After a decisive victory over Lay-Cool at TLC on Sunday, Divas Champion Natalya was on the market for a new challenger for the coveted butterfly belt. Lucky for her, this week’s Raw featured a triple threat #1 contender match between Melina, Alicia Fox and Eve, all former champions in their own right. Which one of the beauties came out on top? Check out the match below:
We come from commercial to find Natalya at the announcer’s table, looking gorgeous might I add, scouting her future opponent. Melina’s music hits and she does an accelerated version of her usual entrance. Alicia Fox is out next, followed by Eve. As her opponents prepare themselves, Natalya engages in a bit of playful banter with the commentary team, showing off her more carefree side. The official signals for the bell and our #1 contendership match is underway.
Alicia wastes little time and goes right after Eve with a few stiff strikes. Melina tries to get in on the action, but eats an elbow in the process. Alicia goes back to work on Eve, throwing her into the top rope, before setting her sights on Melina. Alicia takes Melina out with a flurry of strikes, before pulling down to the mat by the hair. Eve tries to fight off the ‘vindictive’ one, but Alicia tosses her out of the ring, leaving her alone with Melina.
Alicia tries to whip Melina off of the ropes, but Melina hangs on and takes Alicia down with an awkward strike. Alicia finds herself draped across the middle rope and Melina takes the opportunity to come charging with her patented double knees to the back of Alicia. Before Melina can follow up she’s attacked by Eve, who has found her way back to the ring. After knocking Melina to the mat, Eve tries to seek vengeance on Alicia with a few forearms of her own.
While Eve is distracted, Melina sneaks behind her and rolls her up with a rolling clutch pin. Seeing Melina had the match won, Alicia lands a stiff kick to Melina’s jaw, reversing the pin and putting Eve on top. Melina manages to kick out and sends Eve flying into a waiting Alicia Fox, who rolls Eve up for a near fall. Frustrated, Alicia neutralizes Eve with a forearm to the face and charges at Melina, who has taken refuges in the corner. Unfortunately for her, Alicia charges right into a legscissors from Melina. Melina goes for the heel kick, but Alicia blocks it and lays her out with a nasty powerbomb. Alicia goes for the pin, but Eve rushes over to break it up at one.
Eve pulls Alicia to her feet and knocks her right back down with a flurry of strikes, capped with beautiful standing moonsault for a nearfall. After a few seconds of odd fumbling, Eve manages to get Alicia in position for her flying moonsault, but she taken out by Melina. After an exchange of strikes, Eve climbs to the top rope and is closely followed by Melina, who seems to have a superplex in mind. However, Alicia carries Melina off before she can execute her plan. With Melina precariously perched on Fox’s shoulders, Eve tries to take them both out with a high crossbody. However, Melina get the last laugh, executing a victory roll on Alicia for the win, as Eve sailed harmlessly overhead.
Post-match, Natalya climbs in the ring to congratulate her next opponent. A smiling Natalya reaches out to shake Melina’s hand and received a sonorous slap as a reward. Before Nattie could gather her wits, Melina jumped out of the ring and sauntered up the ramp, leaving Natalya stunned in the middle of the ring.
As for the match, I wasn’t crazy about it. It seemed as if the Divas didn’t quite know what they want to do in the match. In several spots I saw them fumbling about as they tried to figure out what was next. While there were some cool spots, such as Alicia’s powerbomb and the surprise ending, but that wasn’t enough to make me overlook the overall sloppiness of the match.
With that out of the way, I really liked the post match segment. Even though Melina slapped the taste out of Nattie mouth, I have a feeling this is only the beginning of Melina’s heel turn. I can see Melina apologizing to Natalya and regaining her trust, before full-on turning with a vicious attack on the champion. In any case, Melina has had some of her best moments as a heel, so I’m looking forward to seeing how heel Melina will play out over the next few weeks.
Believe it or not, we had another Diva match this week in the form of a mixed tag team match. Watch below as Maryse and Ted DiBiase take on Tamina and Santino:
For the most part, the men worked this match, but at the end of the match we finally got to see Maryse and Tamina in action. After taking down DiBiase, Santino prepared to finish him off with the Cobra Strike. Little does he know, Ted has tagged out and Maryse has taken his place. Santino turns around and sees Maryse, who turns Santino’s ‘cobra’ against him. While Maryse showboats, Tamina jumps in the ring and takes Maryse out with a superkick (or an attempt at one, at least), followed by a Superfly Splash for the win.
While the Divas didn’t do much in this match, I still enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The Santino/Tamina tandem has grown on me in the past few months and I’m liking a lot more than I liked the Glamarella angle. Believe it or not, I’m actually curious to see how Tamina and Santino develop as a couple in the new year.
While this week’s Raw didn’t do much for me in the wrestling department, it really gave us us something to look forward to next week. I can’t wait to see the interaction between Nattie and Melina next week, and I’m sure Tamina and Santino will have some antics up their sleeves as well. Two thumbs up for Raw this week.
