The final SmackDown before WrestleMania thankfully, delivered a lot more promise than the final Raw and ECW before tomorrow’s big event. We saw the real in-ring return of Gail Kim as she teamed up with Maria to take on the Divas Champion, Maryse and Michelle McCool. And the verdict? This match wasn’t bad at all, in fact it was pretty darn good.
In 2004, Gail was released for the likes of Maria, Maryse and Michelle as WWE wanted to take the women’s division in a different direction and they sure did. Now in 2009, Gail is wrestling with those very Divas that she was released for. But thankfully, the women’s division has come a long way since then. Michelle McCool for one, looks like a pro in the ring while Maryse is ever-improving. Then there’s Maria, who in the right spot can be made to look good. And thankfully for Gail’s return match, she was in the right spot.
The tag team work between Maryse and Michelle was really well done. The way they isolated Maria – who works really well in an underdog role – kept the match fast-paced before Gail interjected and cleaned house. There was some really good work from Michelle, who carried Maria effectively through most of the match. Maria did get in a couple of decent spots herself, holding up her end of things on this occassion.
Then Gail gets the hot tag and business really picks up. Gail always looks awesome in the ring and she really picked up the pace of an already decent match, that kick thing to Maryse looked great! I’ve never been a fan of Gail’s neckbreaker finisher, but I thought it was well executed and looked very good on SmackDown. So Gail scores a pinfall victory over the Divas Champion, that should develop her nicely following WrestleMania.
I thought the match was just the right pace and was thoroughly enjoyable, which makes a nice change from Raw, ECW and even last week’s SmackDown. As I wrote last week, Gail’s debut wasn’t handled that great, but I did say she’d really shine in the weeks to come and I think she did that here. Unfortunately, in the long run people will remember debuts and not the next few weeks of action.
On a seperate note, I have to give props to Maria, we often rag on her ‘fashion sense’ here at Diva Dirt but I liked her look on SmackDown minus the Michael Jackson glove. She needs to realise that simple is better, she always looks good when she’s just toned down and I thought she looked cute. Gail looked really good too!
