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Lilian Gives Farewell Speech to Raw Crowd

In a show of class you rarely see in wrestling these days, the WWE allowed Lilian Garcia to give a farewell speech live on tonight’s Raw, which marked her final appearance in what was a 10 year career with the company. PWTorch has a breakdown of what she said: • Lilian was given the next-to-last … Read more

Raw Response: September 21st, 2009

Tonight’s Raw is hosted by actor and comedian Cedric the Entertainer. It is also, as we’ve mentioned, Lilian Garcia‘s final night with the WWE. Witness Lilian’s swan song along with us and discuss any Diva action in the comments below!

SmackDown Redux (September 18th, 2009) – The Proof is in the Pudding

Last time on SmackDown: Michelle and Layla attempt to frame Dolph Ziggler with a camera phone and a timely crutch mishap. Said crutch helps Layla defeat Melina in a match later that night.

This week: Will Maria discover Michelle’s “evidence”, and will Melina feel the brunt of her fury? What about Michelle–is she gonna get off scot-free?

It looks like the WWE is going the extra mile to ~mix it up~, because we have a match to start out our night! That’s right, no lead-in backstage segments! I know, it’s not much, but you gotta cherish the little things in life.. Melina is the first one out, and Michelle follows, noticeably limping on her bum leg. I gotta wonder why she’s wrestling if she’s struggling to even walk down the ramp..

It should be noted that this is a non-title match, so don’t get too excited.. As it begins, Michelle shies away from an actual lock-up, and Melina’s right after her, trying to pull her away from the ropes. They eventually do tie-up, and Michelle knees Melina in the stomach, pummeling her a bit before irish-whipping her. On the return, Melina reverses Michelle’s attack into a flip that lands her on her feet, nailing Michelle with a reverse kick.

Michelle escapes to the outside, and Melina tries to give chase, only to be stopped by the ref. Gotta wonder why the ref doesn’t start the count until Michelle’s outside for a few seconds, not that any Diva match has been resolved by count-out ever.. (Feel free to correct me on that, historians..) Michelle starts to limp around the ring and Melina gets tired of the delay, sliding out of the ring and giving chase. Michelle, of course, hops back into the ring, and when Melina tries to follow, she grabs her by the hair, forcibly dragging her in through the second rope.

She takes Melina to task, beating her down and bashing her head against the mat. Melina, woozy, tries to right herself with the ropes, but Michelle brings her to the middle of the ring, kneeing her in the face. Another kick, this one to the side of the head, drops her to the mat again. She brings her up, stretching her backwards into a Dragon Sleeper. Melina’s bent into the shape I used to meld my Barbies into when I bent all of their joints.. (No, I wasn’t a problem child..)

Melina fights to get free, punching and kicking Michelle. Before she can free herself, Michelle hammers her in the stomach, releasing the hold. She sends her to the corner and begins work, kneeing her repeatedly and choking her with her bad leg. (See, the knee brace is good for something!) As Melina lays prone on the mat, Michelle rubs her hands together like one does after a job well done, running the ropes and looking to baseball slide Melina out of the ring. Melina, however, plays Jerry to Michelle’s Tom, hoisting herself out of the way just in time, letting Michelle go flying out of the ring. Though, I’m not sure what kind of mouse has that type of leg strength..

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Full SmackDown vs Raw 2010 Divas Roster Announced

The full roster for this year’s SmackDown vs Raw game was revealed moments ago in a live webcast featuring Eve Torres. Representing the Divas will be: Beth Phoenix Brie & Nikki Bella, Eve Torres, Gail Kim, Kelly Kelly, Maria, Maryse, Melina, Michelle McCool, Mickie James and Natalya. There are rumours that Trish Stratus may be … Read more

SmackDown Spoilers: September 18th, 2009

This week’s SmackDown spoilers are in the tags below. The show will air this Friday, September 18th. Click the ‘+’ to read:

Even more detailed spoilers now posted.

SmackDown - September 18th, 2009
– Melina pinned Michelle McCool in a non-title match. Melina was bleeding from the mouth.

– The women’s locker room was plastered with the photos that Layla took of Dolph Ziggler helping Michelle McCool last week. Melina tried to remove the photos. Maria showed up, said that she knew about Ziggler helping McCool & accused Melina of plastering the photos in the room.

Thoughts after the cut:

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Raw Redux (September 14th, 2009) – Trish Stratusfies, Fox’s Hunt Begins

raw14sept09

Where to begin? The legend returned last night to deliver Stratusfaction to all and boy, did she. Trish Stratus may have her detractors [though personally, I can’t see why — it’s like hating bunny rabbits] but she proved last night just why she was considered the hardest working Diva in WWE for so many years. She’s still got it! From the vivacious personality to the in-ring display, it truly was like she never left. All that’s changed really is the hair and boobs!

Plus the Stratusfaction was sprinkled on another Diva Dirt favourite, as on the evening we were reunited with Trish, we also air-punched for the one and only Alicia Fox. Let’s start with that match:

As a huge fan of both Alicia and Gail Kim, I wasn’t sweating the outcome of this match. If Gail won, awesome and if Alicia won, awesome. I never thought they’d pull the trigger on Alicia, I have to tell you. Despite wowing audiences with her in-ring work in the short time she’s been on the main roster, Alicia has shown so much potential and has all the tools it takes to be a future top Diva and future champion. But for some reason, I never really thought they’d pull the trigger on her — it’s always the talented ones that get left behind, whereas Kelly, Maryse, Eve and Maria seem to be the ones WWE focus on. I am pleasantly surprised that they gave Alicia the win because for the first time in a long time, it gives me hope that WWE can be in tune with the fans. The fans have gotten so behind Alicia, it would’ve been wrong to ignore that because in the online world in particular, fans have ‘made Alicia happen’.

Alicia and Gail work really well together, so I was excited for this one and it started out well with the aggressive Alicia Fox kicking Gail straight at the bell. Gail goes for the Flying Dragon I think, which Alicia blocks and goes for a TKO that Gail counters into an arm drag. Nice work there. A hurricanrana and dropkick through the ropes by the veteran, but as they get back in the ring Alicia hits a beautiful tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Alicia grounds the match with a submission move, it’s nice to see one of these young Divas incorporate the basics as opposed to going from spot to spot. Gail fights back, but Alicia manages to hit another beautiful looking move, this time the fisherman suplex.

She then wraps her legs around Gail in another submission move, nice work. Fast forward a little bit and Alicia sets up her axe kick but Gail move sout of the way and manages to hit her neckbreaker. Gail mounts offense with clotheslines and a nice stinger splash in the corner followed by a great crossbody. Gail goes for the ‘Eat Defeat’ but Alicia counters, shoving Gail into the corner. Gail goes up top for a missile dropkick but misses, is it just me or can Gail not go a match without doing a move where she misses a high spot? She’s only hurting herself even more! Alicia takes advantage to hit the axe kick and gets the win.

I enjoyed this match but I felt there was more of a focus on Mickie at ringside rather than the wrestling. It seems King and Mickie bouncing off each other, while great chemistry, took away from the match in the ring and that’s not a good thing.

I truly hope this is the start of a push for Alicia, however I am not going to get too excited until I see it. Already this year, several Divas have earned Divas title shots and they’ve ended up being “one shot deals” for example, Kelly Kelly, Gail Kim and Beth Phoenix. Mickie’s presence at ringside however, suggests that they could be building to something between Alicia and Mickie, that attention wasn’t given to the latter three. Alicia is a young Diva with a wealth of potential and I think given the opportunities, she really could shine. I’m not suggesting that she win the Divas Championship but I’d just like to see her work with these talented veterans and really bounce off them; already she’s worked so well with Gail, Melina and Michelle McCool. Alicia is at a similar level to Maryse, though I would argue she’s a better worker, so I’m holding out for better end product from Alicia & Mickie than we got with Maryse and Mickie.

