This week Raw hosted The Slammys, the night the Superstars and Divas wait all year for. After last year’s upset win by Maria in the category of ‘Diva of the Year, how could WWE top that? That’s right, a battle royal! But first, BFFs Lay-Cool won the “Knucklehead Moment of the Year award”. Check out their acceptance speech and the match below:
Let’s kick things off with the award. To be honest, it was more of the same from Lay-Cool in this segment. I would really love to see some kind of change in Lay-Cool in the new year, because this ‘Mean Girls’ schtick is really being run into the ground. It was amusing at for a while, but like most things in WWE, it’s being overdone at this point. Also, I thought it was very fitting that Layla accepted this award, as she’s the personality of this tandem. After making their speech, Lay-Cool says their about to win another Slammy and head to the ring for the battle royal.
We come back from commercial to see Lay-Cool checking their reflection in their newly acquired award. Generic diva music hits and the rest of the Divas make their entrance and flood into the ring. The official rings the bells and our match is underway.
Right off the bat, all the Divas go right for Lay-Cool with the exception of Tamina, who is playing it cool in the corner. Seeing her opening, Tamina charges into the fray and effortlessly tosses Kaitlyn out of the ring. Tamina then targets Slammy award winning, Rosa Mendes and eliminates her as well. Tamina goes after Eve next, and nearly eliminates her as well. Eve manages to land on the apron and crawl back into the ring, but Tamina is tossed out by The Bella Twins, bringing her streak to a screeching halt.
Looking to kill two birds with one stone, one of the Bellas goes after Eve, who’s still out on the apron. Unfortunately for Bella #1, Eve turns the tables and tosses her out instead. As Eve tries to get back into the ring, Alicia Fox cuts her off with a boot to the gut, eliminating her. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ring, Bella #2 is taken out by Lay-Cool via low dropkick.
We cut to Maryse trapped between Beth Phoenix and Natalya. Michelle tries to help by attacking Beth, but that doesn’t stop Natalya from throwing Maryse over the top rope to the floor. On the other side of ring, Michelle tries to get rid of Kelly, but Kelly holds on with a legscissors to stay in the game. Seeing her friend in trouble, Layla rushes over and kicks K2 in the back, sending her out to the floor.
Across the ring, Alicia narrowly escapes elimination at the hands of Melina and Beth. Fortunately for Alicia, the old rivals quickly turn on one another and Beth Glam Slams Melina right over the top rope. With six Divas left, Beth and Nattie team up on Lay-Cool, but bitter Superstars rivals Alicia and Gail Kim attack Natalya and try to eliminate her. Across the ring, Beth kicks Layla under the bottom rope. An enraged Layla distracts Beth, allowing her buddy Michelle to toss her out to the floor. Meanwhile, Natalya flips Alicia and Gail over the top rope, leaving her and Michelle as the final two. Sensing a perfect opportunity, Michelle charges across the ring and kicks Nattie through the ropes, netting a second Slammy for Team Lay-Cool.
As far as battle royals go, I thought this was a pretty good one, especially for WWE. It got a decent amount of time and most of girls got a little moment for themselves. One thing I love about these matches is seeing the unlikely pairings that occur as the match goes on, so I was delighted to see Gail and Alicia team up, as well as Eve turning on the Bellas.
As for the winner: I don’t think anyone was shocked. To be honest, I truly believed Michelle deserved this award more than any other Diva in the match. She has been the most consistent and dominant Diva on the roster in the past year, so it wasn’t a big surprise to see her pick up the win. That said, I have a feeling if the award was left to fan voting, we’d have a repeat of last year and someone unexpected would have won. Kelly Kelly perhaps, or maybe even Kaitlyn.
I didn’t really expect any storyline advancement this week, so I’m not too upset about that, but I was very delighted to hear the Tag Team Tables Match announced for TLC this Sunday. Maybe this could be the blow-off match for this Natalya/Lay-Cool feud, and Nattie can move on to bigger and better things. Hopefully on next week’s Raw, we’ll see a new contender for Natalya’s Divas Championship.
