It’s that time again. Time for another awesome rendition of the Raw Redux! This week, our match features Eve Torres and Natalya in singles competition while Kelly Kelly and Beth Phoenix are at ringside, and it came with a surprise announcement of a match this upcoming Sunday at Vengeance. Beth will defend against Eve, in a match I called happening thanks to Eve’s recent string of pinfall wins in tag matches.
Eve and Kelly are out first and I love 2K’s dress. She’s usually pretty spot-on with her out of the ring fashions, so my love for that little black dress does not surprise me. The crowd gives them a pretty warm greeting, and then the ‘Sisters of Salvation’ (coined by Sir Michael Cole) come out. I love any chance Nattie gets to wrestle so this should be fun. DoD (which is what us normal people call them) pose with the belt on the outside of the ring. After a moment, everyone gets settled and Eve versus Natalya is about to kick off!
The Divas lock up and jostle for position, with Nattie pinning Eve in the corner. She levels her with an uppercut and talks some trash, which does nothing but annoy Eve. Eve fights back against Natalya, gets her in the center of the ring for her bicycle kick, and goes for the ropes. Nattie is able to spina round and flatten Eve with a pretty clothesline, then hooks the leg for a pin. It’s only a two count.
Natalya maintains her control by locking Eve in a painful abominable stretch. After a moment, Eve fights out and tries to take control, but Natalya is able to lift her up in the air. Eve slithers down Nattie’s back and tries to bring her down for a pin, but Natalya heartlessly stomps down on Eve’s chest. While Eve is down for the count, Natalya adds insult to injury by spanking her opponent, something 2K doesn’t seem amused by. Natalya starts trash talking again and she follows it up by slamming Eve’s head into the mat, and then kicking her half-way across the ring. Ouch.
When Natalya comes at Eve in the corner, the brunette tries to fight her off. Unfortunately she misses a kick off the ropes thanks to Nattie ducking it, and that allows the third-generation Canadian to scoop Eve up in the air. It appears Nattie wants to take Eve down with some type of power slam, but Eve wiggles out of that and crushes Nattie with a clothesline. Or maybe it was just a club to the chest. Either way, I’m trying to right this while my DayQuil is kicking in and it’s making me sleepy. Eve jerks Natalya into position and goes up top for the moonsault. Kelly makes sure Beth doesn’t get involved and Eve picks up a huge victory days before her title opportunity against Beth.
After the bell rings, Beth comes flying into the ring and that sends Eve right out. The champ is pretty horrified that Eve picked up that victory and rightfully so. Perhaps she’s having visions of her future?
I don’t think Eve will win Sunday, especially after seeing SmackDown results, but it was nice seeing Natalya in a singles match against the challenger. For me, the match was kind of basic wrestling 101. There wasn’t anything special to it. It was pretty even, way too short (but isn’t that always a complaint?), and both of them are capable of more. I would have liked to see Beth and Kelly get into it, but that didn’t happen. It was just basic and that’s a shame. It was the second week in a row we were getting something new. I suppose we should all just look ahead to Sunday, because Lord knows I don’t want to talk about the Bella Twins being reduced to a segment with Johnny Ace.
Beth and Eve started off in the ring pretty bad, but lately they’re getting better with each other. I hope that SmackDown ends up being good, and that Vengeance is even better. Eve is still hit or miss for me, but she’s clean in the ring for the most part, and working with Beth again will only help her keep improving. Working with Beth did wonders for Kelly, and Eve always has something new anyway. I’m actually excited to see what she can put together with Beth for Sunday. It should be a good match.
