This week on SmackDown: Natalya and Maria faced off in the opener of this week’s show. Maria got the win via DQ after being attacked by Natalyta and Maryse before Michelle McCool made the save.
Thoughts & Reactions
Upon reading this week’s spoilers, I felt an initial surprise – the result was something new and different. But in execution, I felt this week’s SmackDown was the same old, same old and not very good. This week, the real question was what could the experienced favourite Natalya pull out of the inexperienced and somewhat annoying Maria? Well the answer was, a little. While I’m never really impressed with Maria, this week was an improvement on the past few weeks proving what an uber-Diva Natalya is.
The third generation Diva continues to exert her unique prowess in the ring, bringing in-ring psychology into the mix while trying to stumble from one move to the next, carrying the Playboy covergirl. I liked the whole deal with Natalya going after Maria’s knee. This was a surprisingly long match – I’m used to quickies from the Divas, but the length really helped Natalya and Maria get their story across.
If Maryse is interfering, why would her entrance music play? I didn’t really like the end, I felt this could be a good match if they had a clean win. Instead we have the involvement of Maryse and Michelle and the end, as usual over the past month on SmackDown, felt unresolved. No storyline continuations, just matches with undefined endings. I mean where is this all going? Are we just going to have a random combination of matches every week? Can they not just announce a Maria vs Maryse match for next week or something? Can they not just give Natalya her rematch already? Why do we need to go around in circles every freakin’ week? The booking leaves a lot to be desired.
Overall, the match was okay but the end I wasn’t keen on.
Individual Assessments
In this portion we will look at each of the Divas individually and the role they played, adding more thoughts yadda yadda:
Maria: An improvement of her matches of late, I’ll give her that.
Maryse: I guess Maryse just has to make an entrance?
Michelle McCool: Is it just me or is the actual Divas Champion the one being overlooked among this division?
Natalya: Great work from Natalya, as usual.
Fashion Focus
The Good: Maryse looked really, really hot!
The Bad: Michelle, what the f*ck was up with that?
The In-Between: Everyone else.
Digital Photos (Courtesy of WWE.com)
NATALYA VS. MARIA
