For the second week in a row, the Divas Championship was defended on Raw, and while I can’t speak for last week as I did not see it, this match between Eve Torres and Layla was nothing short of amazing. Absolutely everything came together for these two last night. They just seemed to clicked and delivered what is personally my favorite Divas’ match in a long, long time. Let’s take a look.
I was right.
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The former champion is in the ring as Raw returns. The typical pre-match shenanigans take place; girls stare at one another, ref holds butterfly belt in air which looks great with his breast cancer awareness arm band, bell rings. Eve and Layla charge one another and lock-up with a burst of intensity we haven’t seen from Layla in quite some time. They hit the mat, jostle for position, and when Layla ends up against the ropes, the ref forces them apart. Eve backs off, and Layla lunges for the devious champ, shoving her hard in the chest. Eve shoves back. Layla is like “come at me brah…” but Eve is waiting. She catches Layla in the stomach, grounds her to the mat, and begins working over her competitor in various ways. Layla tries to fight her way out of the various holds, but Eve is pretty crafty. She finally gets Layla by the arm, and eventually the two make their way back up to their feet.
Layla gets a kick in and gets a quick advantage. She starts wrenching Eve’s arm around, and to be fair, this looks really painful. There’s not much else Eve can do but kick Layla right out of the ring. The Miami-resident hits the mat with a thud and because she doesn’t want to lose her advantage, Eve follows her to the outside. She jerks Layla to her feet and slams the other woman’s face into the apron. Then Eve grabs a handful of sparkly purple spandex and throws Layla into the ring. She goes for a cover, but Layla gets her shoulder up. Eve pulls Layla up, snaps her down into a sitting position, and kicks her squarely in the face. She covers Layla twice more but both times, Layla is able to kick out. It’s not going to be that easy of a victory, Eve!
What follows next is a pretty impressive submission display on Eve’s part. We know her background and we know where she trains, and even the crowd seems to be enjoying the work these two are putting into this match. As a funny little side note, the camera angle clearly shows that Layla is very close to having a wardrobe malfunction. Luckily she fixes it while Eve is slamming her (her as in Layla…) into the mat, face first. Lulz. I love it. Fixing her ring attire clearly gives Layla a second wind because she manages to move both women close to the ropes. Eve is the first to grab, so she has to break the hold. But Layla ends up getting a little more punishment because Eve decides to choke the girl using the ropes.
Eve has to the break that before the count of five, and when she goes back in for more, Layla manages to catch her off guard. Layla takes a shot at controlling the match and after a nice little kick, goes for a cover on Eve. The champ easily kicks out of that. Layla isn’t done and fights on. She goes to the corner, leaps on the ropes, and comes flying off with a nice crossbody. She goes for another cover but it’s just a two count. Now she looks a bit frustrated. Eve is frustrated too and after another blow from Layla, the stronger of the two ends up forcing Layla into the corner. She pounds on Layla’s head for a moment before the ref orders her back. Eve obliges and goes to charge Layla. Luckily for Layla, she is able to catch Eve with her foot. Eve stumbles back and Layla goes for the ropes.
Eve sees she could be in jeopardy so she does what any good champion would do, she takes Layla out via surgically repaired knee. Layla goes down hard and Eve goes for a cover. Layla gets her foot on the rope but SHOCKER! The referee has no idea and Eve, who is smart enough to solve a Rubix cube in thirty seconds, knocks Layla’s foot off the ropes as if it never ever happened. She steals a win. Layla is left hurting. And we were treated to one hell of a match.
Wow.
I’m not sure what to say. That had a little bit of everything all rolled into one and I’m very, very happy I got to see it on my TV last night. Like I said at the beginning of this post, everything just clicked for these two last night. They were given an ample opportunity to take their time, play around with different things, and the ending was really cool. I love heel champs and cheap wins, and Layla played a perfect face last night. She was fiery, she had passion, and you could just tell for the first time the championship means everything to her. The way she looked after the match, sitting outside the ring, broke my heart a bit to be honest. She knew she got screwed and there wasn’t anything she could do about it. Eve celebrating like she had just won the World Series was classic. In her head, a win is a win, and it seems like she’s going to be the type who does whatever it takes to defend her belt.
Love it.
This match stole the show for me. I didn’t see a lot of Raw, but it was hands down the best part of what I watched last night. Kudos to Eve and Layla, as I really couldn’t have asked for anything better. All this has done has left me wanting a rematch come Hell In A Cell.
Until next time… Cryssi out!
