The SmackDown Divas this week were relegated to WWE Superstars for reasons that I can’t quite fathom. For one, the WWE Women’s Champion Michelle McCool has been a huge staple of the show for the past couple of years and also, Vickie Guerrero is another big selling point. Seems odd that they’d move the Divas segment from SmackDown to Superstars when such key players are involved. I guess we needed more time on SmackDown for the dissolution of Cryme Tyme, who coincidentally, spend more time on WWE Superstars than most. Nonetheless, this segment felt exactly like it would on SmackDown — it was given plenty of time and the Divas were given promos which is somewhat unusual for this show. So while I am a little confused as to why it wasn’t on the main show, it works just as well.
This week, the gear was turned up on the whole ‘Glam-a-man’ situation as Simply Flawless, lead by Michelle McCool, made their way down to the ring and out-and-out called Beth Phoenix a man. They had been planting the seeds for this direction prior to WrestleMania with the ‘Glam-a-man?’ t-shirts but as I mentioned last week in the Redux, it looks as though they are pressing ‘restart’ on this feud due to the yearly obstacle that is ‘Mania, which hinders rather than helps the Divas storylines as they have to be put on the show en masse with the Raw Divas also. Watch this week’s segment below:
First up on the mic is the heat magnet herself, Vickie Guerrero who then introduces us to the Women’s Champion, McCool who informs us that Beth Phoenix is a man. Great. More of WWE’s immature ‘potty humour’. The fat jokes with Mickie were just the start I take it. It’s a shame that every Diva feud must boil down to such elementary, vain things such as who’s sexier, who’s fatter, who looks manly etc. It just portrays the Divas as being high school bitches and not the intelligent women we know they are. Michelle McCool is in fact a very intelligent woman and dumbing her down with this character just seems silly to me. I could buy her as being a cold, calculating, meticulous heel who uses her brains instead of her brawn but that would be far too complicated to script apparently. Instead, the Divas must be dumbed down and enforce stereotypes. It’s evident that WWE doesn’t actually believe the Divas are smart as they would like us to believe with their ‘Smart, Sexy & Powerful’ slogan. Anyway, I digress. The acting here is pretty standard fare for Lay-Cool but they do it well, particularly Layla.
Vickie Guerrero announces that as a result of the new information that ‘Beth is a man’ she will have an intergender match against Layla. Out comes a super pissed off Beth Phoenix who avoids her regular entrance and marches to the ring with authority — nice touch. It sells that she’s annoyed and has no time for the happy, smiley Glamazon pose at the top of the ramp.
