Hey everybody! This week’s Main Event served us up a good old fashioned dish of Divas, and two of the brightest in the division went head to head as Naomi looked to knock off Divas Champion Nikki Bella. Did she get it done with that famed Rear View of hers? Frankly, I’m stoked for this match. Naomi and Nikki are polar opposites when it comes to their moves; Naomi is all about style and speed, and Nikki is flat out muscle and power. Let’s see how it went down, shall we?
My queen Nikki is out first, accompanied of course by the ever-loyal (except for that little blip last year that WWE are apparently pretending never happened) Brie. Naomi follows, and the ref quickly calls for the bell.
The ladies lock up and Nikki gets the upper-hand. Oh wait, she’s not done warming up and thrills us with some jumping jacks. Naomi isn’t impressed, however, and goes back after the champ. She catches Nikki in a waist-lock. A big elbow and clothesline from Nikki put Naomi down, before Nikki drives Naomi into the corner. What was it I said about that power of hers? Nikki delivers some punishment in the corner, but Naomi is well prepared to go on and fights back, nailing Nikki with her booty shake (what is that called?), followed by some big drop kicks. Naomi now with a big hurricanrana that sends Nikki rolling to the outside. Brie offers some words of encouragement, and my my doesn’t that Divas championship look pretty sitting on her shoulder? Foreshadowing? I wish. Doubtful, I think. But back to the match.
Nikki is back on the ring but Naomi is in control, getting a count of one off the drop kick. Naomi with Nikki now in a headlock, but Nikki counters and wraps herself around the ropes to get a break. Naomi’s fed up and drops Nikki with a slam and a leg drop. A two count, and Nikki kicks out. Once again, Nikki rolls to the outside to try and compose herself. Naomi really has the champ up against it.
When we come back, Nikki shows signs of life with a clothesline and a pin attempt. It’s a brief comeback, however, as Naomi hits yet another drop kick and Nikki rolls out of the ring AGAIN. This isn’t Marco Polo, Nikki. Naomi follows her opponent to the outside but Nikki dodges the baseball slide Naomi had intended for her. After missing Bella numero uno, Naomi catches Brie with a shot to the face. Nikki tries to defend her sister’s honour, but Naomi moves out of harms way and the Bellas both go down like a bag of bricks.
Naomi tosses Nikki back in the ring, but Nikki knocks Naomi off the apron and while the referee is busy telling Nikki to back off, Brie knocks Naomi off her feet with a sly kick to the back of the knee. As Naomi recovers on the outside, Nikki keeps herself warm with some push ups and a little crowd baiting. Naomi manages to beat the count back into the ring but Nikki goes right to work on Naomi’s left knee. She gets a two count, but Naomi is still in it.
Nikki works over the leg of Naomi, throwing her against the bottom ropes and bending her knee every which way. Naomi tries hard to fight back, but Nikki is firmly in control of the former Funkadactyl now. She ties Naomi up on the ropes again, and it sees to light a fire in Naomi; she throws some hard knocks Nikki’s way and follows them up with a big kick to the side of the head. With Nikki on the mat, Naomi perches herself on the top turnbuckle. Despite Nikki’s best efforts, Naomi lands with another big kick, but she goes a stretch too far and misses a cross body, bouncing the weakened knee off the canvas. Nikki taunts her opponent once again, getting far too cocky and, in the end, it costs her.
Naomi rolls up the distracted champ and gets the 1, 2, 3! Naomi pins the Divas champ!
Nikki is absolutely seething.
Thoughts: I enjoyed this match a lot. As I said before, Nikki and Naomi are opposites when it comes to their in-ring styles, and this match was a brilliant example of that. There was a stark contrast between how Nikki carried Naomi over to the corner early on, to the amount of high flying moves Naomi pulled out to help her win the match.
I’m not sure where Naomi goes next with her win over the reigning Divas champion, but given that we’re still only a part of the way through her rivarly with Natalya, and the Bellas have Paige and AJ to contend with, I think it’s safe to assume that Naomi won’t be the next Divas champion. Whether or not she claims the gold – or silver and pink – later this year? Well, that’ll be something I look forward to.
Until next time!
