Blue brand Diva, Maria has been absent [as well documented] filming The Celebrity Apprentice. Yesterday, Maria took part in a charity fitness class during one of the tasks which is being called a ‘Rock Star Boot Camp Workout’. Spoiler alert: Also with Maria were Sharon Osbourne and Bret Michaels, so I’m guessing they’re on her … Read more
As with last week, Beth Phoenix faced a local talent at last night’s SmackDown taping [to air this Friday]. This week, Beth faces 22-year-old Brooke Carter from Long Island, New York. Carter also wrestles as Brittney Savage and worked the taping as ‘Brittney Carter’. As noted by some readers, Carter held Women Superstars Uncensored’s tag … Read more
Former WWE Diva and ECW original, Dawn Marie celebrates her 39th birthday today but instead of receiving gifts, she’s giving them! In an exclusive for her former boss, Paul Heyman’s website Heyman Hustle, Dawn sheds her clothes for a saucy new photoshoot. Rather daring for a mom of two, right? However, Dawn has nothing to … Read more
Tonight’s Raw is hosted by Sharon & Ozzy Osbourne! What kind of craziness will their presence bring to Raw? And what will the Divas get up to — or not get up to — this week? Discuss the show as it happens!
Three weeks. Three botch-filled matches. Is it time to take this one out back and shoot it in the head? The prospect of Jillian versus Melina for the Divas Championship is mark-out material on paper; these two Divas have worked up the ranks together and until now, have never had a full-on feud for a … Read more
This week on the Roundtable: Candice Michelle’s announcement, Lacey’s response to Sunny, Mickie James’ music career pursuit, Eve’s storyline with The Miz, Amy Henning in WWE and more. Plus your questions answered in the Mailbag and TV Talk! To listen to the Roundtable directly on the website, just click on the play button below. You … Read more
Controversial TNA Knockout, Lacey Von Erich has responded for the first time to scathing comments made about her by former WWE Diva, Sunny [Tammy Sytch]. Last month, the former Diva launched a tirade against Von Erich through her Facebook page, making overly personal comments about the Beautiful People star. In an interview with WrestlingInc.com, Lacey … Read more
Recently signed FCW talent, Trinity McCray has been renamed in the developmental territory. She is now going by the name of Naomi Knight. McCray made her in-ring debut for FCW television at this past week’s taping. The name name is seemingly a play on Naomi Campbell; I wonder if WWE has a name book filled … Read more
Former WWE Diva, Candice Michelle has announced that she is pregnant! Writing on her official website, Candice reveals: I am very excited to be entering a new chapter in my life. I am Pregnant! Smile and a wink ;)! My due date is in May! I was so excited when I found out I wanted … Read more
November 1st is here and with just two months left of 2009, we are extremely pleased to announce the launch of our second annual Diva Dirt Year-End Awards! Last year, Beth Phoenix took the award for ‘Diva of the Year’ while The Beautiful People [Angelina Love & Velvet Sky] were crowned ‘Knockouts of the Year’. … Read more
– Mickie James’ country music career
– Candice Michelle in TNA
– Eve and The Miz?
– Amy Hennig in WWE?
– Courtney Taylor removed from WWE.com
– Michael Hayes’ support of Beth Phoenix
If you’d like to add your comments & ask a question for the Mailbag, reply with the following:
Name:
Do you think Mickie will leave WWE for her music career?:
Ideas for Candice in TNA?:
Should Eve be used as a wrestler?:
Would Amy Hennig make a good Diva?:
Question for Melanie/Erin/Steven/Tiffany (delete as applicable):
Make sure your comment for each topic is no longer than one sentence. Any longer and it will be overlooked.
Announcement: Tomorrow, we’ll be debuting a brand new weekly audio — the Post-Raw Roundtable. This will go online every Monday night after Raw. If you’d like us to read out your Raw thoughts, please tweet them to us at @divadirt.
To take part in the reader survey for each of the topics follow the cut!
(IMAGE CREDIT: Angel Williams) Original Beautiful People members, Angelina Love and Velvet Sky reunited last week at a Live Pro Wrestling event in Franklin Square, New York. Angelina — real name Angel Williams — accompanied Velvet to the ring in a match that she was originally booked for. The date would have been Williams’ first … Read more
Key: Hot; this was well done. Tepid; this was middle of the road. Cold; this was miserable.
Diva Dirt prides itself on original content, which is why we have totally jacked a fabulous idea from Alan Carr — the topical barometer! Every week, we’ll be looking at the highs and lows and finding out where they rank on our topical barometer. What’s hot? What’s tepid? What’s cold?
