What’s up Diva fans and welcome to this week’s WWE Main Event Redux. After reading the spoilers for this week’s episode, I was confused to see that without any reason whatsoever, Eva Marie is now back to working as a Face, and is teaming with Natalya this week to face the team of Alicia Fox and Aksana – Foxsana! Unluckily for Eva, it seems like she is now stuck in Alicia’s old role of “Heel/Face flip-flopper”. Speaking of stuck, will Eva be stuck on the apron the entire match like she was on Superstars? Or perhaps we’ll all be treated to seeing her in the ring…
TO THE VIDEO!
Out first this week are Natalya and her on-off protege who she likes on WWE TV yet dislikes on Total Divas, it’s Natalya and Eva, or as I will call them, Team Yo-Yo! Like seriously, they’re up and down all the bloomin’ time! After a cheeky plug for the WWE network, we see Team Yo-yo all smiles (for once) in the ring as they witness Foxsana strut to the ring. Queen Sandra has obviously been hard at work, as not only do Foxsana have matching red outfits, they now have matching black and orange ones! Those are two sour satsumas!
The electric chemistry of Alicia and Nattie start the match, with Alicia powering Natalya towards the ropes. Alicia next applies several wristlocks before Natalya nips and flips out of. Natalya breaks free fully thanks to a hip-grab takeover (not my finest moment of calling a move) which nets her a one count. Alicia reverses one of Tal’s Irish whips, before leapfrogging the Dungeon Diva and hitting her with a sweet reverse roll headscissors. Alicia charges at Natalya like a banshee on heat yet Nattie swishes around her foe’s midsection and applies a bridging pin for two.
Eva tags herself into the match next and she proceeds to hit not one, not two but three wristlock suplexes in a row. Her beginner level of training comes back to bite her on the behind as she goes to the well too many times, with Alicia countering a fourth takeover attempt with a knee to the gut. Eva gets whipped next before getting obliterated with one of Alicia’s tilt-a-whirl backbreakers. Alicia locks in a headlock next, which Eva struggles with at first before trying to mount a comeback, with help from Natalya getting the crowd behind her for support. Alicia decks Eva with another of her signature moves, the Northern Lights suplex, which bags her a one count. She then decides to tag in Aksana.
Aksana kicks Eva a few times before trying to deliver the same pain to Eva like she did to Naomi. She raises her knee and Eva moves out of the way, yet Aksana still then taunts before dropping the knee, even though Eva has clearly moved. Awful, awful, awful!
Nattie is tagged in and she clotheslines Aksana before nailing two suplexes. She then hits a rough looking snapmare (and when I say rough, I mean sloppy) which she accentuates with a basement dropkick. She then kicks Aksana in the face and clobbers her Lithuanian opponent with the discus clothesline. Natalya looks to end it all with the Sharpshooter, yet Alicia provides a major distraction by charging at her. Natalya ducks Alicia’s clothesline attempt and Eva grabs Alicia at the ankles, sending her packing. Natalya continues to struggle with Aksana in the ring, with Aksana forcing Natalya off of her and into Eva, who is randomly half way up to the apron. Well, Aksana was meant to send the Total Divas into each other yet Natalya didn’t really connect with Eva. The Total Divas mix-up costs Natalya, who gets dropped by Aksana’s Divo Drop and Aksana picks up her second win of the year and what I believe is her fifth main roster win ever!
Thoughts: Oh boy, where do I start? Let’s start with the good elements to this match, Alicia Fox and Natalya. Although I’m not a fan of Alicia in the orange, she worked well with Natalya, like always, and she did her best with the plank of wood that was Eva.
Onto Eva Marie. Looks wise, she is major Diva material. The woman is stunning. Not so stunning is her in-ring work. Now unlike a lot of people who might have gripes with her successive wristlock takeovers, I don’t mind it. Intentionally or most likely unintentionally, her constant attempt at the same move shows her inexperience and created a story with Alicia easily taking advantage. Eva’s selling has slightly improved as well yet I still have major issues with her timing and rigidity in the ring.
She obviously needs more time to improve, and being in the ring will help, yet it should not be on WWE TV at this stage. It was like Alicia was wrestling a concrete block. I don’t know if it’s because Eva is quite tall but she looks so stiff in her movements. Now onto the timing.
WHAT ON EARTH WAS WITH THE ABYSMAL KNEE DROP?!
Eva and moreso Aksana are to blame here. Clearly, both girls will have rehearsed this and although Eva was way too quick to move, Aksana should have repositioned her so that the knee didn’t look so horrendously out of time. What made it worse is that Aksana taunts with the knee before dropping it even though it’s clear as day that Eva has moved. Moments like this give women’s wrestling a bad name.
The match was ok at best as even Natalya and Aksana didn’t have the best chemistry. Natalya’s snapmare was off and then Aksana’s Diva Drop has no oomph behind it anymore. I know it’s called a ‘drop’ yet it’s like she puts no effort behind the move and literally just dumps the opponent on the ground.
Above is a good example of Aksana’s Diva Drop, in a match against Maxine. She follows through with the move by falling down with Maxine. The move looks sleek and impactful and not like she’s just failed at picking someone up. I’m only being this harsh as I think Aksana has shown a lot of positives in terms of her charisma and I wish her in-ring work was as good. You can do it Aksana!
And with that, stay tuned, Jack will be back!
