Hello, beautiful people! Welcome to the Name Day edition of the Raw Redux. It is your Khaleesi’s birthday and like every year for the past six or so years, I am turning twenty-one! I know, right? Let’s get this show on the road. A lot was teased Sunday during Hell in a Cell for this very show, and personally, I can’t wait to see what evidence Queen Vickie Guerrero has on our beloved AJ and Superman himself, John Cena. I also want to see if our sexy Prince Dawlf gets involved in this hot mess of an angle. And maybe most importantly, I’m dying to see if Kaitlyn has anything to say to Divas Champion, Eve Torres, or maybe Layla? So many questions. So much intrigue. I’m excited! Are you?
Excuse me for a second. Wade Barrett is on at the moment. I’m fanning myself. Sexy, sexy piece of man. Yummy.
After Orton/Barrett we have our first Diva sighting of the night. AJ is sitting in Queen Vickie’s office. AJ appears to be waiting on our Queen and when Queen Vickie does show up, the two rivals end up in a rather interesting exchange. AJ wants to be hired back as an in-ring performer and Queen Vickie decides to toy with her about this seeing as how the Board of Directors has asked her to consider it.
This is a nice little preview of what could potentially play out tonight. This AJ/Vickie rivalry is exciting to me personally because it’s so different. It’s been well booked, both women are absolute amazing at what they do, and together it’s exciting. Vickie and AJ have extreme chemistry and I get the impression both of them enjoy playing off one another. Vickie has the best character in the company and gets insane heat. AJ has come into her own and her star keeps rising. They’re good for one another. I loved this teaser segment a lot.
It doesn’t take long for us to get into more Queen Vickie/AJ drama. After Team Hell No successfully wins another match, they cameras take us backstage where Queen Vickie is advertised as being next. Hell yeah!
Listen to those jeers as she walks to the ring. I love it. I also love that she says her reign as Raw general manager is going to be filled with integrity. Come on, now! We know better, Queen Vickie. She tells everyone that she is keeping her promise and introduces the man at the heart of the AJ scandal, John Cena!
Cena apologizes to the crowd for having to put up with this. Then he turns to Vickie and says please show us the footage. Vickie has three videos and one questionable picture of John and AJ. To his credit, Cena has a logical explanation for everything but in true Queen Vickie fashion, she manages to make it into something scandalous. Cena finally goes on the defensive, which is exactly what Queen Vickie wants. Cena begins praising AJ, while running down our Queen, and Vickie jumps all over him.
Eventually, our Queen’s associate, Prince Dawlf, walks to the ring. He is looking to get in Cena’s face and starts talking smack, and Cena flips. He threatens the beautifully blond Prince Dawlf and pushes him down to the ground. He warns him to never mention his name or AJ’s name again and storms out of the ring. Prince Dawlf is scowling in the ring. The crowd is jeering. Queen Vickie is giggling. Oh my goodness.
I do love Prince Dawlf.
I wonder what our beloved heroine AJ is going to have to say about this?! Stayed tuned folks! I don’t think this is over.
We cut to the backstage area again. AJ and Queen Vickie are in Vickie’s office. Vickie is taunting AJ about her “relationship” with Cena, and AJ refuses to play along. Queen Vickie offers AJ the chance to get her roster back if she just admit she cares about Cena and has feelings for him. AJ says that as much as she loves this company she isn’t going to hurt anyone to get her job back. AJ turns to leave, but Vickie calls her back. She hires AJ on the condition that she will never put her hands on Queen Vickie again. AJ agrees and Vickie immediately books her in a match for tonight.
AJ will take on Beth Phoenix later on tonight.
Ahhh! This match. This wasn’t at all what I was expecting and that’s a good thing. I absolutely can not wait to see AJ and Beth work a match together. My memory kind of sucks and I think they may have faced one another before, but this time I doubt it’s a squash match. It’s been awhile since AJ got a chance to wrestle and what better opponent for her than Beth? Loving Raw so far tonight!
On a side note, who in the hell got the bright idea to put Heath Slater, Jinder Mahal, and Drew McIntyre together? Someone please get these guys some groupies. If Brodus Clay can have dancers. 3MB totally needs groupies. Who’s with me?
Cricket. Cricket.
I tried. Up next is the match! AJ versus Beth. I’m actually pretty excited for this.
