You guys… tonight was a beautiful night. Nothing huge happened or anything like that, but WWE decided they were finally going to give me everything I ever wanted by teaming up honorary Diva, Adam Rose, with a real Diva in Summer Rae and put them in a match together! And the crowd decided to care which made it even better! Okay, let me calm down and not get ahead of myself.
Welcome everyone to your weekly dose of Raw Diva recap action! It’s me, Bobby, here and I’m ready to get to reduxing because we’ve got a pretty decent-ish night to look back on in terms of Divas action.
Two matches again reign supreme, or 1.5 at least depending on how you look at things on a gender basis, as Adam Rose and Summer Rae teamed up to take on Fandango and Layla. In addition, Divas Champion, Paige made her presence felt in a one on one contest with Cameron because I can predict the future and have resurrected this Superstars feud from its shallowy only airing on foreign markets and the WWE Network grave! Were these, plus appearances by Naomi, Stephanie McMahon, Lana and Vickie Guerrero, everything I had been hoping for?
There’s only one way to find out so let’s get cracking before I get bored and make you all listen to Tyler Breeze‘s wonderful new theme self-singing theme song.
Owaaahhhhhh
If you couldn’t tell, that was my text impression of Naomi and Cameron’s theme song intro as the two come out bopping and grooving for Cameron’s singles bout against Paige which was set up on a segment that gets described but not shown on TV. Again. Speaking of the butterfly emblazoned title holder, out she struts in an insanely awesome new leather jacket that has her logo embroidered on the back. She lets out her signature screams from the ring apron as Cameron looks bored by her antics. Nonetheless, the bell sounds as we start off with some taunting and a takedown. Paige with the early advantage tossing Cameron around and headbutting her quite violently to be honest. Those poor heads!~ As if matters couldn’t be worse for Cameron, she then gets knee’d right in the nose but manages to kick out.
Paige hits some corner elbows, but Cameron slides to the outside and tries to run away. It actually does work to her favor as she gets a moment to beg for forgiveness and extend her hand. Paige shakes it, allowing Cameron to nail a few sharp kicks and smack her right across the face from the outside for a one count. She tries again, but no avail. Cameron attempts a suplex, but Paige fights it and nails one of her own, rallying the crowd out as Cameron pleads for mercy. She hits a kick, but Paige gains the momentum early with a series of clotheslines and a running dropkick! From there, Paige locks in the PTO and Cameron taps out. And that’s that. Babysteps, everyone.
Kevin Hart is about to do commentary and I have no earthly idea what to expect so lets brace ourselves I guess. Out first is Fandango… and Layla! In gear! This will be a mixed tag team bout but before we get to the partners, we get an actual recap of something that happened on Main Eve… wait a second, did they really just Michelle McCool “Loser Leaves Dubya Dubya E” style edit out Summer saying “Catty little twat” to “Catty little cat”? I cannot. Or should I say catnot.
It’s the thought that counts though, and this awesome segment is getting airtime on Raw! Call to Me, Call to Meeeeee. Out walks Summer still wearing dancer gear for some reason (I’m going to believe she and Seth Rollins just don’t adapt to change well). Whoooooaaaaaaa-ooahhh wow these rosebuds are absolutely terrible. We were on such a hot streak of improving, but this group’s worse than week one because I have absolutely no standouts at all. In fact, I feel slightly ill as I long for the days of Blue Beauty, Silver Coat Girl and Smartphone Carrying Hippy. Luckily for this Scarlett Bordeaux-less group though, the crowd is pretty into him so I’m able to get past their drunk white girl dancing abilities (hey at least we have that in common!). But oh wow the girl in the sailor costume is just… let’s move on before I start sending fanmail to Becky Lynch.
The match starts with Adam and Fandango as the crowd chants for the song and I block out the commentary team! Fandango looks unamused as the two lock up and Adam gets the advantage for a brief moment until Layla tags in and smacks him in the face! She goes for the hair but Summer pounces on her! The two attack each other and Layla shoves her back before tagging out and running all the way backstage with Summer in tow. Back in the ring, Fandango turns around and goes for an Irish Whip but Adam hits the Party Foul for the win as the crowd loves me! I mean it! Adam then invites Kevin Hart into the ring as the two dance and partake in the ring apron trust falls with these interesting rosebuds.
