Bonjour everyone, and welcome to this week’s Raw Redux. In a night highlighted by such a wonderful former weirdo now known as FANDAGOO, we were enlightened to some tag team action involving the Divas as Kaitlyn and Layla took on Aksana and Divas Champion, Eve. In addition to that, the infamous deceptive scandal involving AJ Lee and John Cena possibly shacking up in a hotel room has increased its plot by none other than the Queen Diva, Vickie Guerrero!
We return to the ring in the midst of Layla’s entrance while Kaitlyn, Aksana, and Eve stand in the ring. For some reason, Kaitlyn gets her own nameplate, so we can forgive the lack of entrance surely. The bell sounds as Layla and Aksana start things off with a lock up. She shoves Layla back and does some sort of pose. Irish whip, as Layla nails her bridge roll up for a one count. Jacknife for another near fall, as she spanks Aksana and bops her in the face with her purple geared bottom. Aksana sends Layla into the corner but something happens where Eve kicks Layla and Aksana hits her on the back. Whatever the case, Layla gets trapped in the ropes and Aksana goes to work.
She slams the former Divas champion down and hits a kick to the stomach. Aksana sensually crawls over and leaps on top of Layla a few times, but Layla now tries to fight back. Aksana with a clothesline to take her down, and continues this crawling, this time adding some taunting. A tag into Eve, who traps Layla in a corner choke. Eve kicks Layla down and begins to dismantle her by locking in a submission. Eve kicks Kaitlyn in the hand, as the dominance continues until Layla can duck a kick and roll her up for a close call. Torres goes for the booty bop moonsault, but Layla kicks her into the corner and tags in Kaitlyn! Kaitlyn with a back body drop, then scoring with a set of clotheslines and a running shoulder tackle for a two count as Aksana breaks it up. Layla with the bombshell kick to Aksana, as Eve drops the neckbreaker to Layla and Kaitlyn then hits a reverse DDT for the win.
Wait… what is this?! Alberto Del Rio bumps into Rosa Mendes backstage and immediately makes me want he, Ricardo, Primo, Epico, and Rosa to form a stable asap.
Also, check out the next revalation in the ongoing AJ/Cena scandal featuring Queen Diva, Vickie Guerrero showing a bit more footage on their night out. (Side note: I’d definitely recap this because I love everything about it… but unfortunately, I have a paper due today and thus that must come first.) Enjoy!
Thoughts: I’m going to be honest and say that I didn’t really enjoy this match. Although I liked the time they were given, it felt too basic for me… like with a lot of stalling, hairpulling, and choking. I don’t mind matches that aren’t all high flying and stuff because there are a variety of different styles, but it was a little messy in parts as well.
I’m not sure if Aksana got rusty over the year she was managing or not, but she’s unfortunately gotten weakish in ring. I like seeing her in matches because it’s something different and makes things feel fresh for now, but she was all over the place tonight. It’s a shame too because towards the end of her NXT season and during her reign as Divas Champion in FCW, I loved watching her wrestle. She was putting on pretty enjoyable matches and I was excited to see what she could bring to the actual division on TV. Now it’s like everything went away, and I know she didn’t wrestle for such a long time due to the never ending backstage Teddy segments, and then Antonio as well, but maybe lessen her time as the legal competitor in these matches until she becomes a regular fixture again and gets back to the level she was at when she was competing every week in Florida. And bring back the Aksana show!
The only other negative I can say is that I despise the reverse DDT being Kaitlyn’s finisher because it’s such a weak move for someone with her build that could execute so many different power moves. I feel like she has so many options due to her strength that it’s kind of being wasted for such a basic thing that many people use as just a regular one off move. I personally loved the wedgie flatliner she would do in FCW, and even the sit out bomb into a leg submission. They were different, and while neither of those really showcased her strength either, they at least felt like finishers when she would hit them.
Other than that, Layla and Eve were pretty much the usual for them (which is solid/good), and I really hope this attacker storyline isn’t just dropped because I was starting to wonder last week when not one of them were on TV and no mention was made. Onwards and upwards! Hopefully we’ll discover who it is around Survivor Series because it looks like a potential Eve/Kaitlyn match is brewing after Kaitlyn’s victory tonight, which I couldn’t be more excited to see after the stellar triple threat they had with Layla at Hell in a Cell.
