Diva Dirt is proud to introduce a new audio show for you guys, in addition to our audio bulletins — the Diva Dirt Roundtable! This panel discussion show features the entire Diva Dirt team including myself, Erin, Steven and Tiffany.
In our Roundtable discussion, we aim to cover current topics from all of the major brands including WWE, TNA, SHIMMER, FCW and Wrestlicious. In this particular show, we discuss the impact of the 5 Diva trade, the direction of TNA’s tapings, the signings of Serena Deeb and Jemma Palmer and much more.
To listen to the Roundtable directly on the website, just click on the play button below. However due to the length of the Roundtable discussion, we also have a download link available for those who want to listen to the MP3 file on their computer.
Note: Contains spoilers on future WWE/TNA shows.
[audio:roundtable1.mp3] Run Time: 48:12
[Download | File size: 44.13mb]
If you’d like to join us as a guest panlist in our next Roundtable, please e-mail us at [email protected] and tell us why you think you should take part! Hopefully we’ll be inviting someone to join us next time.
It should be noted that it takes a lot of time and effort to organise, record and edit this show together;Â so we can only continue if we get a good enough response! Your comments are needed — tell us what you thought of the topics discussed and offer your own opinion!
Please Note: The ‘Diva Dirt Roundtable’ is the exclusive content of Diva Dirt (diva-dirt.com), for which we hold copyright. By downloading our audio you agree not to repost or transcribe the content elsewhere including but not limited to other websites, blogs or message boards. Failure to respect copyright will result in legal action.
In an interview with TNAwrestling.com, TNA President Dixie Carter talks about the company’s recent seven-year milestone. Yadda yadda, as interesting as it may be, we were much more interested to hear her comments on the Knockouts division — after all she is in a unique position of being a female head of a wrestling company. Dixie says:
I’m very proud of the Knockouts. As a woman, it’s important to me that these ladies be represented properly. They are the best in the business, and the recent addition of new Knockouts, such as Tara and Sarita, will only further strengthen this division.
I’ve always wondered about the politics that come into play when it comes to women in wrestling and female figures in management. You look to women like Dixie and Stephanie McMahon who is in charge of WWE’s Creative Team [for the most part], and you think: “Are you being serious?” While Dixie’s Knockouts division is far more respected in terms of wrestling, I’d venture to bet that behind the scenes, the women in TNA are treated much the same as the Divas of WWE. We’ve heard multiple times about the Knockouts getting lowballed in their contracts, with top attractions like Gail Kim during her time in the company earning less than $100,000.
And I have said this over and over again; the Knockouts are consistently the highest rated segment of Impact but do they get anything to show for it? Not so much. Why not try doing a Knockouts main event on Impact to push the envelope a little more? I know they did it once, but haven’t done it since. Show you are truly commited to the division. Because while WWE can justify through it’s ratings why the Divas are booked the way they are, in an ideal world, TNA would be booking Impact around the Knockouts in a way rather than the men because they are bigger ratings draws than Kurt Angle, Sting, Booker T etc.
It’s just good business; if something draws ratings — you do more of it, surely?
“I’m very proud of the Knockouts. As a woman, it’s important to me that these ladies be represented properly. They are the best in the business, and the recent addition of new Knockouts, such as Tara and Sarita, will only further strengthen this division.â€
If you ask any Diva fan, they’ll tell you that the WrestleMania XXV’s “Miss WrestleMania” match was a gigantic disappointment. However, that disappointment is not limited to us lowly spectators – the overwhelming stench of fail has managed to permeate to its participants. Torrie Wilson, one of the match’s “special attractions”, feels much like we do. In a recent interview, Torrie vented her disappointment with the battle royal, as well as the WWE’s lack of support during her run on NBC’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!:
What are your thoughts on the divas battle royal that you participated in at WrestleMania XXV? It seemed like a bit of a cluster.
I’m very mad at myself and embarrassed that I agreed to be a part of something like that. A lot of people in the audience didn’t even know that I was in that match because they didn’t even announce it. For me, that whole experience at WrestleMania was kind of like closure. I feel like maybe I’m not appreciated like I would have hoped. They just wanted all these girls there. Now I can understand why Trish [Stratus] decided not to do it; she was smart. Going into it I trusted them that they would use me in the right way and I should have known better. All in all, I learned a valuable lesson.
When you say it was closure, do you think that’s it for you as far as doing anything in wrestling?
I do. I just didn’t appreciate that experience and I felt very unappreciated after all of the years that I put in for them. You combine that with the fact that I asked them to do a little thing on wwe.com to “vote for Torrie†and they just ignored me. So, my feelings are hurt.
