We’ve got spoilers for this Friday’s SmackDown for your perusal. The show will be airing August 14th. Highlight below to read:
*According to sources, Melina and Maria have a backstage segment similar to the one on last week’s show, except with Layla added into the mix.
*It is announced that Michelle McCool will be returning to SmackDown next week.
*Melina defeats Layla.
Thoughts under the cut:
So that Raw match. Bit of alright, wasn’t it? Last night’s show saw Gail Kim become the #1 Contender for the Divas Championship, in one of the best Raw matches of the year. The Divas involved including Alicia Fox, Beth Phoenix and Kelly Kelly put on quite a show in the ring and out of it.
From the outset, the Divas got a nice rhythm going, setting the tone for the rest of the match. It seems like they took the time to choreograph the match meticulously and plan spots for all four girls involved and that’s a great thing. Usually in these matches someone tends to get lost in the shuffle, but they did a great job here of giving each Diva something to do and they all looked great.
Kicking off with Kelly and Beth in one corner and Alicia and Gail in the other. Kelly gets an early start on her screaming, going for a hurricanrana on Beth into a pin but Beth kicks out and goes for a Glam Slam very early on. I like her style, it shows that she’s trying to pick off each of the Divas from the outset and trying to secure the #1 Contendership. Nice logic. Gail interrupts and we see a succession of rollups; I gotta be honest, this fell flat for me but it seems to have worked in getting the crowd into it with all the rollups from each of the girls. This is followed by an awesome tilt-a-whirl backbreaker by Alicia on Gail, these two have always had tremendous chemistry and Alicia can go in that ring with the best of them.
With Gail out of the ring, the heels turn their attention to the ‘innocent’ Kelly Kelly, who shows Trish Stratus-like courage in trying to fight off both Divas. This was a nice change of pace from what we had just seen, with Fox and Phoenix crowding around her and Kelly trying to scout the both of them. Beth grabs Kelly in a headlock and warns Alicia off, and the feisty newcomer isn’t taking that lying down. Alicia shows she’s not afraid of the Glamazon, hitting her with a boot to the face, but then gets hit with an awesome missile dropkick from Kim.
TNA has rehired Scott D’Amore, the man who was behind the initial stages of the Knockouts division [and helped put together those awesome Gail-Kong matches]. D’Amore is set to return at Hard Justice, according to PWInsider and will once again resume his duties over the Knockouts division as road agent. If you’re not familiar with … Read more
Whenever I watch wrestling, my mind begins to whir and think all these things that aren’t actually important. It’s like word vomit of the mind. But don’t worry, Desperate Housewives has taught me that in a few years I can pop my kids’ ADD pills. Only joking… kinda. So as I watched last night’s fatal … Read more
Divas return to Superstars on Thursday night. Check out the spoilers by highlighting below:
Carlito & Rosa Mendes def. Kofi Kingston & Mickie James. Carlito pinned Kofi after a Backstabber.
Thoughts after the cut:
So Gail Kim is the new #1 Contender for the Divas Championship. Confused? Surprised? Happy? Talk about tonight’s Raw!
Former SHIMMER and OVW star, Serena has been renamed in WWE’s developmental camp, FCW. She now goes by the name of Serena Mancini. It’s certainly a start, hopefully they’ll end up dropping the ‘Mancini’ and just go with Serena by the time she’s on the main roster. FCW is touting a swimsuit competition between the … Read more
Newcomers, Alissa Flash and Sarita helped last week’s Knockouts tag team match post stellar ratings for Spike TV’s Impact. The fantastic tag team match which saw Sarita team with Taylor Wilde against Flash and Traci Brooks posted a 1.32 in the ratings, according to our parent site Female Fight League. The match was the highest … Read more
It looks as though the status of Michelle McCool is still ambiguous, as the Women’s Champion was kept off last night’s house show in Regina, Saskatechwan Canada and will likely miss all of this weekend’s events. Michelle hasn’t wrestled since the incident last Friday in a match with Eve Torres, though she completed last week’s … Read more
This week on an all new Roundtable, the Diva Dirt team will be discussing WWE, TNA and a lot more! Join us as usual, on Thursday. But in the meantime, have your say on your topics: Please try to keep them short and sweet — just one sentence, so we can read out as many … Read more
Just like the double standard towards women in the wrestling industry, there seems to be a double standard towards this here site from other wrestling news sites/blogs. We have noticed for a while now that some sites are re-posting stories that we ourselves have broken, without providing the appropriate credit. I don’t know what their … Read more
In order to consolidate our Eye Candy coverage, we’ve developed a brand new feature: Unwrapped! We’ll take all the new photoshoots from the week and grade (or “brand”) each based on the following criteria:
Alissa Flash‘s Untitled
Appearance: She’s wearing tow different color variations of her ring gear, with eye paint to match. I gotta say that I love the warrior paint, as it definitely gives her an edge. It’d look silly on other girls, but Alissa’s enough of a badass to pull it off. That, and you don’t see anything but eye shadow or mascara on most female wrestlers’ eyes–it sets her apart, and in a good way. The outfit itself is pretty much your stard ring gear: shorts and a belly-baring top. The leather collar and cuffs spice it up a bit, and add to her hardened look. Leather and grommets on a lot of Divas look silly and forced, but I don’t get that from Alissa. Maybe it’s because she isn’t trout-pouting me to death. She looks like a true badass.
