So in her first and possibly only wrestling match, Maria looked the part of a wrestler, perhaps even more so than some of the current Divas. One point to you, Maria.
The match starts off with two of my favourite Divas, Gail Kim who at this point, is becoming Kelly’s shadow — heel turn STAT!] and Alicia Fox. Gail goes for a rollup straightaway, Alicia kicks out and Gail goes for a forearm followed by an arm wrench before tagging out to Maria Menounos. Maria & Gail throw Alicia against the ropes and hit her with a double-elbow. Maria hits two hair tosses, looking confident very confident and believable in the ring, plus Alicia is probably one of the best sellers amongst the Divas so that helps. Alicia picks up Maria and tries to take her to her team’s corner but Maria hits a decent sunset flip but Alicia kicks out. Alicia kicks Maria and drags her to her corner where she tags in the Glamazon, Beth Phoenix.
The intimidating Glamazon gets in Maria’s face, screaming at her but gets kicked square in the knee which takes her down to the canvas. Gee, I wonder why the actual Divas never think of doing that… Maria then shows off her acting ability, showing herself to be a hesitant newcomer in the ring, by looking at her teammates and wondering what to do next. I thought that was a nice touch, as it comes across as a bit of a fluke rather than out-and-out burying the real Divas. Maria slaps Beth and tags out to Kelly.
Kelly launches at Beth for a whirly bird but Beth catches her and goes for a spin into a backbreaker. Beth throws Kelly into the corner and tags in Rosa. Oh boy, this could be a trainwreck. Kelly with a kick to Rosa and then forearms, before throwing her into the corner. Kelly hits a handspring butt-bump? Rosa with a drop toe-hold on Rosa, Kelly’s neck over the middle rope. Rosa knocks Gail off the apron but not Maria, who guillotines her over the top rope. This allows Kelly to hit her step-up legdrop which always looks good, if you ask me. Team Maria gets the win! Not a great way to leave Raw for Beth & Rosa, but I guess a whole change of brand could be a good thing for Beth, they could just not mention this at all.
I thought Maria looked good in the ring, what she did was limited but she had a good ring presence, perhaps more so than the ‘real’ Maria. I would be ever so curious to see what she could be like if she joined WWE and got in even more training. Good job!
So that’s your lot for Raw this week, a complete mind-fuck, I’m sure you’ll agree. Raw will have a totally different landscape next week, so it should be an interesting Redux to write. I still don’t think all of this has sunk in