I think, with these remarks, it’s safe to say that Torrie and the WWE aren’t exactly the best of pals anymore. She says her feelings are hurt, but what was she expecting? The WWE isn’t exactly known for helping its ex-employees on the road to lucrative post-wrestling careers. Maybe they thought she wasn’t repping them enough on the show? As the saying goes, “you scratch our back, we’ll scratch yours.”
Either way, those of you hoping for a WWE return (even a Trish Stratus-esque “one-off” appearance) may have to put that dream on hold. Though, I’m a Celebrity… may have broadened her horizons and given her opportunities outside of the WWE. Hey, she can join BFF Candice and do some charity work! Surely, dealing with Janice Dickinson must have given her some experience in working with children.
Looks like we aren’t the only ones fawning over Alicia Fox, as former Women’s Champion Melinasang the rookie’s praises in a radio interview earlier this week. Fresh from her Women’s Championship loss at The Bash, the Melina press tour continued as she was interviewed on B95 showing a lot more personality and humour than on her televised interview that we posted yesterday.
Melina is asked about the FCW developmental territory and how it compares to where Melina was bred, OVW. Melina notes that Alicia was trained in FCW, saying: “… Alicia Fox, she came out of there and I’m really impressed by her because she can wrestle.” She continues, “To see the future of wrestling coming up and they’re able to handle their own, to me that says a lot.” Listen to the full interview below:
[audio:melinab95.mp3] Run Time: 10:42
Other topics Melina touches upon is the fact that her tears were genuine when she was drafted to Raw. She says she was in tears because she would miss her close friends that she travelled with for so long and refers to those rumours about their being heat on her.
I really like this interview, unlike the more constrained and conventional television interview, this one was a lot more free and fun. Melina showed a lot of personality and was asked fun questions, being able to bounce off the interviewer.
In the mist of jam-packed Knockout action, TNA features ODB and Madison Rayne in a webmatch. As Madison Rayne begins to approach the ring, the first thing that strikes me is her unrecognizable entrance theme. In the very few times that Velvet Sky has wrestled alone, we’ve seen her enter with the Beautiful People’s music. Some fans have expressed some concern that Madison does just doesn’t cut it in Mi Pi Sexy – often even walking 10 paces behind the Beautiful People. Now while I don’t believe that Angelina Love and Velvet Sky deliberately keep Madison at arm’s length, I do feel that the separate music further disassociates her. I was so perturbed by Madison’s desperate grasp at textbook heel tactics that I have personally dubbed her as TNA’s version of Rosa Mendes. Right down to the arrogant lean against the ring ropes – it screams of Rosa. Not to mention Madison’s attempt at stripper-esque moves to compensate for her relative lack of charisma.
You must excuse me for the numerous WWE references, but I feel compelled to mention the tiniest bit of nostalgia I get from watching ODB and Cody Deaner in remembrance of Jamie Noble and Nidia. Granted, I have yet to decide if that’s a good or bad thing.
ODB pulls herself away from her liquid courage long enough to initiate a lock-up with Madison – a basic wrestling manuever despite her attempt to cop a cheap feel at Madison’s behind. However, Madison gets the upperhand early in the match and proceeds to raid developmental Diva territory with the taunting. (For a split second there, I thought the girl was about to break out into the ‘sprinkler.’) ODB soon aims to make quick work of Madison, but Madison doesn’t say die just yet, much to the array of a disgruntled Cody Deaner. ODB continues the assault into the corner before Madison outsmarts her and leads her into a decent but borderline awkward neckbreaker and an unsuccessful cover. Madison then makes her way to the top only to follow up with a front dropkick. The missed opportunity very well costs Madison her initial momentum when ODB hulks up into a couple takedowns and a decisive missile dropkick. Before Madison can save face, ODB catches her in mid-air and delivers a fallaway slam. The onslaught seems neverending until ODB finally squashes a last attempt in the corner by Madison and slams her down for the pin.
Not exactly a candidate for one of the best matches in Knockouts history, this match qualifies for the quality you’d expect from a match nonexclusive to TNA televised programming. I found myself concentrating on trivial matters rather than the actual match. For instance, why the constant wardrobe-fidgeting, Madison? Apparently not adjusted to her newly acquired implants, I found Madison to be a funny contrast to ODB who brazenly embraces hers.
Now as it pertains to wrestling, Madison Rayne still delivers a much better showing against ODB than Velvet Sky did. On commentary, Mike Tenay was even quick to mention that Madison Rayne has seemingly taken a “backseat” to Angelina Love and Velvet Sky. Whether or not Madison has proven that she belongs with the Beautiful People still remains in question. In terms of wrestling skill, I believe she has already surpassed the likes of Velvet Sky. Personality-wise, this Third Musketeer still leaves much to be desired.