Alright guys, now it’s time for our weekly dose of Ravishing Russian so check out Lana as she accompanies Rusev for his match against One Man Band, Heath Slater:
And also, feel free to check out Vickie Guerrero’s attempt at going on a coffee run for Triple H and Stephanie McMahon (with mild interference by Roman Reigns):
The Good:
Adam/Summer vs. Fandango/Layla – Essentially my dream match come true! Sure it was short, but I still think it maintained that whole theory I’ve been working up of it not mattering how long you devote to a feud each week as long as the material is something unique and different than what we’re used to seeing and shows me something personal brewing between them. To me Summer and Layla interacting so little actually excites me more for their impending singles match and I’d rather them not actually wrestle each other until that day comes because all of the spots and chemistry will be fresh. Not to mention we actually got a (poorly edited, but it’s the thought that counts!) recap of their segment on Main Event when Paige and Cameron can’t even get that much before their matches. The fans were into Adam, they cared when Summer & Layla interacted with each other, and overall I have nothing bad to say about this one. Fingers crossed something happens on SmackDown this week to book their singles at Money in the Bank!
The Somewhat Good:
Paige vs. Cameron – I honestly didn’t really have any problems with the ring work here. It’s unfortunately becoming the standard Paige match now when she’s capable of doing so much more, but I’ve grown to expect it and I’m at least glad this one wasn’t as one sided in favor of her opponent until the very end. The same could be said for a dead crowd, but again, I just expect it when they get charted in that third hour and so I’ve learned to look beyond it and at least be happy she’s on TV this week. The main reason why this is in the middling section is because nothing at all happened after the bell. Paige won, she smiled, and that was that. That is so not the direction Paige needs to be going in my opinion, and if anything it’s the absolute worst especially after how she was presented in NXT. It’s like she’s becoming everything she was so against and you can kind of see on screen she just sadly seems so bland as a character. I can complain all day/every day about how she needs mic time this or video packages that… how she needs to be allowed to showcase all of the moves she can do as well as to display the give no cares attitude I love about her, but at the end of the day it’s clear nothing we say is getting that changed. I will give her 500 points of awesomeness for getting the logo’d ring jacket though!
Also, PLEASE keep Cameron as a permanent heel because it’s such a better fit for her. She showed so much aggression tonight and I think her style works way better like that as well because she’s like a little spitfire who can still bust out some different maneuvers as a bad girl, but greatly benefits from being able to be scrappy with kicks and slaps kind of like Sasha Banks. I really want this to evolve into a big feud with Naomi having to choose between she and Paige, so essentially I’m hoping it becomes another Maxine–Derrick Bateman-Johnny Curtis situation, only way less macking on each other when it comes to this one. But DEFINITELY involving their mothers. Come on Saraya!
Lana – Lana was fine this week and I loved her promo as always, but you do not — DO NOT — ever again make her cut it in the ring and get no entrance theme/vivacious catwalk ramp entrance. Unacceptable.
The Not-So Good:
Stephanie/Vickie – Spewing chunks (at least done this way) isn’t really my kind of humor so this just wasn’t for me. I appreciate what it did storyline wise in getting Roman in the battle royal, but it kind of feels like we’re leading to Vickie being fired next week and this was like her last hurrah humiliation because everyone has to have it at some point. Don’t leave me Vickie! Not this way!
That’s all for this go around! Until nex– wait a second, I forgot I have one last thing to address.
Aksana, we’ve not always seen eye to eye… oh wow, no pun intended. But while we’re on the subject, I was kind of upset when your knee did my poor Naomi’s eye in and kind of ended her title feud, but through it all I definitely appreciate what you brought to the division and I’m sad to see your time come to a close.
I was a huge fan of Aksana in FCW and even still cite some of her matches during her reign as Divas Champion as favorites of that time. Oh, and I once saw her face Naomi at a live event in a match that was incredible and oy, how I wish it could’ve been televised because it ended with her doing a superplex off the top rope which I don’t recall her ever doing on TV before.
She had the skills, but I think managing (by that I mean randomly popping up in Teddy Long skits to say something adult-oriented) for so long really translated to some ring rust. Nevertheless, I did think she was getting better again towards the last few months of her tenure and I had been really digging Foxsana as a duo. I can’t say I saw her release coming because it seems like just about every Diva has a role now and nobody would’ve been obvious to me, but it is what it is and at least her final match got to be against her tag team partner as opposed to something random where she wasn’t even tagged in like so many of those tag matches can be. And at least she got to wrestle on TV and had a successful run as a whole. So many people don’t even get beyond developmental so she should definitely have no regrets, but it does suck she just kind of floundered her entire run on TV without getting a big feud or anything.
Fare thee well Aksana, and may you, your dog, and your show live on forever!~
