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How to Salvage What’s Left of the Knockouts Division

When former Knockouts Champion, Tara’s contract with TNA expires on May 21st, there will be a gap in the Knockouts division that needs to be filled. For the past year it seems, the entire division has revolved around Tara in one way or another, she is without a doubt the star power of that division and has been the top Knockout from the moment she came in to the moment she leaves. One woman doesn’t necessarily define a division, but with a spate of departures including the high profile loss of Awesome Kong  and the streamlining of lesser used Knockouts including Traci Brooks, Alissa Flash and Roxxi, TNA hasn’t positioned itself very well for a division without Tara. So what happens when she leaves?

The ideal candidate to helm the new Knockouts division as top babyface would be the recently injured Angelina Love, but TNA has done themselves no favours by limiting the roles of two former Knockouts Champions — ODB and Taylor Wilde — in recent months  because there’s no strong secondary babyface to help prop up the division and make up the numbers along with Angelina. The heel side looks stronger as currently, The Beautiful People at the moment hold all the gold. Daffney is another extremely strong character and worker that could be a real asset to the division. Then there’s Sarita & Hamada, arguably two of the best female wrestlers in the world, just sitting on the sidelines and going to waste. TNA has given us little reason to care about most of these Knockouts over the past several months. And with that, I think that post-Tara, TNA needs to draw a line under everything that the Knockouts division has stood for so far and ‘reboot’ the division almost. Do something bold, imaginative and attention-grabbing to draw attention back to this division.

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Debut of Pro-Wrestling: EVE – Taping Results

Tonight sees the launch of Europe’s Pro-Wrestling: EVE at the Delphi Club in Sudbury, Suffolk, UK. Tonight, EVE will be taping two DVDs worth of content. Check back throughout the day for results from the tapings courtesy of Women of Wrestling Podcast co-host, Stew Allen. * Doors open. Venue’s really nice. Not a lot of … Read more

Tiffany & Drew McIntyre Get Married

Congratulations are in order for SmackDown Diva Tiffany and Superstar Drew McIntyre as Scotland’s Sunday Mail reports that the pair married in Vegas recently: “SCOTS wrestling star Drew McIntyre has secretly married his former Playboy model girlfriend. WWE Intercontinental champion Drew tied the knot with fellow wrestler Taryn Terrell in Las Vegas. Drew’s parents, from … Read more

Mr. Glamazon’s Hitting the Ropes – Issue #5

On the April 30th Smackdown, WWE Women’s Champion “The Glamazon” Beth Phoenix and Kelly Kelly defeated Michelle McCool and Layla.  Read that sentence again, because I think it is THE turning point in Kelly Kelly’s career.  I think it might be the most important match Kelly has ever wrestled.  Teaming with the current women’s champion and picking up the victory over the hottest heel group in the company is a major step in the right direction for her.  And the best part?  Not a leprichaun, talking car, magician, or game show host anywhere in sight.  Just a solid wrestling match that saw Kelly trade actual wrestling holds with girls who know what they’re doing.  Heck, Beth even let her get the victory for her team.

Was Kelly great in this match?  Hardly.  Did Kelly do her “whirly-bird” flying head-scissors thing that looks really goofy?  Take a guess.  Did Kelly stumble through her “Kelly Killer” leg drop finisher?  A big, big yes.  Does Kelly have a lot of work to do to elevate herself to the class of Melina, Beth Phoenix, and Michelle McCool?  Obviously.  But she won’t have the chance to do that…to learn, grow, and improve…just wearing bathing suits on RAW.  But here is the thing, we know (right or wrong) that the WWE is going to market this girl, to use her as one of the most prominent faces of the Divas.  Therefore Kelly needed, repeat absolutely NEEDED, to move to Smackdown.  The entire division will benefit from Kelly becoming a legit star and that can only happen on Friday night with this current group of writers.  My fellow Diva Dirt writers and I don’t necessarily see eye to eye on this, but I felt it was the most critical move of the entire draft.  (Please don’t stop reading, give me a few paragraphs to explain.)  Along with Natayla (moving to RAW) and Mickie (moving to RAW), I felt these were the 3 most important “draft” picks of the year (well, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad right?!)  Miss you already Mickie…when’s the CD coming out?  Here is what I wrote before the draft:

