This week on SmackDown: Michelle McCool toppled Maryse once more in a Divas Championship rematch. Brie Bella and Maria ran into Natalya and Victoria. And even Eve Torres teased she wanted in on the action!
Thoughts & Reactions
Last night’s Friday Night SmackDown proved exactly what I’ve been saying about the SmackDown women’s division for so long now… it’s superior. For months I’ve touted that SmackDown provides the best Divas entertainment of the week, fun matches, likable Divas, great chemistry and last night’s show, to me, was a seminal episode. For those who don’t know what seminal means:
highly original and influencing the development of future events: a seminal artist; seminal ideas.
That’s exactly what I felt about last night’s Divas action on SmackDown. The Divas Championship match between Michelle McCool and Maryse was a seminal moment in SmackDown’s Diva history. That match tore it down! I really enjoyed their work at Unforgiven and when I first read the spoilers, I thought “How are they gonna top that?” but they did in a huge way. I loved the Unforgiven match and I loved this match, I want to say it was better than Unforgiven and in many ways it was, but both matches were very different and focussed on different things. I guess if it came down to it, I would say last night’s match was better but the two matches were very different: Unforgiven was more about telling a story, having in-ring psychology whereas this match was more fast paced and action packed. It depends on what you like to see in the ring in deciding which you preferred. The SmackDown match was incredibly action packed, so much fun to watch and the work was incredible. I’m sure they edited some stuff, but in all you can’t fake great ring presence and you can’t fake comfortability in the ring – these two are no Victoria or Mickie James – but they exuded ring presence and comfortability, which cannot be edited into a show.
Seeing how well Maryse and Michelle used their surroundings (the ring, the ring ropes), it made me feel as though I was watching a match between two veterans. Both of these Divas worked so hard and the work was fantastic. There were several great spots in this match and I was honestly blown away, just when I thought they’d let down, they got even better. The match was given a great length, had many different spots and felt like ‘must see television’. I love that Michelle is using the ‘Wings of Love’ again, it’s a great move and a nice fitting end to this match. Would I have Maryse and Michelle continue to feud? No. Michelle has two victories over Maryse now, I think it’s time to move on. I honestly think these two are 2-for-2 in their singles matches and I wouldn’t want them to ruin the great work they’ve had together by having loads more singles matches together. If and when Part 3 takes place, I would want it to mean something like Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong. I felt really proud watching this match, as though my allegiance to the SmackDown women’s division was rewarded.
Later in the evening, we got Eve Torres teasing that she too, could be making her in-ring debut in a segment with Vickie Guerrero and the Big Show. How do I feel about this? The more the merrier! If she is decent in the ring, why not? I’m excited to see her wrestle if and when she makes her in-ring debut.
The backstage segment between the four other Divas was another display of fine work, this time not of in-ring ability, but promo ability. Seems as though newbie, Brie Bella is just as good at cutting promos as she is in the ring. As for Maria, I think after posing for Playboy, she needs to drop the ditzy gimmick and it seemed she tried to go back to that on SmackDown. It doesn’t really work, if you ask me. She needs to find a new niche. Natalya and Victoria were entertaining as ever and I love that this segment actually promoted a match for next week. Will Nicole finally be revealed?
If you ask me, this week’s Divas action was fantastic and perhaps I am being biased, but it proved to me just why I look forward more to Friday nights than Monday nights.
Individual Assessments
In this portion we will look at each of the Divas individually and the role they played, adding more thoughts yadda yadda:
Brie Bella: I thought the identical costume shtick was nicely done.
Eve Torres: Get her in the ring!
Maria: WWE continues to try and push Maria as a fashion designer lol… Flannel, really?
Maryse: Maryse was on fire!
Michelle McCool: Michelle too!
Natalya: Great work from Nat!
Victoria: Hilarious as always.
Fashion Focus
The Good: None.
The Bad: Maria and Victoria.
The In-Between: Everyone else.
Digital Photos (Courtesy of WWE.com)
