This week on RAW: Divas from all three brands competed in a Summer Bikini Blowout bikini contest. Meanwhile, Mickie James evened the odds teaming up with Mr. Kennedy in his feud with the Burchills, Paul and Katie Lea.
Thoughts & Reactions
This week’s RAW was about as fucked up as it gets… a freakin’ bikini contest?! Are you kidding me?! Here I thought the women’s division was on the up and just as I was looking forward to RAW each week, they throw us a curveball. Hey WWE, why don’t you just come out and say what you really think?! This week’s RAW was like, “Here’s your weekly dose of slop, eat it up you pigs.” It really was a demeaning, counter-productive and totally shitty segment. I honestly don’t have a clue why Melina was involved in this pile of garbage, it really hurt her character and the momentum she’s gained over the past few weeks. This did nothing for storyline development in her feud with Beth Phoenix, in fact it hindered it. If freakin’ Maria can get more cheers than Melina, it kinda hurts Melina’s growth and transition to a face in her feud with Beth. There was absolutely no logic to this stupid bikini contest and it’s just unfathomable how WWE can actually go backwards rather than forwards.
Do you think WWE’s creative team are masochists? They create a hot feud that the crowd are so into, which actually gets viewers tuning into RAW each week – and then they pull crap like this. It’s like they enjoy fucking things up, they enjoy taking their good work and turning it into shit. Fucking retards.
There was nothing decent about the bikini contest, it was all boring and cliche. Charlie Haas is apparently the new Val Venis, Eve thinks it’s cool to wear sunglasses in-doors and Maria was probably happy to just be relevant again… even if it was a bikini contest. That’s right Maria, take your victories where you can find them.
As for the mixed tag team match, finally we get back to decent action. I’d like to say it made up for the shiteous bikini contest but it wasn’t nearly enough. I loved Mickie and Katie totally beating the crap out of each other, it was very physical and a lot of fun to watch. Maybe Katie can add some fire into Mickie’s character that has really been lacking during her feud with Beth Phoenix. I’m already enjoying this feud and they haven’t even had a singles match yet. In comparison, the Beth-Mickie feud was stale before it even started. I think this is the logical match-up to go into Night of Champions, but it hasn’t had much build up. WWE has teased this feud for the past month or so, stopping and starting the feud and only now are taking it off pause. This is what really pisses me off about WWE, they stop and start feuds at their whim and think they can just continue it up a few weeks later like nothing’s happened. Given a continuous storyline over the past few weeks, Mickie vs Katie could have been a great “must-see” match at Night of Champions. They’ve done the same with Michelle and Natalya, it started out very, very strong and many of us were anticipating a match-up between them… then they stopped having them appear on SmackDown! and it all kinda got less exciting. Of course, now they’re looking to restart the feud but that initial excitement is gone. We now have the same thing with Beth-Melina, they haven’t followed through this week and it’s dampened the investment, we as viewers, have in this feud.
The RAW women’s division is really in a precarious position at the moment, because someone thought it was logical to start up a feud between Beth Phoenix and Melina, a feud not associated with the Women’s Championship, in the run-up to Night of Champions. Don’t get me wrong, I really love this feud but at the same time, they should’ve developed the Mickie vs Katie feud rather than dump it on us now. The Beth-Melina feud should be reserved for RAW and Mickie-Katie should extend to the pay per view. WWE has no one but themselves to blame for poor ratings, their booking is horrible. I have no doubt that the end product will be great i.e. the eventual Mickie-Katie match and the eventual Michelle-Natalya match, but the booking leading to it has been so all over the place I can’t get as excited as I would if they had a continuous feud.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed the aspect of Katie Lea and Paul Burchill teaming up. It had shades of Essa Rios and Lita, which was a great gimmick while it lasted. Now, I know this is just rehashing that old gimmick but if it gets Katie in the ring and gets her and Burchill over, I’m all for it. I’ve really liked what I’ve seen of Katie thus far, I hope it’s not too soon before she gets involved in the women’s division! Hopefully this gimmick will continue for a little while longer, with Katie and Burchill teaming up in 2-on-1 matches. Katie is the star of this duo if you ask me, Burchill’s head is up on the chopping block – Katie can easily be integrated into the women’s division, hopefully WWE has enough sense to mix her into the fold.