Hello there, Diva fans and welcome to the Raw Redux. I’m stepping in for Cryssi this week as she’s been crazy busy with WrestleMania, SHIMMER and much more. Let’s get straight to it, shall we? Last night on Raw, our elusive Divas champion Kaitlyn made an appearance in the ring opposite Nikki Bella. Now, I was never a massive Bella fan during their first run in WWE, but since they’ve come back I’ve quite enjoyed them. I think they can hold their own in the ring and I was looking forward to seeing Nikki clash with Kaitlyn, With that said and without further ado, let’s get to it!
We kick things off this week with Kaitlyn in the ring already. It’s great to see Kaitlyn back on TV. I’d almost forgotten what she looked like…
‘You can look but you can’t touch,’ sounds out through the arena and the Bella Twins make their way to the ring. They make their way in, the bell sounds and we are underway!
Kaitlyn and Nikki lock-up in the centre of the ring, but Kaitlyn gets an early advantage and shoves Nikki to the mat. Nikki looks less than pleased about it. They lock up again and Kaitlyn shoves her down once more. It’s nice to see the champ asserting her dominance so early in the match. The ladies lock up for a third time now and Kaitlyn scores with an arm drag to send Nikki across the ring. She quickly slides out to re-group with her sister, but Kaitlyn doesn’t have time for that and delivers a baseball slide to the twins, knocking them off their feet! Kaitlyn follows them to the outside and tosses Nikki back in, but as she’s climbing in herself Brie rushes over, trash-talking and distracting the Divas champ. Nikki capitalizes and knocks Kaitlyn off the apron. She takes a hard knock and falls to the floor as Nikki takes control.
Brie taunts Kaitlyn on the outside, calling her a loser and getting in her face. Nikki whips Kaitlyn face-first into the ring apron. Ouch! Nikki gets Kaitlyn back in the ring and chokes her on the ring ropes. When the ref reprimands her, Brie sneaks in and slams Kaitlyn’s head off the apron. Ouch, again! These Bellas are getting pretty physical and I have to say, I like it! Nikki goes for a cover, hook to the leg and a kick-out. It’s barely gets a 1-count.
She stands on Kaitlyn’s hair and yanks her off the mat by her arms. Nikki goes for another pin and gets another 1 count. She continues to dominate and locks the champ in a submission, stretching Kaitlyn out and driving a knee into her back. Kaitlyn eventually manages to stand up and almost fights her way out of it but Nikki catches her before she can break free and slams her back down to the mat. Nikki taunts Kaitlyn and goes for another pin, this time getting a 2 count. She’s slowly wearing the champ down. Nikki applies the same submission once again and Kaitlyn almost breaks it, but gets knocked right back down to the mat. Girl can’t seem to catch a break. Another pin attempt and another two-count.
Nikki seems to be getting a bit frustrated. She grabs Kaitlyn either side of the head and slams her into the mat repeatedly. The referee gives her a warning but she couldn’t care less. Nikki locks Kaitlyn in another submission, much like a sleeper, and jumps on her back to lock it in. Kaitlyn manages to regain some stamina and backs the Bella into the turnbuckle twice. Nikki gets the wind knocked out of her and Kaitlyn gets back on the offensive with a clothesline and a series of shoulder blocks. She delivers a hard clothesline to Nikki in the corner, but when she goes back for one more Nikki delivers a dropkick to the knees, taking the champion off her feet. Another pin attempt and a two count. I’m liking all the pin attempts. Nikki is working the psychological aspect of this match really well.
Nikki sends Kaitlyn to the ropes with an Irish whip but Kaitlyn counters with a quick kick. She hoists Nikki up on her shoulders and catches her with a nasty gutbuster, flooring the twin. Kaitlyn tries to go after her again but Nikki grabs the ropes so the ref keeps Kaitlyn at bay. In the meantime, Brie and Nikki have pulled the ole’ switcheroo. That’s right, it’s Twin Magic! With Nikki safely out of the way, Brie takes her sister’s place and flings Kaitlyn into the ropes. Brie then covers her for the three count!
Thoughts: It was nice to finally see Kaitlyn on Raw and in a match, too. Her title reign has been nowhere near as good as it can be, but I have a feeling we’ll see more develop between her and the Bellas, considering they’re really the only top heels in the division at the moment. We have AJ but she’s all tied up with Ziggler right now, and while I’d like to see Kaitlyn vs. AJ soon, I’d be happy if she feuded with the Bellas for the time being. I just hope they don’t cut her reign short.
As for the match itself, I quite liked it. I thought Nikki worked the psychology really well with the submissions and the pin attempts. It’s great if you can physically outmatch your opponent, but given Kaitlyn’s strength and dominance, it made sense for Nikki to wear her down emotionally. Obviously we all saw the Twin Magic coming a mile away, and even though Kaitlyn lost the match, I thought having her throw Nikki around at the beginning did a lot to show how dominant she can be. Overall not a bad match between the two. I look forward to seeing if they develop anything more between them. I expect they will.
Eleri out!
