Monday night on RAW, we saw Team B.A.D. get the better of Team Bella, Natalya humble Paige in a thrilling contest, and Summer Rae proposing to Rusev that lead to a surprising ultimatum! Let’s see what happens in the latest chapter of The Divas Revolution/The Wizard of Oz/The Young & The Restless/Degrassi/La Rosa de Guadalupe on Thursday Night Smackdown!
Our first Diva appearance is of Summer Rae. She’s getting her makeup and hair done and is wedding planning on what dress she will wear. The former First Lady of NXT goes on and on about her upcoming (or pending) nuptials until she is interrupted by Rusev. The former United States Champion reminds her that the only way she gets a wedding is if she can find a way to get him a championship. Summer has been proactive and has gotten Rusev booked for a match with Ryback and ensures Rusev a win over the former champion will put him in line for a title shot. Rusev smiles in approval and Summer hugs him and proclaims they will both have gold they desire. As Summer leaves the scene, Rusev slaps Summer on the bottom and Summer responds squealing: “Oh, RuRu!”. Yeah, that just happened.
Moving on, We see Team Bella (Nikki Bella, Brie Bella and Alicia Fox) making their way to the ring as Eden announces we are getting a Six Diva Tag Team match tonight! And their opponents………….. are the team of the Divas Champion Charlotte and Becky Lynch. Jerry Lawler tells us that The CB in the former PCB have hand-picked a partner for tonight. The guitar riff starts and we know who the third woman is! It is Natalya!
The teams are in their respective corner and we are underway! Kicking things off Becky Lynch and Alicia Fox kick things off with a collar and elbow tie-up. Fox gets control of the arm for a few moments as Lynch rolls through and counters with a schoolboy roll-up and only gets 2. The Lass Kicker then hits two beautiful arm drags and then hold with a armbar. She backs into her corner and The Divas Champion has tag in. The Woooos commence as Charlotte and Becky nail Foxy with a double arm-drag, double elbow drop, and a double kip-up! Charlotte goes for a cover and gets a two-count.
Charlotte has Fox in a headlock and goes into the corner and Natalya tags in! The two do a double armbar and Nattie follows it up with her patented basement dropkick. She attempts a pin and gets a two-count! As they get up, Foxy hits a jawbreaker on Nattie and sends her into the Bellas’ corner and tags in Nikki Bella. Nikki hits a double axe-handle from the second rope as Alicia held on to her arm. Nikki applies a wrist lock and Nattie attempts get out a few ways but flips out and then arm drags her to the corner. Nattie tags in Becky Lynch and suplex the Headmaster of Fearless University. Lynch follows it up with a cover but Nikki powers out. We see Paige watching the match backstage not looking to thrilled.
Lynch whips Nikki into the ropes and sets her head down and Nikki counters with a kick to the head. She grabs Becky by the head and tags in Brie. Nikki hits her knee facebuster and Brie doubles down with her patented missile dropkick. Brie tries a pin and doesn’t get the W. Brie sits Becky up and delivers some elbows to the neck and chest as we go to commercial break.
We return from commercial break to see Nikki throw Becky in the corner taunting Charlotte who is trying to get in. The referee’s back is turned so Brie and Foxy take the opportunity to beat down on Becky illegally. Team Bella taunts some more and Nikki takes her boot to choke Becky in the corner. Alicia Fox tags in and Nikki lets go of her hold allowing Foxy to hit the best Northern Lights Suplex In The Biz! Her bridged pin only gets two so she retaliates with a headlock. She throws Becky to the ropes and hits a dropkick. Foxy attempts a pin and only gets two. Foxy tags in Brie who hits her flying clothesline and gets a near fall.
