This week on RAW: The Divas were packed to the rafters as we saw memorable segments including Lilian Garcia singing “Respect”, Mickie James possibly making a lurve connection with John Cena and Beth Phoenix beating the crap out of Melina!
Thoughts & Reactions
Now that is how you do it! See, WWE’s writing team are capable of creating great storylines for the Divas… so why don’t they do it more often?! Last night’s RAW was very much eclectic and very memorable for the Divas as more girls than ever before were utilised in the two hour broadcast making for a really fun show with Divas at every turn! Lilian Garcia and Mickie James kicked things off in the opening segment, which actually made me sit through the beginning because usually I record/download it and skip through to the parts I want to watch. I was forwarding through the opening segment till Mickie popped up! This was pretty cool to have a Diva involved in ongoing storylines (in this case, William Regal’s storyline) and not just the Superstars coming out and doing the opening promo bit. Lilian then belted out an amazing rendition of “Respect” by Aretha Franklin, which I loved every second of!
Could WWE be angling towards a romance between Mickie and John Cena? I don’t know how I feel about that, I’m 50-50 but I’m leaning more towards “bad idea.” The backstage segment between these two was pretty fun to watch too although I didn’t really sense much chemistry between them; the chemistry between Cena and Maria back in the day was electric however. The tag team match itself was nothing to write home about, but it wasn’t really a match per se, I look at it as more of a segment to advance storylines and it did a great job. Beth sold incredibly well, the intensity in her eyes as she glared at Melina. Great stuff!
And to cap off the evening, we have an intense backstage brawl between Beth and Melina which was the highlight of the entire show, for me. Sure, Beth is the strong, dominant Glamazon but they did a great job of building Melina up and not making her look weak, by having her strike the first blow. This showed Melina wasn’t afraid of Beth and sets up this feud nicely. I can’t wait for the triple threat match at Judgment Day! Though one thing I don’t understand is why Jillian ran away to get the referees, did she forget that she’s a wrestler too? Jillian and Melina could easily have teamed up to take out Beth.
A very mixed bag of action, kudos to WWE for utilising all of the Divas in a useful way that contributes something to the show rather than useless segments. And extra kudos for keeping Ashley off the show entirely. I really loved all the different Diva action last night, the variety of matches, backstage segments etc. I wrote last week in my SmackDown! thoughts, that RAW usually just throws the girls out there for a match and rarely varies it up by having in-ring segments, backstage segments etc. They really did a great job with that this week.
 