Raw’s sly Diva, Alicia Fox picked a picked up a win that can only be called controversial last week when she defended her title against Eve Torres. Obviously, Eve has unfinished business with the champ, as she finds her way to commentary for Alicia’s non-title match with Gail Kim this week. Check out the match below:
We start with Eve already at ringside, posing and waving to the fans (One of her favorite pastimes, along with salsa dancing.) She joined Lawler and Cole on commentary as the Divas Champion makes her to the ring.
Alicia is clad in a brand new piñata skirt, this time in red and I must say, it’s an improvement over her last two even if it still looks like she raided a Party City store to make it. While Alicia struts her stuff in the ring and taunts Eve, they show a replay of last week’s match and how Alicia picked up the win.
Out next is her opponent, Gail Kim, who is looking phenomenal tonight. Gail does the usual babyface posing for the crowd before stepping in the ring to face the champ. The referee rings the bell and the match is underway.
These women waste no time locking up, but it’s the challenger who gets the upper hand, taking Alicia down with a simple takeover, followed by an armdrag and a dropkick. Gail whips Alicia onto the corner and tries for a monkey flip. Unfortunately for Gail, Alicia holds on to the ropes, sending Gail down hard to the mat. The champ follows up with a jumping knee strike, which ellicits a reaction from Eve on commentary. She must be remembering the time Alicia nailed her with that very same move. Alicia goes for the pin and Gail kicks out at two.
Frustrated, Alicia snatches Gail up by the hair and slaps on a headlock, taking her opponent down to the mat. Note that Alicia still has a handful of hair and is rubbing it in Gail’s face while ref isn’t looking. Probably more annoying to Gail than harmful, if you ask me but it’s neat little heel tactic. Gail manages to fight her way out and follow up with a flapjack and a flurry of strikes. Gail hits her patented cross body through the ropes, but is taken down with a snapmare when she goes for the dropkick from the top rope.
Perhaps sensing an opportunity, Alicia grabs Gail by the hair yet again, but makes the mistake of taunting Eve. Gail takes advantage of the distraction and goes for ‘Eat Defeat’ or as certain colleague would call it ‘Madame Guillotine’. Unfortunately for Gail, Alicia manages to counter, forcing her into a painful looking situation. Foxy follows up with her axe kick for the three count and the win.
Post match, Alicia taunts Eve and just when it looks like things might get physical, the Mystery GM inserts him/herself via email. The GM informs us, using Cole as a mouthpiece, that due to Alicia faking an injury, Eve will be awarded another title shot at the Money in the Bank PPV. That’s right, TWO Divas matches on a PPV.
To be honest, I wasn’t too impressed with the match between Gail and Alicia. It wasn’t a bad match by any means, but it paled in comparison to some of the other matches that they’ve had in the past few months on Superstars.
I also found myself unimpressed with Eve on commentary. She stumbled and mumbled all through the entire match, but I’ll chalk it up to being nervous. However, after some pretty decent mic work from Alicia, Tamina and Maryse last week, I’d say Eve really needs to step up her game in that department.
My last complaint with this segment was the reasoning behind Eve’s second title shot. Technically, Alicia didn’t break any rules last week, although her tactics were shady. I’ve seen many competitors use this trick before and their opponents never got a second chance because of it. I guess I shouldn’t complain too much since I’m getting two Diva title matches, which is a treat in an of itself.
In other Diva news, Tamina and Natalya competed in a 6-man tag match with their respective teams:
Unfortunately, not much to say here as Tamina and Natalya’s interaction was restricted to a mere catfight. As much as it sucks, I’m not surprised to see Natalya get pushed to the background. This is a Tag Team Title feud, after all. Too bad we never got that singles match. (I hate you, Nexus)
Not to be outdone, Maryse also made her presence known on last night’s Raw:
I have to say, Maryse looked drop dead gorgeous as she accompanied her man, Ted DiBiase to the ring for his promo. Unfortunately, she was insulted by both Ted and John Morrison, who came out to interrupt the power couple. As I said last week, I really like Maryse in a manager role. As we all know, Maryse’s strong suit is her personality, so being a manager is a perfect fit. I wonder if JoMo has anyone in mind to have his back against the team of Ted and Maryse (Tedyse? Mareddy?) Hmm…
All in all, not a horrible edition of Raw, but not a terribly logical one either. However, we managed to see most of the Divas used and got a second PPV match to boot. I guess that’s a fair trade-off. Hopefully, WWE won’t take the TNA route when booking the Divas next week.
