Friday 11 May 2012

The Week In Review For Women's Wrestling #46

What up folks and we're at the end of another week of wrestling again. This was a pretty eventful week with the girls in WWE managing to score matches on all the TV shows, not to mention a PPV match announced for Over The Limit next week. Elsewhere the FCW girls finally got a fresh match and the TNA broads have their own PPV to build towards this Sunday. It's likely to be a good one.

Raw - Layla & Kelly Kelly vs Maxine & Natalya:
This was an interesting pairing to see given that Kelly and Layla feuded twice before, but that backstage segment at Extreme Rules had them put their differences aside so them teaming together isn't that unbelievable. Weird that Kelly got an entrance of her own and honestly it wasn't needed since one entrance means a longer match. Even though it was another annoyingly short match, this segment felt a lot more successful to me than ones in recent weeks. First of all, Layla got mic time. True it was just a replayed promo from WWE.com but it's still giving her mic time and getting some sense of character on TV. Also there was build up for Over The Limit and I feel that having Beth on commentary was sufficient enough to promote the match. I'm expecting to see her properly return to the ring next week or maybe attack Layla post-match. The tag match this week was disappointing as usual but it just shows how shallow the Diva pool has become with the Bellas leaving. I mean a Smackdown girl and an NXT girl are the only active wrestling heels they have now. As I always say I really wish they'd give these girls at least something like 5-6 minutes for their segments. Then they could get a sense of character across and get time to tell a story. Maxine is one of the best characters in the ring and yet we couldn't see any of it in this match. Layla's moves looked nice but how can we really see her show off her stuff when she can only get in five moves in the one match? Anyway the Divas do tend to get decent time on PPV these days so here's hoping Beth and Layla can get a chance to tear the house down because you know they can do it. Disappointing match as always but some compensation. 2/10

Eve's Promo:
Now this is where the Raw Diva action tends to make up for the piss poor match lengths. Come to think of it, Eve's entrance here was probably longer than most of her matches on Raw this year. This was one of her better promos and it shows a good initiative by the WWE writers. Eve can't ride the heat she got for dumping Zack Ryder (who by all rights still deserves to chin the bitch on live TV in comeuppance) forever so they're having her insult another popular star. And I'm happy they went with insults that could actually offend as opposed to some ridiculous PG put downs we've had to listen to in recent years ("Batista you're a crybaby", "Miz you're a monkey flinging poo", "Vickie you're a power hungry witch"). And Eve, never take those glasses off again. Also, Cameron and Naomi also got to show the WWE Universe that they have voices by cheering for him in his match. Cameron even got frightened by The Miz (face turn, stat, he surely needs it).

NXT - Maxine vs Tamina Snuka:
Ah, Maxine makes up for the disappointing appearance on Raw. I loved her "niceness-through-clenched-teeth" promo and I'm sure everyone lol'd at "can I call you Tammy?" and I especially did at Tamina mouthing back "no you can NOT call me Tammy". Aside from that promo, I thought this match was a really strong showing from both ladies. I'd go so far as to call this the best match Tamina has had since she was called up. The opening was nice and fast paced and Tamina looked incredibly solid with everything she did. It's nice to see her improving after being stagnant on Smackdown for all of last year. Maxine impressed me with her acting in this match. It's one thing to play a heel but quite another to play a heel trying to pretend to be a face. This almost seems like an apology for her not getting to do anything on Raw. What I also love about Maxine is that she knows how to properly make use of her holds. That full nelson was a nice touch and it was good to see her continue to use that top rope guillotine. I enjoyed Tamina's comeback as well with how energetic she got. She's a big girl but she can fly when she wants to. Interesting way to set up Maxine's Dragon Scissors but I liked it. Nice to see Maxine get another win, especially since Tamina doesn't really need one right now. Another hilarious backstage segment too, though she got cleaned up after her match pretty fast. 7/10

Xplosion - Sarita vs Velvet Sky:
It's the return of Mui Caliente and her spastic robot salsa dancing, neither of which has been seen since Lockdown. This is also a rematch from their big feud back in 2010. Obviously a lot has changed since then, as a look at the first singles match they had will demonstrate. The chain wrestling at the start wasn't the best but really who honestly cares about opening holds in a match anyway? The rest of the action was really good though it seems to me that all Xplosion matches have the face in control until the commercial break and don't allow the heel to get offence in until it's over. Oh well, it's not a formula that'll keep me awake at night. Not sure I liked the idea of a springboard bulldog being used so early in a match. Sarita's offence was most just kicks and punches at the start but she kept me entertained by flirting with the ref. It's funny how she's embraced this Spicy Latina personality so much when she's not even Mexican. I marked out big time for that springboard splash which would be a fantastic regular move to see her do. I also liked that little front roll flip she did out of the corner. Velvet's comeback was standard but enjoyable nonetheless. In Yo Face is one of my favourite Knockout finishers going right now. A standard match but fun and good to see Sarita back on TV. Perhaps when Brooke or Velvet or whoever wins the title they can finally pull the trigger on Sarita. 7/10

