Yes… I went there.
I think it’s fair to say that this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw was nothing more than a big ole mess. Fourteen divas, one ring, and no time is never a good combination but when things end up with a chorus line or a kick line, or whatever the hell you want to call it, it’s just not good for anyone involved. I can only thank the wrestling gods high in squared circle heaven for sparing at least seven of the girls the utter humiliation of just looking dumb. As far as the other seven… well, at least three of them got a chance to redeem themselves on SmackDown. The war between the heels and the faces continued on this Friday and we finally got our six Diva tag team match. Natalya joined her rookie pals, AJ and Kaitlyn, to take on Tamina, Alicia Fox, and Rosa Mendes. Will the heels reign supreme or will the faces carrying their kick line momentum to another victory?
Like usual, we kick things off with the entrances and rather than just letting us see the face entrance, we get the heel entrance this week as well. Alicia, Tamina, and Rosa come out to Alicia’s music and they stand in the ring with their bitch faces on while the faces make their way to the ring. I also thank the wrestling gods for not letting me hear AJ’s theme again, and if all she ever does is tag with and use Natalya’s music from here on out… I’m okay with that. Anyway, the faces pose for the crowd and it’s decided that Alicia and Kaitlyn will begin.
Alicia attacks right off the bat by kicking Kaitlyn in the stomach and knocking her down with a stiff looking forearm. She tosses her in the corner and looks to bounce her head off the turnbuckle, but Kaitlyn gets a foot up to block. Kaitlyn fires back with an elbow, as well some other offense, and she throws Alicia into the corner padding. Alicia stumbles away from Kaitlyn and groggily turns around only to be knocked down with a clothesline. She wisely gets up, runs to her corner, and tags in Tamina.
Tamina and Kaitlyn lock up, with Tamina easily getting the advantage here. She sends Kaitlyn flying into the corner and the NXT season three winner smartly tags in Natalya. The gorgeous blond enters the ring and slides between Tamina’s legs. The surprised Diva whirls around and Nattie nails her with a dropkick. Tamina goes stumbling into the ropes and Nattie goes to use the adjacent ones for leverage. Rosa inserts herself into the action by getting Natalya’s attention, and that allows Tamina to recover. When Natalya turns around, Tamina slams her foot into the Canadian’s gut, and Nattie is doubled over in pain. Tamina follows it up with a vicious little headbutt and Nattie is sent to the ground. This gives the beautiful brunette a chance to work over those powerful legs of Natalya’s and she decides to try and weaken the left one.
And when I say left, I could mean right. I’m ambidextrous so I don’t really know the difference.
Anyway, Tamina snaps Natalya’s knee (not literally) but it proves to be a mistake because the experience of Nattie pays dividends. Natalya is able to turn Tamina’s wannabe submission into the Sharpshooter and she pulls the lesser experienced Diva to the center of the ring. She’s looking for a victory but Rosa jumps in the ring and attacks Nattie from behind. This brings in Kaitlyn, who is quick to dispose of Zack Ryder’s ex-girlfriend (still a travesty he was left off Raw this week, ahem). Nattie scrambles to her corner and AJ finally gets to see some action.
The little spitfire comes flying in with some pretty snazzy forearm shots to Tamina’s face. However, the larger, more powerful girl is able to shove AJ off. AJ bounces off the ropes and attempts to wrap herself around Tamina’s shoulders, but Tamina puts a stop to whatever it is that AJ is wanting to do. She simply falls back and crushes AJ, and she goes for the cover.
One…
Two…
Three!
Alicia, Tamina, and Rosa are able to celebrate a victory.
Welp, it wasn’t bad.
That said, it wasn’t good either. I want to reserve extreme judgment because some people are saying this match was horribly edited. Apparently there were digitals that showed different things happening in the match that was shown on television. I can’t confirm that because honestly, I don’t have a clue. All I can talk about is what I saw in three short minutes. A good minute of the match was used simply for ring entrances and the rest was action. Alicia and Kaitlyn worked well together and wow, Alicia just looked so pretty to me tonight. Tamina worked the majority of the match and against Natalya, she was solid. I would honestly like to see a one on one match between those two because I feel as if Natalya could bring out Tamina’s best. They could match power for power moves, and it could be a great contest.
Not really sure what else I can say about this week’s SmackDown. It went how pretty much how I thought it would. I don’t know if we can ever expect the girls to improve when they’re given so little time but all we can do is continue to support them no matter what. One day someone will wake up and realize that there are amazing wrestlers on the Diva roster and they’ll give those girls a chance to shine and make the girls who lack look like a million dollars. Look what happened when time was invested in Layla.
That’s basically all I’ve got this week, I’m afraid. It doesn’t look like we’ll have anything to watch at Capitol Punishment unless something is added at the last minute. I’ll be watching regardless but should we not have any Diva action on Sunday, I’ll just hope that we get something great come Monday.
Of course with a three-hour show, that probably won’t happen. Until then… Cryssi out!
