Women’s Champion, Michelle McCool made her anticipated in-ring return last night during the SmackDown roster’s tour of Puerto Rico. McCool defeated Melina in a singles match.
With McCool now back and a pay per view in just over a week, a third encounter between the two seems likely for Breaking Point.
EDIT: Handheld footage of Michelle’s return:
In a correction to yesterday’s story on Angelina Love‘s release, PWInsider is now reporting that Love was not working under the visa issued during her time in WWE developmental. Her visa was revoked at the time of her release.
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..
It’s our second Jelly (thanks for the name xmelissaa) post of the day! Already today, we have posted the first images of Kelly Kelly and Entourage star, Jeremy Piven together in public. Well now we’ve got even more!
As mentioned in the first post, Jelly were seen at the NY Jets game last night and now we have photographic evidence.
You know, in the context of WWE, I never quite comprehend just how orange these Superstars and Divas are. I’m guessing some poor hotel room worker will have to wash the fake tan out of the sheets at some point today, if there was some hot, steamy action between the two.
Oh em gee… what do we have here?! It’s the first pictures of Raw Diva, Kelly Kelly with Emmy-award winning actor and serial lothario, Jeremy Piven! And you saw ’em here first!
Miss Kelly has been rumoured to be courted by Piven since he hosted Raw last month. Good ol’ JR became a Page Six for the wrestling industry, revealing J-Piv scored K2’s number backstage — and we all thought he was just talking kayfabe! Kelly was reported to have been at the NY Jets game last night with the Entourage star too. And that brings us to this…
Meet the morning after! Piven and Kelly were spotted in NY this morning. Sure she’s wearing a cap and you can’t really see her face, but with the reports from last night & that hard-to-mistake weave — we are certain that these pics are of our lil Kelly.
And how proud we feel, our K2 is all growed up and on the arm of an A-List star. And to think, just three years ago, she couldn’t unhook her own bra. *Sniffle*
In a huge shocker, former Knockouts Champion, Angelina Love was released by TNA last night. Angelina, real name Angel Williams, is Canadian and had been working in the States under a work visa which was issued when she was signed to her WWE developmental contract in 2004.
The visa has expired or is soon to expire, reports PWInsider. It seems as though she hasn’t worked out a new one in due time.
TNA’s ‘hands are tied’ cites a source to PWInsider’s Mike Johnson, as they cannot employ her if she’s not legally able to work in the United States.
For more information that contains spoilers on upcoming shows, click the ‘+’ below:
It is assumed that Love will return to TNA after the whole situation is fixed. Though PWInsider does report that with her release, she’s no longer legally bound to the company and could even accept an offer from WWE.
Much like WWE’s hiring process, sources reveal to me that TNA too, is now looking to hire more model-like women. The mandate was laid down by TNA President, Dixie Carter herself.
Carter is said to be only interested in hiring ‘beautiful women’, though thankfully for fans — ones that can actually wrestle.
One source tells me: “She [Dixie] wants beautiful women who can wrestle.”
As we’ve reported, TNA is close to clinching a deal with former Diva, Kristal Marshall and also spoken internally about Candice Michelle.
With Dixie wielding more power than ever after benching TNA founder Jeff Jarrett, it wouldn’t be surprising if the company and ultimately, it’s television output, was moulded more in Carter’s image. TNA is looking to hire more new Knockouts in the near future, it was reported earlier this week.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with that per se but in a division that has always been celebrated for it’s unique appeal, it seems a step back and almost hypocritical. If we take a look at the roster, some of their most popular Knockouts aren’t exactly conventional beauties i.e. Awesome Kong, ODB and others.
This week on TNA Impact leads us into Round Numero Dos of the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship Tournament (say that five times fast): Victoria & Christy Hemme vs. Hamada & Sojourner Bolt. Talk about a tag team thrown together at the last minute…
As a precursor to the match, the Beautiful (Velvet Sky and Angelina Love) film a backstage segment further discussing Madison’s “mystery” partner. More Lauren-pwnage arises. “We no speak-y, ugly!” I think that just about synopsizes that segment.