Raw vs SmackDown Divas Tag Team Match, Bragging Rights
SmackDown Divas, Beth Phoenix, Michelle McCool and Natalya scored a big win for their brand at Bragging Rights when they pinned the Raw team to help SmackDown become Bragging Rights champions. Beth Phoenix was particularly instrumental, pinning Divas Champion for the win. Verdict:Hot. Not many casual WWE fans [not Diva fans] are willing to give credit where it’s due when it comes to the women’s division but the six Divas involved in the Bragging Rights match last Sunday proved that there is talent in the division and their matches aren’t total botch-fests. This match was given a decent length and had the opportunity to tell a good story with each of the Divas getting time to shine and show the audience their skills. Another good pay per view outing.
Melina & Santino vs Jillian & Chavo Guerrero, Monday Night Raw
Divas Champion, Melina teamed up with Santino to take on recent rival, Jillian and her seemingly new BBF, Chavo Guerrero. The match ended within minutes, as Hornswoggle came out to the ring for more side-splitting hilarity… Verdict:Cold. It seems the Divas division on Raw has been brushed with the same stroke as Hornswoggle, Chavo & Santino — filler comedy skits. The booking here was just pitiful and the Divas involved didn’t help themselves one bit by botching every exchange in their portion of the match. For two veteran Divas, this is highly embarassing.
Alicia Fox vs Kelly Kelly, WWE Superstars
Divas action continued on WWE Superstars this week, with last week’s victor Kelly Kelly facing Alicia Fox this week. Though she defeated Gail Kim the week prior, she was no match for A-Fox who pinned her with the axe kick. Verdict:Tepid. Compared to their fellow Raw Divas’ appearance on Monday night, Alicia and Kelly should be awarded. Not nearly as bad as Melina & Jillian’s work together on Raw, but compared to the week prior [Gail vs Kelly], this match lacked a certain something. Still enjoyable but perhaps a little forgettable. Decent effort from both, however.
Our friends at SHIMMER have announced another money-off sale at rohwrestling.com, which means fans can get up to 40% off SHIMMER DVDs! If you haven’t already checked out SHIMMER, now is a perfect time to do so! BLACK FRIDAY COMES EARLY- SAVE 35%-40% OFF YOUR NEXT ORDER!!! Start your holiday shopping now!!! You can now … Read more
Women’s Champion, Michelle McCool should be a shoe-in to raise some major cash next week, when she appears on ‘Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?’. The former school teacher will be appearing on the show, which airs in syndication, next week for ‘WWE Week’ along with The Miz, John Morrison, MVP and The Big … Read more
The fans in attendance at SmackDown voted Mickie James as the winner of the SmackDown Divas Halloween Costume Contest. But what do you think? Did Mickie deserve the win or would you have picked someone else? Based on the looks above & the little ‘performances’ each Diva gave, who would you have picked to win? … Read more
Note: As a result of the ‘Diva Dirt Trade’, the SmackDown Redux is now written by Melanie! Like Mickie James, I have left behind Raw after two years of the Raw Redux but left it in the very capable hands of Erin. You can read Erin’s Raw Redux every Tuesday here at Diva Dirt.
In the words of Comic Book Guy: “Worst. Costume. Contest. Ever.” Much second hand embarassment was felt for the four Divas involved; from the unflattering costume choices [that’s you Mickie!] to the ‘white people dancing’ [thanks Michelle!], this one didn’t look too hot.
However earlier in the night, we kicked things off on a much brighter note when the Glamazon, Beth Phoenix made her in-ring debut as a SmackDown Diva in a squash match. This to me was the perfect set-up. Since her debut in 2007 [let’s ignore the original debut], Beth has been pushed as the monster heel of the women’s division; the powerful and dominant Glamazon. In the past year, it’s safe to say she’s waned a little as a character as a result of poor booking but all that seems to be changing thanks to the move to SmackDown. Usually with these monster heel types, they’ll have squash matches for weeks on end against the ‘jobber of the week’, we’ve seen it with the likes of The Great Khali, Umaga, Mike Knox and most recently, Sheamus on ECW. I think it’s really intriguing for a Diva to be given similar treatment and really have that time to be put over as a ‘big bad monster’. This almost re-introduces Beth, putting out of mind what she’s been doing on Raw lately, and sort of starting from scratch. So it would Beth Phoenix versus local jobber known as Jenny Brooks, who it’s explained has some history with Beth:
Fresh from defeating Melina to take a win for Team SmackDown at Bragging Rights, Beth gets her first match on SmackDown. We kick off with Beth throwing Jenny to the mat and laying in some kicks & punches and then literally, kicking Brooks out of the ring. That definitely looked impressive.
