Wednesday, December 3, 2025
Submit News

SmackDown Redux (July 9th, 2010): Look Who’s Talking…

It’s rare to see Divas being given promo time… they’re usually just thrown out there for their standard three minute match. So imagine my surprise when all of the Divas were given speaking parts this week. After main eventing Superstars last night, the ‘main’ Divas, Lay-Cool and Kelly were pretty much given the night off this week on SmackDown — save for a backstage segment. Watch below:

Josh Mathews announces that Kelly Kelly will challenge the official WWE Women’s Champion, Layla at the Money in the Bank pay per view next week and asks for Kelly’s thoughts. Before she can even get a word in, in comes Layla taunting her. Layla takes a can of spray out but before she can do anything, Kelly smacks it out of her hand and grabss Layla by the throat rather viciously. “What are you gonna do, huh?” she says to Layla.

However, Michelle McCool makes the save, attacking Kelly from behind. The two Divas beat down the #1 Contender and Michelle smashes her head against the ground. As they leave, Tiffany and some referees come to check on her, although the damage has been done.

A really short segment but after an extremely satisfying 8-minute match on Superstars last night, I’m not complaining. Kelly’s aggression with Layla was fantastic and finally, I feel like I’m seeing something from this girl. Usually, she’s just so happy and smiley and lacks a fire and desire but here, you could see that fire in her. She’s finally fed up of Layla and Michelle and is ready to fight. Good way to set up their title match.

The beatdown on Kelly was also nicely done and sets up this match pretty well, with some real animosity between these Divas now. That’s all I ask for: make it seem real. I want to see a real tension and animosity between these girls heading into pay per view matches and they did that. But my concern is that next week, they’ll lose all this momentum just two days before the pay per view. Hopefully not.

For Rosa & Serena, follow the cut:

Read more

SmackDown Redux (July 2nd, 2010): Kelly Going for Gold

Following last week’s disastrous ‘jump rope-gate’, the pressure was on this week for SmackDown to return to form. So what better way to get back on track than giving us the match that we have been waiting for since the moment Kelly Kelly was drafted to SmackDown back in April? She finally faced off against the co-Women’s Champion, Michelle McCool. Watch below:

Out first is Kelly with her Blondetourage team mate, Tiffany followed by McCool and Layla. As they arrive at ringside, Layla gets in Tiffany’s face and out of no where, Michelle blind sides her and knocks her to the ground. Michelle then grabs Tiffany and head first, throws her into the barricade. What an intense way to kick things off! Kelly Kelly checks on her fallen comrade while Lay-Cool mock her by spraying air freshener into the arena.

As the bell rings, Michelle rolls into the ring and then rolls right back out, exclaiming: “I don’t need to do this.” Obviously a reference to the fact that she, and Layla, don’t take Kelly seriously as a challenger for their belt.

With Michelle on the outside, the referee begins his 10-count but the co-champion rolls in by four — unfortunately for her, she’s met with stomps by an agitated and feisty Kelly. Michelle gets to her feet and kicks Kelly in the mid-section, sending her right down to the mat followed by a kick to the chest. Michelle then strikes Kelly with a swift uppercut followed by a butt bump. Michelle strikes Kelly across the back before hitting her with knees; she then drives her into the corner and begins choking her out with her leg. The referee breaks things up and Michelle begins arguing with him which allows Layla to sneakily spray Kelly with the air freshener can.

Read more

FCW Watch: Serena vs Tiffany

 
After a verbal altercation between former ECW General Manager, Tiffany and the First Lady of Straight Edge, Serena, SmackDown’s newest Divas decide to settle things inside of the squared circle. Watch below, as the blue brand beauties lock horns:

Out first is Serena and she’s carrying a very ominous black bag with her but more on that later. Tiffany comes out next and as always is perky and bubbly. As much as Tiffany cheerleader-esque attitude and gestures used to annoy me, I think she’s actually starting to grow on me. Now, if she could just stop nodding her head constantly.

The two start things off with a basic collar and elbow tie-up and Serena almost immediately overwhelms Tiffany and drives her into the turnbuckle. Serena tries to capitalizes but Tiffany takes her down with some sketchy looking armdrags followed by an armbar. Serena quickly gets to a vertical base and hits Tiffany with a knee to the gut followed by a stiff elbow to the face.

