WWE Battleground 2014 Predictions: Divas Championship Match: AJ Lee vs. Paige

photo courtesy:wwe.com

Just 24 hours after a successful Divas Championship defense at WrestleMania XXX, AJ Lee made the mistake of putting her title on the line in an impromptu match against NXT standout Paige. The Norwich, England, native upset AJ and captured the title.

Paige would carry the gold over the next three months, knocking off established competitors such as Alicia Fox, Aksana and Naomi. At the same time, she struggled to make the impact that she did in NXT, thanks to WWE Creative's reluctance to expand upon the Anti-Diva character that helped make her one of the breakout stars in the company.

By the time she took to the ring on the June 30 episode of Raw, there were plenty of questions surrounding where the young woman would go next. What would she do? Was there any chance that her character could be rehabbed enough to make people care?

Then AJ returned, beat Paige for the title and ignited a story most expected would carry the Divas division in a post-WrestleMania WWE.

Rather than engaging in a heated rivalry right out of the gate, Paige and AJ began showing an awkward mutual respect for one another. With every compliment they directed at each other, however, it became more and more clear that the title loss affected Paige more than she was letting on. Behind every smile, there was a fury just waiting to be unleashed.

Whether she finally unleashes that fury at Battleground remains to be seen, but sooner or later, AJ will pay for ending what should have been the greatest run of Paige's young career.

Prediction: AJ Lee

The entire story is built on Paige eventually snapping and attacking AJ. That cannot happen if she beats AJ, regains the Divas Championship and has her happy ending. There would be no emphasis for the breakdown.

As a result, AJ will win Sunday night, retain the title and bring us one step closer to a Page heel turn.

source: bleacherreport.com

Will The Company Build the Divas Division around Layla?

photo courtesy: wwe.com

Let's make one thing clear: WWE’s floundering women’s division has lacked aim and direction for years now.

For one thing, it has been subjected to shoddy and erratic booking by WWE’s writing team, to the point that few fans can bring themselves to care about it.

Additionally, the divas’ matches on Raw and SmackDown are usually allotted a laughably short amount of time, with the women barely having time to do anything before going straight to the finish.

How can you make anyone care about a match that goes roughly 30 seconds? The sad answer is, you can't.

Layla def. Nikki Bella (New Divas Champion) - Extreme Rules 2012
WWE Extreme Rules 2012(WATCH)

To make matters even worse, talented divas like Kelly Kelly and Beth Phoenix have been the victims of frustrating stop-and-start booking, as the promotion demonstrates a deep reluctance to get behind any diva and give her a steady push for a prolonged length of time.  

Unsurprisingly, many women in WWE have grown disillusioned with this terrible treatment, and some, like Gail Kim, even left over it.

WWE Divas Champion Layla def. Beth Phoenix - Over the Limit 2012
WWE Over the Limit 2012 (WATCH)

However, with the recent push of Layla, there is some (cautious) hope that WWE may be finally starting to rebuild their women’s division, with the Diva Search winner at the center of it.

Indeed, Layla has so far been the recipient of first-class treatment from WWE’s booking team. Following a year on the bench after serious knee surgery, she made her return at the Extreme Roles pay-per-view as then Divas Champion Nikki Bella’s surprise opponent.

Coming out to a strong and lively reaction, Layla soundly defeated her in a decent match to take the title, and went on to defeat both Bella twins the following night (this bout served as the pair’s swansong from the company, with the sisters getting fired by Eve later in the evening in a segment shown on the company’s official site).

Layla was also given an impressive and clean victory over the dominant Beth Phoenix at the Over the Limit pay-per-view on Sunday in a match that went fairly long by current WWE diva standards (over seven minutes).  

So, it looks like the company are intending to build the division around the former Miami Heat dancer. The question is: Can it last?

As noted, WWE’s booking team have behaved erratically in the past with their women and, with this in mind, it wouldn’t be too shocking to see WWE drop Layla and her push, and speedily move their attentions onto the latest model to get called up from OVW.