Poses: For the meager amount of photos she had, Alissa mixed it up pretty well. The fists and finger point gratefully stay out of the much-treaded “porn poses” territory and keeps with her character. Her evil half-grin is enough to send chills down your spine, no?
Uniqueness: It’s certainly nothing you’d see out of a Diva, huh? From the face paint to the serious poses, it’s almost everything the Divas are not. She’s not sexing it up for the sake of a photoshoot, and for that I’m grateful. It’s always a shame to see a Diva depart from her character to show some epic cleavage or do a cheesy pose. Alissa isn’t blending in with this one, that’s for sure.
Grade: Sweet. It’s a tiny, tiny photoshoot, but I really like it. Everything’s in keeping with her character, and she’s experimenting with her look enough to make it interesting, but it’s not like we’re not staring at gigantic feathered hairpieces or something equally as awful.
• Click to see the rest of the photoshoot.
Follow the cut to see the rest of this week’s photoshoots.
I’m sure you’ve all heard of your ‘five a day’, but Diva Dirt is here to provide you with your ‘five a week’ in our Weekly 5. Join us every Sunday as we take a look back at the week gone by and highlight our top 5 moments of the week.
Note: Let’s be honest, not much going on TV wise this week [Thanks SmackDown!] so I’ve decided to include some of the news stories from the week.
TNA’S LOSS IS ROH’S GAIN
Former TNA Knockout, Nikki Roxx has been snapped up by the folks at ROH and is set to debut at their tapings later this month. The former Roxxi was unceremoniously pink-slipped earlier this year, effectively making her one of the hottest free agents until now!
Click in for #4-2 on our countdown:
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.
Since its inception, the TNA Knockouts division has been a burst of fresh air to many who have been soured to the world of women’s wrestling. Over the past years, the TNA Knockouts have opened many eyes to what an ideal women’s division could look like during a time when its popularity was not as its highest. A growing fanbase, a 2-hour syndication, a women’s championship, and a locker room of talented women would seem like the ideal formula for success. However, to every victor goes the spoils, and with the spoils often comes hindrances. TNA has not been without faults over the years, especially when it comes to the Knockouts, yet the company still manages to redeem itself and reserve its spot for quality wrestling. So, does TNA’s booking do more harm than good or do the Knockouts still remain at the top of the food chain?
So the first week of our Diva Dirt Fantasy League has wrapped! Where did you rank? Find out below in the first weekly league table.
A breakdown of points awarded are after the cut too.
|
#
|
NAME
|
RAW
DIVA (POINTS) |
SD/ECW
DIVA (PTS) |
TNA
KNOCKOUT (PTS) |
TOTAL
|
|
1
|
Eric
|
3
|
2
|
3
|
8
|
|
2
|
William
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
7
|
|
3
|
Alexandre
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
5
|
|
4
|
Daniel
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
5
|
|
5
|
Divafanjill
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
5
|
|
6
|
Kathy
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
5
|
|
7
|
Kevin
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
5
|
|
8
|
KiKi
|
3
|
2
|
0
|
5
|
|
9
|
Knockout12
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
5
|
|
10
|
Kris Style
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
5
|
|
11
|
mariosthemaster
|
3
|
2
|
0
|
5
|
|
12
|
Nala310
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
5
|
|
13
|
Redsoul
|
3
|
2
|
0
|
5
|
|
14
|
Steven_D
|
3
|
2
|
0
|
5
|
|
15
|
Stratusboi
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
5
|
|
16
|
Tanzie
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
5
|
|
17
|
Tom
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
5
|
|
18
|
WWEFanGurl
|
3
|
2
|
0
|
5
|
|
20
|
Al
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
4
|
|
21
|
Carly
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
4
|
|
22
|
Chris
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
4
|
|
23
|
Extreme
|
3
|
0
|
1
|
4
|
|
24
|
gfuk07
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
4
|
|
25
|
Laurmarz
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
4
|
|
26
|
Lita-Sault-666
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
4
|
|
27
|
Miss Bella
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
4
|
|
28
|
pukimonster
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
4
|
|
29
|
Sophie
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
4
|
|
30
|
Thannya
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
4
|
|
31
|
Antonio Luckett
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
|
32
|
Brandon
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
|
33
|
ddrok
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
|
34
|
Dom
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
|
35
|
Lee
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
|
36
|
Mike
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
|
37
|
Paul
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
|
38
|
Pedro Pedroso
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
|
39
|
Rico
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
|
40
|
Russell
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
|
41
|
Spiffy
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
|
42
|
StevoParadiso
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
|
43
|
Thrillseeker
|
2
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
|
44
|
xcc77
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
|
45
|
xodaniellexo
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
|
46
|
Carlos
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
|
47
|
Jenny
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
|
48
|
Weirddork
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
|
49
|
Roger
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
|
50
|
TheWWEUberfan
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
Breakdown of points & the staff league table after the cut:
It’s a staple of tabloid magazines: hard hitting, investigative & highly entertaining! Best & Worst Dressed lists can make or break careers in Hollywood and for a site with ‘Dirt’ in the title, it’s only fitting we take this time tested feature & apply it to our Divas! Each week we’ll bring you the best and worst looks from the week gone by, it’s pretty simple right?
