After Monday night hit-and-miss match between Melina and Divas champion, Alicia Fox, fans and critics alike were curious about how these two would fare at SummerSlam with the title on the line. While it wasn’t as sketchy as Monday’s match, these two hardly put on a mat classic. Check out the match below:
Out first is the champ, sporting some new attire. I’m not crazy about it, but it’s probably my favorite out of her new pinata gear. Melina is out next and… wow. Going all out for her hometown return, Melina has donned an over the top and blindingly bright Vegas showgirl outfit, complete with headdress and feathered boots. While it may not be my cup of tea, I have to give Melina points for originality and creativity. Rarely do we see a Diva put so much effort into her ring gear, so kudos to her.
After a few awkward moments of Melina removing her boot covers, the referee rings the bell and our way is underway. The two fierce competitors square off in the center of the ring, each trying to assert their dominance and show their opponent that they’re not intimidated. At long last, the Divas lock up with Melina getting the upper hand and muscling Alicia into the corner. The challenger breaks clean and they tie up again, but this time Fox get the advantage with a headlock followed by a takeover. Melina manages to get to her feet and to the rope, forcing the champ to break the hold.
After breaking the hold, Alicia decides to shove Melina, who is not having any of it. The challenger hits a few forearms before trying to whip Alicia across the ring. Alicia tries to reverse it, but Melina slides past and hooks the ankle, taking Alicia down to the mat face-first. Not giving the champion any time to breathe, Melina applies a modified Indian Deathlock and from that position stomps Alicia’s face into the mat. Alicia retreats to the corner to collect herself, but Melina lets loose with a shoulder block and double knees to the midsection.
Before Melina can continue her assault, Alicia starts grabbing at her own jaw, still feeling the effects of that curbstomp earlier. The ref goes to check on her, and as soon as Alicia sees that Melina has let her guard down, she goes on the attack. Unfortunately for Alicia, Melina has her scouted and countering with a Flapjack for a two count.
Melina goes for another Irish Whip into the corner, but Alicia reverses, sending Melina toward the turnbuckle. Melina manages to leap over Alicia, but upon landing she immediately starts favoring her knee. Uh oh…
Sensing her opponent’s weakness Alicia goes for a clothesline, but Melina execute an awkward matrix, before hitting an elbow and a kick to the jaw. Alicia rolls out to the apron and Melina pursues her, but the champ pulls her into the turnbuckle shoulder first. Alicia continues her attack on the arm with a stiff kick. Alicia drags the ‘Paparazzi Princess’ back into the ring and grounds her with an elbow to the head before driving her knee into the injured shoulder of Melina.
Melina scrambles away from the champion, but Alicia catches her and applies an armbar. Melina manages to get back to a vertical base but is met by a knee to the gut. Alicia throws Melina into the corner, but fights back with a kick to the gut followed by… well, nothing. The match comes to a standstill as both Divas seem to be at a loss as to what’s next. Thankfully, the moment quickly passes and Melina rolls Alicia up for a near fall.
Melina lashes out with a few weak looking forearms, followed by a dropkick. While Alicia is laid out on the ropes Melina drives both her knees into Alicia’s back and follows up with a Snapmere Driver (SHIMMER down now!) for the win becoming the new Divas Champion.
As Melina celebrates, Josh Mathews makes his way to the ring to interview the new champion, but before he can even finish his first question, he is interrupted by Lay-Cool. The BFF champs make their way to the ring to ‘share’ Melina’s special moment since they don’t have a match at SummerSlam. Not too happy about having her special moment ruined, Melina goes on the attack, taking both of the ‘Flawless Ones’ out. Unfortunately, the numbers games comes into play quickly, as Layla holds Melina in place by the feet, leaving her wide open for a vicious super kick. Alicia tries to get in on the action, but Lay-Cool attacks her as well. Lay-Cool toss Melina to the floor and McCool levels Melina with a vicious knee to the head, ending our SummerSlam Divas segment.
I made no bones about my feelings on the Alicia vs Melina match on Raw last week and my feelings about this match are very similar, but for different reasons:
With the exception of a few odd moments of confusion/miscommunication, the match was pretty much botch-free, but it seemed to be going at a snail’s pace. I notice a lot of the longer Diva matches have this problem. It seems the girls have been given two minute matches for so long, they don’t know what to do when given over five minutes. I found that many times during the match the girls looked lost and had to throw a few forearms to fill the lull.
Another thing that peeved me was how Alicia was absolutely buried in the match. Had the match been a back and forth affair, I might not be too fussed about Melina beating Alicia, but this was not the case. Alicia spent most of this match as a punching bag for Melina. I’m assuming that this feud will continue between Alicia and Melina for at least a few more weeks, but how can you expect the fans to believe Alicia can beat Melina when she’s been completely dominated two matches in a row. I really think this match destroyed any credibility that Alicia had built up in the last few months as the top heel Diva.
Last, but not least, Lay-Cool has wiggled themselves into another Raw match. While their segment was the silver lining for the Divas at SummerSlam, I’m not too keen on mixing storylines across brands outside of events like Survivor Series. But to be fair, with the Smackdown Divas division being as shallow as a shower, I guess Lay-Cool has to feud with someone, right?
All in all, while the match was decent, I don’t think it was PPV match material. I would have preferred if Alicia and Melina skipped SummerSlam and had a few matches on Raw before having this title match. Also, I think that WWE has destroyed any possibility for a continuing feud between these two by putting Melina over so quickly. The Lay-Cool/Melina segment was entertaining however and it planted a lot of seeds for potential fueds. Will it be Melina vs Lay-Cool at Night Of Champions? Will we see Melina and Alicia join forces to take out the flawless Divas on tonight’s Raw? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…
Match Rating: 2.5/5