Beth then drags Brooks back into the ring by her hair and then picks her up for a standing suplex, hoisting Jenny into the air for a good 30 seconds or so. This is something we’ve seen before in Beth’s arsenal and really is a sight to see, so it’s nice to see that it’s dusted off here. Beth then picks up Brooks by the neck and slams her over her knee, before just throwing her into the corner like a rag doll. Jenny then tries to fight back but is thrown against the ropes by Beth and then gets hit with an axehandle across the head. The end is here for the visiting Brooks as Beth sets up an epic looking Glam Slam, once again just holding that position as with the suplex, and as you’ll see she does a 360 on the spot so all the fans in attendance can see her sheer dominance which is a very nice touch, and then slams her down. Beth then takes a moment to adjust herself, looking composed and not in a rush, before pinning Brooks with ease.
I really enjoyed this. Like I said, it almost re-introduces Beth and her dominance with the use of the elongated standing suplex and Glam Slam, using Beth as a spectacle almost. She really came across great here as a non-chalant bad ass heel. The little touches like taking her time before pinning her opponent, while just a small touch, added that much more to atmosphere and I really like that. I hope they can keep this up and continue to have Beth booked strongly & break the mould of what it means to be a Diva today; as mentioned earlier, Diva squash matches are unthinkable but for that to be used as a storyline device for Beth shows some progression. Good segment.
After the cut, the Divas Halloween Costume Contest:
The identity of Beth Phoenix‘s opponent, Jenny Brooks, on SmackDown this week is Canadian wrestler Athanasia Alexopoulus aka She Nay Nay. She Nay Nay has previously worked in OVW, the former WWE developmental territory and is said to be an aspiring WWE Diva. Earlier this week, it had been speculated by PWInsider that the local … Read more
Tonight on WWE Superstars, Alicia Fox takes on Kelly Kelly in a Raw Divas match! Then at 9pm on Impact, Alissa Flash vs Tara on Impact. Discuss both shows in this post.
The Glamazon, Beth Phoenix has a big supporter on her new home in the form of lead SmackDown writer, Michael Hayes. Hayes, we’re told, is said to be a big fan of Phoenix and was ‘thrilled’ when she was moved to the blue brand in the big Diva Trade three weeks ago. As a result, … Read more
(IMAGE CREDIT: Awesome Kong Twitter page) Former TNA Knockouts Champion, Awesome Kong met her soon-to-be colleague, the legendary Hulk Hogan earlier this week in Long Island, NY at the Hulkster’s book signing for his new autobiography. Hogan did the unthinkable — exclaiming he was a ‘big fan’ of the Awesome one! NewsBlaze.com reports: When Hogan … Read more
ECW Diva for all of three weeks, Courtney Taylor‘s WWE.com profile page has been removed. Taylor took time off from WWE just as she was called up to the main roster and thus, lost her backstage interviewer spot to Savannah aka Angela Fong. Fans of Courtney — real name Beverly Mullins — shouldn’t be in … Read more
Following in the footsteps of Lacey Von Erich (didn’t work) and Natalya (worked out), WWE is reportedly scouting another third-generation female — Amy Hennig, daughter of the late ‘Mr Perfect’ Curt Hennig. Amy has been wrestling since March 2008 under pro wrestling legend Harley Race, and according to Wrestling Observer, could wind up in FCW … Read more
Upcoming women’s promotion Wrestlicious has released a new three-minute promotional video. The new promo features more wrestling footage and introduces more characters that fans will see in the upcoming series. Watch below: On a related note, PWInsider’s Mike Johnson speculates whether Eric Bischoff’s involvement in TNA could lead to Wrestlicious airing on Spike TV. Bischoff’s … Read more
The identity of the local woman who wrestled last night at the SmackDown taping is reportedly a woman named Alexxis Nevaeh. PWInsider is reporting that the same woman appeared as a jobber for Awesome Kong in TNA last year at the time of the $25,000 challenge. Alexxis is also known as Lexxus and mainly known … Read more
Raw vs SmackDown Divas Tag Team Match, Bragging Rights
Melina & Santino vs Jillian & Chavo Guerrero, Monday Night Raw
Alicia Fox vs Kelly Kelly, WWE Superstars