Welcome everyone to this glorious edition of the SmackDown Redux dedicated to the A-List’s show 600th episode! Congratulations to the WWE and to all the Divas and Superstars who have appeared on the Blue Brand over the years. SmackDown has proven to itself to be the home for better wrestling, better storyline, and overall, it’s just more consistent on a week-to-week basis. That especially rings true for the Divas, who usually get pushed off the show for special occasions on Raw. SmackDown’s 600th episode provided us with a tag team match that featured Diva’s Champion, Eve, teaming up with the Glamazon, Beth Phoenix, taking on the team of Layla and Maryse. An injured Michelle McCool was at ringside providing commentary.
We kick things off this week with Eve’s terrible theme music blaring throughout the arena. The champ and her partner, Beth, make their way to the stage. They do their trademark poses, play to the crowd, and make their way to the ring. Once inside they pose some more and SmackDown goes to commercial break. When it returns, ex-champ Michelle is at ringside with the trio of announcers that does NOT include Matt Striker anymore (so bitter), and Maryse and Layla are in the ring. Everyone is ready for action.
Before we get into that, I want to touch on the fact that Michelle admitted she had an injury. She posted about it on Twitter earlier in the week and she basically said the same thing during the match. She injured her foot when she kicked Layla in the head a couple of weeks ago. We definitely wish Michelle a speedy recovery!
Now, onto the match!
Beth and Maryse are somehow nominated to start things off tonight. The bell rings and Maryse sends a crafty looking slap right across the Glamazon’s kisser. Beth isn’t amused and she lunges at Maryse who beelines towards the ropes. Beth isn’t about to let the French-Canadian bombshell get away with that, at the ropes or not, and she uses her power to scoop Maryse up and dump her face first across the top turnbuckle. Blond hair starts flying as Beth starts wailing away on Maryse in the corner. She whips her across the ropes, runs towards her, and slams into her. Maryse comes stumbling out of the corner and Beth is waiting to take her down with a savvy little clothesline. She goes for the cover but Maryse gets her shoulder up fairly quickly. She’s also able to scramble to the corner and make the tag to Layla.
Beth steps back and allows Layla to get in the match. The two girls circle one another like they’re going to lock up, but Layla attempts to catch Beth off guard with a kick to the shin. Beth drops down but it’s not enough to keep her there. When Layla goes to work over Beth’s arm, Beth ends up pushing her down and taking over for her team. She drags Layla to the middle of the ring, twists and turns the other girl’s arm in all sorts of directions, and then picks her up in the air. Not sure if the next part was meant to happen, but Beth ends up dropping Layla right on her face and she tags in the Diva’s Champ.
Eve comes in nails Layla with a series of dropkicks, and after a forearm, Eve sends Layla into the corner. She goes after her, and Layla gets her foot up, but Eve catches it. She spins Layla around, scoops her up into a suplex, and after sending the Brit down, she floats over for a nice cover. Layla kicks out after a two count. Eve helps her foe up and attempts to whip her into the ropes, but Layla reverses it. She sends Eve flying but much to Layla’s chagrin, when Eve comes back, she flips over Layla, and brings her down for another pin attempt. Layla is able to roll through it and she grabs two handfuls of brunette hair and slams the back of Eve’s head into the mat. The champ is momentarily dazed but once she’s able to stand, she ducks a roundhouse kick from Layla. Layla is shocked but that shock is short-lived after Eve kicks her in the stomach and then catches her under the chin with another. A clothesline follows and once again, Layla is down.
This sends Michelle into action. She ditches her headset and hobbles to the ring. She gets up on the apron and starts screaming at Eve. Beth jerks Michelle down, but the distraction has allowed Layla and Maryse to set up for a sneaky little double kick to the champ. Maryse slithers from the ring, Layla goes for the cover, and Eve gets pinned for the one… two… three. Layla caresses Eve’s face and the heels flee from the ring as soon as Beth gets back in. They celebrate while replays are shown, and Layla rejoins her bestie Michelle as our Diva action for the night fades out.
You know this match wasn’t half bad!
I want to start off by saying that it’s wonderful to finally see Beth back in action after being absent for the past three weeks. And secondly, it was nice to have Eve and Maryse on the 600th show because SmackDown is really where both Divas got their start and first chance to really flourish. Now, about the match…
Eve always seems to bring something different each time she steps into the ring. I’m not sure why some people pick on her move-set and say it’s limited because honestly, I don’t see it. She meshed nicely with Layla this week, better than their match last week in my opinion, and I definitely think Eve was better tonight than on Raw. Thus far, Eve hasn’t been booked to look like a strong winner, but tonight she was booked to look like a strong loser. It took a distraction from Michelle, and a sneaky double team from Layla and Maryse to put her away, and that to me is a step in the right direction. Now if only we could get the girl some solid wins and a character… come on writers!
The beginning of the match with Beth and Maryse was fun. I don’t blame Maryse for not wanting anything to do with Beth. She’s the Glamazon! You’d have to be crazy to wanna go one-on-one with her. But Maryse, bless her, stepped up to the plate because she really had no choice, and she sold like a champ. Loved her bitchslap to start the match off too. So catty, so Maryse.
Michelle didn’t really distract on commentary. She explained her injury and cheered her bestie, even if the “go Lay” comments seemed a little uninspired. Tension still? She did come to Layla’s defense and there wasn’t really any animosity between the girls tonight. We’ll have to wait and see if they continue with the Lay-Cool tension once Michelle’s injury is healed enough for her to compete. I don’t expect to see much Lay-Cool drama in the coming weeks.
That’s really it, to be honest. I’m glad the girls got a chance to be on the show. I’m real glad Beth finally got to wrestle again. And I’m kind of sad there won’t be a Diva match at the Elimination Chamber. The card is really small (four matches as of now), so perhaps we can get a last minute addition? At this point I would love to see something thrown together for the girls because no doubt they’ll get a raw deal come Wrestlemania. I guess we’ll just have to wait, see, and beliEVE.