It’s hard to believe it but we are already half way through 2009! It feels like it was just yesterday we announced the winners of our 2008 Year-End Awards but here we are, July already. And as we acclimatise ourselves to the summer weather, I’m feeling a tad reminiscent of the first six months of the year.
Please note: These awards are not ‘real’, they are just the opinion of Melanie and do not reflect the views of Diva Dirt as a whole. This is just a bit of light, fluffy fun to get everyone talking and find out what you think. We’ll be hosting our annual Year-End Awards in December!
Top Diva: This award is both for personal and on-screen accomplishments for me. I think Melina has been the standout Diva for me, so far this year. She came back from an injury last year and went into 2009 as the #1 Contender for the Women’s Championship, looked to be on incredible form and took the title for her third reign. That’s definitely a comeback fairytale if there ever was one. Melina has consistently performed in every match she’s had this year and has excelled despite curveballs being thrown at her i.e. drafting to SmackDown. There she has shone even more.
Top Knockout: 2009 has been the year of the Beautiful People, in particular Angelina Love, who finally realised her goal of becoming the Knockouts Champion. Ang and Velvet have worked really hard to get their gimmick to the top of the card and Angelina has worked really hard to get to the top of the division. She was definitely due the Knockouts Championship and earned it in April.
Top Match: I really enjoyed the match on Raw, the night after WrestleMania which saw 10 Divas from Raw and SmackDown go at it and give it their all, after an extremely disappointing match at ‘Mania.
Top Brand: This brand has been extremely consistent since the Draft in April, SmackDown. With solid booking and good in-ring work from the likes of Melina, Michelle, Maryse, Natalya, Victoria, Gail, Alicia, Eve and Layla since January.
Breakout Star: No question about it, I doubt it’ll come as a shock to many of you, it’s got to be Alicia Fox. Since moving over to SmackDown in the Draft in April, A-Fox has been on fire.
What do you think? How would you have voted for in each category?
As I mourn the abrupt end of the relationship betweenAlicia Fox & Michelle McCool on SmackDown, it probably wasn’t a good idea that I came across this video…
*Tears* “I wish I could quit you!” It’s official, Michelle needs Alicia. Is there anything this girl can’t do? She continues to grow as an in-ring performer, she has a gorgeous, unique look, she takes amazing photoshoots and now she’s proving she’s got the acting side of things down too? This video just made me love Alicia more, she really is becoming such a well-rounded performer and is one of the best kept secrets in the WWE.
This promo made me wonder where this relationship could have gone had Vince not pilched Alicia for Raw. We all know that mic work isn’t Michelle’s strongest suit, but A-Fox proves here she has some skill in that area — she could have offset the Women’s Champion, by doing the talking for her. *Sigh* We shall never know…
This just in from the SHIMMER office: Serena Deeb has officially inked a deal with WWE. Here’s the press release:
Everyone at SHIMMER – WOMEN ATHLETES would like to congratulate Serena Deeb on officially signing a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment.
From the first day she stepped into a wrestling ring, it has always been Serena’s goal to earn a job with WWE. Serena moved from Virginia to Kentucky on her own dime for the sole purpose of enrolling in the Ohio Valley Wrestling training program several years ago, and she has been a mainstay in the OVW women’s division ever since.
Serena debuted for SHIMMER on May 21, 2006 as a last minute substitution when an opening on the lineup created an opportunity. During the three years that followed, Serena displayed tremendous drive, determination, and eagerness to constantly learn. She has always tried to improve her game, be it in SHIMMER competition, at OVW, or in her handful of appearances for Ring of Honor.
Despite OVW losing its status a WWE developmental territory last year, Serena remained focused on achieving her goal of impressing WWE officials enough to be given a chance. All of Serena’s hard work has now paid off, as she will soon be relocating to Florida to start with WWE developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling.
Personally speaking, I feel that Serena Deeb is one of the top three female babyface talents in North America today. She’s got unbelievable fire, and can project emotion better than most wrestlers of a similar age and experience level. These are essential attributes to go along with the sound athletic wrestling fundamentals which she also possesses. She’s a complete package, and is perfect for television.
Serena’s training at OVW not only prepared her quite well for professional wrestling in general, but also specifically for the style of wrestling which WWE is looking for. Serena’s continued instruction at FCW will only sharpen her existing skills, in preparation for the next stage of her career.
The three match series between Serena and Sara Del Rey were truly breakout performances for her as a wrestler. I feel those matches excellently displayed Serena’s unbelievable potential to become a star in this industry. In her outings several weeks ago at the SHIMMER Vols. 23-26 tapings in Chicago, Serena continued to show that she absolutely deserved the spot at the top of the card that she had worked her way into.