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The Diva Dirt Happy Hour: May 7th, 2010

It’s the end of the week and it’s time to have some fun! Join us every Friday night for a brand new show featuring the whole gang called The Diva Dirt Happy Hour. The Happy Hour features discussion on not just the Divas but about anything and everything in general. Each week, we’ll all bring … Read more

SmackDown Redux (May 7th, 2010): Lady Luck Shines on Layla and Her Name’s Michelle

This week on SmackDown, Layla scored yet another very rare victory and like her win over a departing Mickie James two weeks ago, she can thank former Women’s Champion, Michelle McCool for the assistance. Watch this week’s SmackDown match below:

Out first are Kelly Kelly and the Diva who shall now be known as Tiffany Tiffany. The two blondes come out to the ring looking like Gym Barbie and Wrestler Barbie respectively. On the apron, Tiffany shows off her new and exciting~ entrance pose, holding her foot while pointing at the crowd — whatever works for you, Tiffany! Out next are Team Lay-Cool with Vickie Guerrero in tow. Does anyone else find Team Lay-Cool’s entrance on the ramp exhausting? So many turns…

Tiffany kicks off the match with Michelle and I’m excited because I think these two Divas have good chemistry. They lock up rather roughly before Tiffany backs Michelle into the corner and the referee breaks things up. Michelle then face-shoves Tiffany however the former ECW GM counters with a drop toe-hold, followed by an atomic drop. Tiffany then hits McCool with a back elbow before winding her arm and whipping her into the corner. Tiff goes for a monkey flip but Michelle, in a really amazing display of athleticism, lands on her feet and rightfully boasts screaming, ‘Flawless’. Meanwhile from behind, Tiffany has Michelle scouted and hits another monkey flip and this time, McCool lands on her tailbone and flees the ring.

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Madison Rayne Dismisses House Show Rumour

TNA Knockouts Champion, Madison Rayne has taken to her MySpace page to dismiss recent rumours that she missed house shows due to financial difficulty. Rayne writes: First of all, the reports about me “missing appearances” lately due to financial trouble are false. When Daffney and Angelina were both injured a few weeks ago, other girls … Read more

SmackDown Redux Does WWE Superstars (May 6th, 2010): Introducing Marosa

I know what you’re thinking, who the hell is Marosa? It became evident watching last night’s episode of WWE Superstars that feisty Latina, Rosa Mendes is trying to remodel herself as SmackDown’s answer to the French poodle Maryse — complete with a bilingual promo. Where have we seen that before? Oh wait, just this past Monday on Raw… albeit in French. So, in case you haven’t already deduced: Maryse + Rosa = Marosa. In her first appearance as a SmackDown Diva — on Superstars — Marosa took on her former mentor, the Women’s Champion Beth Phoenix.

But before the match, we got a backstage segment between Kelly Kelly & Team Lay-Cool which nicely sets up a tag team match for tonight’s SmackDown. Watch below:

It looks as though Lay-Cool have picked their next target, having already picked on Mickie James and Beth Phoenix, branding Kelly ‘Smelly Kelly’. Kelly actually speaks! Not that you would know from watching her on Raw for the past two years. It was nice to see her being able to actually be part of a segment and I thought she did a good job here with Layla and Michelle. Enter Vickie Guerrero and the two pin her down as Vickie sprays her. This results in Kelly screaming at Vickie, calling her the ‘official cow’ which was pretty hilarious and almost matched Maryse clocking Eve with the Divas Title on Raw. Now enter the Glamazon who clears house along with Tiffany. Not a bad little segment, it’s rare to see something like this on Superstars.

Next up we have Beth Phoenix vs Rosa Mendes. Beth comes out first followed by Rosa who makes a really peppy entrance. I had called for Rosa to move to SmackDown in the Diva Draft feature and this is part of the reason why. She may not be a good wrestler, but she does have some personality that I think WWE could utilise. However, it becomes evident that the personality they want Rosa to show is Maryse’s… Rosa cuts a promo in Spanish and English, introducing herself and telling Beth that she’ll soon beat Beth for the title. “Adios Glamazon,” she says and I don’t know why but it made me laugh. Rosa then beats the microphone against Beth’s chest a few times, almost taunting her — resulting in the announcers calling her ‘muy loco’. Rosa definitley showed some personality and flare here.