Read more

WrestleMania 26: Five Moments You May Have Overlooked

Yes, we’re still riding that WrestleMania wave! While the Divas match at WrestleMania caused a frenzy, we may have overlooked some other Diva moments at ‘Mania that were equally, or perhaps more, memorable. On Monday, we reviewed the 10-Diva tag team match and today, we’re going to look at a few points that were perhaps forgotten. Let’s discuss:

Natalya slaps Vince
Doesn’t everyone dream of slapping their boss? Sadly, so few of us get to do it. However, here’s Natalya getting to slap Vince McMahon with all the force in her right arm and gets paid to do so. Let us live vicariously through her! When we saw Natalya come out to the ring at WrestleMania 26, we popped. It was about time that Nattie and her Hart Dynasty cohorts got a little somethin’-somethin’ out of Uncle Bret’s big return, right? Up until now, they’d been over on SmackDown pretty much floundering. Needless to say, Natalya’s presence at ringside was a much welcome surprise. However, when we saw Natalya strike Vince like a pimp who had just been short changed, not only did we pop, but we may have peed a little with excitement. Okay, obviously embellished that last part [that would just be super gross] but you get the gist. Nattie’s slap could perhaps rival that of Daddy’s Little Girl herself, Stephanie McMahon. Methinks a slap-off is in order for WrestleMania 27!

Savannah debuts
Sweet little Savannah! That super smiley face makes me just want to pinch her cheeks… Okay, that’s another story. But anyway, ECW-turned-NXT ring announcer Savannah made her debut at WrestleMania 26 announcing the Money in the Bank ladder match as well as the pre-show 26 man battle royal. Didn’t she do a great job? Though we’d much rather see her wrestle, I’m sure, Savvy is proving to be a little Lilian in the making with her belting voice just oozing with confidence. Her ‘Mania announcing debut may have just been the one match [on television, that is] but still, calling out ten men one after another must be a little daunting for your first big show. And then there’s the super cute that was gushed over in the ‘Mania Style Jury special. Perhaps unintentional, but Savannah looked super cute as she paid what we’d like to think is an homage to the Decade Diva, Lilian Garcia, who razzled and dazzled us with her sparkly dresses at this annual event.

More after the cut:

Read more

A Supersized Unwrapped: Eye Candy for the Week of March 15th, 2010

Welcome to this week’s edition of Unwrapped! As always, we will be grading all of the new photoshoots (or “eye candy”, as we like to call them) from the week gone by, judging them like so:

Sweet (Great)Bland (Iffy)Sour (Awful)

You, the reader, will also get the chance to grade the “eye candy” yourself by giving your opinion on each shoot and voting for your favorite out of the whole bunch. Now, dive in!

Angelina Love‘s Going It Alone
Grade: Sour. Those of us hoping for a more refined look from Angelina upon her TNA return were sadly mistaken when she returned with the same messy style that she had prior. The choker around the neck, the boobs bursting out of the top and the ripped pants look are all clashing and just doesn’t look good at all. The poses offer no variety either with Angelina basically just changing her angles rather than her poses.
Click to see the rest of the photoshoot.

Christy Hemme‘s Fire & Water
Grade: Sweet. Not even going to beat around the bush — this may just be the best Knockouts photoshoot in TNA history. These TNA photoshoots are usually just taken against a white background and then overly saturated in Photoshop but this one, this fights all that and makes me want to see more. Christy comes across so seductive, tempting and gorgeous. Her red, fiery hair is coiffed to perfection in some of the shots and then we have the shots where she’s been doused in water — offering some extra edge. I can’t quite put my finger on why I like it, but Christy did a great job.
Click to see the rest of the photoshoot.

Read more to see the rest of this week’s photoshoots.

Read more

FCW Watch: AJ Lee vs Serena Mancini (Queen of FCW Match)


Welcome to this week’s edition of FCW Watch. In the last month or so, rookie sensation AJ Lee has taken on all comers and shot to the top of the FCW Diva totem pole. However, she has one last obstacle to overcome: Queen of FCW and Smackdown Diva, Serena Mancini. The last time these two met in singles action the result was less than impressive. Can they put on a decent match this time around? Watch below as the ‘Pocket Rocket’ takes on the First Lady of The Straight Edge Society for the crown:

First out is the challenger AJ Lee, who is perky as always. AJ’s ability to get the crowd behind her is a great quality to have and will definitely benefit her when she makes the jump to the main roster. Out next is the Champion Serena, sporting some new gear (Finally!). The newly converted Serena removes her trademark Fedora to revealed that freshly shaven head we’ve all come to love (or hate) in the past month on Smackdown.

