In the Saturday Supplement, the Diva Dirt team will aim to discuss a news story, a televised event or other relevant and current topics. The objective, like the average weekend newspaper, is to offer more indepth and lengthy discussion.
When we look at the Divas roster today, there are only a handful of girls that can call themselves a ‘top Diva’ despite there being 20 Divas on the main roster. Only that select handful are really, if we think about it, likely to be Women’s Champion in the near future. Among them are Mickie James, Maryse and Beth Phoenix for Raw while Melina and Michelle McCool have the stranglehold on SmackDown. In an ideal world, talented Divas like Natalya and Gail Kim would be at there at the top of the division and who knows, they may eventually get that push as may the ‘bubbling under’ Divas such as Kelly Kelly or Maria.
But one Diva that seems to have come out of left-field and surpassed the ‘bubbling under’ Divas is SmackDown’s Eve Torres. It’s hard to believe that until WrestleMania, Eve’s main role was as a backstage interviewer. But in the four short months since then, she has seen regular competition on SmackDown and is already onto her second feud. Her strong booking combined with the tide-turning reaction Eve seems to be getting of late from Internet fans, leads me to wonder if Eve just may be the next Diva to be pushed to the next level. In fact, I have begun to wonder if in a limited pool of Divas, if Eve could even be Michelle McCool’s next challenger for the Women’s Championship. Let’s explore…
As mentioned, the 25 year old was just four months ago, a backstage interviewer and had seen limited in-ring action. All that changed after the WWE Draft in April, when SmackDown had begun to flourish in the Divas department: incoming talent included Melina, Alicia Fox and Layla. While SmackDown mainstays, Michelle, Gail and Eve were seen regularly. Eve got her first high profile feud against fellow Diva Search winner, Layla immediately following the Draft, admittedly it was a one-sided feud in Eve’s favour. The 2007 Diva Search winner defeated Layla in a dance-off, arm wrestling match and two eventual singles matches — one of which was highly advertised in the week prior, which is an unusual occurence for Diva bouts.
And now having aligned herself with Cryme Tyme since they hosted the dance-off between her and Layla back in April, Eve has joined them in a feud with The Hart Dynasty. The Dynasty transferred to SmackDown from ECW in the ‘Trump Trade’ of June, a move that brought third generation Diva, Natalya back to SmackDown. Perhaps Eve’s alignment with Cryme Tyme that led into this 3-on-3 intergender feud was a stroke of luck, but no doubt about it, the Diva has found herself in a strong position.
Teaming with Cryme Tyme last week on SmackDown, Eve lost her match after a powerful discus clothesline from Natalya but got her receipt on last night’s show, when she defeated Natalya one-on-one with a moonsault. Eve has been booked very strongly in the past few months, even moreso than the Divas involved in the Women’s Championship picture — Melina and Michelle McCool. Consistent wins and hype from Jim Ross and Todd Grisham on her improving ring skills, have elevated Eve in the eyes of WWE & now the fans too, are beginning to jump aboard.
Looking at the past few months, there seems to be a very specific turning point when Eve’s tide began to turn from being a ‘bad, green worker’ to an ‘ever-improving worker’. I will share my theories after the cut:
 
