Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Diva-Dirt Team! While we all pigged out and took a break, there was no rest for our WWE RAW Superstars as they took to the infamous Chicago crowds for Boxing Day! With last week setting a new direction for the division, lets see how things progress this week.
Bayley is seen backstage, spreading her holiday cheer to R-Truth and Goldust. She gives Truth a signature hug, but then presents Goldust with a special Bayley bear. Wearing his Dad, Dusty Rhodes’ signature black and yellow polka dot with matching headband, Bayley says that she wouldn’t be #1 contender and where she is now if it wasn’t for him. The crowd chants ‘Dusty!’ and they share a hug Goldust is clearly touched… until Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson rip the bear’s head off!
Next, the commentary team recap Nia Jax tossing Sasha Banks across the ring. Nia’s out next and ready to take out her next victim.
Charley Caruso catches up with this week’s local competitor, Scarlett Bordeaux! Hailing from Chicago herself and sporting a ‘Legit Boss’ t-shirt, she states that Sasha Banks is who inspired her to get in the ring and she wishes she could be here. Unfortunately, I don’t know if Nia’s music was too loud or if Charley’s mic wasn’t connected to the system, because the crowd completely didn’t hear any of that.
In typical jobber squash fashion, Nia dominates Scarlett. I don’t even think she hit any offence in the whole match. There’s a couple ‘We Want Sasha!’ chants, but Nia easily disposes of Scarlett with a running hip thrust in the corner and finally a Samoan Drop. After the quick pinfall, she grabs the microphone and tells her, ‘Next time, choose a better role model!’ before she hits a leg drop on her already fallen victim.
No breaks for the women, as Bayley is on her way to the ring next!
Now did the UK broadcast cut something off? Or was this next bit intentional? When we come back from the break, Charlotte is seen backstage saying ‘Thank You’ and shaking Stephanie McMahon’s hand… either way, this is addressed in the next segment, but how interesting to see the Billion Dollar Princess interacting with the Genetically Superior Queen!
Bayley is in the ring and take to the mic! She reminds the crowd that she’s pinned Charlotte for the third time in a row, which should make her the new #1 Contender for the RAW Women’s Championship. Party interrupted, when the Women’s Champion herself, Charlotte, makes her way down to the ring. She repeats last week’s sloppy pinfall and shows how her shoulder wasn’t fully pinned down.
Charlotte reveals that she’s pulled some strings with her lawyer and Stephanie McMahon to expunge the referee’s decision last week – meaning Bayley’s pinfall no longer counts! She continues to berate Bayley in the ring, but offers her yet another opportunity to take her on one on one… However, Charlotte reveals that her agreement allowed her a fair referee to call things down the line… that person being Charlotte’s protege, Dana Brooke!
Back from the break and Dana asks for the bell to the ring. Immediately at the start of the match, Charlotte goes overboard with the chops in the corner, definitely exceeding the 5 count. Bayley reverses and tries to get her offence in, but Dana steps in at the 2 count and pulls Bayley away to defend her Mentor. However, this annoys Bayley and she slams our ‘official’ with a Bayley-to-belly!
Dana rolls out of the ring, but the match continues as another referee runs to the ring. We don’t really see anything we’ve not seen from their other 3 encounters. The finish sees Bayley counter a Figure 8 and hit a Bayley-to-belly to Charlotte, but just as she’s about to win, Dana Brooke pulls the referee out of the ring and she shouts “I’M THE REF!”.
Bayley chases Dana around the ring, but Charlotte takes advantage of the distraction. She hits a roll up, uses her ropes for leverage and Dana hits an extremely quick count. Looks like that #1 Contender dream is dashed by the dirty tactics of Charlotte and Dana Brooke!
Finally, we get another Emmalina promo… this time she puts on this weird porno voice, telling us that we’re so good for waiting all this time and that this will be worth the wait… well hurry Emma boo, cos we’re already bored. It’s gonna be Summer by the time you debut at this rate.
Thoughts: This week is probably the first time when I’ve kind of switched off from Charlotte’s mic work. Don’t get me wrong, she’s great on the mic, but her promos are getting REALLY ‘samey’ now. Much like Sasha was all about ‘childhood dream’ and ‘women’s evolution’ throughout Summer 2016; Charlotte’s promos against Bayley have just been full of Laycool-esque bland insults.
The feud just seems to be missing something. We all know that next week, Mick Foley will be giving Bayley another chance, but I’m already going to get bored of these Bayley VS Charlotte/Dana combinations – much like we did with Sasha. The brand split is really exposing the holes in the RAW division. It’s such a shame that Alicia has no credibility anymore, Summer is injured, Paige is in her mess and Emma is too busy taking photos somewhere. There is so much potential here, but we’re stuck in very predictable 2 horse races…
Also, I peaked the comments last week and I know some of you lot were aggy that I mentioned how there was no point in Sasha VS Nia without the title – so let me address that: Sasha Banks came up as the loser in a year long feud… she was the face… she should have got that John Cena/Trish Stratus treatment… but she didn’t. Nia Jax is a NEW powerhouse… she hasn’t had a major victory, she is going to be a monster heel for a long time so she needs a monster victory. If you connect those dots, you will see that Sasha Banks will not be coming out of top of this feud. It’s either kill the credibility of one of their top stars or kill the credibility of their first proper monster in this ‘New Era’.
If Sasha had the title and lost in this feud, it almost protects Sasha’s loss, as everyone would be focused on the title direction. Sasha losing now… just makes her a loser. Sure she puts over Nia, but in the long run she got destroyed by Charlotte, lost her title and then gets destroyed by Nia Jax.
Either way, I may be proven wrong, but I’m really needing Nia to do SOMETHING NEW. I feel like I say this every week. She’ll get stiffer, be a proper monster, but then just hit the same offence. A scoop slam? Hang someone in the Tree of Woe and then a running rip thrust? A powerbomb? A torture rack submission? A weapon shot? PLEASE!
Are you more interested in Sasha/Nia or Bayley/Charlotte? Are you still interested in Emma? What did you get for Christmas? Let me know in the comments!
