Phew, what a week. We passed the point of the 28th edition of WWE's biggest PPV of the year (though for the girls these days it's more of a roadblock) and we had to deal with all the fallout. Surprisingly for the biggest show of the year, Divas were packed to the rafters and, even more surprisingly, not all together. If I may say so, it's been one of the most successful WrestleManias in recent years in terms of the Divas. And over in TNA's neck of the woods, we've got a new #1 contender for a certain all cage PPV in a few weeks, not to mention some juicy action going on over in Bollywood too.
WrestleMania 28 - Beth Phoenix & Eve Torres vs Kelly Kelly & Maria Menounos:
Well well, WWE allowed an injured celebrity to compete in the ring. A non-wrestler at that. And they actually had her work a good chunk of the match. Personally I thought that was incredibly reckless and really stupid on their part. They could have Maria simply manage the team and announce someone like Alicia Fox or Natalya as her replacement and then have one spot with Beth. But nope, that's the direction they went with instead. I'm gonna get all the negativity out of the way early on and say that Maria looked exactly as you'd expect a non wrestler with broken ribs to look in the ring. She couldn't bump at all and there wasn't much else she could do either. Adding Natalya or Alicia could have made it a bit more impressive of a match. But that aside, the match wasn't completely bad. I've heard people calling it the worst Diva match of all-time. Really? Really? So were those people not watching WrestleManias 25 & 26? Maxine vs Kaitlyn? Tori vs Sable? Rosa vs...well anyone? Kelly Kelly's part of the match was good for me. She hit all her spots well and that's actually the best hurricanrana I've ever seen her do. She obviously trained hard for this match and delivered a picture perfect Molly-Go-Round to give herself a WrestleMania moment to erase her taking Vickie's "Cougar Splash" from memory. And yet I see people complaining that she didn't land properly or that it got botched. Seriously, the world will not implode if you admit Kelly did something right. Eve and Beth sold the offence well but of course couldn't do as much as they could if they'd had another wrestler in there but Eve gave us a nice WrestleMania-sized booty pop and Beth was clearly looking to Hawk Girl for her inspired headdress. The ending is what it is. I'm not happy about it but Maria didn't exactly pin Beth clean, what with it being a double team effort. And hey they got a video package as well, and their match time wasn't cut for it. I actually hear people complaining that this match should have taken a time cut to accommodate the WHC match. And yet they find no fault with Rock and Cena's entrances taking up 22 minutes or the HIAC going on for five minutes longer than it needed to. 6/10
Other Divas:
WrestleMania 28 was a really good night for the girls as we saw nearly all of them on the show without being thrown together as Lumberjills or multi-tag partners. First of all, Rosa Mendes lead her team of Primo and Epico to victory in the Tag Team Championships match. I have yet to see it but I'm sure it was awesome. Secondly AJ played a vital role in the "match" for the WHC if you can call it that. It's funny, the title match was used as a prop to further this Daniel Bryan/AJ storyline and while it's disrespectful to the title, it still has a Diva in a prominent storyline. And then we have Team Teddy vs Team Johnny - the Bellas may have found their calling and I prefer their voices to Justin Roberts's any day. And Aksana and Vickie Guerrero gave us a nice WrestleMania-sized catfight. And finally Eve stole the show, and the spotlight as another Diva commanded all the attention for herself. It's really cool that her and Zack Ryder completely overshadowed the big hated heel finally getting in power. All the fans cared about was that she one-upped the big fan favourite. It's great to finally have a female heel in WWE who is actually despicable. While I'm not ready for another Eve Divas' title reign, I certainly wouldn't mind seeing where this storyline is going. And Lilian Garcia's rendition of America The Beautiful was fantastic.
Raw - Eve's promo:
It really was silly of us to expect any sort of proper Diva action the night after WrestleMania. Really since when has the Raw the night after ever given us something actually worth seeing? Eve got to cut a good enough promo and I'll say her delivery is getting better and of course voicing her support for Johnny Ace will only make the fans hate her even more. Incredibly annoying that the Divas' Champion wasn't on the show as well but I'll accept the fact that WrestleMania is always a hindrance for the women's division and hopefully they'll give her some direction next week.
