Welcome to a very special edition of the Raw Redux, aptly titled “Raw Doesn’t Deserve a Redux.” And it doesn’t. Following the Divas being left off the Backlash card in favour of Santino and his alter ego, Santina, it was much of the same on last night’s Raw. How we’ve gotten to the point where … Read more
Blind yet? Well, I certainly got your attention with a well-selected photo, didn’t I? As you can plainly see, though there were no Diva matches on the card, Backlash still delivered some Diva action. Questionably pointless action, but action nonetheless. Seeing as how this probably doesn’t merit an entire Redux, we’ll provide you with the … Read more
In her real final match on SmackDown, Divas Champion Maryse offered Gail Kim a title opportunity, after the rising SmackDown Diva gained a non-title victory over her last week on the show. Watch below: Even though she was drafted to Raw two weeks ago, it looks like the Draft won’t officially take place until after … Read more
Sticking the second WWE pay per view of the month, Backlash, three weeks after WrestleMania, two weeks after the Draft and the week of a money-spinning European tour essentially makes this Sunday’s pay per view a throwaway show. It doesn’t look as though WWE will be announcing any Divas matches for the event, which makes … Read more
This post has spoilers for upcoming WWE shows, therefore the entire post is under a cut.
Beware of the spoilers:
Spoilers for Friday’s SmackDown are below, highlight to read:
Maryse def. Gail Kim to retain the Divas Championship
Opinions after the cut:
The Women’s Champion said goodbye to Raw last night with a huge exclamation mark ending her three year stint on the Monday night show. Melina‘s Raw farewell (for now) closed the chapter on the past three years of her life as well as her feud with Beth Phoenix in grandiose fashion and we loved every … Read more
Tonight’s Raw has been taped from the UK, right here in London at the O2 Arena! Check out Divas spoilers below:
– Beth Phoenix interrupted a Santino promo saying that Santina must kiss The Great Khali at Backlash.
– Melina def. Beth Phoenix to retain the Women’s Championship. Melina pinned Beth after hitting the Last Call.
Opinions after the cut:
WWE’s Backlash is set for April 26, and with the pay per view fast approaching, I’ve decided to examine the possibilites of what kind of Diva match the WWE could give us. The 2009 Draft is complete and with the record-setting numbers of Divas that changed brands, there are multiple new ways this could play … Read more
Don’t you just hate it when you visit a news site and read house show results and they have paragraphs dedicated to the men and one line for the Divas? I know I do. Well Diva Dirt reader, Iain sent along this exclusive fan report from WWE’s WrestleMania Revenge European tour which is currently stopped … Read more
In her final SmackDown match before heading over to Raw, the Divas Champion Maryse faced off against a woman who knows Raw all too well, Gail Kim in what is potentially a blow-off match to their recent feud. Check it out below: So it looks like Maryse’s being drafted to Raw puts a pin into … Read more
The WWE certainly shook things up when they drafted Melina and Maryse to opposite brands – with them went their respective championships. Thus, a new record suddenly looms, and the race is on: who will be the WWE’s first ever double champion? We’ve taken possible candidates (former Womens Champions and Divas Champions) and calculated their … Read more
Highlight below to view spoilers for this Friday’s edition of SmackDown: Gail Kim defeated Maryse in a non-title match. (This show is the last one before Maryse officially moves to Raw.)
Clearing up some nasty post-WrestleMania rumors, Trish Stratus spoke to SLAM! Wrestling about why she declined her invitation to take part in the Miss WrestleMania Battle Royal, implicity stating that is had nothing to do with the match’s outcome: “Simply, there were no finishes, no ‘What’s going to happen? Will I win?’ discussed,” Stratus said. … Read more
The outcry that poured in, in the hours after WrestleMania 25 on April 5th wasn’t just limited to fans. The women involved in the match, themselves, were said to be upset at the way the segment turned out. It’s reported that most of the Divas involved in the match were not happy following the event. … Read more
Just moments ago, Maryse became the newest member of the Raw roster as new Raw Superstar, Matt Hardy scored a disqualification victory for the brand over new SmackDown Superstar, CM Punk. Maryse now brings her Divas Championship to Monday Night Raw. Earlier in the night, Melina got drafted to SmackDown.
