You know when you wait, and wait, and wait for one of your dream scenarios to come to fruition and then it finally happens? That’s the situation what last night’s Raw gave us Diva fans.
A major shake-up for the Divas division has what everyone has desperately been craving for what feels like an eternity now, and WWE finally pulled the plug in a good way last night, giving our roster of females a new lease of life by injecting a reviving dose of NXT into the main roster bloodstream. Am I excited? When a segment gets over 10 minutes of time and features nine Divas, including three debuts and the presence of the one-and-only Stephanie McMahon, you can bet I was bloody excited. I have not watched a segment with that big of a grin on my face in quite some time! Let’s take a look at what went down.
Team Bella – Alicia Fox, Brie Bella and the WWE Divas Champion, Nikki Bella – opened the segment by taking to the ring to explain their alliance and to gloat about their recent dominance as a faction. Nikki Bella says that she has took on all comers, and she hasn’t taken any shortcuts. As a unit, Team Bella are unstoppable and they have all of the power because she holds the WWE Divas Title.
Cue someone who actually has all of the power, everyone’s favourite Billion Dollar Queen, Stephanie McMahon. She ain’t no princess anymore. She’s got style and grace, this is her Queendom and oh boy was she about to make a massive impact. You know shit is about to go down when Steph gets involved, and well, last night was some good shit.
Stephanie, who looked absolutely amazing by the way, knocked Nikki down a few pegs right off the bat. She belittled Nikki, telling her that she doesn’t call the shots around here. She doesn’t run the place, that’s Stephanie’s role. She said that there is a revolution in women’s sports right now, whether it be in soccer, UFC or tennis, and WWE’s women are about to step up too. Stephanie wants to give Divas a chance, and it’s time to change what has been going on in WWE, right now!
Stephanie firstly calls out the woman who has been desperate to make a change for a few months now, Hell in Boots herself, Paige. Nikki berates Paige’s involvement here, questioning why she deserves more spotlight as she has lost a ton of times already. Stephanie barks at Nikki that Paige is out there because she wants her out there. She says that she knows that Paige needs some back-up, and she knows just the woman. BECKY LYNCH!
OH-OH-OH-OH-OH-OH!
Becky receives a nice response and a great endorsement from the announce team as she headbangs her way to the ring. Her attire looks the best it has ever looked too, so there’s another bonus! Mrs McMessiah says that even with Becky, her and Paige are still one woman down. An NXT chant starts from the fans, as does the wooing, as Steph introduces the next woman to stand by the side of a reunited Knight Dynasty. For anyone that doesn’t know SHIMMER history, Becky as Rebecca Knox managed Paige – who was then named Britani Knight – and her menacing mother, Saraya Knight. Indy fangirls will be screaming their ovaries off right now.
The next woman to join Becky and Paige will be someone known for her stylin’ and profilin’, the genetically superior, Charlotte!
WOOOO!
How amazing does she look? God, I love that woman and I love this badass trio right here. I also love the absolutely massive response Charlotte got. Bone chilling!
The surprises don’t stop there though. Remember how I said I wanted Naomi and Tamina to step into the foreground and lead their own team. Well WWE actually listened and the Beautiful Alpha Divas make their presence felt. Shame Tamina was left off the name plate graphic – LOL. The sore thumb is sticking out a little more! Naomi is even so bold as to cut off Stephanie speaking to explain that she and Tamina are all the change that the WWE needs. She wants to know when she is going to get her chance. Stephanie says that she knows someone else who thinks like NaoMina thinks. Someone who isn’t afraid to stand up for themselves and seize an opportunity. That woman is The Boss, Sasha freaking Banks!
There are no words. This segment is amazing and it is far from over.
Paige says that this is her team’s house, yet Sasha ignores her completely and poses like the badass that she is. Stephanie says that she has set the table of opportunity, but who is going to take it?
Fair play to Team Bella, they step up to face off against The BAD, which apparently now stands for Best at Dominating. The Bellas and ‘Lic then turn around into Becky, Charlotte and Paige, and the crowd erupts with a “This Is Awesome” chant. God bless this crowd.
