And the clock is ticking even further down the line as we inch ever closer first to TNA's Victory Road and then to WrestleMania. One match we're definitely getting though it's not exactly a stellar choice and another is still up in the air. Oh well, we shall take a look anyway.
Raw - Eve vs Alicia Fox:
Deja vu, it's like we're heading into WrestleMania 26 again and the Divas are doing some kind of beat the clock challenge every week. As I seem to say every time I review a Raw match, I would love to see the two of them get time to put on a good show because they did the best with what they were given and that was not a whole lot. The two of them tore the house down at Money In The Bank 2010 and again on Superstars. I suppose an Eve/Kelly match is in the works with Kelly being on commentary but after last week's good usage of Divas, this week felt like a bit of a letdown. The Eve/Ryder storyline takes a new twist though it does seem obvious where it's going now. I'd prefer a singles match for WrestleMania as opposed to a mixed tag but Layla isn't set to return until after Mania is over so hopefully it'll just be Zack Ryder getting involved somehow in the match. Special referee maybe? Perhaps then they'll get enough time. And it's a small thing to be pleased about but good that WWE kept up with the continuity between Eve, Alicia and Kelly. 2/10
Ring Ka King - Mickie James vs Raisha Saeed:
I really do prefer Mickie's old bell bottom attire to the new farm girl costumes she keeps wearing in TNA. I enjoyed this one more than the last match (with Alissa Flash) but they're still both quite good. As a worker Mickie is always very hit and miss but here with Melissa/Alissa/Raisha she has worked very well and showed more energy than she's been showing of late in TNA. It makes me realise that I probably will miss this side of her if TNA ever goes ahead with the heel turn. Raisha took the DDT a bit strangely but it looked fine. It didn't look botched but it just didn't look like the way Mickie's DDTs normally do. The crowd were very hot for Mickie as always. 7/10
NXT - Tamina Snuka vs Maxine:
A fresh match anyway, if nothing else can be said. I suppose it's good to get Tamina back on TV. The set-up of this match was a little strange because it felt almost like Maxine was playing the face role at first but I suppose you'll always get that feeling when the face is a lot bigger than the heel. Opening exchanges were very good though once Maxine took control properly, things got a bit messy. Now that she's a face, Tamina should work on feeding a bit more since Maxine had to drag her into the corner to start working on her. It's always important to keep moving around the ring if you're a face so your opponent has something to work with. Cool to see Maxine going to the top rope though the whole thing was over a bit soon. I'd prefer to see Tamina get a proper comeback instead of just hitting the Samoan Drop into the splash. Good effort but room for improvement. 5.5/10
Impact - Gail Kim & Madison Rayne* vs ODB & Eric Young (Knockouts Tag Team Championships):
Thank the wrestling Gods that Gail Kim is no longer holding both belts. Now we can maybe get a sense of direction in the Knockouts division. Maybe bring Mickie and Velvet into the equation by having them challenge for the titles but Mickie abandons Velvet and sets up her heel turn? Or else at least they have Sarita & Rosita as well as Winter & Angelina Love to feud with. I'm happy that ODB has a title again. Personally I don't think she's Knockouts title material but here she and Eric Young make a great duo and they've been featured regularly so this does mean good things for the belts. The match was fine though I will state right away that if they want to have Eric Young as one of the champions then he should actually wrestle these women. His antics during matches are fun when they're not all he does or else he'll just become the TNA version of Maryse. Anyway that double airplane spin had me loling as did the after match marriage proposal. And hey, I've been clamouring to see some form of Intergender Tag titles before so technically they're the first. 6.5/10
FCW - Raquel Diaz* vs Audrey Marie vs Sofia Cortez (FCW Divas' Championship):
Oh lord. Triple threats are incredibly hard to do as this spectacle is living proof of. It had some promise as the two heels-one face set up was a better idea than two faces-one heel like in the match with Aksana/AJ/Audrey ages ago and they didn't have one girl vanish for most of the match but it was still incredibly awkward and sloppy. It was mostly just Raquel and Sofia beating down on Audrey and they could have done more with some storytelling between the heels like Sofia finally turning on Raquel. She did well to try and keep the match together as the most experienced woman in there but obviously you learn by doing and better that these three are putting on bad triple threats in FCW if it means they can put on good ones in WWE. Mind you, we haven't actually seen one in WWE since Melina turned heel. 4.5/10
Smackdown Watch:
There wasn't an actual proper match or segment but Divas were featured across the programme, such as Aksana and Teddy Long's deal. I hope Aksana is involved in the tag match at WrestleMania, at least as their manager since it was random that Tamina got left off the card last year when she was managing Santino. Though I do want to draw some annoying attention to Aksana being a badass in FCW and now reduced to a quivering Damsel in Distress at the very thought of Kane. We also saw some more development in AJ's part as Daniel Bryan seems to be slowly becoming more obvious in his mistreatment of her. She's another girl I hope is involved at WrestleMania because I saw an article that described her as "The Miss Elizabeth of the Moment". The World title match doesn't have much behind it so AJ could be that added spice it needs.
So in WWE the usual format follows with the matches themselves being unimpressive but some good storyline continuation follows. Really, I could actually adjust fine to this as long as the girls were in proper storylines and feuds that got developed every week and then on PPV they have been getting nice amounts of time. TNA meanwhile are hopefully going to develop one of the many storylines they've stopped and started. And over in Ring Ka King we now have Angelina Love's debut to look forward to. Could it be too much to hope for her playing a face over there?
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