Brie picks Becky up and Becky is trying to make a tag but Brie pulls down her hair and the Lass Kicker goes crashing to the mat. Brie places Lynch in the ropes and delivers a pair of submissions but breaks before the ref’s count of five. The ref walks Brie back and his back is turned yet again and Nikki hits a kick to Becky’s head. Becky is on the ropes and Brie nails a few kicks to the head. Then BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE MOOOOOOOOOODE is activated. She goes for the knee but Becky rolls out of the way. She goes to tag but Brie grabs the leg. She kicks Mrs. American Dragon into the corner but Nikki tags in fast and hits The Divas Champion before a tag can be made.
Nikki puts Becky in a facelock. Becky powers out of it, hits the ropes and is met with an uppercut from Nikki. Nikki throws her into a neutral corner and runs for an attack but Becky counters throwing Nikki’s face into the turnbuckle. With this opening, Becky is finally able to tag in Charlotte! Charlotte charges Nikki with chops, her neckbreaker and a big boot and this match is now in favor of the babyfaces!
Nikki is placed in a neutral corner. Charlotte runs to attack and gets an elbow. Nikki follows it up with her enziguri and gains a nearfall on the champ. She gives Nattie a forearm and begins setting Charlotte up for the Rack Attack. Charlotte fights out and hits Nikki with a SPEAR! She goes for the Figure 4 but is stopped by a kick from Brie. Nattie runs to pull Brie off the apron and hits Foxy with a clothesline before get nailed by one of Brie’s.
Meanwhile in the ring both divas are on the ground. Suddenly, Becky goes in and dropkicks Nikki to roll over and Charlotte reapplies the Figure 8 and Nikki taps out! Team NBC wins this tag war!
Backstage, Renee Young asks Paige her thoughts on this match. She says there is no Team NBC, Team PBC is still a thing. And Nattie is using Becky and Charlotte to be relevant and take her spot. She doesn’t like it and she doesn’t like her.
In the continuation of “The Adventures of SumRu” (Yes, I’m starting that; your welcome) Summer is in Rusev’s corner as he is unsuccessful in defeating Ryback even with several bits of interference from Summer.
Thoughts: I’m confused. That’s it. See you next week! Okay, but seriously, what in the name of Godney was that? I am confused though. Yes, the match was solid. I’m not concerned about match quality because that has not been the issue here. The major problem with the Divas Revolution has been the story, the plot. I’m not really sure what WWE is thinking Paige should do here? Is she bi-polar? Is she just being a brat? She went from being blunt and selfish on RAW, to tagging like nothing ever happened, to crying in the ring at MSG, to losing to Nattie, to this now? How do those events make sense? To me, it seemed like Paige was gonna go down the Trish 2004 era route where she would just throw shade and people hate her for being honest, but so rudely blunt. I was here for that. In some ways I think there may be regret in the heel turn since Paige was the biggest babyface in the divas division and people don’t want to boo her. I wish the booking here was that the match came down to Charlotte needing to tag Nattie and Paige costing them the match via another pull off the apron or distraction or whatever. That way, you can still have heat on Paige with BOTH Charlotte and Nattie. With Paige still wanting to be in PCB really makes no sense because why would you wanted to be paired with people you dislike?
Regarding SumRu (yes I will refer to them as that fro now), I like this new direction in the storyline. For one, it gives them a lot of time to fill until Lana‘s return and incentive (and a simple incentive) makes for good wrestling television. I would hope as the weeks go on, you get to see Summer get more and more involved in Rusev’s matches causing a few DQs here and there or it can work the other way so Summer can help RuRu (I chuckled when typing this) win some key matches. I think we can expect some fun interactions coming soon with that pair. Also, I would love some obsession from Summer serving some Rosa Mendes Queen of FCW realness over this wedding. My star of the night is Summer because this storyline has been less that amazing but she tries and succeeds at making her segments entertaining for the most part. [Insert Summer Rae stans going ‘YASSSS’ here]
Hopefully next week we get some other match type for the divas to do. I’d love to see a dueling promo like the one we had weeks ago. Heading in Hell in a Cell, it looks like we may have two matches but I don’t feel the investment for them that I felt a week ago. So hopefully we get some more heat on the Highway to HELL……in a Cell.
