Instead of following up on the feud going on between Natalya and Lay-Cool at the moment, WWE opted to go with a six Diva gimmick tag match. Go figure. This week, the team of Eve and The Bella Twins face off against Alicia Fox, Maryse and Tamina. But this is no ordinary battle, oh no! From the geniuses that brought us ‘Diva Bowl’ last year, comes the ‘Divas Cup’… except, there’s no cup in sight? Cheapskates! Check out the match below:
The babyface team makes their entrance first, sporting Manchester United uniforms, to a chorus of jeers from the crowd. I’m told this is because of rivalry between Manchester United and Liverpool (which is being represented by the heels). I’m not really a soccer fan, so this was completely wasted on me and the majority of Americans watching at home.
Out next are the heels, and apparently Tamina missed the memo for this match. Doesn’t she know that they’re supposed to be ‘sexy’ soccer players? She looks like she’s an actual soccer player! *shock horror* All jokes aside, I kinda like the fact that Tamina doesn’t try to be as overtly sexy as her counterparts. I think it makes her come across as a more serious competitor. That said, she really stuck out like a sore thumb coming down the ramp with Maryse and Alicia. The Divas take their places in their respective corners, Mike Chioda signals for the bell and the Diva Cup is underway with Eve and Tamina kicking things off.
The two lovely Divas lock up and Tamina get the upperhand, muscling Eve into the corner and laying in a kick to the midsection. The (not typical) Samoan beauty tries to follow up with a running splash in the corner, but Eve evades and strikes back with a few kicks of her own. Eve goes to whip Tamina across the ring, but Tamina blocks it. Realizing she’s outmatched in the strength department, Eve abandons the attempt and lands a kick to the head on Tamina. Eve goes for the Irish Whip once more, but Tamina reverses and lays her out with a Samoan Drop for the nearfall.
Now in control, Tamina drags Eve to her corner and tags in Maryse, who takes Eve down with a kick for another nearfall. Maryse stays on top of the former Divas Champion, keeping her down with a few piefaces, before locking in a rear chinlock. Eve manages to fight to her feet and out of the hold and lays Maryse out with a gorgeous step-up enziguri.
Dazed and confused, both Eve and Maryse stumble to their corners and tag in Brie Bella and Alicia Fox. Brie manages to duck a clothesline, and takes Alicia out with a flurry of strikes. Alicia tries to turn the tide with her patented tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, but Brie reverses it into a crossbody for a near fall.
Giving her opponent no time to recover, Brie hits a kick to the gut, followed by a jumping facebuster. Brie goes for the pin, but Tamina makes the save for her team before being neutralized by Eve. Maryse tries to sneak in a cheap shot, but the ref catches her. Nikki comes charging across the ring at Maryse, but the referee catches her too. While the ref is dealing with Nikki, Maryse comes back in the ring and gives Brie a French Kiss (No, not that kind!). The official turns around, sees Maryse in the ring and gives her a firm talking to, but while he’s distracted Nikki rolls Brie out of the ring and takes her place. Despite looking right at them when they did it, Alicia doesn’t realize The Bellas have switched and pulls Nikki to her feet. Nikki reverses Alicia’s suplex attempt into a small package and picks up the win for her team.
I’m usually not a big fan of the random, multi-Diva tag matches. Even less when they’re gimmick matches. That said, I didn’t really have a problem with this match, aside from the name. The action between the six girls was good, it had a decent length considering what kind of match it was and we got to see some girls we don’t usually see on TV. I was especially impressed with Tamina. Tamina sticks to what she’s comfortable with and is good base for the girls’ flashier moves. I’m not saying she’s the next Moolah, but I like what she brings to the table.
If I had any complaint, it would be the lack of follow-up with the Lay-Cool/Natalya storyline. This feud is the hottest thing going with the Divas right now, so I’d like to see WWE stay on top of it. I’m not saying they should have Nattie have a match with member of Lay-Cool, because that’s getting pretty stale now, but both Lay-Cool and Natalya should be actively participating in their respective shows to build up some momentum for Survivor Series. Hopefully, we’ll get some more development in this feud this Friday on SmackDown.
