WOO!
No, Sting has not graced our TVs yet again, but none other than the NXT Women’s Champion, Charlotte “debuted” last night!
And lost.
Is Charlotte losing such a bad thing? We’ll discuss that later on, as well as her match with Natalya, who was accompanied by her slimeball, Tyson Kidd. In addition that match, AJ Lee also faced off against Jobber Summer Rae and the Diva of the Year Slammy was decided! We got additional appearances from Brie Bella, Lana, Lilian Garcia, Naomi, Nikki Bella, Paige and Renee Young. We got a double figure of Divas last night, so with so much to recap, let’s jump right on in!
Our first sighting of the night was in fact one of our matches, a definite change from the norm as of late what with Stephanie McMahon normally cutting a 53-minute promo at the start of each episode. In a majorly shocking and unannounced fashion, the Queen City piece of perfection that is NXT Women’s Champion Charlotte struts her way to the ring with class, defiance and swagger. Awesome entrance and awesome announcing too from Lilian. It was nice to hear Lilian announce the words “Women’s Champion” again.
Following a tremendous video package detailing Charlotte’s dominance in NXT, Natalya is already in the ring and she has a face like thunder. Even though Charlotte didn’t shake the fans hand in her entrance, Nattie was looking as much a heel as Charlotte here.
The match begins with Charlotte bouncing off the ropes before woo-ing in Tal’s face. It looks like Tyson wants to give Natalya advice, yet instead it just distracts our poor pussy lover. *cheap cat owner joke* Ms. Flair takes advantage, elbowing and stomping Natalya. She then works over Nattie in the corner, before giving the referee some lip:
“I heard you the first time” – so sassy!
Natalya briefly fights back with a sleeper hold complete with body scissors, yet Charlotte drops her mid-move, jawbreaker style. Natalya slaps the woo out of Charlotte’s mouth, yet then Natalya gets caught when she tries to hit a kick to the mid section.
“Do that again!”
After an exchange of fiesty palms to one another’s faces, Natalya counters into a basic submission yet then Charlotte counters that and locks in a tight, seated chinlock. Nattie elbows out and runs across the ropes but then she gets blasted with a massive chop. WOO indeed, that would definitely take your breath away! Knees to the back and gut and then a chop to Natalya come next from Charlotte, the latter of which she commands Tyson’s attention for. His character couldn’t give a about his wife though, so I doubt he is bothered his wife’s windpipe could possible be on the floor after that chop!
Charlotte caves Natalya’s face in with a knee drop (not literally like a certain unsafe Lithuanian), and she follows that blow with a pin attempt. Unsuccessful, Charlotte goes for another knee drop. The NXT Champ brings the woman who she beat to win the title to her feet, yet Natalya send Charlotte flying from hers! Natalya tries to wrap a Sharpshooter in, yet the Horseman’s ultimate woman counters beautifully! Charlotte tries to lock in a Figure Four, yet Nattie rolls her up to pick up a surprising and unpredictable win.
Sadly for her, Nattie is upstaged in the aftermath, as Tyson stands in-front of her on the apron and soaks in all of Natalya’s cheers. Michael Cole then makes me want to hit my face off a wall repeatedly as despite being WWE’s #1 announcer, he still couldn’t do the correct research and call the NXT Women’s Championship by the correct name. It’s not called the NXT Divas Championship! Douchey as.
We get a four-in-one sighting next (which of course Jerry Lawler makes a chauvinistic joke about) as it is time to find out who was crowned Diva of the Year. Backstage, AJ Lee, Paige (finally a Raw sighting after a shameful move on WWE’s part to deny her a spot on the red brand for a month), Nikki Bella and Brie Bella await the result.
COMPLETING OVERSHADOWING THE ANNOUNCEMENT is Titus O’Neil, who randomly decides to walk into shot and stare at the Divas for no reason as AJ is announced as the winner. This wasn’t in any way funny. It was just awful and again, the Divas got given the short straw for no reason at all.
AJ makes her entrance to a nice reception and talks her typical schpeel. She has redefined the term Diva and said that even a tomboy can be the longest reigning Champion. She hopes someone else wins it next year (weird) such as Bayley, Charlotte, Emma, Paige or Sasha Banks yet for now, she’s not done being Queen yet. She wants to get that Divas belt for a fourth time and make history again. AJ gives her new baby a peck as her music plays and she skips to the back.
Renee Young is seen next and she interviews John Cena. Is Renee Young in the Top 3 hottest women in WWE right now? There’s a good chance if you ask me. She looked unreal!
We next get a backstage segment with Naomi, who is in her ring gear for absolutely no reason. At least she’s not a mute this week. The Usos arrive on the scene and are celebrating their Slammy Award for Tag Team of the year. Jey walks off and Jimmy says that winning the Slammy was the second best thing that happened to him in 2014, the first being getting married to Naomi. Apparently the tag titles don’t matter then?!
Naomi says she’s called Miz’s agent and even though The Miz is a snake, this guy is legit and she’s got a screen test later in the week. Jimmy is unsure as The Miz is in the middle of them both. Jey seems more supportive when Naomi declares the he’s “dayum right”… “I’m going to Hollywood”. Jimmy says that if she is going, I’m going. Naomi asks if Jimmy doesn’t trust her. He says he doesn’t trust Miz and he’s worried as he’s on the top of his game right now. Naomi says that she is on top of her game too before storming off. Ooh, there’s a storm brewing!
Lana and Rusev join us for our next segment, which follows the presentation of LOL Moment of The Year. Lana says that the real LOL moments are the American economy and Barack Obama. Obama is a person, not a moment, but we’ll let Lana off, she is American Russian after all. She finally discusses the Real Americans: “Now that is an LOL Moment!” Love it.
Someone who doesn’t love it is Jack Swagger, who puts Rusev in the Patriot Lock. The personal touch of Rusev breaking Zeb’s leg is a nice idea to enable the revisiting of this feud as it is so, so personal, yet I’d rather have seen a new feud. Clearly Swagger won’t win.
AJ Lee Vs Summer Rae by martindaly234
Righteo, it’s final segment time! Dolph Ziggler accepted an award before our second match of the night and his speech made me want to vomit. He is meant to be cool not soppy! After Dolph made me projectile, we see that the Divas are already in the ring. AJ mounts Summer after being pushed to the ground yet AJ retaliates and goes for a wheelbarrow facebuster, yet she gets dropped. Majorly. Nice move from Summer who looks pretty special in that blue and gold attire.
Summer then continues her assault with her signature spin kick before choking AJ on the ropes. The leggy blonde applies a key lock twice, with AJ reversing it the second time…. right into the Black Widow. BORING.
Thoughts: Let me first discuss what I didn’t like. Although Summer showcased two great moves in her match against AJ, the match was as dull as dishwater. If a match is two minutes long, I don’t see the need to apply two rest holds. It is bland and pointless. It doesn’t make sense at all. Yet that is mostly the way AJ does things, in my opinion. The fact she just got out of the key lock and then locked in the Black Widow to win was just naff. I am over it completely. AJ, please get back to rubbing shoulders with the main event men and get out of the title picture.
Moving onto the good, how juicy was the Naomi and Jimmy Uso backstage segment? I was a major fan of that! Naomi’s acting was better than on SmackDown and although rough around the edges, Jimmy did well too. It felt believeable and they obviously have good chemistry. I still feel that this will lead to the return of Maryse. Fingers crossed!
Finally, let’s talk about Charlotte. On one hand, her winning would have been totally predictable and it wasn’t technically her main roster debut as it was more of a showcase and she was billed as an NXT Diva. On the other hand, it technically could be perceived as a debut and OH MY GOD SHE LOST!
But seriously, was it better that Natalya won? I mean, in terms of her storyline, it gave a great opportunity for Tyson to completely overshadow and now she’s got one up on Charlotte again. Once Charlotte becomes a mainstay on Raw and SmackDown, even more fuel has been thrown to the fire.
If I had it my way, regardless of being predictable, Charlotte should have won. Whilst interference from Tyson perhaps could have cheapened her win, perhaps Tyson could have accidentally bumped into Nattie and Charlotte didn’t see it, so it didn’t seem to her that she was being advantageous. I just think as Charlotte was the sole representative of NXT tonight, regardless of it being a developmental territory, Charlotte is Ric Flair’s daughter. She is no loser. Her failing to win could have been made more acceptable if Sasha had interfered but it is what it is. The match was so solid and she totally shone. I’ll just view this as not her proper debut and then when that eventually happens, she can just win that match!
Let me know all of your thoughts regarding Charlotte’s debut below as I can’t wait to read them. Until next time, have a good week!