The contenders of this round of the tag team tournament make their way to the six-sided ring. Holy tye-dye, Batman! Christy has either confused a bathing suit for wrestling gear or she is paying a cheap homage to Daizee Haze. I can’t decide.
Onto the match at hand… Somewhat of a teaser for what could be a dream match of the ages, Hamada and Victoria start off the contest as both ladies lock up. Victoria gets the upperhand early with a bridge into the 2-count. Victoria counters an attempt by Hamada and goes for a second cover. Hamada kicks out and manuevers into a pin attempt of her own. When both women perform respective kip-ups into a fighting stance position, a foretold stare-down commences.
In either a show of respect or arrogance, Victoria bows down to Hamada only to receive a kick to the shoulder in retaliation. Following through on an Irish Whip, Hamada effortlessly springs off the middle rope and into a moonsault. I blinked twice and almost missed it. Victoria kicks out just as swiftly.
Sojo and her two-toned tracks get tagged in; she follows up an armbar with a kick. Taking a bit of time to do a little trash talking, Sojo pays for it with a drop toehold from Victoria. Victoria takes Sojo down again with a scoop slam. Christy flails around a bit until Hamada gets tagged in. Some brief tandem action, and Christy eats the bottom of Hamada’s big boot, followed by a series of headbutts. TNA takes a needed break, and I’m left to amuse myself with Christy’s selling “ability.”
Former TNA triple-crown champion, AJ Styles has finally done it. The TNA star has finally responded to claims that WWE Women’s Champion, Michelle McCool stole his finisher, the ‘Styles Clash’. And well, sorry to disappoint the lynch squad but Styles’ response isn’t quite what you’d expect…
Gail Kim‘s one of my really good friends, and I asked her about that and we talked about it and she (McCool) does do my move, but I’m flattered that she would think to use that move. It doesn’t bother me at all. I guess it might be different if a guy was doing it and calling it something else.
The fact of the matter is this. People know it. That’s the Styles Clash. That’s my move. I came up with it on my own. It’s okay. I understand, you gotta come up with something and there’s not a lot of moves in the world. It’s hard to be different. But it’s cool with me. Now it would be different if it was a guy in my own company.
And there you have it, folks. No doubt, this won’t make a blind bit of difference to the marks who will continue to pester poor Michelle. But if the man himself has no problem with it, neither should the fans. They will, but they shouldn’t. It just goes to show how far some of the crazies will go to hang Michelle out to dry.
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:
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!!
Tonight on WWE Superstars, Eve Torres & Natalya are in action in a six person tag team match representing SmackDown. Watch the match and read the Redux here.
Then on Impact, the Knockouts Tag Team Championship continues as Sojo Bolt & Hamada face Tara & Christy Hemme. Watch below:
Discuss tonight’s Divas & Knockouts action in this post!
Continuing the legacy of the Hall of Fame-inducted Von Erich family, Lacey Von Erich is due to take center stage late this fall as one of the characters in Wrestlicious. In an exclusive interview with Diva Dirt, the third generation starlet dished the dirt on Wrestlicious including how she got involved in it, what we can expect to see, what it’s like working with the cast & crew of the series and reveals her Wrestlicious goals!
As well as all that, we touch upon her brief time under contract to WWE including why she left, the emotional Hall of Fame ceremony this past April, working with girls like Natalya and Cheerleader Melissa [aka Alissa Flash] and much more.
Plus Lacey also reveals whether Playboy may be in her future…
To listen to the interview directly on the website, just click on the play button below. You can also download the MP3 file to listen to on your computer:
Please Note: This audio recording is the exclusive content of Diva Dirt (diva-dirt.com), for which we hold copyright. By downloading our audio you agree not to repost or transcribe the content elsewhere including but not limited to other websites, blogs or message boards. Failure to respect copyright will result in legal action.
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» Click here & here for exclusive Wrestlicious pictures
» Download Lacey Von Erich matches (including Melissa match mentioned)
The experiment has come to an end… ‘Celebrity’ Knockout, Jenna Morasca is done with TNA, reports PWInsider.
The former Survivor winner’s contract reached it’s conclusion and was not renewed.