Following a six Diva tag team match, the Women’s Champion Melina was drafted to SmackDown! The match saw SmackDown’s Michelle pin Raw’s Mickie James in order to secure SmackDown the draft pick. Melina will take her Women’s Championship to SmackDown. EDIT: Fan report from PWInsider: After Melina was drafted to Smackdown and Raw went to … Read more
Finally, after a hiatus due to the events of WrestleMania 25, FCW has returned with another weekly event featuring our Divas in training. This week, we were treated to the encounter between ECW’s Alicia Fox and Raw’s Rosa Mendes. However, there was no Express News & Gossip featuring the Octo-Mom Jenny Cash; apparently she has … Read more
A week ago today, the WWE held its annual Hall of Fame ceremony, and until now we hadn’t gotten a proper look at the Divas who attended. But now here they are in all their (partially dressed) glory. Some look elegant, some look a little too sexy, while others just leave you scratching your head. … Read more
Last night’s Friday Night SmackDown saw something of a wrestling clinic from former Women’s Champion, Gail Kim and former Divas Champion, Michelle McCool. In what has been a hotly-anticipated match ever since Gail signed with WWE, we finally got to see these two Divas go at it and the result wasn’t disappointing at all. Oh … Read more
We’ve got your first look at tonight’s SmackDown, which features Gail Kim taking on Michelle McCool. Contrary to a rumor earlier this week, this match is not a #1 contendership match – just a plain old one-on-one bout: SMACKDOWN: GAIL KIM VS. MICHELLE MCCOOL
I’m hearing that the Gail-Michelle match filmed for this week’s SmackDown may have been a number one contender’s match, though I haven’t been able to confirm that. If true, adds some credence to my Maryse Draft post.
So Tiffany has debuted as the new interim GM of ECW. Check it out below: Now these big business types need evaluations right? So allow me to oblige: Presentation: Decent, if a little frumpy. On her first night as GM, Tiffany went for the conservative suit but there’s nothing wrong with sexing up your image, … Read more
Check out spoilers for this week’s SmackDown below:
Gail Kim def. Michelle McCool in a singles match.
EDIT: A fan in attendance recorded some live footage, follow the cut:
Talk about being in the right place at the right time, ECW Diva Tiffany has been announced as the new interim General Manager of the brand after Teddy Long upgraded to SmackDown at tonight’s tapings. Remember, last night on Raw, Vickie Guerrero announced that she was giving up her SmackDown position to become the permanent … Read more
It wasn’t at WrestleMania per se, but for the 10 Divas involved in the last night’s Raw vs SmackDown tag team match – they got their WrestleMania moment a day late. The Divas of Raw united to take on the united Divas of SmackDown, under the guidance of the Women’s Champion, Melina and the Divas Champion, Maryse. The result was a well executed, well timed match that helped ease the sour taste left by the ‘Miss WrestleMania’ battle royal the night before.
Speaking of which, the Raw ‘debut’ of Santina was also a nice change of pace from the match we saw earlier in the night. WWE showed last night, that the Divas can wrestle and do comedy, without one hindering the other. Following the huge storm that came after WrestleMania, I think that WWE made good, turning the Santina-Miss WrestleMania crap into fun, comedy fluff. I’m not gonna lie, I laughed my butt off . This sort of stuff is okay in moderation, as long as it’s used in addition to a real Divas match rather than instead of.
Back to the Raw vs SmackDown match, following WrestleMania, I really felt from the Divas that they went out there with a chip on their shoulder and with something to prove. Rather than wasting ringtime on Maria, Eve, Kelly or Layla – we got straight down to business with talented, competent wrestlers. I got to see a little taster of three of my dream matches for the current division: Melina vs Gail Kim starting out this match. What I love about both of these Divas is that they have such innovative, fast paced, flexible styles and I think if you throw them out there for 10 minutes, they’d make you stand up and applaud. I will say, that they took a little while to get going, the chemistry wasn’t there straightaway but as the match progressed we got some good action from both of these women. I like that they played up the rivalry between Gail and Maryse too, by having Gail tell Maryse off for attacking Melina on the outside of the ring.
Then we get another dream match: Natalya vs Melina. First of all, let me say, I kinda popped when I saw Natalya’s Bret Hart inspired jacket with the tassles on the shoulders! And here we get a change from the more technical style we saw between Gail and Melina. Natalya is just an absolute powerhouse, she is smash-mouth and in your face. That offsets Melina nicely, who is more energetic. I love seeing Natalya wrestle!
So Melina tags out to Mickie James, bringing on dream match number three. Again, Mickie is more fast paced in the ring and this match sped up when she got tagged in. It’s a shame that Natalya got barely any offense in on Mickie, who dominated this portion of the match. But that slam from top rope had to have hurt! Layla’s one spot in the match was near perfect, a very nicely executed low-dropkick on Natalya. And then out the ring she goes to the floor, ouch that had to have hurt!
My only problem is that while the SmackDown Divas did play up some tension, the Raw Divas seemed all friendly. Doesn’t Melina hate Jillian? Isn’t Layla meant to be a heel? Yet she goes and hugs Mickie. The post-match celebration could have been toned down a little more. Nonetheless, the whole match was enjoyable.
Later in the evening, we got a fun segment between Beth Phoenix and Santina who seems to have hijacked Rico’s old music. I can’t lie, I was laughing hard. “I’m more woman than you’ll ever be!” The interaction between Santina and Beth was gold. The match was hardly technical and nothing to write home about, but it did it’s job. Sure, Beth had to job to a man in drag, but in terms of storyline I think this will help send Beth over the edge and we’ll get more entertaining programming for the next few weeks.
Santino’s acting was top-notch, it kind of reminded me of Chris Lilley playing Ja’mie in Summer Heights High.
Videos after the cut: