Have you ever wondered what kind of fragrances the Divas would produce? Nah, me neither, but WWE.com did a random but sort of interesting piece on hypothetical fragrances of the Superstars and Divas – you know, because the world doesn’t have enough tacky celebrity fragrances. Above are the “bottles” of each Diva’s perfume. Care to guess which belongs to whom? Read more to find out..
Wow, never did I think I’d be writing this but Kelly Kelly really delivered the goods last night on SmackDown! The ECW Diva sold incredibly well to the aggressive and impressive, Natalya in a really physical, gritty match up. Honestly, I love SmackDown! right now, I’m going to go out on a limb and even … Read more
In a bit of news that I’m not happy to report (and am posting mainly so Melanie doesn’t have to), it looks like Torrie and the WWE have parted ways after over 7 years. WWE.com provides us with the standard generic, information-less statement: WWE has come to terms on the release of WWE Diva Torrie … Read more
This week’s SmackDown! features a Divas match, once again! Looks like SmackDown’s on a roll! Highlight the text below to view the spoilers: Natalya defeated Kelly with a Sharpshooter, which got a big pop.
On this week’s RAW, we saw a Women’s Championship Lumberjack Match, the return of Trish Stratus and Katie Lea and Paul Burchill continued their handicap stint.
Thoughts & Reactions
The Women’s Championship match, when I first read about it, I thought for sure they’d made the wrong decision; they should’ve kept this match for Judgment Day. The match itself was not good. Plodding along with kicks and punches, it really wasn’t fun to watch and that is a problem I have with matches with these two Divas, their Armageddon match last year bored me to tears. It wasn’t until Melina was injected into the picture on New Year’s Eve in a triple threat match, that this feud got a little more exciting. That was a fun match. Live from London, Mickie and Beth really pulled it out of the bag, it could’ve been a really bad match a few weeks ago when Mickie won the title but it wasn’t, thankfully. I think everyone got into it because of the London crowd and the big fight feel; but this match it felt dull. Not to mention, some incredibly sloppy ring-work from Mickie James, a few of the spots in this match were really awkward to watch. I didn’t expect that from Mickie, but last night, she wasn’t on her game. All these repetetive descriptions of Beth Phoenix by the announcers is getting really boring; how many times can we hear that she’s the most dominant Diva to ever enter the WWE, she’s this, she’s that. Jim Ross, you’ve been doing the same shtick for over six months, get some new material.
As I said earlier, I felt they should have kept this match until Judgment Day but I can see why they haven’t. Even though the match was pretty dull, the ending was very well done and it brings Melina into the fold and I can’t knock that. I predict a triple threat match at Judgment Day, so hopefully that match will be better than this one – Melina is a lot of fun to watch in the ring. But there are a few possible routes WWE could go here: Could Melina turn face? After all, she cost Beth her match, I could see Beth trying to retaliate and “bully” Melina, effectively making Melina a face. This is something I would love to see and it would also balance out the women’s division in terms of good in-ring workers. Either way, I’m glad they’ve bought Melina into the fold, why waste a talent like her?
Trish Stratus’ return was a fun little cameo, as I’ve written in another post, she’s stepped back onto RAW in a 50-second segment and shown more character and personality than any of the current crop of Divas could ever hope to display.
I’m glad they’ve continued having Katie and Burchill team up, despite the horrible commentary from Mike Adamle. I mean seriously?! “She’s definitely not a pretty face!” Excuse you?! I think he meant “She’s not just a pretty face”, but that kind of shocked me. I hope Katie can join the women’s division soon or at least play a bigger role than just directing traffic for Burchill, even though she’s in the match too.
RAW ring announcer, Lilian Garcia made quite the faux pas in front a very vocal Canadian crowd, last night. Lilian addressed the arena, the Air Canada Centre as the “Air America Centre” leading to a chorus of boos from the fans in attendance! Ouch. Lilian did make it up, with what I assume would have … Read more
With last night’s RAW being held at the Air Canada Center in Toronto, Trish Stratus made a surprise appearance on the show and conducted a little interview with WWE.com afterwards! Eek! Trish!
Only a short segment, but the crowd was going crazy for Trish! No doubt, the 7-time Women’s Champion still has it! Check out her WWE.com interview after the cut:
Tonight on Monday Night RAW, Beth Phoenix is scheduled to face Mickie James for her prized Women’s Championship. However, there is a special stipulation – a Lumberjill match! The sexiest women on television, the WWE Divas, will be surrounding the ring as these two beauties battle it out within the squared circle. Will Mickie James … Read more
With all the heat that’s being directed towards the 2005 Diva Search Winner Ashley Massaro, people expect her not to make an appearance on tonight’s scheduled Monday Night RAW. According to Ryan Clark at Wrestlezone.com, Ashley is indeed backstage at tonight’s show in Toronto, and should be making an appearance. Personally, I think it’s a … Read more
For those interested, tonight’s SmackDown! Divas match is below. The eventual tag team match we all saw coming, as I like to call it… Cherry and Michelle taking on Natalya and Victoria. As for my thoughts, I don’t want to repeat myself every week so I don’t know what more I can say other than … Read more
NO FREAKIN’ WAY! In a twist of fate obviously to reward me being such a good girl, the Gods have teamed up my favourite girl band of the moment with my favourite hobby! WWE Divas, Kelly Kelly, Layla, Maria, Melina and Mickie James are set to appear in Danity Kane’s music video for their next … Read more
RAW Redux is set to become a regular feature here at Diva Dirt, so on with the thoughts on last night’s show:
Thoughts & Reactions
I was bittersweet with this week’s RAW. On one hand, you had a 12-Diva rematch and on the other hand, you had Katie Lea‘s in-ring debut. I think it was a huge risk – and a bad choice – to have a rematch of the Divas match from Backlash. Going into that match, we were all very uncertain and uneasy because it could’ve gone the totally wrong way, thankfully WWE pulled it out of the bag and put on a pleasantly surprising and good match up. But then to do the very same match the next night, when the first one was so touch and go, I just knew last night’s match wouldn’t be very good and in truth, it wasn’t. It wasn’t a very good match, didn’t achieve the things that the first match did on the pay per view – and actually, has hindered storylines not developed them. What possible reason is there for Team Mickie to win other than because the heels won the night before? This storyline is meant to be centered around Beth Phoenix and Mickie James, having Beth win at Backlash had her come off strong and sent the message out there that she was coming after Mickie and the title. The very next night, Mickie gets one over – it doesn’t leave much room for the storyline to go anywhere. We’ll have to see what they do (if anything at all) next week to develop the obvious rematch at Judgment Day.
One more thing, what is with the face Divas acting like heels? Cherry getting in the ring breaking up the count and Michelle kicking Melina? I don’t get the logic behind that.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed the aspect of Katie Lea and Paul Burchill teaming up. It had shades of Essa Rios and Lita, which was a great gimmick while it lasted. Now, I know this is just rehashing that old gimmick but if it gets Katie in the ring and gets her and Burchill over, I’m all for it. I’ve really liked what I’ve seen of Katie thus far, I hope it’s not too soon before she gets involved in the women’s division! Hopefully this gimmick will continue for a little while longer, with Katie and Burchill teaming up in 2-on-1 matches. Katie is the star of this duo if you ask me, Burchill’s head is up on the chopping block – Katie can easily be integrated into the women’s division, hopefully WWE has enough sense to mix her into the fold.
All in all, it was a really blase week for the Divas on RAW. Hopefully SmackDown! kicks it up a gear this Friday night!
Diva Dirt presents it’s “systematic breakdown” of last night’s Backlash pay per view, in the same vain as RAW Redux last week. So on with the show:
Thoughts & Reactions
Hmm, did someone from WWE Creative read Diva Dirt, yesterday? I don’t mean to brag, but it seems they followed our prelude pretty closely. Promote Beth Phoenix and Mickie James‘ feud above all else? Check! Keeping the inexperienced (“inferior”) Divas out of the ring for the most part of the match? Check! Promote the likes of Michelle McCool? Check! The inevitable rush at the end of the match? Check! Have Beth go over and look strong? Check! All in all, I thought that match was handled really well. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it, but I did!
One of the immediate standout moments that comes to mind, is the spot at the end of the match with all the Divas getting one over on each other. I mean come on, Victoria hitting Mickie with the Widow’s Peak made me mark out a little! Melina‘s splits thing on Michelle and Jillian‘s face buster were awesome too! Good stuff! Given WWE’s logic, I wasn’t expecting a strong match – I was expecting Maria, Ashley, Kelly and Layla to have a lot more ring time like last year’s Survivor Series; but it’s a good thing they didn’t! Instead, they managed to utilise the top five heel Divas effectively: Beth, Melina, Victoria, Natalya and Jillian were all tagged in and wrestled for parts of the match. I wasn’t really expecting Jillian to get tagged in or do much in the match, since she’s pretty much the “forgotten Diva” but WWE booked this one really well.
There were a lot of fun scenarios in the match, the prospect of Mickie-Natalya was promising, that’s a match I wouldn’t mind seeing in future. Melina and Michelle is another one, given that they are “second in command” to Beth and Mickie, respectively, this could be another feud they could develop. Victoria’s Widow’s Peak on Mickie was amazing, I don’t care how much they build up Beth Phoenix – she will always be a badly produced carbon copy of Victoria. The girl still has it!
Given the fact that this Divas match was booked on the fly six days before the pay per view, WWE did a pretty good job selling it in a spectacular 5 minute segment this past week on RAW. Able to condense their storylines from all three brands into one match, gives the Divas some meaning … Read more
Here we have tonight’s featured Diva contest from SmackDown! In the in-ring debut of Natalya (she seems to have dropped her surname), the third-generation Diva defeats Cherry in a very good match – using the sharpshooter no less! I can’t stress how much I loved seeing Natalya wrestle in this match, she made me realise … Read more
Welcome to the second edition of the YouTube Classics! If you weren’t here last time, I’ll catch you up on what this whole thing is about: each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I will post a classic or otherwise memorable match. This week’s offering of the YouTube Classics takes us to Armageddon 2003 (a PPV where … Read more
Diva Dirt would officially like to extend an apology to the member of SmackDown!’s Creative Team who is really responsible for the recent rise in women’s action on Friday Night SmackDown! Over the past few weeks, I have praised the SmackDown! writers – specifically head writer, Michael Hayes – for the strong and compelling viewing … Read more
WWE.com has posted video interviews with both Beth Phoenix and Michelle McCool concerning their recent run-in on RAW. This begs the question – are they hinting at a feud between the two? This would hardly make sense, as both women have been developing feuds on their respective shows. The WWE has finally managed to put … Read more
WWE have posted a new photoshoot of Maryse entitled “Take A Seat” It’s a nice change from recent photoshoots, WWE have finally posted a nice one.. well almost. Some are definitely misses, but apart from the tacky boxes and trying to figure out what exactly Maryse does in the WWE, err okay, maybe that’s a … Read more
Some very early (and undetailed) SmackDown spoilers are in. Highlight below to read: Nattie Neidhart beat Cherry with a Sharpshooter.
Looks like the Divas are getting the shotgun treatment – WWE.com has announced that all 12 girls who participated in RAW’s “West Side Story”-style face-off are going to compete in a 12-Diva tag team match at this Sunday’s Backlash. Now, I’m not saying this match was made ridiculously late because most matches not featured on … Read more
We’re ripping a page out of PWInsider’s book today, with our very own look at last night’s edition of RAW. However, we won’t be looking at the whole show, rather the Divas segment! So we welcome you to RAW Redux!
Thoughts & Reactions
Wow, I was really impressed at how WWE utilised what was essentially a filler segment and made it meaningful! It’s been a long, long time since the Divas have been involved in a promo (the last time I can remember was the days of Trish and Lita), and this was one of the best things they’ve done on RAW since then. Sure it wasn’t a match, but this segment achieved much more than just throwing all the girls in the ring for a tag match or worse – a battle royal. It told a story, better than just a match could, WWE has really been down in the dumps with Diva booking on RAW over the past year with illogical decisions. Wherever this one is going (a 12 Diva tag match at Backlash?), it started out strong. Having Maria and co. come out to congratulate Mickie was a nice touch, adding to the prestige of the Women’s Championship (finally!) and of course, led onto the heel Divas hitting the ring. I loved the two rival Diva gangs, the entrance of Team Phoenix had me popping, anyway!
Golly gosh… Beth Phoenix has gotten her voice back! For a while there, we worried whether she had become a mute. Beth oozed charisma and confidence on the microphone, if you ask me, had WWE let her cut more promos when she was Champion maybe her reign would have been more enjoyable? I wasn’t checking for Beth to get a rematch with Mickie at Backlash, as I’ve found their previous matches boring but by adding a story to it, actually I may be a little more inclined to see another Beth-Mickie match somewhere down the line. Beth showed more personality and charisma than she did in her entire title run. The problem was, with Beth being this wrecking machine with no story to it, not letting her cut promos etc. it made her dull. Please keep it up, WWE!
Of the “supporting cast”, they did a pretty good job by establishing Michelle McCool in this segment also. Michelle has been growing on me of late and it’s only now that I see her as a true top level Diva, although it’s not hard when your face counterparts (Mickie excluded) are Ashley and Kelly Kelly. Michelle in my eyes, is second only to Mickie James at the moment on the face side. RAW isn’t Michelle’s brand, but Creative sort of gave us a little bit extra for our money – having Michelle, SmackDown!’s top Diva, come off strong in this segment also. They didn’t need to do that, but by doing so they’re acknowledging that “Hey, SmackDown! is growing a pretty impressive women’s division too” and opening up the doors, not restricting the women’s division simply to RAW.
What I don’t agree with and what I find laughable, is having the face Divas clear house of the likes of Beth Phoenix, Melina, Victoria, Jillian and Natalya – all of whom could pummel most of their asses in a heartbeat. It wasn’t realistic, but obviously WWE is going for the big face pop here.
Well if you’re Brazilian or Latina, you could be in with a chance because WWE is holding casting calls, yes casting calls for new Divas. You just know the glory days of the WWE Divas are gone when WWE is actually casting what they want. It feels almost sordid, a pimp and ho situation if … Read more
Has anyone else noticed that WWE tries to make Maria out to be the epitome of fashionable? Calling her RAW’s “resident style queen” and such, when any woman – hell make that man, woman or child – alive knows that she dresses tacky as hell. Well WWE.com has really outdone themselves in the latest edition … Read more
Woooooo!
It’s no secret that my favorite female wrestler/manager/entertainer is Sherri Martel. She is a woman that I love and cherish. I look at what she has accomplished and what I saw when I watched her work. She simply was the complete package. She was one of a kind; original, strong and larger than life.
Amongst the men, there is a single man who fits that mold for me. I looked forward to watching him no matter what he did. He is an incredible man that will stand alone in wrestling. So unique and captivating. He is the one, the only, WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair.
Ric Flair is beyond the complete package. There are people in this world that are amazing when it comes to mic skills, are incredible wrestlers or just have a phenomenal look. Ric Flair has all of the above and then some.
In keeping with their terrible photoshoot streak, WWE.com has posted a new one featuring Melina brandishing the unfortunate prop of cotton candy. What’s with the WWE’s obsession with food-related photoshoots? It’s an all-around unflattering look. You’d think a more “covered up” look would be a lot more flattering than this one is – maybe it’s … Read more