There’s also the fact that, crazy at is sounds, at the ripe old age of 33, Layla is a lot older than the youth-obsessed WWE tend to prefer their women to be. While it doesn’t seem to have caused any issues with her so far—and, it has to be said, she still looks amazing and ten years younger than she actually is—it could be a potential problem for her in the future.

However, despite the possible problems, at this point things look good for the female star.

Indeed, not since Trish Stratus in her heyday has the promotion had such a great all-around diva. Layla can do it all: talk, wrestle and emanate sex appeal and charisma.

She is everything WWE brass could possibly want in a diva. It makes sense that they want to push her so strongly.

There’s also the rather bleak fact that they probably have no one else ready for the female babyface spot on Raw: Alicia Fox isn’t over one little bit and her in-ring work is spotty at best, and former Divas Champion Kelly’s profile has floundered badly after months of not being used by WWE in any meaningful manner. She no longer seems relevant anymore.

At this point, Layla is assured of a push purely because she’s one of the few truly talented, over and capable girls the company has got left.

Summarily, at present it looks like WWE intend to make Layla a cornerstone of their women’s division, no doubt imbued with faith by her considerable talents in the ring and outside of it.

Of course, knowing WWE, we probably shouldn’t get too comfortable, lest they pull the rug out from under her and she gets banished to NXT or Superstars soon.

But at the moment, we’re optimistic that Layla, with the creative team firmly behind her, can greatly help in turning around the flagging women’s division.

source: bleacherreport.com

Survivor Series 2011 : Divas Champion Beth Phoenix vs. Eve (Lumberjill Match)

photo : wwe.com

The fight over the Divas Championship amidst Eve and champion Beth Phoenix has spilled out of the ring and into the locker room, on Twitter and even the interstates of Georgia. Now, the a few can face off at Survivor Series in a Lumberjill Match and if their late crashes are any evidence, not even the roads of New York City would hold them. Yet, that won’t be a situation this Sunday, as the ring can be surrounded by lumberjills. In the event that the activity is taken to the stadium stun, its dependent upon the rest of the WWE Divas to toss them again in the ring.

When The Glamazon massacred Eve to hold her championship final month at Vengeance, she and Natalya carried on their tries to break the spirits of Eve and Kelly. They stole Eve's adapt from the locker room the accompanying week, tweeting out pictures ridiculing the marvelousness as they toyed with her golden ring attire. Yet, the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu-educated Diva got a measure of retribution on the Oct. 31 Raw SuperShow, dumping Natalya out of the ring to win a No. 1 Contender's Battle Royal to acquire a rematch in opposition to Phoenix at Survivor Series.

Eve and Kelly likewise constructed a late partner in Alicia Fox, who accommodated the pair assist repulse the ambushes of the self-declared “Sisters of Salvation” as well as modest them by heisting the Divas Champion and Natalya's rental auto.

The Divas Championship Match at Survivor Series might as well be an one-on-one undertaking. Nonetheless, nothing in this contention has been equitably challenged, as a result of the devious tactics of The Glamazon and Natalya. Now, the decks should be stacked a small more proportionally, as Kelly, Alicia Fox, Natalya and the rest of the WWE Divas can be ringside to verify the movement stays in the ring.

Which Diva will rule and leave with the championship?

What Kelly Kelly's win over Beth Phoenix means

courtesy : wwe.com

Just when it seemed that the WWE creative team had decided to resurrect the Divas division by having Beth Phoenix and Natalya rise to relevance again, Kelly Kelly walked out of SummerSlam 2011 still with the Divas championship.

How did Kelly accomplish this feat? With a counter to Phoenix's finisher into a pinning roll-up...apparently that's how you defeat someone as powerful as the "Glamazon."

But for those who wish to see Natalya and Phoenix take over the division, don't be too discouraged by the loss tonight.

I would relate Phoenix's loss tonight to the beginning of the Christian-Randy Orton feud when "The Viper" defeated Christian for the world heavyweight championship just days after he won the title.

I believe that, though Phoenix took the loss tonight, it was only to add to this feud, which is only in its early stages.

This seems to be the start of a rivalry that could actually save the division, even though it began on a bad note for the more powerful Diva.