I’d like to thank Serena Deeb for all of her contributions to SHIMMER during the past three years. From all of the memorable matches, to sacrificing her car on the drive up for the SHIMMER Title Tournament weekend, Serena gave so much to our product. Though we’ll greatly miss her at future tapings, Serena has now been given the chance of a lifetime– to work her way to the top of her chosen profession.
Good luck, Serena… and congrats!
Dave Prazak
There you go people, Serena has officially joined the WWE Roster. Looked like WWE is trying to boost their women’s division. Signing three realwrestlers in a row. Unheard of. Anyway, congratulations to Serena from Diva Dirt and good luck in WWE. Leave your own congrats in the comments.
As of late, we here at Diva Dirt have witnessed a bit of a tide turning against Divas Champion Maryse. That’s not to say fans have become hostile or spiteful, but (with the exception of a well-received turn at the commentary table this week on Raw) fans aren’t loving Maryse as much as they used to.
I feel that with this, like most other investigations, it is best to start from the beginning. While on SmackDown, Maryse went from lowly Diva Search reject to Divas Champ, all the while picking up fans and changing steadfast negative opinions to ones far more in her favor. Wrestling skills and ring presence seemed to spring from nowhere, and she quickly ascended to become one of SmackDown’s top Divas. Her heel character, cocky and arrogant, seemed to capture people’s attention and display plenty of charisma, despite the apparent language barrier. Love her or hate her, you can’t deny that the difference between the beginning and end of her SmackDown tenure is like night and day. Don’t believe me? Check out this clip, back from when Maryse’s top skills including saying “welcome back to SmackDown” and blowing air kisses:
Granted, those vignettes, which aired throughout 2007, didn’t give her much of a chance to show her worth, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t write her off right then and there. I mean, who needs another blonde chick who can’t do more than lie around in skimpy clothing? Which is why, when Maryse started wrestling in early 2008, I was quite shocked to see at what level of skill she was. No, she wasn’t the next Wendi Richter by any means, but in comparison to someone like Maria, who had many more years in the company (and seems to be metaphorically pedaling away on a stationary bike), Maryse was improving at light speed. She showed a comfort level in the ring that you can’t fake. So it came to be, with less than a year of experience of wrestling on television, Maryse won her first WWE title:
Earlier this year the ‘net was buzzing with the launch of a new all-female promotion Wrestlicious, led by Jimmy Hart with it’s hilarious and get-on-your-nerve catchy jingle embedded in all of our brains. Well Diva Dirt has teamed up with the folks at Wrestlicious to bring you exclusive content from the fledgling promotion ahead of the series’ debut this fall.
Peep these behind the scenes pictures from the series including Lacey Von Erich, Cousin Cassie, Bootcamp Bailey [with Hall of Famer Jimmy Hart] and a couple of the Wrestlicious referees.
The first promo shot of Michelle McCool with her newly won Women’s Championship was added to WWE.com today. Hopefully a full shoot will be released soon.
On another note — I just noticed Michelle is sporting something of a five-head, ruh roh… Bring back the bangs, baby girl!
We all know Melinacan act the part; she’s awesome in the ring & always looks great, but then there’s the other side of being in the public eye — doing publicity. It’s always interesting [and rare] to see the Divas get interviewed on shows and stuff, seeing how they carry themselves etc.
Check out Melina talk about her Women’s Championship loss as well as answer the standard fare questions below:
Like I said, I always find televised interviews to be interesting because they’re out of the confines of a WWE character, you’re trying to sell the WWE product and come across as interesting at the same time. I thought Melina sold herself very well, she was a little bit giggly, but for the most part she seemed collected.
It’s a shame the questions weren’t more interesting, so we could see more of Melina’s personality. But for what she was asked, she came across as a sweet, gentle girl – a far cry from her screams during matches. It’s always the really loud ones who turn it on in the ring that tend to be the quiet ones in real life!
I gotta be honest, I didn’t think much would come of the Bella Twins’ move to ECW. I expected it would be their restover on the plane to Releaseville, but last night’s show actually booked the Bellas in a way that set up a future storyline. I’m sure we remember their brief feud before WrestleMania that was dropped abruptly with a WWE.com video explaining that they’d ‘made up’. Well it looks like we could get a full blown feud between Brie and Nikki on their new home of ECW:
This was a really fun segment, I can’t deny it. I was laughing hard when ECW newcomer, Abraham Washington commented on their hair insisting it must be a weave. Weaves and extensions are one of the fun things we at Diva Dirt like to gossip about, in fact we spent a lot of our live blog this past Sunday talking about different Diva weaves haha. This guy has got some swagger, the jokes about a horse running around bald were hilarious — I refuse to believe that came from the minds of the Creative Team.