Skip to 06:45
Okay. That was unexpected. There isn’t much to talk about technically because it was a few moves here and there. I loved how Beth started the contest off by trying to goad AJ into attacking her. She bullied our beloved a bit and finally AJ ended up snapping. That doesn’t surprise anyone. Beth eventually managed to fend off her bigger opponent and tossed AJ to the outside of the ring. Summoning her inner Prince Dawlf, AJ sold an absolutely devestating bump into the ring apron. She literally made it look like Beth broke her in half. It was amazing. Once they got back inside the ring, AJ was able to roll Beth up with an inside cradle and steal a win.
The victory would be short lived, much like the match. Queen Vickie comes out to the ring and orders the match to be restarted because she demands more of AJ as a performer. Beth uses this to nail AJ from behind. When the bell rings, it doesn’t take rocket science to figure out what will happen next. Beth gets AJ up, and our former general manager and star of The Summer of AJ series eats a brutal Glam Slam. Beth is now declared the winner and Vickie smirks her way to the back.
Oh my gosh.
Vickie and AJ are no doubt going to end up a match somewhere down the road, or something, and it’s going to be absolutely glorious. This is going to get nasty pretty fast and I love it. I loved Beth tonight as well. She looked beautiful and classy, and as someone who regularly rocks red lipstick, I applaud her make-up choice for the night.
I kind of wish they would have gotten a real match, but there’s a storyline behind this so I’m not to fussed. It wasn’t a three-second meaningless match. It worked for everyone involved and at the end of the day that’s all I can ask for. Nice job.
And it doesn’t seem like things are over. Lets go backstage once again.
AJ is standing with Cena and he is telling her that things will get straightened out soon. He’s trying to pep her up by saying she’s got her job back, and AJ allows herself to give him a hint of a smile. He reassures her that things are going to work out and he takes off. Unbeknownst to AJ, Vickie has been watching the whole thing. AJ lingers a bit, watching Cena, then walks off as well. Vickie rubs her hands together and has that Cheshire cat like smile on her face. She’s interrupted by Beth.
Beth thanks Vickie for restarting the match but Vickie isn’t in the mood to listen. She tells Beth that she should have done her job correctly the first time and that while she’s in charge, she won’t take lackluster performances. She fires Beth right there on the spot leaving the Glamazon confused as to why. When Vickie walks off, Beth just kind of brings her hands to her face and that closes that segment.
Oh wow. Didn’t want Beth to go out that way, to be honest. Not sure what to really say. I suppose you can look at it as a positive. We all kind of knew Beth was finishing up with the company this month. She got a win on her way out. And her “firing” is clearly storyline related. Should Beth ever want to return to the WWE she has a good opening. She could come back as one of the many people Vickie has screwed over because we all know the power is going to go to Vickie’s head.
That said, it’s a shame to see such a talented performer go out that way. Beth means a lot to a lot of people and I would have appreciated seeing her send off handled a bit better. I’ve had the privilege of meeting Beth twice and talking to her a bit, and she’s just as a beautiful on the inside as she is on the out. Beth is the absolute epitome of class and elegance and I’ll never forget when she let me hold the Divas Championship. What an absolute honor.
She’s had an amazing career in the WWE and lets be honest, not many women can say that. I hope she comes back one day, but if not, she can take away the fact that she is one of the few women who is respected for her looks as well as her in-ring skills. Beth can have a good match with anyone. She’s really, really going to be missed. I hate knowing that we might never get a Beth versus Natalya WrestleMania match. To me, that’s an honest to God shame.
That said, we have another Diva sighting. It’s brief. It’s kind of pointless unless you care about video games. But it does involve Kaitlyn so in the spirit of fairness here is her segment with Mick Foley that is quickly interrupted by the God that is Paul Heyman. Well, at least Kaitlyn looked super hot. Good to see the WWE using her to market a bit. Kaitlyn definitely is a rising star and I really do believe the WWE should use her as much as possible in any way they can. That’s the only way to get the fans behind her and keep them interested.
I’m going to close this Redux with this. We are always quick to criticize the WWE, Vince McMahon, and everyone involved with the company. But one thing no one can criticize is what they’ve done for the past two months. As a woman and someone who works for a women’s wrestling website, and just as a human being in general, their partnership with the Susan G. Komen organization has touched me to no end. This truly did make me cry.
What else needs to be said?
Looking forward to SmackDown where there should be some fall-out from the title situation. I’m looking forward to seeing where things go. Until next time… Khaleesi out!