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Beth Phoenix Pulled from Mexico Tour

WWE Women’s Champion, Beth Phoenix has been pulled from the SmackDown tour of Mexico following an in-ring injury at Tuesday night’s WWE Superstars taping, reports the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Though Phoenix insisted on her Twitter page that she is fine, it looks as though there is more to the story as Beth was scheduled to … Read more

Guest Blog: ‘Why WWE Needs Awesome Kong’ by John Canton

Having listened to the Awesome Kong interview here at Diva Dirt and read a recent radio recap from her, one thing is perfectly clear to me: Awesome Kong wants to work for World Wrestling Entertainment. She’s not outright campaigning for it, but if you listen to her, you can tell she’s interested. The question is, does WWE have the same interest? I have no idea. The thing is, they definitely should and I’ll be happy to tell you why.

By signing Awesome Kong, WWE would be breaking the mold of what they believe a WWE Diva should be. Look at the women they have under employment. More than half of them had little or no wrestling experience before they were signed by the company. Awesome Kong is not like that. Kong started wrestling eight years ago, she had a lot of success working in Japan and then made a name for herself in 2007 with TNA. Anybody that saw her work with Gail Kim in TNA could see immediately how much talent she had. I had never seen her before that feud and it took my breath away. They told an amazing story by simply having Kong dominate due to her size while Kim came back with her athleticism. A lot of people took notice of her after that feud and it turned out they were a ratings draws too. Kong was unlike anything we’ve seen in American women’s wrestling.

The majority of the WWE Divas are also thin. We all know how shallow the WWE writing team can be if they feel somebody isn’t thin enough. They call them fat. They insult. They act like a bunch of eight year old kids on the playground. Awesome Kong is not thin. She’s a physical force standing in at 5’11” and 270 pounds. When she walks into a room, you notice her.

How do you bring her in? Easy. As a heel monster. On either brand. The easiest story to tell in professional wrestling will always be the bigger wrestler versus the smaller wrestler. The backstory doesn’t even matter. Let the picture do the talking. Big person = mean, small person = heroic. Easy. Done. A five year old kid can understand just as well as a seventy-five year old senior could. Let’s look at the easy way to bring her in on both Raw and SmackDown.

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Former Women’s Champion Backstage at TNA Last Night

Former WWE Women’s Champion, Stacy ‘The Kat’ Carter was backstage at last night’s TNA Impact taping along with boyfriend, Sinn Bodhi — the former Kizarny on SmackDown. Could she be joining the long list of ex-Divas hoping to join TNA? Shelly Martinez and now, Ashley Massaro, are supposedly looking for work with the company. The … Read more

Beth Phoenix Injured

New WWE Women’s Champion, Beth Phoenix was injured last night during the WWE Superstars and SmackDown taping, it has been confirmed. Phoenix wrestled Rosa Mendes in a match taped for Thursday’s episode of Superstars. During the match, Beth went down and the referee threw up the ‘X’ arm gesture to signify an injury. The champion … Read more

Christy Hemme Getting Married

TNA Knockout, Christy Hemme has announced that she will be getting married this weekend. The former Diva Search winner made the announcement on yesterday’s episode of TNA Today, a web show on TNAwrestling.com. The pair became engaged last December. Congratulations to Christy and her fiance on their pending nuptials!

Impact Write-Up (May 3rd, 2010): TNA Should Cleanse Their Booking Staff, One Ugly Person At A Time

When it comes to TNA, they always drop the ball when it comes to the live shows so imagine my surprise and shock when they exceeded even my low expectations this week. Announced over the weekend, was a title match where all three titles were on the line; The Beautiful People defending against Tara, Taylor Wilde, and Sarita. It sounds good on paper (sort of…) but it was an actual hot mess on television. The MIA tag team known as Saritaylor were mere stand-ins tonight and TNA’s weird booking once again came into play. If you want to watch the mess unfold, go ahead and click the video. If you don’t, then I don’t blame you. I want to forget Impact was even on television last night.