In July, Morasca took part in the worst Knockouts match in history (and that’s a tough thing to do!) against Sharmell at Victory Road.
Last month, it was reported that Jenna would be taking a leave of absence to film the 20th season of Survivor, but it now looks as though she’s gone altogether.
With Morasca now gone, it begs the question — what was the point? Her ‘celebrity stature’ didn’t help ratings and drew ire & the wrong kind of infamy for an awful, awful pay per view match. A few column inches on trash like Perez Hilton, is worth it apparently.
Meanwhile, the real losers here are TNA and the other Knockouts as Morasca is likely laughing all the way to the bank. The company no doubt shelled out big bucks for the ‘experiment’, possibly more so than the Knockouts that can actually wrestle and/or are actually over earn. What a crock…
Hey y’all and welcome to the first Vainety Fair! We can all applaud Melanie for the clever name for my new column. When I was pondering about what to write for my first contribution to Diva Dirt, I thought to myself… what can I talk about that would be interesting to the masses? I want to keep my audience captive, but I also want to keep it real. So I decided after much deliberation to use myself as the ‘butt of the joke’ and talk about the aging Diva. During my tenure as a full-time entertainer, I look back and believe that in the span of only about two years, I aged at least five to ten! How does this happen? Good question! I lived it and am still not completely sure but the proof lies in the pudding. Of course, I can look back now and laugh (I’ve managed to ‘de-griz’) but as this was going on in front of me, it was not so humorous and damaging to be truthful. It was heart wrenching and terrifying! You have to understand your ‘beauty’ tends to be the most important thing you’ve got as a female in the wrestling business. Unlike actresses, females in wrestling can never be too attractive. Jessica Biel has often stated that she hasn’t gotten specific movie or television gigs because she is too easy on the eyes… How is this possible, you ask? In acting there are different roles, different characters — the most beautiful woman in the world will receive an Oscar for dimming herself down to look ‘homely’ and ‘unattractive’. Now count how many homely women in wrestling ever ‘get over’, or better yet are ‘pushed’. Bet you can count them on one hand. I am happy to see that some places nowadays are thinking outside of the box and that is refreshing. But I can only speak of what I know…
I, one time tried to pitch a ‘nerd’ character while I was under contract and was actually quite good at it. Think Neil Goldman from Family Guy. I have a retainer I still have to wear at night, y’all! No joke! I sound ridiculous and look even more silly. However, it was kind of funny in it’s on way and I had an idea. Possibly a very good idea. Never have I been comfortable with being the so-called wrestling ‘sex kitten’, so I decided to suggest something different and actually portray that awkward stage that at some point in our lives, we all go through. I thought it would be brilliant for a babyface female to become this character’s ‘protector’ and help her emerge after many trials and tribulations as a beautiful swan. Redemption right? Wrong! Needless to say this ‘character’ did not go over so well with management… in fact, it was more like a turd in a punch bowl. So I was told to drop it and become as ‘sexy’ as I could be. Ugh. I was not happy, but this is the way you’re making a living so you do as you must. As I said on the Roundtable, it’s either be a ‘perfect 10’ or buh-bye Diva wannabe. Is this ridiculous? I think so… I conformed for a while, tried to be sexy. Eek! I’m not very good at that. Yes, I photograph well, but am I a sexpot in the ring? No and I don’t want to be. I think its tasteless and if you are talented, you are selling yourself short.
Former WWE Diva, Kristal Marshall is expected to join the ranks of the TNA Knockouts. She would follow in the footsteps of fellow WWE star and baby daddy, Bobby Lashley.
Just last month, Marshall teased she was going to make a debut soon.
There are some familiar faces for Marshall to work with if she is to come in as expected, Sharmell and the former Victoria, Tara currently work for the company as well as former Deep South co-workers, Angelina Love and Taylor Wilde.
Kristal was released by WWE in September 2007, just two weeks after shooting a huge wedding angle on SmackDown. At the time, Marshall believed she was released because she declined taking part in a “morally degrading storyline.”