Trish after the cut:

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Trish Stratus May Work a Match Tonight

Backstage speculation at the Air Canada Centre suggests that the legendary Trish Stratus may work a match tonight as part of her guest hosting gig. And with the Divas Champion, Mickie James and Kelly Kelly hurt, it seems like the stars have aligned. If you listened to today’s Diva Dirt Roundtable, one reader suggested Trish … Read more

SmackDown Redux (September 11th, 2009) – A Picture’s Worth 1,000 Words

Last time on SmackDown: Michelle confronts Maria backstage, again warning her against Dolph. Later, Maria & Eve took on Natalya & Layla, with Eve getting the pin on Layla.

This week: Is the Dolph saga heading for a plot twist? How about the Melina/Michelle feud–is it going to reclaim the spotlight after being relatively nonexistent last week?

This is getting to be a set-in pattern, as we once again start the show with a backstage segment. We see the lovely and talented Dolph Ziggler walking up to the Divas locker room door. Michelle approaches him and turns on the charm. He says he’s looking for Maria, and she offers to help, knocking on the door. Oh.. This might get good:

Layla answers the knock, opening the door. Signs of a coordinated attack begin to surface as Michelle asks Layla if Maria’s in the room. She says no, and looks to leave the scene. Michelle, trying to look as enticing as is possible while one is hobbling on a crutch, asks him what he sees in Maria, wondering why he could be with a “ditzy little girl” like her when he could be with a “sexy woman” like herself. She veers off her crutch and Dolph catches her, allowing Michelle to get a handful or 5 of his ass. In the distance, we can see Layla taping the whole thing on her cellphone. He pushes Michelle against the door, rejecting the advance and repeating “No. No No.”. He leaves, and Layla shows Michelle what she got on her phone. Michelle deems it “perfect”. Uh oh.. Does GTV have a modern counterpart?

On the wrestling side of things, Melina makes her way to the ring, seemingly oblivious to what has recently gone on. One has to wonder how Maria will react to that footage, and what that means for her friendship with Melina. Something tells me shouting “I told ya so!!!” isn’t Melina’s style. Layla, accompanied by Michelle, makes her entrance, and we’ve got a match:

Layla gets to an aggressive start, kneeing Melina and latching her into a headlock. Melina shoves her into the ropes, and on the return Layla shoulder-strikes her onto the mat. Layla bounces off the ropes, leaps over Melina’s prone body, and bounces off the other side of the ring. Melina makes her own leap, getting some air as she launches over Layla, who reaches the ropes for a 3rd time and gets hit with a flapjack delivered by Melina. Dizzy yet?

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ECW Does WWE Superstars (September 10th, 2009)

The ECW Divas got a rare opportunity to wrestle last night on WWE Superstars, as Nikki Bella of the Bella Twins [in case you didn’t know] took on Katie Lea of the Burchill siblings, in a rehash of the extremely one-sided feud from this past summer. You can’t really even call it a feud because … Read more

SmackDown Spoilers: September 11th, 2009

This week’s SmackDown spoilers are in the tags below. The show will air this Friday, September 11th. Click the ‘+’ to read:

SmackDown - September 11th, 2009
– Michelle McCool is backstage groping Dolph Ziggler. Layla records it with her cell phone.

– Layla (w/Michelle McCool) defeated Melina. Michelle set up the finish by striking Melina.

Thoughts after the cut:

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Breaking: Angela Fong Debuts

FCW Diva Angela Fong will make her television debut tonight on ECW. The standout star, who has been touted as the best female talent in developmental, just taped a backstage interview segment under the name Savannah. She interviewed ECW Champion, Christian and Tommy Dreamer. What this says about the short-lived previous interviewer, Courtney Taylor, is … Read more

Raw Redux (September 7th, 2009) – The Price is Wrong, Bitch!

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It was a bittersweet episode of Raw last night. On the one hand, Bob Barker was a lot of fun but on the other hand, you just knew with Barker hosting Raw most, if not all the Divas would be relegated to ‘Barker Beauties’. And lo-and-behold, that’s exactly what happened. In fact, WWE felt there weren’t enough ‘Beauties’ on Raw, they decided to import the Bella Twins from ECW — with no explanation, I might add. I guess they have to earn their paycheck somehow.

Seeing them last night made me realise just how jealous I am of them, it must feel pretty great to get paid a ton just to coast along and do little to no work. It’s not their fault however, but in an economic downturn, shouldn’t WWE be putting all their stars to work to justify their wages? The Bellas get to travel the country, look pretty, hardly ever wrestle and get paid! Like I said: jealous.

So I don’t even have anything to write about in this week’s Redux because there wasn’t a match! I think WWE’s logic is that they had two matches last week, so they can afford to skip this week. Plus with the ultimate Diva, Trish Stratus hosting Raw next week — those stupid Diva fans, they get Trish next week, that’s enough ‘Divas action’ to justify not putting them on last night. Somehow I doubt Trish will get quite as much screen time as Bob Barker did last night, though. I fear also, that next week’s Raw may be a throwaway in the Diva stakes. If Trish really were really the booker and it wasn’t scripted, one would assume she’d want to put over the Divas and give them a prominent role next week. But because Raw is scripted, the writers will probably put Trish in a match as our quota-filling Divas bout next week. Sure it’ll be nice and nostalgic to see Trish wrestle again but Raw is already in a lull and we need some semblance of storyline to break this holding pattern. Honestly, I am not expecting anything out of the norm that will champion the women’s division next week, even though the guest host is a legendary former Diva that was once part of said division. That’s WWE writers for ya…

Speaking of Trish, she is the first female guest host of Raw since the gimmick began in July. So what do you do? You tack on a much hyped guest appearance from an injured top Superstar! Because God forbid, a woman… A WOMAN… is not a big enough draw on her own. Yes Trish, not even you — the quintessential, legendary Diva — can be trusted to carry Raw on your own. Even though she has more personality than most of the past guest hosts and will be more exciting to watch than Dusty Rhodes’, Sergeant Slaughter’s, Jeremy Piven’s and Freddie Prinze Jr’s weeks combined! It just shows how much faith WWE has in a female guest host, even the most popular female wrestler of all time, can’t get a show to herself without the added Batista appearance. Don’t be surprised if over the next week, the Batista announcement gets more hype from WWE than Trish Stratus as guest host.

With Kelly, Jillian, Rosa and extra added flavour in the Bella Twins, four Divas were left off the show and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Thank God they were! Alicia Fox, Beth Phoenix, Gail Kim and Mickie James were given the shove last night and perhaps it was for the better. I’m actually a little surprised they decided not to use Alicia Fox when she fits the same ‘Barker Beauty’ model role they used Kelly, Rosa and the Bellas for. But I think  Alicia should be flattered and consider it a compliment, considering the company she’s in with the other Divas that got snubbed. It suggests to me that Alicia isn’t seen as a ‘model’ by WWE anymore and in my eyes, that’s a good thing. She has too much potential and talent as a wrestler to be doing double duty that kind of degrades the progress she’s making.

Anyway for the rest of this week’s Redux, I am going to critique the Divas we did see in a ‘Best & Worst Dressed’ of Raw. And in honour of Bob Barker hosting Raw, instead of ‘Best’ and ‘Worst’, I’ll use ‘Right’ and ‘Wrong’. Follow the cut for more:

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Raw Response: September 7th, 2009

Tonight Raw is hosted by former Price is Right host, Bob Barker. Under his authority, which Divas will ‘come on down’? Discuss tonight’s Raw in this post! Next week, Raw is hosted by the legendary 7 time Women’s Champion, Trish Stratus! Join us next Monday from 8.45pm ET/1.45am UK for a special one-off live blog … Read more

SmackDown Redux (September 4th, 2009) – Maria’s Got 99 Problems But We Care About None

Last time on SmackDown: Melina and Layla went toe-to-toe with Michelle again standing at ringside, this time with crutches and a knee brace. Another rough shove by Melina leaves Michelle writhing in agony.

This week: Is there retribution in the cards for Michelle? Or will she let her “understudy” do the talking/walking? What about Maria–will she continue to play the damsel in distress?

Once again we start this week’s action with a backstage segment pilfered from the daytime soaps. And what else could it be about but Maria‘s woes? I personally can’t wait to see what epic twist the story takes this week! Fake pregnancy? Evil twin? Elaborately orchestrated death? Well, at the very least, I hope someone wears an eye patch..

