This week on Main Event, we got a rare bit of Diva storyline progression. Summer Rae, who picked up a shocking win over Paige on Raw, gets the chance to repeat her feat here. Paige, meanwhile, looks to save face and even the score. Will we see another upset? Let’s watch:
Paige arrives first, followed by Summer, who makes her entrance with a microphone, addressing Paige as she walks down the ramp. She says, last summer, when the Diva Revolution was ongoing, she was “beating them all.” This past Monday, she beat their “goth goddess” too. Paige responds to Summer, diminishing her claim of “beating” all the Divas and reminding her of her own credentials, which she didn’t have to “dance” to earn them.
This last line infuriates Summer, who attacks Paige. The referee breaks them apart so he can officially start the match. When the bell finally rings, Paige takes Summer down, nailing her with right hands. Summer eventually has enough and escapes the ring. Paige mocks her, doing a bit of dancing before following her out of the ring. Paige knocks Summer down and then tosses her back into the ring.
Paige doubles over Summer with a kick to the midsection and sends her into the ropes. Summer avoids tripping over a flattened out Paige with a graceful forward roll, which she celebrates. Paige captures Summer in a waistlock and rolls her into a pin attempt, which she kicks out of.
Paige gets back to her feet, only to be met with a spin kick from Summer. Summer goes for the pin, but Paige kicks out. Summer maintains control, though, landing two kicks square to Paige’s back before doing a celebratory split. She goes for another pin, but it’s still no good. Summer chokes Paige against the middle rope and follows her to the corner, where she chokes her with her boot. She tosses Paige across the ring and locks in a submission, which Paige quickly attempts to battle out of. Summer slams her to the mat before she can free herself and attempts another pin. Paige kicks out.
Summer locks in a headlock, quickly switching between positions to keep Paige at bay. Paige still manages to get to her feet, though she is again slammed to the mat by Summer. Another pin attempt, another kickout. Summer taunts Paige as she gets to her feet, and answers for it with blows to the midsection. She’s able to fend Paige off, though, slamming her face to the mat. Summer sends Paige into the corner, but gets nothing but turnbuckle on her attack. Paige starts to battle back, hitting Summer with kicks and a flying knee. She tosses Summer to the center of the ring and flattens her with a running knee before going for the cover. Summer manages to kick out.
Paige pulls Summer to her feet, but Summer halts her movements, tossing Paige’s hands off of her and sending her into the ropes. Paige runs right into a spinning heel kick attempt, which she catches and blocks, sending Summer into the ropes instead. Summer isn’t able to duplicate Paige’s feat, and eats a kick that sends her flat to the mat. Paige immediately locks in the PTO, and Summer quickly taps out.
Thoughts: While I hate how this match kind of “undid” Summer’s win on Raw, I enjoyed it overall. I loved seeing both Divas get the opportunity to speak on the microphone and show personality throughout the match. I’m all for more Diva mic time, as long as it’s not falling back on cliches that trivialize their feuds. This was a simple exchange that saw Summer outright lie about picking up wins she never did (she was too busy Single White Female-ing Lana at the time of the Diva Revolution). Paige, thankfully, didn’t outright dismiss the importance of Summer’s win on Raw, but I would have liked to see Paige own it a bit more. She’s a babyface, so she should be woman enough to admit that she fell short.
Seeing Summer do her silly dancing stuff again was great: this is the Summer I missed back during her Lana feud. I’m sure if those two ever did meet in the ring, we would have seen something akin to that. Alas, it never happened, but I’m really glad to see her used in some capacity, since she got royally screwed in the implosion of that storyline. I just hope this isn’t the end of this story. Granted, a revenge win on Main Event isn’t akin to Paige squashing Summer on SmackDown, but it’s kind of disappointing that her momentum was cut short so quickly. Summer did look pretty strong here, though, getting in a lot of offense on Paige. With her being MIA from the ring for so long, she benefits a lot from that. It would have been kind of cool to see Summer escape with another win and build up Paige’s frustration until it boils over, but I’ll just settle for hoping that this isn’t the end of the story.
I’d like to see Summer and Paige feud a little bit more. Hell, have the Natalya/Alicia Fox feud run parallel to it and build towards some sort of tag match at WrestleMania. Black Harts vs. Dancing Foxes? Book it!