Meanwhile the subtle bickering between the twins was also fun. Who knew that these two had mic skills? They came across really well on the microphone and showed more charisma in one segment that they’ve shown since they started on SmackDown last year. And for once, isn’t it a nice change to have Divas who can talk without sounding like shrieking banshees? Seriously, most Diva promos make me cringe including Tiffany’s promo last night.
I really enjoyed the segment and was pleasantly surprised by these two. Seriously, who knew?! Now if this turns into a wrestling feud, that’s a whole ‘nother matter…
It does make me wonder though, why doesn’t WWE try and book them in a speaking role? Maybe as managers where they could be the mouthpiece to someone?
I have been less than enamored with Monday Night Raw since the Draft in April. You could blame it on lousy booking, little storyline development and average at best in-ring work. But on the night of the 15 Superstar trade, it looks as though Raw has returned to form with an excellent and enjoyable fatal four way match.
With the exception of Rosa Mendes who continues to disappoint in the ring, the other three Divas worked consistently hard and put on a really good match that has reignited my interest in the direction of the Raw brand. Mickie James finally ‘earned’ her Divas Championship match – not that she needed to earn it – overcoming Rosa, Beth Phoenix and Kelly Kelly. Also on form was the Divas Champ herself, Marysewith her sarcastic tone, I’ll talk more about that later.
This past Monday’s Raw was one of the rare occasions that the audience really got into the match, cheering and whooping for various spots, it’s a testament to the way the match was structured and the way the Divas involved pulled it off. The fatal four way concept is one rarely used in the women’s division these days, so it was definitely a nice change of pace from the standard fare of singles and tag team matches.
Surprisingly the Divas were given a decent length for their match, which much like Melina and Michelle the night before, allowed them to build up the match without having to rush to a finish at the three-minute mark. Starting out instantly after a commercial break, the four Divas go at it and it doesn’t take long for Beth to turn on her protege, Rosa. I wonder if they’ll go anywhere with that or just ignore it in the coming weeks? Though she would eventually lose, this match really helped Beth, who has been languishing in the character department for the past few months. She came across as cold & dominant.
With Rosa and Beth cleared from the ring, here came the real surprise. Friends, Mickie and Kelly went it at it too. I really like the way they’ve almost built up this friendship between these two over the past few months, they seem genuinely friendly too. When I first watched this match, I was shocked to see Kelly work so well with Mickie as they had a really good exchange of mat based moves. That was probably one of my favourite parts of the match. The girls then team up to take out Raw’s new resident jobber, Rosa with a double dropkick before being laid out by Beth.
Beth then starts to take control, while Rosa stands idly by. She’s really not a good worker, she didn’t do much to enhance this match for me, she just seemed to stay out of everyone’s way and not get involved except for the odd spot here and there.
Then came another very cool spot that got the fans riled up, a triple headlock & then Beth driving all 3 of her opponents into the corner, nicely done. Like I say, this match helped the Glamazon more than it did hurt her, she looked strong throughout. We then see a string of near falls and here’s where Rosa really shows she’s not great; she takes far too long to get Mickie into a backslide for the cover, ruining the momentum gained by Mickie and Kelly with their fast near falls. The girl just doesn’t look comfortable in the ring, she’s slow and seems to psych herself out in case she gets hurt, I guess.
As we come to the end of the match, Beth hits her Glam Slam on Kelly – I swear to God, that girl has eaten more of those than any other Diva. Mickie gives her a hurricanrana through the middle rope and here’s where things get ‘ouchy’, a baseball slide that lands Beth’s head right on the apron and you could tell that really hurt. Meanwhile in the ring, Mickie sets up her tornado DDT on Rosa for the win.
Meanwhile adding soundtrack throughout the match is Maryse at ringside and I have to be honest, I felt like I was kind of beginning to ‘get’ Maryse. Up until now her whole vapid chick gimmick was pretty textbook to me, yes she conveys her role with a lot more charisma than most, but the whole “I’m hot, you’re not” gimmick was pretty one-dimensional. But on Monday night’s commentary you could sense the layer of sarcasm that she coats onto everything she says, and it’s not something I’ve noticed before and I think it makes her gimmick more multi-dimensional. It’s not something that you can see very easily, which is why I guess I’ve never really noticed it now, but the way she was kind of riding Michael Cole and kept giggling away and kept calling Kelly ‘really pretty’, there was a backhanded nature about her that makes her character that much more multi-dimensional and complex, rather than being just another hot vapid Diva. It shows to me that Maryse is a lot smarter than her character lets on. Anyone that takes potshots at Michael Cole without him really realising deserves an A+ lol.