Superstars - Natalya vs Alicia Fox:
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the 11th match these two girls have had since their first on ECW back in 2009. Before now, Alicia had won five times and Natalya had won five which would make this the rubber match. Now then we are much more used to seeing Natalya as the face and Alicia as the heel since the only matches the other way around have been less than two minutes. So here it was great to see both of them work a full match with the roles the other way. What I love about Alicia is that even though she's peppy and smiley during her entrance, when the bell rings you get this aggression out of her that she carried over from her heel days. Her stomps and forearms are aggressive and they look realistic too. Her new babyface offence is getting better the more chances she gets to actually work. I loved the back roll into the headscissors as well as that cool spot in the corner which I will call "Ballerina Backfire" (ok I know her sister was the ballerina but come on). Like Maxine, Natalya seemed excited to get more time to tell a story and I was hoping she'd do that variation of the abdominal stretch we saw her use on Kaitlyn, especially since Alicia has great flexibility. Alicia even took a nice looking bump by getting shook off the ropes. The end was nice too and thank the lords Natalya wins again. As much as I hate to see Alicia losing so much, Natalya needed a win more than she did and she's now 6-5 in the lead. Even though the match was about four minutes it still felt athletic and impactful, which shows that these are two Divas who know how to make the most out of whatever time they get. 8/10

Impact - Brooke Tessmacher vs Velvet Sky:
A bit of a dream match-up coming up here. I've said that I expect these two girls to feud eventually so I'm wondering if this is a testing ground for a future program between Velvet and Brooke? If so, I doubt we'll be too disappointed judging from what we saw here. Face vs face matches are always good to see as you do often see one wrestler take on a heel role while still trying to maintain their babyface status. I expected Velvet to play the heel in the match but I was surprised at how back and forth it was. Neither woman really took on a heel role, even with Velvet in control towards the end. If you replaced Brooke with an actual heel in the match, I think it would still make sense. Naturally Brooke wins to give her momentum headed into the PPV and we get a nice post-match attack from Gail. I'm not sure but I'm leaning more towards Gail retaining at the PPV. It's mostly because Brooke has had a little too much momentum on her side with two wins over Gail so it seems a little too easy for her to just walk out of Sacrifice with the title. I'd prefer to see Gail retaining and then defending in a triple threat match because that looks to be where this is heading. I noticed Velvet didn't help Brooke during Gail's post match attack but since the announcers and the cameras didn't draw attention to it, I wouldn't make anything of it. I should note that when it came to crowd reactions, while the Impact Zone was divided, Velvet was getting a lot more cheers. 7/10

FCW - Raquel Diaz vs Audrey Marie vs Paige:
Yet another triple threat match and the second with an ill-thought out logic of not being for the title. Why would the champion be in a non-title triple threat match in the first place? Anyway you've probably seen enough to know that the words "FCW Divas Triple Threat" strikes fear into the hearts of Diva fans everywhere but don't be shocked - this one didn't suck. It seems that Audrey and Raquel learned from what made their last Triple Threat fail because instead of having a monotonous sequence of the heels dominating the face, they threw in some creative spots and told a story between the two heels as well. That triple headlock was a nice little spot that added to the storytelling. Audrey didn't get dominated as much as she did in the last one which was a good thing and the match was surprisingly back and forth. She should probably work on her screaming because when she was at the ropes it was more akin to "slapstick comedy" than "legitimate pain". She took a nice throw into the ringpost though. I don't think Raquel using the Gory Bomb on Paige was a good idea because you had her get up a few seconds later selling it like it was just a big move as opposed to a champion's finisher. A move like a DDT or powerbomb would have been better. I liked the ending with Paige pinning Raquel in the midst of the Three Amigos. I'm assuming this means they're going for a Paige/Raquel programme now. I'm happy about this because Paige is a very accomplished wrestler so working with Raquel will help the young champ to improve. I wonder if they'll leave it as heel vs heel or else turn one of them face? I'm more inclined to turn Paige face since Raquel is really onto something with her heel character and Paige can shine as a face as a look at any of her Pro Wrestling EVE stuff will demonstrate. Turning Paige face could also set up for a feud with Sofia Cortez or even some good matches with Caylee Turner who really should return to the ring as a wrestler by now. 7/10

Smackdown - AJ vs Kaitlyn:
Now this is a storyline I'm really happy to see. I was against Kaitlyn turning heel back in November now I think the Chick Busters breakup is well-timed, especially since the one turning heel is already proven well in that role. That being said, this storyline is a bit unpredictable. AJ certainly didn't act heelish at the start, she was heelish during the match and after it but she still comes across somewhat sympathetic with what Daniel Bryan said. I see them going ahead with the heel turn and instead having AJ direct her anger at Kaitlyn because Daniel Bryan showed interest in her. Not sure if they'll keep him involved in this storyline because her walking away does seem to suggest it's ending but that's a bit anti-climactic to me. I also wish they hadn't given AJ the actual win. The match ending in DQ would have been a much better move. Here's hoping we get a rematch with more time. Segment rating: 6/10

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