It’s that time once again, welcome to our monthly “systematic breakdown” of the night before. Last night, WWE held it’s annual Judgment Day pay per view, accentuated by a Women’s Championship bout featuring Mickie James, Beth Phoenix and Melina. Let’s review:
Thoughts & Reactions
I got exactly what I expected last night, a solid, hardworking match from all Divas involved. This match was very strong, all the girls got to showcase their talents and each had their own standout moment during the match. My only woe is I wish it was longer!!! For a Women’s Championship match involving such talented Divas, this match should have gone longer, it was really that good. Mickie James picked up the victory, to the shock of no-one, I expected the finish but the match itself outweighed the outcome.
Last night belonged to Beth Phoenix and Melina by a mile, Mickie James may be the champ, but Beth and Melina really stood out and enhanced this storyline. The opening segment where Beth told Melina to get the hell out of her ring, only for Melina to kick her through the ropes was superb and showed Melina’s fiery passion. Many considered Melina the “odd one out” in this match, but WWE did a great job of showing that Melina would and could stand up to Beth Phoenix and was not scared and would not back down from the fight. Meanwhile, Beth Phoenix really came over as an effective uber-heel here, it’s interesting how much charisma and personality she’s showing since losing the Women’s Championship! Where was this when she had the damn belt?! Beth really made you want to hate her, she came across as bitchy, strong and dominant for the first time in a long time. The intimidation tactic to Melina was fab and then of course, we had an amazing spot where she picked up both Mickie and Melina… wow. Fantastic stuff.
We all knew that Melina would be the one doing the job to Mickie, no surprise there. The question now is will WWE continue to use Melina in this feud (please, yes!) or will they just go back to Beth-Mickie? I really love the injection of the fiery A-List Diva to this slowly dying feud. Melina getting involved couldn’t have happened at a better time and added a new, must watch dynamic to the rivalry. Please, WWE don’t drop Melina and go back to a singles match. Though Melina did the job last night, I don’t think that’s hurt her at all – because her beef is with Beth Phoenix. I fully expect a Melina vs Beth match tonight on RAW, let’s see what happens!
All in all, this was a great match-up, I wasn’t expecting anything less. In what must be a first, for the past three months WWE has actually delivered good Diva matches on pay per view. Granted, no-one expected BunnyMania or the 12-Diva tag to be good but this one, I expected to be good and I wasn’t disappointed.
Individual Assessments
In this portion we will look at each of the Divas individually and the role they played, adding more thoughts yadda yadda:
Beth Phoenix: Beth came off very well, she looked strong and intimidating. I was far more interested in seeing the feud between Beth and Melina brewing in this match, rather than Mickie.
Melina: Melina brought a whole new dynamic to this feud and really came off strong, even though she did the job to Mickie. Melina is often underrated with Beth and Mickie, but she shined.
Mickie James: I’m beginning to tire of Mickie as Champion actually, for me this match was more about Beth and Melina than her. I hope one or both Divas gives her a legitimate challenge for the gold soon.
Fashion Focus
The Good: No standouts.
The Bad: Mickie James… what the hell? Her hair looked horribly fake too, like she’d superglued a wig on.
The In-Between: Beth and Melina both looked same-old.