NXT - Natalya vs Kaitlyn:
Wrestling fans rejoice everywhere. Natalya finally won a match. It's the first singles win she's gotten since she first turned heel after beating AJ and the first win she's gotten for herself since the Smackdown after Survivor Series. The direction they're taking her character in is a bit interesting to me since she is turning face but she played the heel in the match. It's almost like she hasn't completely turned face yet. Or they want her to be a wild card in the division. And thank the Wrestling Gods (JBL & Athena) that they've apparently dropped the farting gimmick. Also thank them that NXT finally gives the girls time to wrestle again. The match was very good and easily Kaitlyn's best match to date. I can see why Natalya was relegated to enhancement talent for quite a while as she does indeed seem to turn whoever she's working with into gold for the next few minutes. The vibe I got from Natalya's character in this match was that she was daring Kaitlyn to impress her, that she wanted to see what she's got. I would like to say that Natalya finally getting a win for herself means she's in line for a push against Beth but it really is all up in the air right now. Next week should give us a couple more answers. In the meantime, Kaitlyn is improving every time she steps into the ring and seeing her work with Natalya was a real treat honestly. And I'm glad they cut the part where Michael McGillicutty sniffed her underwear. Also, Alicia, Tamina and Maxine were on the show in entertaining backstage segments as well. 7/10
Ring Ka King - Sheik Mustafa Bashir & Raisha Saeed vs Romeo Rapta & Angelina Love:
All you need to know is that Raisha is teaming with none other than Davari. Nonetheless a fairly good mixed tag match and a bit of a variation in the feud than it was with Mickie involved where they had a six-person straight away. It leaves them with a lot more to go on and if they do have a six-person then the story element of Zarovar (the Indian Hornswoggle) could likely come into play. We didn't see much interaction between Angelina and Raisha and the stuff we did see we had already seen in the singles match with Angelina vs Alyssa Flash, though the moves themselves looked nice. This time Raisha hits her finisher on Angelina to get the win for her duo. I believe Melissa has now racked up more wins in Ring Ka King than she ever did while she was on the TNA roster. A funny development in the storyline with the two men arguing over whose fault it was while Angelina is unconscious on the mat. Melissa must feel very flattered that they're selling the effects of her moves so hardly. 7/10
Impact - Mickie James vs Tara vs Velvet Sky vs Madison Rayne vs Winter vs Angelina Love (Six Pack Challenge To Crown A #1 Contender):
I really loved this match. And I also love that TNA keeps getting creative when it comes to crowning a new #1 contender. While the gauntlet match was a bit of a mess and the battle royal went on too long this one was a thing of beauty. First of all, the women got plenty of time to work and tell a story as well as nobody being lost in the shuffle. Second of all, I liked the little interaction between Angelina Love and Winter. I was a little worried when they came out separately but never fear. Is it me or did Winter come across as the face in that? She was the one who didn't want to fight Angelina and ended up tagging out. That could be a different direction to go in should they eventually split the two of them up. The mini-match between Mickie and Angelina was passable but I really liked the blind tag spot with Velvet. The match breakdown was probably my favourite part and I honestly had no idea what move Winter would use, though that backbreaker was sick. I noticed pointedly that Velvet pinned Mickie to win the match and there was also a small bit of tension between them earlier in the match. Does this mean they'll continue with the Mickie heel turn? Personally I'm leaning towards bad idea right now. If Velvet ends up as champion I do not want to see Mickie pushed yet again even if is as a heel. True they are running low on competition right now since Winter, Angelina, Madison and Tara have all had recent pushes and I think the only non champions on the roster are Sarita and Rosita and we have seen Sarita/Velvet before. Watching this match made me realise there's very few fresh matches in the division right now and it could probably use some new blood. Anyway onto Velvet officially becoming #1 contender. I'm ecstatic about it and while I'll be happy if she wins at Lockdown, I also wouldn't mind them continuing this feud for a bit longer. Anyway TNA has delivered the goods recently and I look forward to seeing this feud unfold. 8/10
Smackdown - Beth Phoenix vs Nikki Bella:
Well the champ got back on TV for this week afterall. I can't say I'm happy about what she was doing since she wrestled a one minute match and lost when she's supposed to be the dominant Glamazon. I can satisfy myself that it was a distraction finish and also that it wasn't a roll-up. Really an X-Factor is an effective move that could believably knock a big girl out for a few seconds and I'm happy that Nikki seems to be remaining heel. Chances are next time we see her she and Brie will be all chummy chummy like nothing ever happened. Are Kelly and Beth feuding again? I don't really think this is a long term thing. I think it's just to carry on from WrestleMania and it'll most likely be Kelly getting a title shot on Raw and losing to put Beth over once again as a big champion. At least I hope that's what'll happen. And even more of what I hope will happen involves Natalya getting a shot at Beth. Is anyone else just itching for Layla to finally return? 2/10
AJ Dumped:
It happened a little sooner than expected and I think it would have been wiser for WWE to wait until they were out of Florida because the crowd really was behind Daniel Bryan. AJ isn't over enough to counteract that judging by the response she got so hopefully there will be more to follow in weeks to come. I want to say that the acting in this segment was great and AJ's knocked Eve's out of the water from a couple of months ago. She just has this amazing cutesy girl next door look to her that makes you want to rush out there and give her a hug. She spoke really well and that look on her face was perfect. She has that same quality that Kelly Kelly had that made you want to root for her and Torrie Wilson before them. Of course I'd really like to see big things happen for AJ since they could give her a Divas' Championship shot or else slowly build her back up and eventually have her be the one to challenge Kharma. I know I'm getting ahead of myself here but the possibilities are endless. Segment rating: 7/10
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