A not so appropriate title for this week’s SmackDown Redux would be “The Hangover Edition” but that’s incredibly unfair to the newly crowned Diva’s Champion, Eve, and her opponent on this week’s episode of the A-List show, Layla. However, after last week’s epic episode, I truly felt like this week was nothing more than a buzz kill. The match itself was okay, and so was the backstage segment that featured Michelle McCool and Vickie Guerrero (…and Dolph Ziggler). But unfortunately it just failed to live up to the high expectations that last week set.
Of course, I’m getting ahead of myself. This is not the time to talk about my personal opinion. This is merely the introduction so let me get all generic on you people and say…
WITHOUT FURTHER ADO HEREEEEEEE’S SMACKDOWN!
Tonight’s Diva portion of the show kicked off with a segment. Lay-Cool are walking backstage with Layla dressed to wrestle. They’re chatting about the Royal Rumble and Michelle calls Eve a snake. They agree that she didn’t deserve to be in that match at the Rumble and Michelle says that it’s all because it was Lay-Cool’s rematch. They can’t decide how Eve got into the match and Michelle seems a little annoyed that no one ever seems to help them out like that. They agree that Eve’s victory was nothing more than a fluke and Michelle makes the statement that had the referee been doing his job correctly that she would be the new Diva’s Champion. Layla stops them and goes “don’t you mean we?” Michelle just looks at her and goes “yay, whatever Lay.” This insults Layla and rightfully so, but before she can reply, the door to Vickie’s office swings open and out walks the woman herself.
Vickie glares at both Michelle and Layla, and tells them how disappointed she is in them. She says they cost Dolph the World Championship last week and she can’t believe she put so much faith in them. Vickie says that if she wants something done right, she’s going to have to do it herself and that’s precisely why she is the special guest referee in Dolph’s match tonight against Edge. Dolph walks up and places his hands on Vickie’s shoulders. He demands to know why she’s talking to a loser and his blue eyes go straight to Layla. Layla wants to know just who he’s calling a loser and he replies that he’s speaking to her because last week she cost him HIS championship. Dolph tells Vickie that they don’t have time to talk to them because they have a match to get ready and both Dolph and Vickie walk off.
Oh yeah, during that whole exchange between Layla and Dolph, Michelle was looking at the number one contender like she wanted to throw him against the wall and have her way with him. Please tell me that I’m not the only one that noticed that?
And someone please tell me that I’m not the only who noticed Michelle reaching out to grab a handful of Dolph booty as he walked off?
Interesting.
Anyway, Layla glares at Michelle and sarcastically thanks her for having her back. Michelle just stares at her BFF as Layla walks off. The show then cut to a commercial break.
When SmackDown returns, Lay-Cool are in the ring. They’re talking and perhaps smoothing things over. A video package of what transpired at the Royal Rumble plays and then Eve’s music hits. The Diva’s Champ walks to the ring to a nice ovation. She slaps a few hands on her way down the ramp and when she gets inside the ring she plays to the crowd. A few seconds later, the bell rings and we officially have ourselves a match! The girls look like they’re about to lock up but Layla decides against it and slips out of the ring. She goes right to Michelle and pleads with her to have her back. She says she can’t focus and that she needs Michelle’s support, and Michelle does her best to assure Layla and for the moment that seems to satisfy Layla. She goes back to the ring as the referee starts the count, but she changes her mind. Layla goes right back to Michelle and their conversation continues. Layla is convinced she can’t in the ring and face Eve, and Michelle tries to calm her down by telling her to breathe.
Eve has had enough of the stall tactics and gets out of the ring. She violently shoves Michelle to the ground and takes Layla by the head and slams it off the broadcast table. Eve follows it up by tossing Layla into the ring. She goes in after her but Layla greets her with a kick to the stomach. Eve drops to her knees and Layla grabs a handful of hair and pulls Eve’s hand back, slamming it into the canvas. Layla works over Eve and eventually throws her against the ropes. That gives Michelle and opportunity to badger the champ while Layla chokes her for a few seconds. Layla jerks Eve off the ropes and drop kicks her in the back which sends Eve face first into the ground. Layla goes for a quick cover and Eve gets the shoulder up after the two.
Layla remains on offense and places Eve in a pretty submission hold. Michelle turns her back to the action to sorta play off of what Layla is doing and meanwhile, Layla encourages Michelle to look at what she’s doing to Eve. Eve finally starts to fight back with kicks and elbows, and Layla finds herself releasing the hold and moving back. She shakes it off and comes back at Eve, but Eve is waiting and does an awesome little Greco-Roman like takedown to Layla. Both girls are slow to get to their feet and Layla is holding her lower back in pain. They finally greet each other and Layla takes the initiative to shove Eve back. When Layla goes at Eve, the California girl takes a wild swing but misses with the clothesline, however she catches Layla on the rebound with a nice drop kick.
Eve is now on offense and she takes it to Lay, making sure the British-born beauty stays down. Once Eve is satisfied that Layla isn’t going anywhere, she nails her with a standing moonsault. She goes for the cover but Layla manages to get the shoulder up after the two. Both women get back up and Layla is able to fend Eve off with a kick. Eve isn’t about to let her advantage slip again and she brings Layla down with a nice looking little move I’m going to call a face-breaker. How awesome. Layla rolls onto her back and Eve decides that it’s time to finish the match with the top rope moonsault. She climbs to the top rope but Michelle jumps on the apron. The distraction is enough to allow Layla to kick Eve’s feet out from underneath her and poor Eve just crashes and burns. Layla grabs her foe by the ankle and pulls her to the center of the ring.
And then Eve randomly wins.
Huh?
Other SmackDown tidbits…
Before his match with Chris Masters, Drew McIntyre got on the microphone and dedicated his match to recently fired Diva, Kelly Kelly. He blamed Edge for Kelly’s firing and he called out Edge, saying he would never forget it. And yes, I did just throw up in my mouth.
Vickie Guerrero also refereed the main event as it was so perfectly hyped up throughout the week. During the match she actually attempted to spear Edge which didn’t go over so well. I would definitely recommend finding a video of that somewhere and watching.
It’s hard to sit here and say what I liked about SmackDown because I just felt letdown. I know it’s incredibly hard to follow-up something as beautifully divalicious as last week, but come on! I do feel like Eve and Layla put on a fun match. I really enjoyed it, especially some of Eve’s mat moves. Layla is a little submission goddess and I think Eve’s standing moonsault is one of my favorite moves. The crowd, as well as the weird ending killed this match for me personally. The crowd was rude and the ending made little sense to me. After watching the match twice and missing it both times, I just gave up on it. It is what it is. Fun to see Eve back on SmackDown though.
Lay-Cool tension was teased again and I think the split is pretty inevitable now. I don’t want to see it, but that looks like the direction we’re headed. I just have to ask, why was Michelle trying to grab Dolph’s ass?!
As far as next week’s SmackDown goes, I don’t have high hopes for the Divas. It’s advertised as the 600th episode and the interpromotional main event is all we need to know to be able to tell the Divas will get pushed to the back burner. They usually do when it comes to special shows but maybe we’ll get a Raw vs. SmackDown or Heel vs. Face tag team match. I just hope that it won’t suck and every girl will get a chance to wrestle.
And can we please have better follow-up to Kelly getting “fired” than Drew just dedicating a match to her? Gross.
