What’s up Diva fans and welcome to this week’s Main Event Redux. Today’s Redux features something completely unexpected: Kaitlyn‘s final match in the WWE after deciding to leave to pursue other interests. Whilst not surprised since she got engaged, I am shocked to see it happen so abruptly and early into the year. So, who is Kaitlyn facing in her final match? Who else but best friend turned worst enemy, WWE Divas Champion AJ Lee. Of course, Tamina Snuka is also by AJ’s side and her presence spells a whole lot of trouble for Kaitlyn. Can WWE’s former ‘Hybrid Diva’ spear her way to one last win or will AJ force Kaitlyn to leave with a loss?
TO THE VIDEO!
The first Diva appearances of the night are from Cameron and Naomi, who accompany their new dudes R-Truth and Xavier Woods to the ring for their match. Whilst I see the Funkadactyls (or whatever they’re going to be called now) can still rubs their butts together in time with the new music, I’m not really feeling this. As much as I wanted them to get the first rocket off of Planet Funk, I will always miss them calling their mommas! Xavier Woods loses the match after a distraction on the ramp from Fandango and the sensational Summer Rae and we’ll hear more from that naughty pair next.
Renee Young is backstage with Fandango and Summer and asks why they interfered in the first match of the night. Fandango says it was nothing more than revenge and just another trick up his sleeve. Renee points out that he isn’t wearing any sleeves, to which Fandango responds by telling Renee to shut her mouth before her waltzes away. Summer tells Renee not to even think about it, “he’s taken.”
“SUMMER!”
“Baby!”
LOL.
Finally, we head out to the arena to witness the horrendously lackluster ring announcing of Tony Chimel and more importantly, the final ever match in WWE for Kaitlyn. The Houston, Texas native is first out and she gets a really nice reaction from the crowd. Shame they couldn’t have updated her titantron at least once during her run. Oh well. Also, I still have no idea what hand signals Kaitlyn does whilst walking to the ring. I’m going to decide that she’s actually been impersonating a bug with large antennae all this time. Her opponent is out next and as usual, AJ is her happy-go-crazy self, skipping to the ring and more than happy to kiss silver embossed with pink rhinestones. The commentators clearly didn’t know this was Kaitlyn’s last match when this was taped so the commentary about Kaitlyn being in line for a title shot should she win is pretty redundant yet I’ll get over it. As you will see later, various parts of the match show that AJ and Kaitlyn were both well aware this was the final time they were going to fight!
The match starts with the first of those tell-tale signs, a handshake from AJ of all people. Breaking kayfabe and passing it off as heel mind game tactics? That works for me. The girls lock-up collar and elbow style and AJ gets the best of things in the early going as she manages to lock in a side headlock. Her former best friend shrugs her off however and hits a shoulder tackle. Kaitlyn then extends a helping hand to AJ to help her off the mat, yet as soon as AJ accepts, Kaitlyn reels her into a side headlock like a fish who just caught the bait at the end of the line. Like Kaitlyn did to her before, AJ manages to shrug her foe off and she takes Kaitlyn down slightly differently, by yanking at her hair.
“YOU STARTED IT” yells AJ, before regaining her composure and going for yet another handshake. AJ seems like she’s in cloud cuckoo land more than ever today! Kaitlyn obviously falls for it and AJ kicks at her knee. AJ then scurries to the outside and Kaitlyn gives chase until Tamina makes her presence felt. Kaitlyn stares her down but it costs her as AJ boots her in the leg yet again. AJ applies another side headlock yet Kaitlyn makes up for wasting time earlier by powering out and hitting a dropkick before strongly whipping AJ into the turnbuckle. The 8th Militia leader continues to work over AJ, ramming her shoulders into AJ’s midsection before clotheslining her. After a cover, Kaitlyn hoists AJ on her shoulders yet Tamina jumps on the apron, allowing AJ to take advantage as she targets the head and neck.
AJ cackles and skips before lynching in a seated headlock on Kaitlyn. AJ wraps her legs around her opponent to suck more air out of her and it clearly works as although Kaitlyn gets to her feet, she doesn’t have enough energy to ram AJ into the corner and AJ keeps the headlock locked in. Kaitlyn eventually gets out of the predicament yet she is slow to run against the ropes and a faster AJ knocks her down with an elbow. After a cover from AJ, the pair tussle before AJ wraps herself around Kaitlyn like ivy and she squeezes the life out of her with a sleeper. After a long struggle, Kaitlyn barges AJ into the corner to break free yet AJ is one step ahead, shutting Kaitlyn down with some stiff boots to the back of the head. AJ delivers a spin kick and just when you think she’s the one who is always a step ahead, Kaitlyn manages to pull something out the bag, that something being a momentum-shifting backbreaker.
Kaitlyn’s adrenaline begins to pump as she levels AJ with a back elbow, clothesline and shoulder tackle combo. That’s not enough for her to get the win though and it looks like her brief period of offence is over as AJ kicks her in the face yet Kaitlyn retaliates with her signature gutbuster. AJ kicks out at two, which means Kaitlyn normally only has one move left to dish out a ton of pain; will she hit a Spear? My attempt at creating suspense massively backfires as Kaitlyn goes a clothesline instead, a move which AJ ducks before she locks in a guillotine complete with body scissors.
After being locked in for a good 30 seconds, Kaitlyn powers out and AJ looks to capitalize by going to the second rope! AJ dives at Kaitlyn yet Kaitlyn catches her, could Kaitlyn leave WWE with a win? Kaitlyn hoists AJ up yet AJ reverses the move into a small package for the win! After the match, AJ hugs Kaitlyn, a move that shocks the commentary team. Less shocking however is that it was all a set-up, as Kaitlyn turns around after the hug into a devastating superkick from Tamina; a kick so devastating, she decides to practically no sell it!
Thoughts: A solid yet uneventful match between these two. I’m not a fan of rest hold after rest hold yet they did make Kaitlyn come across as being able to come back from the brink and always find a way to get out. That notion plus the fact she was only beaten by a small package made her leave WWE on a high. She couldn’t be made to tap and she wasn’t pinned in a decisive fashion. Her leaving with a loss is definitely the right decision booking wise and I love how Kaitlyn not only allowed AJ to go over but she also put Tamina over too. The aftermath was really entertaining.
And now onto my soppy goodbye message for Kaitlyn. The day of your debut, we were expecting to see a 7 foot 9 woman. Instead, we got Kaitlyn. Everyone immediately was outraged that a potential monster character had been replaced with a generic girl. Then Kaitlyn proved us wrong. She became an interesting character within the division, acting as a middle ground between the barbie dolls and the powerhouses, a niche only she filled for most of her run. Although, we didn’t get a Heel turn (well we did but it wasn’t aired on TV), we did get some great Face moments. From impersonating Vickie Guerrero, to having a love story with a man who is now Dixie Carter’s nephew (only in wrestling). From giving us the worst/best PG line ever “You’re still the same conniving… witch” to coming to the ring to the worst/best theme song ever created, ‘Spin the Bottle’. From having a Match of the Year candidate at Payback to being involved in the only ever Divas contract signing, Kaitlyn can say she has entertained many and although her career wasn’t the longest, she’s definitely left a cool little legacy. Best of luck, Celeste!
To close out my goodbye to Kaitlyn, it’s only fitting I post a video of Mark Henry dancing to Kaitlyn’s old theme song. Enjoy!
And with that, stay tuned, Jack will be back! (And we might not have seen the last of Kaitlyn either!)
