How lucky am I to be able to step in for Cryssi and cover last night’s Raw? It wasn’t solid gold by any means, but there were Divas galore. Oh, and some Hall of Fame announcement. I think I heard someone important was announced..
We start the show, as usual, with Stephanie McMahon who, along with Triple H, had the audacity to interrupt Betty White during her intro to Raw. Get that cheap heat!
The ensuing segment featured the usual jockeying for position of the “face of the WWE” with an extra reference to that time Randy Orton forced himself on Stephanie. Stephanie sends them both to Kane‘s empty office… or something.
Our first Divas sighting of the night came in a backstage segment with Betty. The babyface Divas (Brie and Nikki Bella, Eva Marie, Natalya and Cameron) chatted with her about her prank show Off Their Rockers. Vickie Guerrero makes an appearance, welcoming her to Raw “from one cougar to another”:
Our next Divas moment comes in a match between Santino and Fandango. Santino was accompanied by Emma (who did a fine job at doing the Santino speedwalk) and, of course, Summer Rae accompanied her man:
Wait, didn’t Santino just have neck surgery? How is he wrestling? Actually, what was more perplexing was the clean finish of this match. Fandango wins cleanly and there’s no altercation post-match. I guess I shouldn’t get greedy, but if we want to see a Mixed Tag Team match at Elimination Chamber, we’ve gotta get the ball rolling. Make it happen, Corporate Kane!
Next we got to see an interesting video of Brie and Nikki Bella laying down the basic how-tos for setting up the WWE Network:
I kind of see what they were going for here with the flight attendant thing, but it came across really stilted and strange. Don’t get me wrong – it’s better than Michael Cole giving us a rundown like we’re 75 year olds who just bought an iPhone, but eh.. they can do better.
Soon after, we heard the biggest news of the night: Lita‘s going into the WWE Hall of Fame!
While this move seemed inevitable, I’m really excited about it. Lita was easily my favorite Diva during my big wrestling fanatic days, so obviously I feel this is well deserved. It’s no coincidence that the word “trailblazer” or phrase “breaking down barriers” was used numerous times in the video package. Speaking of, that video package gave me chills!
Lana made another appearance in a vignette with Alexander Rusev. She spoke a little bit more this time:
Finally, we’ve got a Six-Divas Tag Team match pitting Cameron, Brie and Nikki Bella against AJ Lee, Aksana and Alicia Fox. Eva Marie and Tamina Snuka are at ringside, for what it’s worth:
This was a pretty standard multi-Diva tag. What was most notable about the match was that Cameron was set up for the big babyface role, getting the win for her team with her new finishing move: Girl Bye! Really, what else could it be named?
It certainly makes me wonder if she’ll be taking Naomi‘s spot in the Divas Title feud. I suppose that all hinges on how long Naomi will be out. I’m not sure if Cameron’s ready for that role yet, but to be honest, with the musical chairs act they’ve been doing with AJ’s challengers, it couldn’t hurt.
Overall, this was a pretty busy week for the Divas. It was a nice, diverse showing and opened up a few possibilities for the immediate future. We’re one Raw away from Elimination Chamber, though, so if any Divas matches are going to go down, they better get moving!
