Freshening Up The Divas

While there have been a few exciting moments and interesting stories (angles) in WWE’s women’s division (aka the divas) over the past couple of years, for the most part it seems the divas have been treading water and in my opinion are nearly on life support. Are the days of female wrestling over, not necessarily, but they are in a so called ‘dark age’. It wasn’t too long back when the proverbial ‘golden age’ of women’s wrestling was in full effect. By my observation, women’s wrestling was at its best from 2000/2001- 2006. During that time there were many divas who could handle the mic, work in the ring, and had strong, developed characters.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Injury

Oh Ken Anderson or should I say Mr. Kennedy or now I guess it’s Mr. Anderson. What have you done? Somewhere along the line you did something bad because you have the injury bug as bad as anyone pro athlete I’ve ever seen. Let’s just do a run down:

SmackDown 3-12-10

This post will cover the 3-12-10 edition of SD!, which took place in Seattle, WA and saw the return of Chris Jericho’s Highlight Reel.

-Rey Mysterio & CM Punk Promo: Don’t really like that Rey’s family had to get involved; they couldn’t have a feud w/o them? I thought Punk was going to own this promo and he did especially w/ referencing Dominic ‘growing’ up before our eyes (being on WWE TV before), kneeling down to get on Rey’s ‘level’, and then eerily singing happy birthday to Rey’s daughter.

-Miz w/ Daniel Bryan vs. R-Truth w/ Otunga: Is there a chance Miz could just come out (just once) all pissed off, grab the mic, and just when he’s about to talk he stops himself (even if it means as a crowd we don’t deserve to hear him speak); then proceed to put all that angry talk energy into the match. Good, short match and I loved the finish w/ Bryan pushing Miz’s feet off the ropes.

WWE NXT: 3-9-10

This post will cover the 3-9-10, 3rd episode of WWE NXT.

-Otunga & R-Truth vs. Daniel Bryan & Miz: I like the interaction between Miz and Bryan. For Miz’s sake though, as many have mentioned, he can’t only be a mic guy (which he get’s a lot of time on…too much?); the wrestling aspect has to start progressing more and more. Great over the top rope spot by Truth and Otunga slamming Miz. Good match overall: good wrestling and enhanced story/character elements. Loved when Bryan fake swung at Miz.

-Heath Slater vs. Carlito: Slater didn’t come nervous at all in his taped promo, but nothing certainly grabbed me. Lots of back and forth striking in the match and a roll-up finish (please stop these, I hate them!). I’m glad for Slater (decent match).

-Gabriel vs. Barret: Gabriel sounded much better in this weeks promo before the match and Barret didn’t add much. Jericho chimmed in on commentary nicely and Gabs won with a sweet 450 splash. Second best match of the night.

Like I said before, I love that WWE is doing this show. It’s great and it will help the company out very much.

As always, thanks for reading.

Raw 3-8-10

This post will cover the 3-8-10 edition of Raw from Portland, OR that featured the ‘main event’ of Mr. McMahon vs. John Cena.

-Undertaker/HBK Promo: Raw was kicked off by the “Deadman/Phenom/many other nicknames,” basically saying he’ll win at WM and Shawn’s career will be over. Since there’s no way Shawn is winning, then I guess this match is all about the wrestling. It’s nice to see each of them give each other props despite their current feud/upcoming match. Can only vets do this? Good start to the show and it didn’t run too long.

SmackDown 3-5-10

This post will cover the 3-5-10 edition of SD!, which featured Edge vs. Big Show as the main event.

-Edge/Jericho Video Package: The show kicked off with a recap of everything btw the two since Edge returned. This is WWE’s #1 feud right now in terms of quality story, wrestling, and promos. I will concede that this feud has had more time though, so other ones can still build.

-Edge Promo: Sounds like Edge is trying to build up “Spear” to “What” status. Big Show came out; later we’d find out who Biz Show will face at WM for the UTT belts. They pulled a Happy Gilmore “you eat X for breakfast” during this bit.

Raw 3-1-2010

We started off the month of March the right way: with some WWE Raw! Last night Raw was live from Oklahoma City, which is about twenty-five minutes north of me (maybe next time). I was really looking forward to the Orton vs. DiBiase match.

-First thing, is that I feel WWE needs to do better job promoting the next week’s show. Let us know who’s wrestling, etc. ahead of time (at least some stuff) and then remind us on the other shows. Preview SmackDown! on Raw and vice versa.

-Shawn Michaels Promo: Last week Jericho opened up Raw and this week it was HBK: 2 for 2. When he say’s he’s “Mr. Wrestlemania,” I really believe it and know that he believes it. HHH came out to tell HBK that unlike the other locker room guys, he believes Shawn can beat Taker. Here they invoked their ‘rematch clause’ (that WWE loves now) to face Biz Show later. I loved how HHH said you don’t have to wrestle for a month (as UTT) cause we all saw how much DX worked as champs. I wonder if HHH will be involved in the Streak vs. Career match or will they make it clean as a whistle?

SmackDown 2-26-10

This post will cover the 2-26-10, post-Elimination Chamber edition of SD! from Milwaukee, WI.

-Jericho Promo: Just like on Raw, SD! was kicked off by the new WHC, Chris Jericho. Edge came out after Chris told the audience “I told you so” a bunch of times. Edge then counted how many Spears (I think) he’s given to Chris and that he’s in his head. I’m glad SD! has a fresh feud in the title picture b/c Rey/Taker/Batista was getting redundant. Anyone else want to see Edge develop a second finisher?

Raw 2-22-10

This post will cover the 2-22-10, post-Elimination Chamber edition of Raw, which was in Indianapolis, IN.

-Jericho Promo: Newly decorated WHC, Chris Jericho kicked off the show. I like Chris and am glad he’s got the belt; especially since he works every week. Crowd had a mix of ‘you suck’, ‘Y2J’, and boos. Gosh, Chris can cut a damn promo; within just a few lines with his ‘voice’ it was just great. Edge came out to Spear Jericho and say that he’s choosing Chris to face at WM. Surprise-No. But the build could be great (as it has) and the match even better.

SmackDown 2-19-10

This post will cover the 2-19-10 edition of SD!, which was the last one before this years Elimination Chamber PPV.

-Jericho & Edge Promo: Whether or not Jericho wins the title, I just hope that Taker doesn’t retain b/c the WHT deserves to be held by a more often seen/working wrestler. I hope guys like Edge and Jericho, who are good on the mic, work with the young guys b/c promo work is often underutilized for building up a character. I know Orton certainly learned a thing or two about facial expressions from Edge during their run as Rated-RKO. Nice, subtle touch by Edge saying Jericho only beat Taker b/c of Edge’s Spear. I cannot wait to see these two guys put on a clinic.