Really good match with fun commentary. I wonder how Gail Kim and Alicia Fox can attribute to the division when they start with the brand next week.
If you are seeing this message you have propogated to our new server. Due to the move, some comments that were made may have been lost because they were made after the backup was made.
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This audio started out as a ‘Twitter exclusive’ as I couldn’t access the main site due to our current hosting issues. In it, I gave an update on the current status of the site [which I later put up in text form on the site]. But I also talked in it about my thoughts on the trades that occured last night on Raw… rather than re-record it, I thought I’d just share it with you anyway.
Last night, we were e-mailed by our web host that they could no longer accomodate us on a shared hosting plan, as we are using up too many of their resources. We have been moved to a ‘transitional’ server, which you’ve probably noticed is much slower and loads infrequently. We have been offered a solution to move to a dedicated server that would better cater to us, which we cannot afford to do [prices start at $99 per month].
We’re currently trying to figure out our next step. I am looking at other web hosts, however cannot guarantee anything. I don’t know if we can keep going, I’ll let you know what happens for as long as our current host are ‘gracious’ enough to keep the site up on their ‘transitional server’.
EDIT: Good news guys, we have found a new temporary host while we figure things out. We are transferring there now. Any new comments may be lost.
Tonight on Raw, Vince McMahon announced his plan to move 15 Superstars and Divas to various brands in a move to “shake up” the rosters (even though we had a draft 2 months ago, but shhhh..). The moves have been announced on WWE.com, and here are the Divas making a move:
So, what does this mean for the Divas? Will Brie & Nikki officially fall off the WWE’s radar? What about Natalya – will this move actually allow her to wrestle now, even though she’s still with the Hart Dynasty? Will Gail stay babyface? Will Michelle survive without her minion Alicia? Sound off (and speculate) in the comments!!
The WWE Divas were on display in Florida Championship Wrestling last night. After a couple of Diva-less weeks, FCW gets back into it’s stride pitting RAW Diva Rosa Mendesand SmackDown Diva Layla(pre-frizz)Â against Smackdown Diva Alicia Fox and Angela Fong. Sounds good, right? Yeah…, not so much. Watch the match below to see what I mean:
ROSA MENDES & LAYLA VS ANGELA & ALICIA FOX
Before I get into the match itself, just a small note. Why does FCW keep missing the memo when it comes to Alicia? When she was a face in WWE, FCW was booking her as a heel and now that she’s a heel, they’re booking her as a face. So ass backwards. Weren’t there any babyfaces available? Throw one of the Bellas in there; it’s not like their WWE schedule is jam packed. Anyway, onto the match.
Unfortunately, this match starts off on a sour note and rides it all the way to the pinfall. Alicia and Rosa starts things off with some basic chain wrestling. Whilst running the ropes, Rosa manages to trip over Alicia. Yes, you read that right. Rosa trips over Alicia *sigh*. The ensuing confusion leads to a very weird takedown by Alicia. Both Divas manage to get the tag, and Angela hits a awkward ‘rana on Layla and tags to Alicia. Alicia with a kick to the gut and her patented Axe Kick. Alicia hits the ropes and Rosa misses her spot (C’mon Rosa! Really?!) to pull Alicia’s hair, so it has to be repeated (awkwardly, might I add).
The heels take control and Layla applies a submission, followed by a snapmare into a dropkick for a nearfall. Rosa tags back in, and goes to work on Alicia. A very ineffective looking submission by Rosa, which (thankfully) is quickly relinquished. Alicia hits a spin kick, which is sadly the best spot in this match, and tags in her partner. Fast forward through the usual ‘Hot Tag Flurry’, Angela sets up the Saki Bomb, but is distracted by Layla. Rosa takes mercy on us and rolls Angela up for the win.
The best part in this match was when it ended, and Layla makes Tiffany give her Angela’s crown (Give it to me! Give it to me! Thank you! SCREW YOU! Lol.) and gives it to Rosa. Angela attacks Rosa, jumping on the dropkick-through-the-ropes bandwagon and takes back her crown.
I usually sing the praises of the FCW Divas, but this match was really bad – possibly the worst I’ve on FCW. I don’t anything great to say about any of these girls, but Rosa is on my s**t-list. I said before that I think Rosa is hesitant, but after this match, my mind is officially changed. Sloppiness, missed spots and botching? Sadness. Rosa really needs to go back to FCW full time. I don’t know what motivated WWE to give her the call-up, but if they watched this match surely they’re having second thoughts.
If this match has done one good thing, it has motivated me to start a ‘Send Rosa Mendes back to FCW’ petition. Anyone else with me? Thoughts in the comments please.