WWE’s resident man whore, Batista has already fessed up to boinking Melina and Kelly Kelly, but in a new radio interview he has revealed that a third lucky Diva has pet the Animal… Raw’s Rosa Mendes. Diva Dirt reader, Jason writes in:
The host brings up his book Batista Unleashed and says in it he dated Melina and says she’s so hot, how did he manage that? Batista says she’s a great girl, very sweet and they are still good friends. The host then asks what its like to work with such hot women and does it distract him from his job. Batista says hes a professional and separates the 2 apart, he says he’s been with a few of their divas but when it comes to work, he’s professional. He says he’s been with Melina, Kelly and he was with Rosa until a couple of months ago. The host jokes and says is he trying to complete the set of all the divas? Batista says they have the most beautiful women in the world.
Lucky Rosa! And it doesn’t end there, when prompted if there’s any Divas on the roster he’d like to be his next victims add to that list…
The host then asks if there’s any other divas he’d like to hook up with next. Batista says he has a thing for twins and that they have a couple of those.
Wow, what a catch…
As our source at the scene had to leave the show early, we missed out on these spoilers. But TNA taped another match in addition to the tag team tournament matches.
EDIT: Even more spoilers added! I guess this’ll air over the next two weeks:
It looks like Traci Brooks won’t be gracing the cover of Playboy.. or the magazine at all, for that matter. According to PWInsider.com, Traci’s nude photoshoot in the adult magazine has been nixed from the print version. A change in editors is said to be the cause, as the new editor wanting nothing to do with wrestling, and did not want the magazine associated with the business. Ouch.. For those of you itching to see Brooks in the buff, never fear–the shoot will still see the light of day, just on Playboy.com’s “Cyber Club”.
I guess this is one WWE-mimicking move that seriously backfired on TNA. But hey, it was bound to happen sometime. Traci’s TNA return and inclusion in the Main Event Mafia had pretty much everything to do with her upcoming Playboy pictorial, so it’ll be interesting to see where TNA goes with her from here.
I think, once and for all, this can end the trend of wrestling women posing in Playboy. Personally, I’m not mourning its death–if Playboy thinks wrestling has a stigma, then screw them. The publicity from the shoots post-Sable and Chyna wasn’t game-changing anyways. Let them have Heidi Montag and her lens-flared nipples.
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.
Thoughts after the cut:
Our Impact Zone hook-up, Camden has sent in ongoing spoilers from tonight’s second night of Impact tapings. These scenes will air over the next two weeks leading to the No Surrender pay per view on September 20th. Click the ‘+’ to read:
Full spoilers now added.
Thoughts after the cut:
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:
Thoughts after the cut:
The Diva Dirt team including the expert opinion of our newest team member, Krissy Vaine, has compiled our first annual Watch List. The Watch List gathers the five women, not currently at a national level, who we feel could be breakout stars in the industry in the future. The Watch List, we hope will be an annual event, as we scout new faces & new talents on a regular basis. The five women chosen for the Class of 2009, we feel, represent the brightest young prospects that could breakthrough within the next year or in the not too distant future.
ANGELA FONG
Age: 24
Hometown: Vancouver, BC Canada
Trained By: Steve Keirn and FCW staff
Currently under contract to WWE, Angela is working under developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling in Tampa, FL. Fong is perhaps the most unique female, developmental in quite some time — already well known amongst Internet fans and has created quite a following before even being called up to the main WWE roster. Since joining FCW in 2008, Fong has already been heavily praised for lending herself to the craft so quickly and was dubbed “the best worker in FCW.” Krissy says: “Angela is a fast learner & has nice outfits! She has lots of charisma, she’s athletic and ‘bendy’.”
More after the cut:
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…
Several of the TNA Knockouts are in line to make Knockouts history in the near future, possibly at this month’s No Surrender pay per view on September 20th.
This post contains spoilers for upcoming episodes of Impact, therefore I’ll put the full details after the cut:
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?
Our Impact Zone source, Camden has sent us the first exclusive pictures of Roxxi‘s TNA return. Check them out below. As expected, Roxxi was Madison Rayne‘s tag team partner in her first round Tag Team Championship tournament match:
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Click here to read the spoilers for this Thursday’s show.