Phoenix and Natalya have not been doing much of anything this calendar year; besides the occasional oversized tag-team match and WWE Superstars appearance, the two blondes have been all but absent from WWE programming.

I don't think that creative would spend decent airtime on the two Divas jumping A.J. and Kelly Kelly without the storyline going further, and the way Kelly won at SummerSlam leaves room for this rivalry to grow and garner just what the Divas division desperately needs: airtime.

The fact that Kelly won by a simple roll-up allows for the Phoenix to come out on Raw this coming Monday and explain how her opponent's victory was a fluke, how she demands a rematch and so forth, and then have a nice heated promo with the current Divas champion.

What happens with Natalya over on Smackdown is yet to be seen, but there's a good chance we see her and Phoenix team-up and become a powerful duo in the division.

It doesn't take a wrestling enthusiast to notice that the Divas division has all but been ignored, with the exception of the Bella twins and Kelly Kelly.

The company has even lost two of its top talents in Melina and Gail Kim due to their recent lack of exposure.

This rivalry could potentially bring back the division that actually has more talent than the WWE would have you believe.

It's time for the creative team to finally pay attention to their female wrestlers and allow them to showcase the talent that they possess.

This Kelly-Phoenix rivalry could change the way the Divas division is perceived if it takes off and becomes a captivating storyline.

source : bleacherreport.com

Why Beth Phoenix can defeat Kelly Kelly and take her title

courtesy : wwe.com

The most interesting women's match in WWE in quite some takes place at WWE Summerslam 2011. Who will come out on top?

Well, some fans might argue that WWE's current golden girl Kelly has the edge: she's popular, gorgeous, enthusiastic about wrestling and, perhaps most importantly in WWE's jagged political environment, well-liked backstage (Randy Orton brought an avalanche of heat onto himself when he harshly and needlessly criticised aspects of her personal life in his now infamous interview with Arizona's Real Rock Radio Show). She also hasn't had the championship very long at all, having won the title on the June 20th edition of Monday Night Raw after a fan vote awarded her a WWE Divas Championship shot.

Conventional wisdom tells us WWE will want to give her some more time on top. But is it really that simple? I don't think so. Indeed, I fully believe former women's champion Beth can win the title off the former bikini model from Florida at the pay-per-view.

Here's why. First of all, while Kelly has taken great strides as an in-ring performer, there are still big question marks hanging over her in-ring ability. For example, her (mercifully short) match with Brie Bella at WWE's spectacular Money in the Bank pay-per-view was one of the few blights of an otherwise fantastic card. Botched moves, mistiming, a distinct lack of fan reaction... make no mistake about it: the match was a shambles.

Indeed, the match was so awful that, in a rather unprofessional move, the Bella Twins took to Twitter to snap back at critics of the match, even taking a few shots at the TNA Knockouts in the process. For her part, Kelly remained silent, but she could not have been ignorant to the criticism.

Beth, on the other hand, has always been one of WWE's better female performers. Learning her trade on the indies, including a stint in Allison Danger's Shimmer promotion, she's vastly superior to the current crop of divas who always try but never really deliver the goods in the ring. She has often been compared to Chyna in her run (the Glamazon character is almost certainly inspired by Chyna, and Beth, like her predecessor, also showed up in the Royal Rumble one year), but people tend to forget while making the comparison that Phoenix is actually a far more competent and smoother wrestler than Chyna ever was. She's a notch above most of the other performers in WWE as well, sans Nattie, perhaps.

Indeed, I personally thought her matches last year with Laycool, including an enjoyable Extreme Makeover match with McCool at the Extreme Rules PPV, were some of the best women's matches in WWE since 2002 when fine wrestlers like Molly Holly, Jazz, Victoria (now Tara in TNA) and Trish Stratus were dishing out great matches on a regular basis. Kelly has no such track record—her in-ring work is patchy at best. In a division that has matches often filled with botched moves and miscues, centering the division on a good in-ring general like Beth may appeal to WWE management. After all, Beth is far better at carrying clueless opponents than Kelly is and will likely work far better with the likes of Nikki and Brie Bella than Kelly has.

