This past Monday’s Raw was lacking in actual Divas action, but this week’s episode of WWE Superstars is looking to make up for that. It doesn’t hurt that these matches are consistently longer than their Monday night counterparts, so I’m all for the Thursday night matches. This week, we see Maryse and Jillian taking on Brie and Nikki Bella, I guess in some small way following up Maryse’s defeat of Brie over a week ago. Let’s see if the Bellas manage to get some measure of revenge:
Nikki and Maryse start things off, with Nikki getting in Maryse’s face, Maryse-style, and hitting a leaping snapmare. Nikki immediately goes and tags in Brie, and the two hit a leg split maneuver than sends Maryse flipping backwards. Brie goes for the pin and gets a 2-count. Right out of the pin, Maryse takes control, nailing Brie in the stomach and bringing her to her team’s corner and tagging in Jillian.
Jillian gets some licks in before backing Brie into the ropes, grabbing fistfuls her of hair and talking some trash. She Irish-whips Brie into the ropes, and Nikki makes a sly tag when Brie hits her side of the ring. Brie hits a cross-body off those ropes, allowing Nikki to come in and grab a bridged pin attempt. Jillian kicks out at 2. Nikki maintains control and whips Jillian into the corner, hitting a monkey flip after yelling “Bellas baby!” on the top rope. Not sure if that’s t-shirt worthy, but I appreciate her gusto.
Nikki climbs the turnbuckle but is distracted by Maryse. Jillian takes advantage of this distraction, getting a quick shot on Nikki, hoisting her across her shoulders, and hitting a Samoan drop. Jillian goes for the pin, but only gets 2. She keeps Nikki on the mat, planting a knee into her back and pulling her backwards by her hair. She relents when the referee gets close to the requisite 5-count, and brings Nikki over to her corner, bodyslamming her and tagging in Maryse.
They both hoist up Nikki–Jillian with the hands, Maryse with the feet–and slam her back onto the mat. Maryse tries for the pin, but Nikki kicks out at 2. Maryse goes for a suplex (dangerously close to the ropes.. watch your position, girl!), but Nikki blocks it, pounding Maryse on the back and shoving her into the ropes, sending Nikki to the mat and Maryse all the way to the floor. Wait.. what just happened here? Did both girls get knocked loopy? Anywho, Maryse gets back in the ring, but not quick enough to stop Nikki from tagging in Brie.
Brie comes in on the hot tag, hitting Maryse with a series of dropkicks and a clothesline. She whips Maryse into the corner, and off the rebound she hits her with a bulldog. She goes for the pin, but right after the 1-count Jillian pull her off of Maryse. Nikki comes in, but is met with a boot from Jillian. She disposes of Nikki, but turns right into a blow from Brie. This knocks Jillian out of the equation, but Brie turns around right into a kick from Maryse, which results in the planting of the French Kiss. She gets the pin and the win for her team.
Post-match, Maryse and Jillian look to continue the beatdown on Nikki, but before she can be hit with the French Kiss, Eve comes to her rescue. Maryse throws Jillian to the wolves, so to speak, and lets her get hit with a neckbreaker by Eve while she heads for the hills. The staredown between heel and face commences, and Maryse shows a bit of intimidation. Eve, of course, is ready to rumble, but that won’t be happening tonight.
This was a fun little match, and one that I’m sure would have been much shorter had it taken place on Raw. I appreciate its placement on this show, then, because it gives time for Divas like the Bellas and Jillian to get some decent ring time while helping to push forward the Eve/Maryse feud. The video packages from last Monday may have not been A+, but them, paired with this match, show a slightly different build to this feud, even if the babyface-makes-the-save shtick has been done numerous times. Maryse, for once, showed a bit of intimidation towards Eve rather than just arrogance. Her character seems to be developing a bit more, progressing past the 1-dimensional sexy arrogant woman she’s been for so long. I could be wrong, but that’s what seems to be happening here, and if so I hope it continues to develop. I, for one, would like to see more of Maryse than just the woman who lucks out in most of her matches and flips her hair. Still, her true colors shined through when she shoved Jillian in front of Eve, and shows that she, as always, is only looking out for #1. That, if anything, is Maryse in a nutshell.