Key: School-like grading scheme
This week saw some cute outfits from the Divas who didn’t wrestle, including a trio from Raw and one from SmackDown.
Kicking off with Kelly Kelly, complete with Jeremy ‘Mercury Poisoning’ Piven’s arm over her lap. Yes, it looks like a poser-y Juicy Couture dress but what else to expect from young K2? It still looks pretty good on her. C
Raw’s Rosa Mendes knows black is her colour and looked hot from the tiny side glimpse we saw of her. Those legs! C
Adding some colour t0 the room was Alicia Fox, in a flowery strapless dress. It’s probably the weakest of the three looks but it was decent by Diva standards. C-
Former Women’s Champion, Melina sure does love the off-the-shoulder look, huh? Nonetheless, I liked her ethnic patterned red top, it reminds me of my mom’s native Morocco. C
This week’s ‘Worst’ after the cut:
To play off the simmering feud between Alissa Flash and Sarita as well as last week’s encounter between Traci Brooks and Taylor Wilde, last night’s TNA Impact set the tone for a respective heel vs. face tag team match.
Traci Brooks and Taylor Wilde start off the match with Taylor embracing Traci from behind and tossing her over with an arm drag. Taylor runs the ropes and cartwheels over Traci, leading her into a second arm drag and a kick to the midsection. Traci counters an Irish Whip which sends Taylor to the corner. Traci suffers another stiff kick to the ribs and Taylor sets her up for an innovative flip off of the top turnbuckle. Traci exits the ring to collect herself and soon tags in Alissa Flash.
Taylor and Alissa begin to get a feel for each other through a series of discouraged offense, but before any chemistry between them can be further explored, Taylor tags in Sarita. Alissa delivers a kick and a chop, but Sarita counters with a headscissors takedown. She then avenges Alissa’s chops in the corner. Alissa follows Sarita into the opposite corner where Sarita flips her over with a springboard arm drag. While Alissa and Traci catch a breather on the outside, Sarita, with an assist from Taylor Wilde, delivers an awe-inspiring diving crossbody to their opposition onto the floor. As TNA takes another look, Sarita’s fluidity is aptly deemed by Don West as “poetry in motion.”
Watch the match and more after the cut:
We can all agree that, with a few exceptions, Divas get the short end of the stick when comes to entrance themes. While the male superstars get music from actual bands and artists or custom made songs with lyrics, Divas get stuck with crappy production music. If I had the chance I would change all the Divas … Read more
Last night’s Impact saw the announcement of Angelina Love vs ODB for the Knockouts Championship at Hard Justice on August 16th. What this proves to me is that VicTara did get screwed over. The logic in giving her the title in the first place will continue to baffle me forever.
We’ve heard from a source that there is once again interest from TNA in hiring former WWE Women’s Champion, Jazz aka Carlene Begnaud. The ECW alumna has fallen off the radar in the past year or so but it’s understood that she gave birth to her first child with husband, Rodney Mack late last year/early … Read more
If you aren’t already a member, be sure to join up to our official social networking site, MyDivaDirt.com. – Socialise with the Diva Dirt team & other readers – Create/join fan groups on your favourite Divas/Knockouts etc. – Post your very own blogs on women’s wrestling just like we do at Diva Dirt! And from … Read more
This week on the Roundtable: This week’s Diva Dirt Roundtable features Melanie, Erin and Steven [Tiffany was absent this week but pre-recorded some segments] as we discuss the possibility of a SmackDown without it’s Women’s Champion, Michelle McCool. Plus the four Knockouts feuds in TNA — too many? And which one we find the most … Read more
There have been murmurings of this for some time now, but the official ROH on HDNet Twitter has confirmed that the former Roxxi – Nikki Roxx – has joined Ring of Honor. Nikki is set to start with the company at their tapings this month. – Read our interview with Nikki earlier this year
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, any plans for Divas matches at SummerSlam were scrapped last Friday in a creative meeting that saw most of the show retooled. The Observer notes that the two likely matches, both rematches from Night of Champions were seemingly dropped. In the case of Raw’s Mickie James vs Maryse, due … Read more
Fresh off the heels of the Volume 23 release, SHIMMER has released the box and disc art for Volume 24. SHIMMER stepped into new territory, giving their roster a technicolor makeover. I gotta say, I’m loving the anime-style of the cover. Very creative and unique. I’m especially feeling Awesome Kong‘s fangs and red eyes. I’m … Read more
UPDATE: Due to conflicting schedules with contracted TNA Knockouts, the taping had to be postponed. As a result, SHIMMER will be having a double taping for Volumes 27 & 28 on Sunday, November 8th. More details as they become available. Cold sweats? Uncontrollable shaking? Whispering things like “Sara Del Rey” and “MsChif” in your sleep? Sounds … Read more