Just thought I’d pop a little tribute in there! # Just beat it, just beat it #
They say patience is a virtue and our patience truly paid off last night, as for the first time in 6 months, the Divas got booked on pay per view and the result was everything I imagined it to be. I’ve been fully invested in the feud between Melinaand Michelle McCool for the past couple of months and have been looking forward to them finally getting it on in the ring and last night’s match didn’t disappoint. I believe in these two Divas, they are fantastic in the ring and over the past few weeks have shown a lot of chemistry — put them in the ring together and I expected an awesome match & I believe that’s what we got.
First of all, all three Divas involved looked phenomenal. I loved Melina’s new red ensemble, Michelle looked great in white but the star was Alicia at ringside, who just looked beautiful in a cute summery dress with her hair tied up.
My main worry about this match was time. I’ve almost pleaded and begged on this blog in the past couple of weeks to let these girls have the time they need to put on a great match. Divas are usually constrained to 3-5 minutes, but I really felt these two Divas needed the time to go all out, especially in a championship match. Thankfully, they got around 8 minutes of ring action and 10 minutes in total for their segment which was a nice chunk of the PPV. I would have loved for them to go a few minutes longer but I can’t fault this match, I thought it was superb.
The Divas start off aggressively from the outset, Michelle starts out dominating with a knee to the stomach and few forearms but Melina comes back, she goes against the ropes setting up I believe, her hair smash but Michelle picks her up by the throat, which looked awesome – a lot of strength shown from Michelle. Melina counters into a DDT – but it looked more like a flip – and then starts pounding into Michelle. And that’s what I love about Melina, her fluidity from one move to the next, is creative and fresh.
Melina doesn’t let Michelle recuperate for a moment, continuing her assault which sets up the pace nicely — after all this is a championship match, there’s no time wasting here. Melina hits a nice backflip, followed by a clothesline and jumping neckbreaker.
Then the game-changer, Michelle kicks Melina in the leg setting up the story for the rest of the match, with Michelle working over Melina’s leg. A helpless Melina tries to fight back, showing what a fighting champion she is and incurs even more of Michelle’s fiery wrath. Michelle has done a great job in the past couple of months in upping her game and coming across even more aggressive in her matches. Michelle continues to work over Melina’s leg as the pace slows down some, but I think it’s still extremely watchable as Melina’s selling [as proven last week on SmackDown] is second to none. Michelle, showing more aggression, slams Melina’s leg into the ring post.
Fast forward a little bit and Michelle hits a very cool move, a reverse backbreaker, where she almost flips Melina 180 and her stomach meets Michelle’s knee. Michelle then channels her inner-Beth Phoenix, by contorting Melina’s body, making her foot touch her head. Melina really should just advertise ‘Stratusphere Yoga’ on her ring attire, right?
A cocky and arrogant Michelle starts to get complacent, now channeling Shane McMahon shuffling around the ring, she attempts a running knee into Melina in the corner but meets the turnbuckle. Melina gains some traction and sets up her knee smash in the corner, with less ease than usual. Michelle pretty much no-sells Melina’s knee smash, with a chopblock to Melina’s knee immediately after. Melina begins using her ‘educated feet’ to kick Michelle, wrapping her legs around Michelle’s neck and does her heel-to-the-head kick.
Melina backs into the corner and tries to do it again, but Michelle counters and locks Michelle in for the Faith Breaker. Melina manages to counter into a hurricanrana. We don’t usually see false finishes in Diva matches but I think it adds meaning as it makes the eventual finish even more important as we’ve been teased prior. Melina goes for a near fall followed by Michelle.
It’s time to go up top, folks – a nice addition to any Divas match. Michelle props Melina up for a superplex, Melina pushes her off and hits her hair smash finally! Melina, like a pro, continues to sell her bad knee as she crawls across the ring to cover Michelle but Alicia puts Michelle’s leg on the bottom rope. It’s about time A-Fox got involved, she was beginning to look like window dressing! Melina gets a measure of revenge with a dropkick through the bottom rope, which seems to have been pulled off by nearly every Diva in the WWE in the past month.
This distraction gives Michelle enough time to recover. Melina jumps on top of Michelle for the Last Call and I have to admit, when I first watched I thought Melina may just retain after all. However, Michelle counters and attempts to get Melina into finisher position but Melina lands on her fit and Michelle hits her with a vicious big boot. We get another false finish which only adds to the excitement…
Michelle finally locks in the Faith Breaker which got a pretty nice pop, sold perfectly by Melina and history is made.
