So the WWE Divas return to pay per view tonight for the second time in a month, but this time rivalries are put aside for brand pride. Melina, Kelly Kelly & Gail Kim will represent Raw as they go into battle against SmackDown’s Michelle McCool, Beth Phoenix and Natalya. Which trio of Divas will win and more important, which brand will earn Bragging Rights?
Erin: Well, Michelle and Beth are a bit at odds, but I guess that’s to be expected with heel teams. I still think it’s a bit lame that the teams are heel vs. face–it takes away from the “band together” mentality of the PPV, with people with differing ideals working together for the sake of their brand. Eh, whatever.. I see the WWE going for a feel-good moment with their only Divas match and having the babyfaces (Team Raw) pick up the victory. Obviously they haven’t put much effort into building up this match, so I won’t expect effort to be put into the outcome either.
Melanie: Team SmackDown is an incredibly strong team. So by WWE’s mentality of course that would mean that Team Raw get the win. Even with an incredible team, I mean come on — you have three super tough Divas here, I think this will likely just be about the babyfaces. The fact that we have babyfaces vs heels [as well as Raw vs SmackDown] suggests something to me, usually in these multi-tag matches, it’s the babyfaces that pick up the win to ~cheers~ [or lackthereof in reality] from the crowd. I hope we play up some tension between Beth Phoenix and Michelle McCool though, at least set up some storyline between the Divas going forward. Perhaps we could have a miscommunication leading to Raw taking the win. I’m expecting they may also have Melina pin Michelle here as a final blow-off also to their feud. No one is expecting Miz to beat Morrison, so it’ll likely be: Morrison takes a point for SmackDown, Divas take a point for Raw and then the final 14-man tag match for the decider, if we’re thinking about it strategically also. Anyway, I expect Team Raw to get the win here.
Steven: On paper, Team SmackDown seems to have a huge advantage going into Bragging Rights. The blue brand has three powerhouse divas, who are all accomplished in their own right. However, Team Raw has something that McCool and co. are lacking: unity. We all know in the WWE Universe all the babyfaces are BFFs, so Team Raw will be able to coexist without conflict. On the other hand, Beth has made it clear she wants gold and Natalya hasn’t always seen eye to eye with the champ. I doubt these three will be able to work as a cohesive unit come Sunday. That said, I’m putting my money on Team Raw at Bragging Rights. I’m sure infighting will be Team Smackdown’s downfall this Sunday.
Join us for the Bragging Rights live blog at 7.45pm ET/11.45pm UK.
