WWE

It’s okay to look — SmackDown has returned to form! Hurrah! After an iffy week with not much going on last week, this week’s show was infinitely better with the blonde babyfaces proving the Divas moniker to be true — they were smart, they were sexy and oh yes, they were powerful! You’d expect little else from the Glamazon Beth Phoenix… but Tiffany? Tiffany?! I was not expecting anything out of the former ECW GM upon reading the spoilers for this week but Tiffany girl, consider my eyes opened. Tiff Tiff shocked the hell out of me with her rather great in-ring debut on SmackDown — perhaps one of the better ones in recent years from the model-types.

This week’s action kicked off with Tiffany backstage with Teddy Long. Vickie Guerrero comes in and tries to put Tiffany in her place but Teddy tells Vickie that Tiff’s here to be a Diva in the women’s division, not a GM. Going all the way back to Tiffany’s first night as GM on ECW, I thought her acting was more convincing here — she’s improved. Still though, and this is probably the same for most of the Divas, she isn’t great.

Next we have Tiffany making her in-ring debut against Michelle McCool as ordered by Guerrero.

McCool makes her entrance first with Vickie now joining the Simply Flawless team and awkwardly taking part in their entrance. Next out is the newest Diva, Tiffany and for a second I had to wonder if I was watching the right show. She seriously looked like something fresh out of Wrestlicious. With that ring attire and music she comes across as a cliched character on TakeDown. It’s hard to take the girl seriously when she looks like that, I really hope she finds a decent ring attire with some pants or shorts soon.

As Tiffany approaches the ring, some nice expressions from Michelle with her looking bored and uninterested in the new Diva. McCool, taking Tiffany lightly, mocks her skirt [thank you!] and tries to intimidate the former ECW GM by shoving her down to the canvas. Tiffany jumps straight back up but McCool again mocks the Diva by taking a time up for some press ups. Tiffany runs at McCool surprising her with her feistiness and throws a few jibes of her own at the Women’s Champ. Michelle walks into a nicely executed atomic drop by Tiffany followed by two impactful clotheslines. Already, I’m impressed. Frankly, I was expecting a flimsy kind of Kelly-esque moveset from Tiffany with less than believable clotheslines but Tiffany’s clotheslines connected and they connected hard. She looked powerful and dominant which is great when you need to choreograph and sell your moves. Perhaps her background in power lifting helps? Tiffany then goes for a low dropkick on Michelle, kind of jumping in the air to execute it. Hmm, it looked a little odd but again, it connected and looked believable which is already the antithesis of some of the ‘model’ girls we see on Raw. Tiffany then kicks Michelle through the ropes and then somewhat surprisingly, jumps right out of the ring herself and goes after the champ some more! Gotta love that aggression.

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Who has the upper hand when you pit Beth Phoenix versus Vickie Guerrero? Looks like we’re about to find out. The latest WWE Diva power struggle pits the unlikely ‘Diva’ Guerrero up against the Glamazon and despite their obvious mismatch in terms of wrestling ability, in all other aspects they’re pretty much tit-for-tat. In kayfabe, Guerrero is the authoratative consultant GM for the SmackDown brand — giving her the right to book matches, make decisions and even fire people. Meanwhile the Glamazon is a talent that colours outside of the lines and doesn’t necessarily care about authority. Is she really intimidated by Vickie?

Watch this week’s SmackDown segment below:

New Women’s Champ, Michelle McCool and Layla are backstage thanking Vickie for her help in winning her the belt last week against Mickie James. The duo present Vickie with a ‘Team Flawless’ top and make her a member of the group. However, up sneaks Beth Phoenix who tells Vickie she wants a shot at the title but Vickie says she’ll get a shot when Vickie says so. Power struggle ensues. Beth says Vickie shouldn’t cross her, Vickie says she’s not intimidated by Beth and that Beth shouldn’t cross her either.

Interesting development here. It seems as though Beth is slotting into that antagonistic role to Vickie that Mickie held until she went away to have her knee surgery. Honestly, I’d hope this will all result in Beth getting a title shot at WrestleMania in a few weeks but I’m not holding my breath. I think the set-up here is exciting as Beth, unlike Mickie, doesn’t come across as a goody-two-shoes type. Beth comes across as a character that marches to the beat of her own drum and doesn’t care about what the GM thinks and that contrasted with Vickie Guerrero should be great to see develop.

Honestly given that it was such a short segment, there’s not much more to analyse. Like I said, I’d like to see this lead to a match at ‘Mania though.

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