We see Maria and Eve in the locker room, discussing tonight’s match. Maria tells Eve that all they need to do is go in there with a lot of confidence and passion, because when you don’t have talent, a whole mess o’ confidence will solve all your problems. (Though maybe having a scheme of selling broke-ass calendars with self-indulgent and hokey slogans for $25 wouldn’t hurt either..) Michelle takes the layup that Maria tosses her way, and shows up to remark, “..and you’ll still be losers.” Michelle tears down Maria’s makeup and passion for rhinestones, saying that no matter what she does, Dolph won’t keep his eyes off of other women, like her. (OMG, is that a hint of a twist? Probably not.) She says that Maria is nothing but his “flavor of the week”. (Damn, this has been the longest week of my life..) Maria counters, calling Michelle the most egotistical Diva on the roster.

Melina appears out of nowhere (Seriously, was there a door over there?), but Maria tells her that she’s got in under control. But one insult later, Melina gets in Michelle’s face, and Michelle threatens legal action if she even lays a finger on her. Obviously not interested in filing legal papers just yet, Michelle leaves before things can unravel. Melina apologizes on her behalf, but Maria tells her to stay out of her business. I couldn’t agree more with that sentiment–let’s all stay out of her business! No? Okay..

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SmackDown Redux Does WWE Superstars (September 3rd, 2009)

SmackDown Divas Eve Torres and Natalya got the chance to mix it up on tonight’s edition of WWE Superstars, taking part in a mixed tag team match with their usual teammates–Eve with Cryme Tyme, and Natalya with the Hart Dynasty. It appears as though the WWE is reigniting their feud from a number of weeks ago, when Eve and Natalya mixed it up and had a few impressive matches with one another. But, like most good things, the WWE forgot about it and dropped it. But never fear, because they’ve (at least for the time being) brought it back. Let’s see how they fare:

PART 1


PART 2

After what seems like forever, with the men doing the legwork, D.H. Smith tags in Natalya, which brings in Eve. I feel like these matches would be a lot more interesting and compelling if the men were allowed to face the women–I know that they’re not gonna go toe-to-toe (Let’s not embarrass the boys!) but it would make things a lot more interesting if someone didn’t have to automatically leave the ring once a person of the opposite gender was tagged in. It feels like a function in a video game that you should be able to use a cheat code to get around. Then again, I don’t play too many video games, so there’s not much I could do other than pound on the controller and complain. Which, ironically, I’m close to doing now with this entire spiel. Enough with the diversions, onto the action!!

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SmackDown Spoilers: September 4th, 2009

This week’s SmackDown spoilers are in the tags below. Show airs on Friday, be sure to check back for Erin’s Redux! Click the ‘+’ to read:

Full spoilers now added.

SmackDown - September 4th, 2009
– Maria & Eve are backstage, Michelle walks in and tells Maria that Dolph will leave her. Melina enters the picture and threatens to hit Michelle, but Maria tells her to stay out of her business.

– Maria & Eve Torres defeated Natalya & Layla when Eve pinned Layla.

Thoughts after the cut:

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WWE Superstars Spoilers: September 3rd, 2009

Spoilers for this Thursday’s episode of WWE Superstars are below, this week’s show goes to SmackDown. Show airs at 8pm on WGN America. Click the ‘+’ to read:

WWE Superstars - September 3rd, 2009
The Hart Dynasty def. Cryme Tyme & Eve Torres
Natalya pins Eve after the discus clothesline.

Thoughts after the cut:

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Raw Redux (August 31st, 2009) – Happy Beth-day, Mickie!

Check your local weather forecast for flying pigs, folks! We’ve seen the occasional ‘two Divas matches in one night’ on SmackDown, more common we see two Knockouts matches on any given episode of Impact but Raw? Raw?! Following last week’s Vince birthday debacle, this week it was the Divas Champion’s birthday. I wonder what she wished for… Better yet, neither match was a three minute wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am affair either! Cloudy with a chance of Divas.

First up was a six Diva battle royal to determine who faced the birthday girl, Mickie James, l ater on in the night. Rather than the standard clusterf*ck we usually see, they did a good job of getting the dead weight out of the ring early and letting the ‘wrestler girls’ do what they do best.

