Every week, following WWE.com and TNAWrestling.com’s photoshoot updates, we’ll take a look at the newest Diva and Knockout shoots and give you the opportunity to voice your opinions on them in a feature we lovingly call Unwrapped. Let’s unwrap this week’s eye candy, featuring Beth Phoenix, Brie Bella, Kelly Kelly, and Nikki Bella:
Beth Phoenix
A lot of women try to emulate that classic pin-up look, to decidedly mixed results. The usual pitfalls are that the look is too cheap, trashy or overdone. The key, in my opinion, to pulling off the look is to keep that vintage aesthetic so that you look like you could have really been one of those girls, not just a girl in the 21st century wearing polka dots, putting on red lipstick and rolling her hair. Beth has decided to give it a go here, dressing in a polka dot halter top, a gray high-waisted pencil skirt and nude pumps. Her hair is done-up too in a period appropriate wave. All together, it’s great look that manages to be both modern and pin-up–the color choice is modern, and the silhouette is pin-up. Her sculpted frame may not exactly fit with the “softer” look of the mid-century models, but I think it’s the way she positions her body–i.e., the poses–that make me overlook that slight inconsistency. Most of her poses, with her carefully bent knees and cheery disposition, fit the theme and make me feel that, if this were many decades ago, Beth could have been one of those models. My usual gut reaction to shoots like these is to notice how deliberate and cheesy the Diva or Knockout in question looks in a “vintage” look, as if she’s playing dress-up rather than crafting a look for a photoshoot. Beth, though she doesn’t fit the “classic” look of a pin-up, pulls off the look rather well, and sells it further with her poses. It’s moments like these when she puts the “glamor” in “Glamazon”.
Rating: • • • • •
• View the photoshoot.
The Bella Twins
This is a rather standard Bella Twins photoshoot, including a few tandem shots and a few solo ones. Brie and Nikki are posing in matching camouflage ring gear, doing the usual mix of haughty smirks and smiles. There isn’t too much of this photoshoot that stands out, but I really like their positioning in some of these photos, where they slightly overlap each other, one in the foreground and one in the background. It’s a simple touch, but creates much more dynamic photos that ones where they’re simply standing hip-to-hip. I’m sure shooting numerous photoshoots together gives them ideas like that, and I’m glad to see that they’re coming up with different ways of posing together, since it seems like 9 times out of 10 they’ll be having shoots together rather than separately. Other than that touch, this photoshoot is the usual Bella fare, which isn’t a bad thing, but just isn’t all that exciting. I have to say, though, that I prefer this kind of photoshoot to the highly-themed, prop-laden ones they do every so often. Subtlety, a lot of the time, creates better photos.
Rating: • • • • •
• View the photoshoot.
Kelly Kelly
Kelly’s going for a decidedly understated look here, wearing a tan dress and off-white heels, forgoing everything else in the way of accessories. Her hair is slightly wavy, giving her a relaxed look that is complimented by how her dress hangs off her shoulder. She does a few care-free poses, and that looks best in this look. The few where she tries to do a bit too much–puckering her lips or looking too sultry–just doesn’t work with this toned-down look. The colors are a bit mucky too, with her skin looking a tad bit fake-baked and her lipstick matching her dress, which gives it a funny look. I feel that a genuinely natural look–no fake tanner and less noticeable nude lipstick–would have complimented her better and would have made for a better photoshoot. Here, it looks a bit manufactured, trying too hard to appear natural. Still, I like a lot of the photos, pose-wise, and I think the idea she went for was a good one. She should’ve just gone with the real thing.
Rating: • • • • •
• View the photoshoot.
Which photoshoot did you like best? Vote in the poll below and speak your mind in the comments!