Read more

Serena Profiled on WWE.com

Straight Edge Society Diva, Serena has been added to the WWE.com Superstars section. Check it out by clicking here. Though usually customary to have an initial photoshoot already uploaded, Serena doesn’t have any posed pictures on her page yet but you can preview what will likely be an upcoming photoshoot. There’s some posed shots in … Read more

How Serena Got Her Spot on SmackDown

Since debuting some weeks ago, Serena has been an incredibly strong edition to the main roster as part of CM Punk’s Straight Edge Society, but why her? This is perhaps of little shock to us, but it’s been reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the new Diva got her spot as she was the … Read more

FCW Watch: AJ Lee vs. Naomi Night

Welcome to another edition of our FCW Watch, where we take a look at matches taking place in the WWE’s top developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling. Today, we have a match from the January 31st show: AJ Lee vs. Naomi Night. Watch the match below:

Before either of those Divas can make their entrances, the Queen of FCW Mia Mancini makes her way to the ring, wearing a pretty unconvincing wig a beautiful 100% real head of hair. She is here, as always, to survey the competition for her crown. Naomi Night is up next, making her singles debut (you may remember her being signed in August of last year). AJ Lee is out next, and the match begins.

The two Divas face off in the middle of the ring, and Naomi uses her hair as a unique alternative to the “talk to the hand” move, whipping it in AJ’s face. AJ takes her down in response, pounding on her before being pulled off by the referee. AJ remains dominant through most of the beginning of the match, using her acrobatic moves to get in a few pin attempts on Naomi. One in particular I liked was the arm drag counter into the rolling pin. For a newcomer to the ring, Naomi can take the moves–which require a lot of capability on her part–pretty well.

AJ attempts a hurricanrana from the corner, but Naomi tosses her to the apron, knocking her head against the exposed ring post. Following that, her offense mainly consists of a few kicks and a sit-down maneuver onto AJ’s back. She goes for an unsuccessful pin attempt and then locks AJ into a submission, a knee in her back and her arms stretched backwards. AJ fights free and goes to attack Naomi off the ropes, but Naomi slides under her and between her legs, showing some impressive athleticism–think her background as an Orlando Magic dancer has something to do with it?

Read more

Weekly Serena Watch (Week 1): Rolling with DX

SmackDown newcomer, Serena may have been conspicuously missing from the SmackDown Redux yesterday but we felt that the Redux should solely concentrate on Diva storylines, but that’s not to say we don’t want to see what our favourite bald Diva’s up to! ‘Weekly Serena Watch‘, not to be confused with the previous ‘Weekly Savannah Watch’, … Read more

New Picture of Bald Serena

With one of the most memorable WWE debuts under her belt, Serena Deeb looks every bit the glowing Diva in the latest candid shot of her with her new bald head! The picture is taken from Becky Bayless’ Twitter page, who writes: “Congrats to my best friend, role model and SmackDown’s newest Diva @serenadeeb! She … Read more

SmackDown Redux (January 22nd, 2010): Seminal Moment for SmackDown

It’s official: this is where women’s wrestling is at. SmackDown, in my humble estimation, is now the premiere series to be watching if you are looking for women’s wrestling on your televisual boxes. That was never more evident than tonight’s episode, where despite not even having a match, SmackDown proved that it is the show that everyone should be watching. Compelling storylines, well written characters and great performances — it’s hard not to do double-take. This is WWE, right? Despite the recent years of fluff and disappointment, WWE have delivered perhaps one of their strongest Divas storylines in quite some time and this week’s show is a seminal moment in what I expect will be a turning of the tide. There’s nothing Diva-y about this week’s SmackDown, to spin the old line used by WCW — this is where the big girls play.

Beginning this week’s Divas action, we saw the debut of Serena Mancini in what may go down as one of the most memorable debuts in Diva history.

PART 1

PART 2

Serena appears as a fan jumping the barricade during another scintilating straight edge promo from CM Punk, claiming she needs him. He says she knows he needs him. Honestly, the initial dialogue was as cheesy as a Twilight movie and I was expecting Punk to throw in a “You are my life now” at some point. That said, it did get better and Punk is golden at his whole shtick. We see Serena willing to make the ultimate sacrifice and denounce her life of addiction etc. and has her shaved head in the name of her saviour, Punk.

