Well we've officially got the last PPV before WrestleMania down but in terms of Diva action, that PPV probably generates the least amount of hope and excitement every year. Oh well. TNA meanwhile have an incredibly silly and overbooked storyline to develop for their next PPV but let's see how they followed up. And oh yeah, the Divas' title was defended too.
Elimination Chamber - Beth Phoenix* vs Tamina Snuka (Divas' Championship):
Not too shabby I must say. Tamina looked the best she's ever been in the ring and that's including her match with Natalya. No awkwardness and no sloppy moves, everything was done well and Tamina passes the test. The match wasn't as show stopping as Beth's match with Eve or as exciting as her ones with Kelly but still pretty good. Beth and Tamina added a lot to the match with their little bits of personality, Beth mocking her poses etc. If you compare Beth now to when she was in her first Women's title reign back in 2007 the difference is extraordinary. She just has so much charisma now and is really rocking this new role they have her in. The match was longer than I thought it would be especially since they like to have the inexperienced workers wrestle as little time as possible, but it was the better for it. It was interesting to see Beth use the Glam Slam on someone as big as Tamina and it was very impressive. Speaking of impressing, she's now clocked a record five title defences which is the most of any Divas' Champion ever. I think it's safe to say she's been established as a strong champion, and her and Kelly's reigns really built the belt up a little. 6.5/10
Raw - Kelly Kelly & Aksana vs The Bella Twins:
Was Alicia Fox busy ducking a drunken Chris Brown? WWE have a habit of not being able to follow up the momentum of a PPV but this was a new low even for them. The champion wasn't even on TV this week. I fell asleep twice during the Triple H/Undertaker promo so that proves that everyone else on the show should have been getting more time, not just the Divas. Anyway the way to get someone comfortable wrestling on live TV is not throwing them out there with less than two minutes to work. I really want Aksana to be given more opportunities to show off her skills. I think a "demotion" to NXT or Superstars would be welcomed. Bellas win, which is a refreshing change but this clearly isn't going anywhere. 2/10
Eve Turns Heel:
On the other hand...this makes up for the piss poor excuse of a match we got. I stand by what I've said for ages now that the storyline seemed to be heading towards Eve being manipulated by Kane, but they saw how much heat she was getting last week and turned her heel. I'm not crazy about her being a heel because she is a natural face, but that doesn't really matter considering she's now got more heat than the Divas' Champion. The boos and jeers she was getting was insane, almost as big as when Trish turned on Jericho. People complaining about being called a "Hoeski", well it's better than crickets every time you come out. Please continue to feature Eve regularly and keep this momentum going. I've heard the rumours about bringing Layla back to feud with Eve, pairing her with Zack Ryder etc. I think that's a good idea because, while Layla was fairly popular before she got injured, she may have lost a lot of momentum coming off her big win so pairing her with someone as over as Zack and putting her against someone as hated as Eve would be a nice way to fix that. Mixed tag at WrestleMania? I'm assuming Eve will be paired with Swagger since he's the US Champ and maybe her and Vickie's combined efforts might save him from the abyss.
Smackdown - Eve's Promo:
Well this technically didn't air but WWE put it up online so I'll slot it in there anyway. Even more great heat for her, which we can tell is legit since this was a live Smackdown. Eve has always been fairly decent on the mic but she does need to work on her delivery with a few lines. However she worked the crowd like a pro and she has the attitude down. I hope WWE allows her to cut more promos because besides Maxine we really don't have a Diva known for her mic work. If she works hard to adjust to the heel style of wrestling, she could very well become the whole package for a Diva.
NXT Watch:
Great segments with Kaitlyn and Maxine as usual and both of them were entertaining in the segments, though I'm glad they're not going with the typical romance angle with Kaitlyn and Derrick Bateman. They seem to be just keeping them as friends which seems a little too sophisticated for the WWE creative team. They're getting another match next week which I will look forward to. The fact that they're hyping it up suggests that it'll be getting more time and maybe even it'll be the main event. Either way, I'll be looking forward to it.
Impact - Gail Kim vs ODB:
A really interesting match to see, especially since when they technically feuded back in 2007/2008 it was Gail as the face and ODB as the heel/tweener but now of course the roles are reversed. Eric Young was awesome as always and I'm glad they kept the two of them together. The Flying Dragon looked extra impressive this week for some reason, maybe because we've never seen it done on someone ODB's size before. Naturally she wins to give herself momentum and, hey it's a clean enough win to make her look a little less weak. Still not sold on this match with Madison because it's still unclear who's meant to be heel and face. I'm hoping they'll have the match and just drop the feud because it could get messy. Madison shouldn't turn face because she's such a good heel and Gail shouldn't turn face because it's too soon for her. Disappointed that there was no Mickie this week because they've really lost all the momentum from her potential heel turn and that's not a good thing. 6/10
So there still seems to be no hope for the girls going into WrestleMania and I guess we can't bank on a celebrity getting them a spot on the card this year. I hope they'll give the girls something on the card because they do deserve to be featured in a good way. Give us Beth/Natalya or hell even Beth/Alicia. A normal match with plenty of time and a good build up would be more than satisfactory. 10 minutes on a four hour show is not that much to ask for. TNA meanwhile will hopefully drop this dumb Gail/Madison angle after the title match and push someone who deserves a crack at the singles title. Insert Velvet Sky rant here.
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