With WrestleMania and those pesky Raw Divas getting in the way of actual storyline progression for SmackDown just when it was getting good, it seems as though the writers of the blue brand have pressed the ‘reset’ button. Watching this week’s show, you’d be forgiven if you feel like you’re watching a rerun, because that’s exactly what it felt like. If you skip this week’s show, which obviously you aren’t because you’re reading this, you’d honestly not be missing anything because everything is as it was two weeks ago — even the match. There was nothing new to learn coming out this week’s show: Beth Phoenix still wants the Women’s Championship, Vickie Guerrero still has heat on her and Tiffany is still that young Diva opening our eyes to her surprisingly good in-ring ability.
In fact, the only new thing piece of information to take from this week’s show is that Vickie’s version of the frog splash is now the ‘Cougar Splash’ (Rarr!). Must-know information, I’m sure. Watch the backstage scene below:
Next up, it’s time for this week’s Divas match which is exactly the same match as two weeks ago. Funny how SmackDown only has four active Divas in the women’s division right now while Raw has like 11 and uses them for one minute each week. Can the Draft hurry up?
Watch the match below:
So for three out of three matches on television, Tiffany is wearing the same ring attire. Girlfriend is just begging for jokes about not washing her clothes and/or smelling.
McCool and Tiffany start things out with a lock-up and the Women’s Champion backs Tiffany into the corner and pushes her. She then boasts to Layla & Vickie in her corner but as she turns around, she finds a peeved Tiffany who hits her with a drop toe hold and an atomic drop. Tiffany tries to irish whip McCool into the corner, McCool reverses but she can’t move Tiffany so she instead goes for a kick to the gut. Michelle agin goes for an irish whip into the corner but Tiffany reverses and hits a one-legged variation of the monkey flip. Michelle lands in the corner and Tiffany runs at her to presumably hit a real monkey flip this time but Michelle manages to toss Tiffany who lands on her front pretty hard. Ouch!
Michelle goes for a cover but doesn’t get the pin. McCool then chokes Tiffany over the middle rope with her legs before smashing her head repeatedly against the canvas. The champ then tags in Layla and the duo hit a double-team move, a front leg sweep, that’s accompanied by a unison, “Sorry Tiffany.” Tiffany hits her head pretty hard on the map… this is becoming a regular occurence.
Layla grabs Tiffany by the hair and hits sort of a leg split slam similar to Melina and goes for a cover but Tiff kicks out. Layla then applies a chinlock with her knee digging into Tiffany’s back. Tiffany however, slowly gets up and slams Layla onto her back. She makes a dash for her corner and tags in the Glamazon, Beth Phoenix.
Phoenix storms the ring with a shoulder block and some double axe-handles on Layla. She then picks up Layla for an airplane spin and then hits her with a powerful clothesline sold beautifully by Layla. Beth then knocks McCool off the apron, but as she is distracted up gets Layla who goes for a beautiful spin kick but Beth ducks and locks in her Glam Slam for the win.
After the match, a staredown ensues between Beth and Vickie before Simply Flawless flee the ring.
Beth wins again. They tease Vickie being pissed off again. Michelle escapes from the clutches of Beth Phoenix with the Women’s Championship again. In a way, I guess it’s a good thing that they’re backtracking and re-selling the story that they laid down a few weeks ago. I mean, it did get overlooked by the last-last minute crappy WrestleMania push. However, I highly doubt that this was WWE’s intention. It really just seems like a case of these Diva storylines reaching a peak and then just going around in circles for weeks before a pay-off is to be had — they did it with Melina vs Michelle, they did it with Mickie vs Michelle and now this storyline too.
Because the Divas are usually an afterthought and added to pay per views after they’ve taken care of giving spots to the guys, it’s unlikely that there’s an end game in sight for a pay off match i.e. Beth vs Michelle. If they were to do a PPV match between these two at Extreme Rules in three weeks, it probably wouldn’t be finalised until a week or so [if that] before the event and thus, we’ll probably be going around in circles until they have that title match finalised. It’s the big curse that plagues most of these Diva feuds, no matter how hot they start they soon fizzle out and it’s something I really hoped wouldn’t happen here. The momentum behind Beth right now is crazy, they should definitely capitalise on that push her into a Women’s Title match against McCool. The longer they wait, the quicker that momentum begins to die down.
As for the match, it wasn’t bad at all. All four Divas worked well, Layla again was extremely crisp and clean in her execution of moves [that spinning kick] as well as in her selling. Tiffany took the ‘Maria role’ this week, taking a big beatdown from Lay-Cool and not really shining as much herself. She did a good job in that department this week.
Other than that, there’s not much more to comment on. Let’s hope we get some advancement next week.