Nikki then tries to leave the ring by pushing Sasha to the side yet The Boss makes her pay, throwing her to the mat, causing all hell to break loose! Brie and Becky collide whilst ‘Genetically Superior’ meets ‘Genetically Inferior’. Charlotte throws Tamina to the curb and then chops Team Bella up nasty. Naomi then takes Charlotte out with an enziguri but then Paige shuts Naomi down with a gorgeous PTO.
Tamina gets back in the ring and kicks Paige’s skull off with a blasting superkick, and Nikki then does some serious damage of her own, practically knocking Tamina’s leather off with her forearm strike. Brie takes Naomi out which leaves Sasha Banks standing ready to command the limelight. She crushes Brie and Alicia with running knees yet misses Becky, who springboard kicks her to the arena floor. Brie then tries to pummel Becky, yet they end up just stood near each other in the corner. I’ll let it slide as Charlotte has Alicia in the Figure 8! Brie sees this and is shocked to see what is unfolding, yet she soon pays for being distracted as Becky locks in her signature armbar! Nikki begins to writhe Becky off of her sister yet Sasha comes in and hits the Bank Statement on the ‘Definition of Fearless’! So many exclamation marks in one paragraph, who wouldda thought it?!
Team Bella taps out in unison as the crowd go absolutely wild. Michael Cole for once sums it up perfectly: “Take a look at the future of women’s wrestling”. Wow. The back-up for the NXT Divas return to the ring as Team Bella roll away battered and bruised. The teams that remain standing face off as Stephanie looks best pleasured with her finest landscape architecture. The horizon is certainly bright and sunny at this moment in time.
On Raw Fallout, we got reactions from each of the NXT Divas, as well as a glimpse at Stephanie’s heartfelt congratulations:
If 10 Divas wasn’t enough for us, the bright and sunny horizon is a trait of Summer, don’t you think? Well a woman named after that very season was also on screen last night. Summer Rae accompanied Rusev to the ring for an utterly phenomenal triple threat #1 contender’s match to the United States Title, featuring the Bulgarian Brute, Kevin Owens and Cesaro.
There are no words for how utterly amazing this match was. What with Dolph Ziggler “injured” and Lana presumably by his side, Summer rocking the hot pink by ringside for this bout is a good enough substitute!
What do you mean you want ever more Divas? WWE gave us even more last night and I am far from complaining. WWE Hall of Famer Lita made her Raw return to welcome the contestants of Tough Enough, including remaining girls Amanda Saccamanno, Chelsea Green, Gabi Castrovinci, Giorgia Piscina and Sara ‘I don’t know what tournament King Booker won’ Lee. I never thought Lita would ever be upstaged yet, well, a new generation of Divas that could emulate and dare I say exceed Lita’s wave of women just debuted.
I haven’t seen a lot of Tough Enough recently due to a busy schedule, yet I do really like Giorgia. A fourth Aussie on the roster could soon be a reality if you ask me!
Thoughts: Ohhh, that was really, really, really good wasn’t it?! WWE delivered in a massive way last night, and I have only positive things to say about the entire thing. The recent storyline has been on life support yet thank god the kiss of life that is Stephanie McMahon managed to raise the bland storyline from the near-dead and create one of the most exciting segments in Diva history.
Three debuts in one night is just utterly insane. The crowd reactions were incredible and the history-making moment of stereo submissions from the NXT Divas was breathtaking. Congratulations WWE and all of the women involved for smashing it out of the park. It was a superb segment. From monumental mic work and sizzling superkicks to stunning submissions and crazy crowd reactions, this had everything.
The important thing now though is for WWE to not drop the ball. Whilst last night’s segment was legit one of the best wrestling segments I have ever seen, it will mean nothing should WWE now book the rest of the program lazily and without much thought. This needs to be perfectly planned out, with power changing on numerous occasions as all armies jockey for position at the top of the division. An all out war is upon us. The battle lines have been drawn, a brief scuffle has ensued, and now the prep for a clash of ages is upon us. Team Bella will have to dress their wounds and grab their best weaponry as this will be hopefully be a captivating conflict. The cavalry have been called upon, now let’s sit back, relax, and hopefully enjoy the (WWE is PG so there won’t really be any) bloodshed.