These two Divas really slugged it out and tried to give you an ‘epic’ feel to the match with the false starts and near falls. People have complained that the audience were dead for the match but it’s certainly not through a lack of trying, because Melina and Michelle made a tremendous effort I think. In any men’s match that kind of technique is going to illicit a reaction, unfortunately audiences just aren’t as receptive to Divas matches. I’m not one of those people who cares about audience reaction, it is what it is. I don’t think you can ever expect a Divas match to illicit the same response from those in attendance because there’s such a double standard, the predominantly male WWE audience will tell you a Divas match is ‘shit’ even if it isn’t.
This match is definitely on my list for ‘Match of the Year’ candidate, both Divas gave their all and delivered one hell of a match, proving that Divas do deserve to get PPV matches.
Diva Dirt has learned that WWE has signed a new developmental talent in British wrestler, Jemma Palmer better known as ‘Inferno’ on the recently cancelled British version of American Gladiators.
23-year-old Palmer is currently in the United States and is expected to start with WWE this summer.
Palmer has previously had several affiliations with WWE; she took part in a tryout for the company in November 2005 in Manchester, England along with current WWE Diva, Katie Lea. She was invited to take part in the WWE Diva Search and was featured in WWE Magazine as a ‘Sexy Superfan of the Month’ (see above).
In the past couple of years, Palmer was Gladiator Inferno on the Sky1 revival of the classic Gladiators series, which was cancelled in May freeing her up for new projects.
In an interview with Diva Dirt last year, Jemma told us she was still in contact with the company and a ‘full developmental deal would be amazing’. Looks like she got her wish! Read our full interview with Jemma by clicking here.
We’re debuting a new format for our Eye Candy posts – complete with more detailed critiques and “graded” categories. View the photoshoot we’ve “hung” on our wall, read our critique, vote, and last but not least – sound off in the comments!
The Look: This look has a decidedly rock n’ roll theme, with the destroyed jeans and “winged heart” cropped top. It works well for Kelly, though you wouldn’t suspect someone like her to be the type to adopt such a style. The belt buckle, for instance, a winged skull, is almost too tough-looking for the sweet Kelly, but I can’t say it looks bad on her. It’s edgy enough without heading into “Rock of Love” territory (and believe me, Kelly’s about 20 years off from that, thank God). The boots, though, look like ones Mickie would wear back in the beginning of her WWE tenure, and I pretty much hated them back then. The cuffed furriness is and will always be hideous to me. Give them back to Mickie, Kelly! Or better yet, burn them. Grade: B
The Poses: Kelly’s adopted a few new facial expressions, and they’re on display here. I’m glad she’s developed to doing more than just smiling in every single picture (though I’ll miss the “Kelly’s a statue” jokes), though I wonder if the Divas have had some coaching on poses. It seems like all of them have adopted the “look off-camera” pose as of late. Don’t get me wrong – I like it, I just find it curious that everyone seems to be doing it all of a sudden. But back to Kelly: she keeps her poses casual, sitting and letting her legs do the talking so to speak. It befits the more casual look. Frankly, I’m just glad we’ve graduated from merely alternating “hand on hips” and “hands on head”. Grade: A-
Uniqueness: It’s definitely not your typical Kelly fare, and for a Diva that’s known to be rather lacking in variety, that’s enough for me to deem it “unique”. Grade: A
Overall: It’s not Kelly’s best shoot, but it definitely caught my eye. She’s coming into her own on the photoshoot front, and hopefully it won’t be long until we anticipate hers like we do Layla or Maryse. Grade: B+
Looks like we could be seeing the last of Kong’s Syrian cohort in TNA. According to our partners at the Wrestling Globe Newsletter, TNA is dropping the ‘burkha babe’ character soon. Raisha Saeed, real name Melissa Anderson, will be taking on the persona of ‘Future Legend’ Melissa Flash.
Just hazarding a guess, Flash will be somewhere along the lines of the beloved ‘Cheerleader Melissa‘ character. Anyone who has seen Melissa’s SHIMMER matches can attest to how smashmouth and hard-hitting she can be and is probably salivating for her debut. Well, you have a long wait ahead. In three weeks time, Flash will have her official debut against fellow newcomer, Sarita on Impact.
Personally, I never cared much for Raisha Saeed as a character, so I’m glad to see her go. Especially if the trade off is Cheerleader Melissa. Melissa, along with Sarita, could be serious contenders for the Knockouts title in the near future. Just in case you’re not familiar with Melissa (Shame on you!), here’s a little taste of what she can do:
In an interview with TNAwrestling.com, TNA President Dixie Carter talks about the company’s recent seven-year milestone. Yadda yadda, as interesting as it may be, we were much more interested to hear her comments on the Knockouts division — after all she is in a unique position of being a female head of a wrestling company. Dixie says:
