Good morning/afternoon/evening Diva Dirt readers and welcome to this week’s Raw Redux. In an episode of Raw that certainly had a ‘big show’ feel to it, sadly, the principal did not apply to the WWE Divas. It was a sporadic night of Diva appearances featuring Brie Bella, Lana, Naomi, Natalya, WWE Divas Champion Nikki Bella and Renee Young. However, we did get some incredible news regarding the return of a certain Queen starting next week… or perhaps sooner? Swings and roundabouts certainly applies to this week’s offering!
Our first Divas sighting was of the mystical, enchanting and fiercely manipulative, Lana. Whilst she didn’t do much tonight, her facial expressions were phenomenal as usual. Also, how fantastic does she look with the United States Title? I bow down Lana, I bow down.
It is time for our sole Divas match of the night next as Nikki Bella, accompanied to the ring by Brie, is facing off against Natalya, who has her husband Tyson Kidd in toe.
After slating Brie’s attire last week, I think she’s looking pretty good tonight. Her clothes don’t look like a wild wolverine got hold of them and tore them up this week, which is a thumbs up from me!
After Nikki’s half entrance and Natalya’s non-existant entrance, the match begins. Nikki takes down Nattie and a serious scrap ensues. These two are clobbering each other like crazy. A catfight throwback I am definitely here for. Natalya then hits her discus clothesline, knocking the champ to the apron.
From there, Tal knocks Nikki off the apron, and right into the arms of TJ! Tyson fails to catch Nikki properly right away, trying a second time to lift her properly. A botch perhaps? Even if it was, it ended up working in his favor. For once, the commentary team do their job well, noting that it seems like Tyson could have putt Nikki down, yet he chose to hoist her up again.
Natalya throws Nikki back in the ring, and Brie gets up in Tyson’s George Foreman. Distracted by Tyson’s ‘heroic’ act and Brie’s smack talk, Natalya walks right into a signature Nikki forearm, leaving her fodder for the Rack Attack. And that was that. How nice of WWE to spend 1 minute on the women in a three hour show…
After the match, we see The Miz and Damien Mizdow chatting backstage. Well, The Miz is talking to himself and Mizdow is miming to himself. All of a sudden, Naomi comes rushing in and she hugs The Miz. After getting some private time, she thanks Miz for the opportunity he gave her. The Music Producer didn’t remember her at first (rude!) yet because she reminded him that she is ‘friends’ with Miz, he watched her video again and she has a meeting to discuss future projects. She even wishes Miz good luck for his match with The Usos for the Tag Team Titles later on.
I was really impressed here with Naomi’s performance. She was confident, her happiness came across as totally genuine and I was delighted to see her be so expressive. Is her elation a little too refreshing for me to think that she has something up her sleeve? We’ll see later on!
Well, the answer to me question is no. Naomi didn’t have anything up her sleeve. The Usos conquered Miz and Mizdown in an impressive match, capturing the championships for a second time! Naomi came out at the end to celebrate and the announce team pondered whether Naomi’s lack of hostility towards Miz earlier in the night had taken Miz off his game.
“Jimmy and Naomi played The Miz!”
Erm, if that is considered ‘playing’ someone, then that writing is diabolical. If the feud ends here, that climax is as bad as Brie’s random heel turn. Let’s hope this feud continues with Miz using his power to cancel Naomi’s relationship with the celebrity agent.
The beacon of light among WWE’s mostly horrendous announcing team, Renee Young is seen next. She interviews a hyped up Seth Rollins backstage before he is the guest on the first ever Cutting Edge Peep Show with Edge and Christian. Super cool idea WWE!
The final segment of the night does not feature any WWE Divas, yet features the announcement that one is scheduled to return. After Edge is put in a sticky situation by Seth Rollins, John Cena is forced to reinstate HHH and Stephanie McMahon. The devious McMahon appeared on the stage at the end of the show, despite the fact she shouldn’t have even been in the arena! I’ll overlook logic as I am so happy! As of 2015, WWE’s Killer Queen will be back in power. Hooray!
Thoughts: Considering last night’s show was mostly impressive, I am really disappointed the Divas didn’t get the same limelight and good booking as a lot of the rest of the show.
Whilst I was a major fan of Naomi’s performance backstage and how her and The Usos gave me Team Xtreme vibes when in the ring together, not much else was worth writing home about. Lana was amazing, yet she always is. That goes without saying. Also amazing as usual was Stephanie. Her illogical surprise appearance at the end was filled with the usual pompousness we have grown to expect from the self-indulgent business woman. The throne is once again occupied!
Onto what I am indifferent about – the Natalya and Tyson storyline. Whilst it was nice to see this slightly developed in the 45 seconds of time or whatever it was that they got, this story should involve the championship more. I don’t see how Natalya losing is aiding this storyline and her potential quest for the butterfly belt. Are we meant to feel sorry for her? This story needs to kick up a gear for me. We need to see Nikki getting under Nattie’s skin by manipulating Tyson a little more.
Onto what I didn’t like – the match. It really wasn’t worth having. A backstage segment would have been a little more refreshing at this stage as we have seen Natalya wrestle two weeks in a row already. Now that Nikki has gone over Natalya and in convincing fashion, as previously mentioned, I don’t know where they go from here.
It’s a real shame that WWE went from two solid matches one week to a blink-and-you-missed-it affair the week after, but this WWE. We are used to it! Let’s hope that the first Raw of 2015 kicks the year off with a bang!
