What’s up Diva fans and welcome to this week’s WWE Main Event Redux. Holy cow! Are WWE building a storyline here on Main Event? Shocking stuff indeed. Paige has definitely lit a fire under the division (and the writers’ arses) it seems. Sadly, they haven’t been that inventive. I have the misfortune pleasure of reduxing a Battle Royal for the first time. Yay?
Involved in the match to determine the number one contender to face Paige at Extreme Rules are: Aksana, Alicia Fox, Cameron, Emma, Eva Marie, Layla, Naomi, Natalya, Nikki Bella and Tamina Snuka. Absent Divas include Brie Bella, who is currently honeymooning and AJ Lee and Summer Rae, who in a leaked script of Monday Night Raw, were listed as “INJ – TBD”. That leaves Rosa Mendes. *tumbleweed*
Which Diva will bag a major opportunity at the Divas Championship? Although my future wife Paige has proved she is no pushover, surely some of the Divas must think it’s just beginner’s luck? The suspense is killing me (it really isn’t) so before the excitement gets too much (it won’t)…
TO THE VIDEO!
Lilian Garcia is on the mic this week (thank god it’s not Chimel) and she is looking great! Good job we got to see her on camera! All of the Divas get an entrance, which is amazing, and holy fluorescence, Cameron and Naomi are bright! I’ll make sure I put my shades on for the rest of this!
The match starts with all the girls splitting into smaller groups, with Nikki trying and failing miserably to kick Layla properly. Hilarious, yet for all the wrong reasons. Layla and Eva are next to get the camera on them, yet sadly for Eva, it catches her get eliminated after a horrible exchange, which saw Eva spank Layla and then hit her in the face with her bum. Riveting. Luckily, the elimination itself was nice.
Foxsana work over Emma next, before Alicia walks off uninterested. You’re not the only one. Aksana gets wrapped up with the Dilemma before Nikki Bella dropkicks Aksana, rebounding Emma to a tricky spot on the apron. Nikki picks Aksana up for the Rack Attack and whilst that’s going on, she managed to eliminate Emma, who is re-creating her entrance so it seems. We then see Nikki wasn’t in fact going for the Rack Attack, and instead, she dumps Aksana on the apron. She then tries to elbow Aksana off the apron yet Aksana moves to soon and just eliminates herself!
Layla and Natalya are next to get the focus on their tussle and after a botched LOL crossbody from Layla, Nattie eliminates her. Just six Divas remain now and we see The Funkadactyls gang up on Alicia as Nikki gets superkicked off camera. Surprisingly though, she’s not the next to be eliminated, as that falls to Naomi, who gets Samoan dropped out of the ring by Tamina after leaving her mark by hitting the Rear View on Alicia.
Cameron is outraged by the elimination of her tag partner and goes after Tamina like a hellcat but Tamina quickly disposes of the Scrappy Doo of the Divas division. Alicia Fox is next to go after an entertaining tussle with Nikki Bella. Tamina then headbutts Nikki out of the match, bagging her a fourth elimination. We’re down to two Divas now as we see Tamina in the ring and Natalya on the apron. Natalya shoulder thrusts Tamina in the gut, hoping that has gave her enough time to climb to the top rope. Unfortunately for Tal, it wasn’t enough time as Tamina superkicks Natalya into oblivion. Tamina is the new number one contender!
Thoughts: Although I threw some shade throughout the write-up there, the match wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t good either. It was just ok. I really enjoyed Alicia and Nikki’s exchange that saw Alicia tumble from the top rope and it also them battle it out in a tug of war. I also enjoyed the finish too. It was certainly more interesting that having Tamina just shove Natalya off the apron to the floor.
I also enjoyed the couple of surprises in the match. Emma eliminated second? Ok, WWE have totally mishandled her debut and mucked it up, yet I was still very surprised to see her eliminated so early. I was also shocked to see Naomi get eliminated fifth and even more shocked to see Cameron last longer than her tag partner. Then, the most pleasant shock of all was to see Alicia get into the final four. Maybe WWE saw how amazing she is at working, selling and interacting with the crowd on Raw. Or maybe it’s just because Brie Bella was absent. I’m going to go with the former to make myself feel better.
So, Tamina is the new number one contender. I think this is the perfect choice. Before Paige’s debut, Tamina was my choice to take the belt off AJ, and whilst I am personally happier the way things have turned out, I’m glad Tamina is going to get another chance to showcase herself on a pay-per-view. WWE put her over perfectly in this match, which saw her eliminate five Divas. She was domineering, eliminated genuinely top threats to the championship (Total Divas cast members) and of course, once AJ comes back and cashes in her rematch clause, the build between Paige and Tamina will not just be forgotten about. Any matches and storyline they build will only help further push AJ vs Paige, so I’m very happy WWE has gone with the logical choice for once.
And with that, stay tuned, Jack will be back!