Even though it was a crappy night for the Knockouts as a whole, it was a decent night for the Beautiful People. Earlier in the show, Madison Rayne, Velvet Sky, and Lacey Von Erich were seen backstage in their lockerroom. All three girls were either sitting or standing at their vanity table and they were messing with their make-up and just generally looking at themselves in the mirror. They were having a conversation about how hard it was to be a champion and Lacey starts talking about how her back is always killing her. She goes on to say that things aren’t so bad during the day but when she wakes up after a good night’s sleep she is basically in a world of hurt. Velvet gives her a look and politely tells her she’s not supposed to wear the title to bed. Lacey is like “I thought we weren’t supposed to take them off” and the other two girls just groan. Madison is a little annoyed that they’re being forced to defend the belts again but Velvet calms her down and states what we all know to be true: the BP are the entire Knockouts division. Velvet goes on to say that no one is a threat to them and this and that, and the segment ends with Lacey triumphantly announcing that they weren’t supposed to take the belts off and that she knew that all along.

Tara and Saritaylor are in the ring as the Beautiful People begin to make their way down the entrance ramp. I’m not going to bore you with the details of their entrance but it’s certainly sparkly this week. Tenay and Taz run down the rules for the match and when the bell rings, Tara decides she’s going to begin the match for her team. She tries to tell this to Sarita and Taylor, and when they don’t seem to get it, she demonstrates by shoving Taylor rather stiffly a few times to get her out of the ring. Taylor is like whatever and does what she’s told and Tara turns her back. Lacey is waiting for her and she’s looking pumped to start this match. The sultry blonde is decked in silver and black, and she’s ready for action. Lacey begins to dance around in the ring much to the chagrin of Tara, and Tara finally kicks her, doubling Von Erich over in pain. She slams Lacey down, rolls over her for a pin, but changes her mind and goes for a front guillotine choke instead. Tara shoots dirty looks over her shoulder at her partners while the referee tries to get her to let up on Lacey. Finally she spits at Taylor and Sarita, which is pretty unsanitary, and she picks Lacey up.

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Raw Redux (May 3rd, 2010): “Where’s My Title?” BAM!

Post-WWE Draft Raw shaped up nicely last night as for the first time in several years, we actually got some storyline for the Divas! Following the recent SmackDown route of a backstage promo followed by a match, last night’s edition of Raw managed to pack every single Raw Diva onto the show — hopefully a sign of what is to come. Did last night’s Raw start as it means to go on? Only time will tell but from last night’s episode alone, it looks like SmackDown — and TNA for that matter — could have some competition on its hands.

The night started off with Divas Champion, Eve Torres backstage doing a photoshoot with her belt, with her entrance music playing in the background. You know… as you do. I’m sure Lady Gaga has her songs playing when she does her photoshoots too, Eve! Watch below:

In comes tonight’s Raw Guest Host, Wayne Brady of err… some sort of fame unbeknownst to this Brit writer. Anyway, he is paid to tell tells Eve that she’s his favourite Diva. Just as they begin conversing, they are interrupted by Jillian who gives us another fabulous cover of ‘Fame’ from the movie of the same name… hey, it can’t be any worse than that awful remake last year! I think I’ll take Jillian over that movie, two hours wasted. Brady gets rid of Jillian in a rather funny moment [“Go, go go go… gone!”] before saying his goodbyes to Eve. And for a second there, it seems like the segment is just going to end there — another silly Jillian singing skit. But wait! As Eve returns to her photoshoot, she sees that her title is not where she left it. All of a sudden, in comes Maryse and clocks Eve with the belt before putting it over her own shoulder and posing with it.

As everyone has been mentioning, this really was an epic little segment with the belt shot being executed perfectly by both Eve and Maryse. Eve really sold it well. These days, it’s becoming rare to see physicality like that among the Divas — especially on Raw so this was a great spot that totally caught me off guard. What a creative and fun spot!

Next up is the match between Maryse and Nikki Bella:

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Raw Response: May 3rd, 2010

Tonight’s episode of Raw is hosted by comedian Wayne Brady, host of ‘Let’s Make a Deal’. What will he have in store for the Divas? Tune in at 9pm ET on USA Network. Discuss the show in the comments!