The New Year’s Edition of the Raw Redux: AJ and Eve Cap a Great Year on the Losing Side

Welcome readers to the first Raw Redux of the new year! In my opinion, 2012 was kind of a breakout year for the Divas, more specifically AJ Lee and Eve Torres. I feel like it was a step in the right direction for the division as a whole. The WWE are learning that not everyone has to be a wrestler, and they’re taking time to give different people an opportunity. Both Layla and Kaitlyn had great moments this past year, and what they’re doing in FCW/NXT is incredible. Fingers crossed that 2013 is the year the Divas are given the green light to do what they’re capable of, and the time to do it. We all know they can do it. My wish for them is that they get a chance to finally do it.

Anyway, lets get on with show – the very last one of 2012! Tonight, Vickie Guerrero decided that every title would be defended which means Eve would be in action at some point. And of course, there’s always the antics of the man-stealing hussy, AJ and Prince Dawlf to talk about.

Without getting into to many details and subjecting us all to bad memories of Mae Young giving birth to a hand, Mae Young was unable to compete against Eve, needless to say. Eve won her “match” via forfeit but she got more than she bargained for in the process. A determined Kaitlyn walked to the ring and immediately, Eve was on her guard. A brawl broke out between the two rivals and it spilled outside the ring. The two went back and forth before Eve managed to escaped the ring with her beloved butterfly belt.

Kaitlyn and Eve do brawling so well. I loved this segment, personally, and I’m so glad they’re not dropping this program. I think Kaitlyn will only benefit from working with Eve, and it seems like we are going to get one more match between them. That makes me excited. The ending of this brawl segment got a little sloppy, and that was disappointing, but everything else was spot on. Eve is so good at her character right now and I want more mic time for her. I want Kaitlyn to start speaking a bit as well, because she’s got raw talent. She doesn’t have to try that hard, she just goes out there and does Kaitlyn, and that’s amazing in itself. You can’t teach charisma, and Kaitlyn really has it.

It’s a shame that this segment had to be the result of a silly little segment, but oh well. We all laughed when we saw Hand Henry all grown up. It’s also disappointing that the ending came off a bit sloppy. It looked like Kaitlyn just kind of flopped into the ropes. Nothing can ever be perfect though and I’m just glad these two get another chance to show us what they can do together. I think they have amazing chemistry.

Prince Dawlf and AJ decided to ring in the New Year’s together much to my misery delight. The segment was eventually interrupted by John Cena, and had a very smelly ending.

Trying to be as unbiased as humanly possible, AJ and Dolph Ziggler aren’t clicking for me, which is surprising because normally I lean more towards heel divas. I’m not even entirely convinced AJ has turned heel. I think she’s trying to cater to Dolph at the moment because I feel like her character is so starved for male attention that she is going to do whatever it takes to get it. When it comes to this angle, I think AJ is going to be the one who ends up crushed because I think it’s going to be revealed that Dolph is just using her. Whether he uses her to actually win the World Heavyweight Championship, then dumps her, remains to be seen.

I don’t want to prejudge this storyline and label it a disaster like I did the Cena/AJ angle. It ended up okay, I guess. (Yes, that’s me being kind.) I think my biggest problem with this right now is that if they wanted to turn AJ heel, they should have waited. Granted, I’m still not convinced she is a heel, but just go with it for a second. They decided to keep her face while working with Daniel Bryan, then with CM Punk… both of whom she would have been amazing with. Then they pair her with the biggest “face” in the company, and now with the hot-rising star. They took away a pretty good feud with Vickie Guerrero, who is the top heel Diva, and didn’t really give us a chance to see AJ and Tamina. I think I’m just confused.

That said, I do believe Dolph is using AJ and manipulating her, much like Daniel Bryan did, and it’s going to end up working in his favor. AJ can’t keep turning on men, only to move on to the next one, and I think Dolph is going to be the one who puts her in her place, so to speak. I have no idea what will happen with AJ after that. I would go ahead and say perhaps a full mental break, but you never know with the WWE. I guess we can just go with it for now?

That about does it for Raw. That does it for 2012. It’s WrestleMania season now and anything can happen. Everyone is kind of fair game. Until next time… Cryssi out!