draft in June.

At a house show earlier today in Milan, Italy, Layla teamed up with Beth Phoenix to take on Mickie James and Kelly Kelly, albeit in a losing effort.

While on ECW, Layla was making strides earlier in the year, putting on some great matches on SmackDown with some exceptionally good matches with Michelle McCool. But since joining Raw, Layla has been involved in about three matches and those ‘good ole days’ seem a lifetime ago. I’m really hoping this is the start of Layla appearing in matches more often, she is a great raw talent that WWE could really capitalise on. I truly feel that she has the makings of an amazing Diva in future.

It seems like WWE.com can’t get enough of the “widow” variants, because Victoria sure loves her spiders - so much so that in her new photoshoot, “Silver Widow” she’s wearing a nice big sparkly one on her finger! It compliments her “black widow” persona pretty well, but I think the web necklace was a bit overkill. But hey, it sort of works, as does the *gasp* leggings! I normally hate the pants-less look, but the fact that they’re in red kind of changes my mind. It’s weird, because I look at her ensemble and I’m sure I wouldn’t like any of it by itself, but put together, Victoria makes it work. Hey, you have to give credit to a girl that can match her pants to her hair.. Okay so maybe you don’t, but in this situation, it doesn’t hurt.

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She may have been awarded the TNA Knockouts Championship recently, but Awesome Kong also received something a little less pleasant from TNA management - a telling off. Kong was put in her place by management when she requested a pay rise in the terms of her new contract, after her previous year-long contract expired in October.

Many of the Knockouts signed their deals in October 2007 when TNA launched it’s women’s division, the girls were signed to one year contracts. It’s no secret that the Knockouts are likely the least well-paid stars in TNA, with the company’s top Knockout at the time, Gail Kim, earning less than $100,000 a year.

You’d think that an actual ratings draw like our Knockouts would be able to command more money, but nope - not in TNA! TNA is in a very precarious position that I don’t think that they or any other wrestling company wants to be in: women as your top ratings draw. Good for us, because we love Divas and Knockouts but not good in the world of this male-dominated sport. WWE can justify paying it’s Divas less as the stars they book as top-tier talent are top-tier talent and draw higher ratings than the Divas. However that role is reversed in TNA with stars like Kurt Angle and Sting drawing less than the likes of Kong and the Beautiful People. Obviously the Knockouts are what the TNA viewers want to see and it’s time that they realised that rather than use this old school mentality that men are the draws when they are obviously not in TNA’s case. If I were a Knockout, I’d round up the others and stage a coup… just saying.

Okay, so maybe that title’s a bit harsh, but Maria’s new photoshoot “Electric Purple” is quite perplexing. In some of the photos, she looks great, while in others it’s quite another story. However, on the whole, her look is very tacky. I mean, a lacy purple dress and sparkly butterfly pendant? For someone who rests on the “fashionista” label so much, it leaves much to be desired. Heck, maybe with the wild hair and crazy faces, she’s going for a lioness look. But until lions start wearing black lace, I’ll assume that one’s a “no”.

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Check out spoilers for Friday night’s edition of SmackDown below:

Brie Bella def. Victoria. After the match, Victoria and Natalya try and grab her before she can go under the ring and end up pulling out both twins. The Bella Twins then clear the ring of Victoria and Natalya.

Michelle McCool is backstage with Eve. Eve asks Michelle to train her, Michelle says you gotta have heart and also she says Maria is stupid behind her back. Eve says “I thought you two were friends?” Then Maria walks up and they fake hug.

It was the biggest story of the summer before falling off the radar, but it seems as though the next chapter in the Gail Kim saga has finally unfolded! Word has it that the former Diva and Knockout was backstage at last night’s momentous not-really-800th episode of Raw which hailed from her hometown of Tampa, Florida.

It would certainly suggest that Gail is leaning towards signing with WWE, if she hasn’t done so already at last night’s taping. Dun dun dun… excited? I am!