First, the entrance — so the Divas finally get their own entrances for one of these battle royals and Gail Kim decides: “Oh no, not me… I want to be ~suppressed~ by this turgid Diva lifestyle. I have been taken away from my beloved Knockouts and have to work here just for the money. But I shan’t enjoy it! Woe is me.” So what does a girl do? She hijacks Kelly Kelly‘s entrance. It definitely looked like a miscue to me, I guess she accidentally walked out and realised she made a mistake because Kelly didn’t even see her behind her, Gail had to tap her on the shoulder. And you’ll even notice a pause from announcer, Lilian Garcia, possibly because she was surprised to see Gail come out with Kelly. “Introducing first…” Pause. “Kelly Kelly and Gail Kim.” Also interesting to note that Beth Phoenix, arguably the top heel on Raw came out second while Alicia Fox came out last. The last spot is usually reserved for the top Divas/Superstars. Maybe Gail was supposed to come out after Alicia?

Anyway that over with, let’s skip to the match: We kick off with three different matches going on at once, Beth-Kelly, Gail-Rosa, Alicia-Jillian. Kind of hard to keep track of all of this. I noticed Rosa attempting to hit some awful looking slaps Gail’s way, before being pushed into the Glamazon. Despite being her former protege, Beth is having none of that — and Rosa & her weave go flying over the top rope. After this, we see some work between Gail and Beth which is always an enticing prospect, while Kelly hits a few forearms to Jillian and Alicia. Ms Fierce kicks Kelly in the stomach and delivers a really nice ace kick, delivered much better than the one on Mickie last week. Unfortunately our girl Foxy isn’t long for this match as she’s next eliminated by Gail Kim. She’s followed by Kelly, who’s dropped out of the ring by Beth who picks her up almost as if she’s cradling a baby. In the ring, Gail and Jillian ‘hit it off’, you could say, with Jillian launching Gail into the turnbuckle, Gail moves out of the way and Jillian eats ring post. Beth attacks next, but Gail manages to fight back and has Beth against the ropes, she falls out of the ring but manages to hold on thankfully for her. Beth teeters off the apron, I like this, it reminds me of those Royal Rumble matches when people are trying to eliminate the Big Show for example and the ‘big man’ kinda teases he’s about to fall. I guess Beth is our Diva equivalent of that.

Now it’s time for what I felt was some good work between Gail Kim and veteran, Jillian. They do a little exchange, which Gail gets the best of, tossing Jillian out of the ring but again — she hangs on this time. Gail tries to finish the job, but gets tossed out herself by Jillian before sliding back in through Jilly’s legs and almost going for a rollup, err… Anyway then she misses another crossbody but good news folks! She doesn’t knock herself loopy this time. Risky move going for it in the first place though, Gail. Jillian goes for a handspring elbow but meets Gail’s knees, Jillian stumbles to the canvas and crawls around like a retarded cat. Jillian grabs hold of Gail trying to throw her over the top rope, but Gail fights back, leading into a really awkward, awful looking hurricanrana that turned into a butt bump. I don’t even…

Did Michael Cole really just call Gail ‘dead weight’? Jillian tosses Gail over the top but in HBK-esque fashion, Gail skins the cat as they say [I don’t know why]. Another amazing observation from the amazing Michael Cole: “Jillian surprised that Gail’s still alive.” That is just… wow. Gail uses her legs to hit a legscissors on Jillian who falls out of the ring… finally! Unfortunately for Gail, Beth is still in this thing and with a stiff kick, eliminates Gail and takes the win!

Good battle royal, I felt. I enjoyed the work between Jillian and Gail minus a few glaring awkward moments.

This leads to…

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Raw Response: August 31st, 2009

Discuss tonight’s episode of Raw as it happens in this post! Tonight’s Raw is hosted by the American Dream, Dusty Rhodes. I wonder how they can turn that into a Divas’ gimmick match?

Trish Stratus Confirmed for 9/14 Raw

It’s the confirmation we’ve been waiting for — the legend that is Trish Stratus has been confirmed as guest host for the September 14th episode of Raw hailing from Toronto. It had been widely speculated over the past couple of months that Trish would host the show, given it’s in her hometown and despite many … Read more