Who has the upper hand when you pit Beth Phoenix versus Vickie Guerrero? Looks like we’re about to find out. The latest WWE Diva power struggle pits the unlikely ‘Diva’ Guerrero up against the Glamazon and despite their obvious mismatch in terms of wrestling ability, in all other aspects they’re pretty much tit-for-tat. In kayfabe, Guerrero is the authoratative consultant GM for the SmackDown brand — giving her the right to book matches, make decisions and even fire people. Meanwhile the Glamazon is a talent that colours outside of the lines and doesn’t necessarily care about authority. Is she really intimidated by Vickie?
Watch this week’s SmackDown segment below:
New Women’s Champ, Michelle McCool and Layla are backstage thanking Vickie for her help in winning her the belt last week against Mickie James. The duo present Vickie with a ‘Team Flawless’ top and make her a member of the group. However, up sneaks Beth Phoenix who tells Vickie she wants a shot at the title but Vickie says she’ll get a shot when Vickie says so. Power struggle ensues. Beth says Vickie shouldn’t cross her, Vickie says she’s not intimidated by Beth and that Beth shouldn’t cross her either.
Interesting development here. It seems as though Beth is slotting into that antagonistic role to Vickie that Mickie held until she went away to have her knee surgery. Honestly, I’d hope this will all result in Beth getting a title shot at WrestleMania in a few weeks but I’m not holding my breath. I think the set-up here is exciting as Beth, unlike Mickie, doesn’t come across as a goody-two-shoes type. Beth comes across as a character that marches to the beat of her own drum and doesn’t care about what the GM thinks and that contrasted with Vickie Guerrero should be great to see develop.
Honestly given that it was such a short segment, there’s not much more to analyse. Like I said, I’d like to see this lead to a match at ‘Mania though.
Also this week, Tiffany made her SmackDown debut:
So from ECW GM to backstage babysitter. Oh how the mighty fall! With Maria gone and Mickie sidelined, this effectively makes Tiffany the only babyface Diva on SmackDown right now. She wouldn’t have been my first choice to move over to the brand, I’d much rather see Savannah in this spot, but it looks like Tiff may be transitioning from an on-screen personality to a wrestler. I’ve not seen too much of her work so I’d have to see how she fares but I’m not too excited to see her in the ring and think she lacks the personality or spark of a Maria to single-handedly carry the babyface side of the division until Mickie returns and Beth makes her babyface turn.
It boggles me that much more then, that Maria was released when you know Mickie is about to go and have surgery. She’s a recognisable face and an extremely popular Diva, she could have had a couple of singles matches over the next few weeks to keep the Divas division going until Beth turned or Mickie came back.
I just don’t see Tiffany as a ‘Diva’ so it’s going to be interesting yet odd at the same time to see her teaming up with the likes of Beth or Mickie down the line.
This week’s show was pretty missable in my opinion. It just seems the division is in limbo and I could see them just relying on backstage segments for the next couple of weeks. They need an inciting incident to trigger Beth snapping and turning babyface fully, so I’d like to see that next week. Perhaps have Beth once again face off with Vickie backstage about a title shot and then Vickie puts her in some sort of gauntlet match to earn the opportunity. You could give her three opponents: Layla, Tiffany and finally Natalya with the idea that it’s all too much for one woman to face three opponents but somehow Beth overcomes the odds and Vickie must give her the title shot.
