On last week’s installment on Monday Night Raw, Melina lost her rematch against Layla, leaving the #1 Contender spot wide open for the newly formed Unified Divas Championship. You know that means, right? BATTLE ROYAL! Watch below as Melina, Gail Kim, The Bella Twins, Eve, Natalya, Tamina, Alicia Fox and Jillian compete to determine who will be the next Diva to face Lay-Cool for their Divas Championship:
We return from commercial to find all the Divas already in the ring. (All the Raw Divas, that is. Sorry Kelly and Rosa. Better luck next time!). Before the referee can signal for the bell, Lay-Cool’s music hits and they make their way down the ramp in matching hoodies/dresses. Once they settled in, the bells rings and match is underway.
Within the first few seconds of the match, it quickly breaks down into a mess of flailing limbs, as is the norm when it comes to these sorts of matches. Tamina goes straight for her rival, Natalya, but Natalya is saved by former champion Melina. Melina clings to the back of the formidable Samoan beauty, but is quick thrown down to the mat. Tamina picks Melina up and tosses her over the top rope for a shocking first elimination.
Gail goes after Tamina, tossing her to apron, only to have the same done to her by Maryse. However, both girls manage to hang on and get back into the ring. Tamina has re-focused her efforts on Gail, who tries flip the larger Diva over the top rope via headscissors. Unfortunately for Gail, she receives a nasty looking hotshot over the top rope before being unceremoniously dumped out of the ring.
Looking to keep her streak going, Tamina tries to toss Eve out of the ring, but Eve manages to reverse the move, sending Tamina to the floor. In the meantime, Brie and Nikki Bella have teamed up to take it to Alicia and Jillian. The twins knock their opponents head together, before violating poor Jillian’s head with a double team ass-shake. Alicia tries to help but is taken down by forearm in stereo from the twins.
Looking to finish Jillian and Alicia off, The Bellas throw them to the apron and come charging with dual baseball slide. Alicia and Jillian see them coming, and slide out of the way causing The Bellas to eliminate themselves. Meanwhile, Eve and Maryse have paired off and are exchanging strikes. Maryse comes charging across the ring and is flipped over the top rope and eliminated. Alicia rushes over and attempts to kick Eve out of the ring, but doesn’t quite finish the job, prompting Eve to try and eliminate herself until Alicia kicks her out of ring, leaving us with the final three Divas: Natalya, Jillian and Alicia
Jillian and Alicia immediately team up, leveling Natalya with a double suplex. The duo throw the third generation Diva over the top rope, but she hangs on. Alicia and Jillian celebrate Natalya’s elimination, but the party is cut short, as Jillian quickly turns on Alicia and tries to eliminate her. Alicia is able to reverse Jillian’s attempt and eliminate her to pick up the win… or has she? Alicia soon realizes that Natalya is still in the match and rushes over to push her out of ring to no avail. Frustrated, Alicia tries to take Natalya out with a punch, but is blocked and slapped for her trouble. Before Alicia can get back on the attack, Natalya flips her over the top rope for the win, putting Lay-Cool in a state of shock.
I actually enjoyed this battle royal, more than I usually do anyway. Instead of having meaningless elimination after elimination, I feel like everyone got to show a little something in this match. It also had a few surprises such as, Melina being first eliminated, Tamina dominating the first part of the match, Natalya pulling out the win, of course.
If I had one complaint about this match, it was Lay-Cool’s commentary. Having both of them on commentary was just overwhelming and distracting. They were more interested in cracking funny one-liners than calling the match, which would be fine if they didn’t rope in the commentators as well. I would have preferred they just watch the match from the ramp or backstage, rather than turning it into The Lay-Cool Show.
Of course, the big story here is Natalya’s win. Is it just a one off feud? Could we see something great come of this? Will Natalya finally get some gold? I really hope WWE pulls the trigger on Natalya. She’s one of the best wrestlers in WWE, male or female and it’s a shame she hasn’t held a title yet. I would love to see Natalya have a program with Lay-Cool, possibly even involving a fourth Diva (Beth Phoenix please). And with no Divas match announced for Hell in the Cell this Sunday, hopefully this feud can build up until the next PPV.
I’m really excited to see what WWE has in store for this Natalya/Lay-Cool storyline, if there’s anything in store at all. Hopefully this won’t be just another one shot deal.