Similar to Kelly, Beth also has her vocal supporters backstage: in a July interview with GQ Magazine, current WWE star CM Punk singled out Beth for praise and claimed she was a woefully under-utilised diva who WWE wasn't doing enough with. Friends in high places may be of great aid to her in the tumultuous WWE political environment. Maybe Punk, or someone else, will put in a good word for her and convince the booking team to give her a shot on top.

There's also the fact that Beth is one determined lady. As someone who struggled her way up from the indies and then faced serious and painful injuries, including major reconstructive knee surgery that kept her out for five months in 2010, as well as having faced an often apathetic booking team, Beth has earned her place in the upper echelon of WWE's women's division—and she knows it. After viciously attacking Kelly after winning last week's Diva's Battle Royale, she grabbed the mic and triumphantly declared: “Kelly, your days as the perky, cute, blond little bimbo are officially over.”

Talk about making a statement, huh? In fact, it wouldn't shock me if her remarks to Kelly were one of those work-shoot things that WWE have grown so fond of in recent times, with WWE writers trying to tap into some real-life tension (or, what fans assume is a real-life tension) between the women wrestlers in WWE like Beth and Nattie (and the recently departed Gail Kim and Melina) who feel they have paid their dues but are being overlooked for the more photogenic but lesser talent women like Kelly. Interestingly, Nattie herself is doing a similar angle on Smackdown with A.J. Indeed, in the context of the storyline, Beth may have to gain a victory at Summerslam 2011 for the "true" the female wrestlers in the company and score the pin on Kelly.

But perhaps it would be best to end this piece with a word from the woman herself. Speaking to WWE's official website last week, she was asked about her actions but refused to give any straight answers, instead insisting, “You want a real story? Tune into SummerSlam 2011 and watch me win the Divas Championship for the first time."

source : bleacherreport.com

Michelle McCool says goodbye

"Your true passion should feel like breathing ; its that natural." Oprah Winfrey.

As the teardrops eventually discontinued flowing from Michelle McCools eyes in the locker room, the onetime schoolteacher-turned-WWE Diva became reflective. After all, she had grown up having a romance with WWE, something she shared with her dad and "pap pap," her grandfather. Being a Diva was her ambition, and although the route may have started in a seventh-grade classroom where she taught middle schoolers science, the road would finally end where she always told her pap pap and dad shed be someday : in the squared circle ring.

As McCools body hit the canvas in a tough Loser Leaves WWE Match at Extreme Rules with her former best friend Layla, and then a powerful slam to the ring by a debuting Kharma, all those dreams came dashing down her time in WWE was up. The teardrops began to flow a combination of the physical pain she had been enduring for two months and the emotional strain of a dream coming to an abrupt halt.

“My foot has been injured for two months now, broken toe, torn joint capsules, torn MCL. I took a good beating by Layla and Kharma, too. I know I’ll be feeling it tonight, tomorrow and probably the next day,” McCool exclusively told WWE.com. “But I’ll wear it with pride.”

Two Womens Championships and two Divas Championships to her recognition McCool surely has much to be prideful about.

McCools WWE life history started out in 2004, thanks to the WWE Diva Search. During her tenure as a teacher, she saw an advertisement on Raw for the competition. Eventhough teaching kids was her love, working her way into WWE and winning the championship was something she was addicted about, and nothing was going to stand in her way.

“I’ve been doing this for six years now. Love me or hate me, I hope the WWE Universe can respect that night in and night out, I’ve given it my all,” McCool said as the tears again began to flow. “This is definitely emotional, and I’m sure it’ll be like that for awhile.”

Hesitating for a minute to collect herself, McCool did have one last message for the WWE Universe.

“Thank you for the love and the hate. Thank you for being you and for watching. Hopefully I’ll see you around – not in the ring – but maybe someday.”

And as she loaded up her bag for the last time in the Divas locker room, it struck her. She wouldn't be doing the familiar tonight, heading to another city. Shed be heading someplace much more unfamiliar dwelling house.