All in all, I think this was a good segment and Serena played the cult-like psycho very well. It’ll be interesting to see how she’s used from here with her bald head. I hope this works out for her, it’s a great sacrifice to make but she’s in the big leagues now. I hope she didn’t sacrifice this just to be the glorified bald manager for Punk’s Straight Edge Society. The setup of that group doesn’t really suggest to me that it’ll have a typical manager/wrestler dynamic ala Hart Dynasty. I expect we’ll see Serena actually getting nitty-gritty and I look forward to it. Perhaps she herself could target a Diva and try to ‘help’ them?

Next up, Mickie’s ‘going away’ party:

Read more

Picture of Serena Deeb Bald!

In a minor spoiler for this week’s SmackDown, FCW’s Mia Mancini aka Serena Deeb will be making her ‘debut’ and well, what she gets up to will leave me and many other women clutching their hair for dear life. Check out the picture of Serena bald after her antics to your left, courtesy of The … Read more

Year-End Awards 2009: Best Diva in Training

2009 is now over and we are celebrating with our second annual Year-End Awards. This year, we have had thousands of votes as you have voted for the top Divas, Knockouts, matches and moments of 2009!And now it’s time to reveal the winners.

BEST DIVA IN TRAINING

The nominees are:

* AJ Lee
* Aksana
* Courtney Taylor
* Mia Mancini
* Naomi Night

Continue for the result:

Read more

FCW Watch: Courtney Taylor vs. AJ Lee; Aksana Debuts

The latest bits of FCW to hit YouTube have surfaced, originating from the November 28th show. First, we have a match featuring the former WWE Diva (for all of 3 weeks) Courtney Taylor and AJ Lee. “Queen of FCW” Mia Mancini is at ringside to survey the match:

I have to say, starting a match with a rest hold doesn’t exactly allow one to hold much promise for an exciting match. Overall, it looks as though both girls were stuck in slow-mo–even the arm drags were slow. Courtney’s definitely giving me a Kelly Kelly vibe, especially with the ginger ring movements and flashy moves (what exactly was that handstand move in the corner, by the way?). AJ and Courtney just didn’t seem to have much chemistry, with mis-timed exchanges scattered throughout the match. They never got out of the starting gate and seemed preoccupied with slowing the match down to avoid any mishaps. The only excitement I got out of the whole match was AJ’s finisher, and even that was set up awkwardly.

So the match wasn’t much at all, but why did it fall so short? AJ looks to have a lot of potential, but Courtney seems to be a little uncomfortable in the ring so far, and that severely limited the match as a whole. Hopefully she can improve her ring presence and buck the inevitable Kelly Kelly comparisons (like the one I made above.. oops).

Read more

FCW (Must) Watch: Gail Kim vs. Mia Mancini

Gail Kim may have had a disappointing year upon her WWE return but perhaps the standout of her time is this little gem from the television series for WWE’s farm territory, FCW. Gail takes on former SHIMMER standout and current Queen of FCW, Mia Mancini. Watch below: This is a definite step up from Mia’s … Read more

FCW Watch: Mia Mancini vs. Tiffany

Coming off the heels of two successful title defenses against AJ Lee and Savannah, FCW queen Mia Mancini takes on ECW General Manager Tiffany in a non-title match. Watch below: To be honest, I wasn’t impressed with this match. In fact, I haven’t been very impressed with Mia since her FCW debut. Her new heel … Read more

FCW Watch: Mia Mancini vs. AJ Lee

Two of FCW’s standout Divas, Mia Mancini and AJ Lee locked horns on the company’s television series over a month ago — footage of which is now online. As well documented, both have previous wrestling experience; Mancini is particularly known for her work in SHIMMER while Lee has worked for WSU. On paper, this match … Read more

FCW Watch: Serena & Savannah Battle Over Queen of FCW Crown

Thanks to all of our readers who sent us the tip-off that this match is now on YouTube! The much anticipated ‘Queen of FCW’ [I guess that’s their Women’s Championship] match between Serena Mancini [since renamed Mia Mancini] and Savannah [then Angela Fong] aired last week with the rest of the FCW Divas sitting at … Read more

Footage of Serena Deeb & Miss April in FCW

For those curious, footage of SHIMMER standout, Serena Deeb [now known as Mia Mancini] and Miss April [now AJ Lee] wrestling for FCW has popped up on YouTube. Thanks to ICROFT for pointing it out: It’s rather unfortunate that the #1 Contender for the Divas Championship still has to work the FCW tapings lol. Granted … Read more

Serena Renamed in FCW

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