WWE Diva Layla has outed Naomi and Jimmy Uso as WWE’s newest couple. We noted last week that one of the Usos and Naomi taped a segment with Natalya for E!’s Total Divas. Layla tweeted this weekend:
“The cutest couple ever #trueLove @wwenaomi @wwejimmyuso Awewwwwwe #lol”
WWE will be gearing their new Total Divas TV show towards a female audience because that’s E!’s general audience.
As of now, they have filmed and plan to air footage showing the real-life relationships of Nikki Bella & John Cena, Daniel Bryan & Brie Bella and Natalya & Tyson Kidd.
Speaking of the show, Natalya posted this photo of she and new Divas Joseann Offerman & Eva Marie flying to Tampa, presumably for tonight’s NXT live event:
WWE Saturday Morning Slam spoilers from tonight’s tapings in Jacksonville:
* Kaitlyn defeated Natalya with a spear. They both played babyfaces.
* Jack Swagger beat Jimmy Uso with the Patriot Act.
WWE’s website has a new article up with current Divas reacting to Trish Stratus being announced for the 2013 Hall of Fame. Here are their comments:
Natalya: “Trish was a pioneer for the Divas. There were women that came before, but she broke all the barriers and all the stereotypes. Certainly, I’ve been extremely inspired by my family, but when I decided I wanted to be a lady wrestler, it wasn’t because of my family. It was because of Trish. … She is one of the reasons I’m doing what I’m doing today and I couldn’t be happier for her.”
Kaitlyn: “It’s so cool to see. She made such a huge impact and she is so iconic. Everyone aspires to have just a little bit of what Trish had.”
Aksana: “I’m really excited for her. I want to say congratulations to her. She’s my idol.”
Lilian Garcia: “She totally deserves this. She worked incredibly hard and made such an impact.”
AJ Lee: “To anyone in WWE, she’s an inspiration. She has helped us break a lot of glass ceilings. It’s really cool to have someone from our generation — that’s actually classified as a ‘Diva’ — to be in the Hall of Fame.”
The January 2nd episode of WWE Main Event with The Great Khali vs. Antonio Cesaro set a new record for the show – a 1.0 rating with 1.65 million viewers.
WWE taped an episode of WWE Saturday Morning Slam from Richmond, Virginia at the Richmond Coliseum. Here are the full results.
Saturday Morning Slam
* Natalya defeated Alicia Fox.
* Sheamus cut a promo.
* Sheamus defeated Michael McGillicuty.
WWE has removed AJ Lee from the “Santa’s Little Helper’s” #1 contender’s battle royal set for the WWE TLC pre-show. Cameron and Naomi have been added in her place. The match will now feature 9 Divas – Cameron, Naomi, Kaitlyn, Layla, Natalya, Rosa Mendes, Tamina Snuka, Aksana and Alicia Fox.
The love storyline between The Great Khali and Natalya continued in a WWE.com exclusive video after this week’s SmackDown. The two appeared in a backstage segment with Hornswoggle. Natalya told Khali that he reminded her of her grandfather Stu Hart in the ring.
After Natalya left, Hornswoggle suggested that Khali ask Natalya out on a date next time.
Top WWE NXT Diva Paige also worked last night’s live event in Columbia. She teamed with Layla to defeat the team of Aksana and Natalya.
NXT star Corey Graves worked another RAW live event last night from Roanoke, Virginia. He lost to Zack Ryder again.
There was no Divas match on last night’s Super SmackDown but WWE’s website aired a segment with Kaitlyn and Natalya. Both agreed that they hated Divas Champion Eve Torres and Natalya said she would put in a good word for Kaitlyn to Booker T, in hopes of Kaitlyn getting a title shot.
Natalya’s phone went off and she began texting a new admirer, likely The Great Khali based on their segment from the previous week. After a giddy Natalya walked off, Kaitlyn texted the unidentified person back from Natalya’s phone and set up dinner between the two for next week.
WWE Divas Champion Eve Torres posted a follow-up to her message wishing Beth Phoenix well that we covered earlier:
“Sorry, didn’t mean to make it sound like she died! The WWE lost her, but Beth is just moving on to the next chapter! Much more living to do.”
Also, Natalya commented on her friend Beth leaving WWE:
“Thank you @TheBethPhoenix for always being there for me.Tough times don’t last.Tough people do. #divasofdoom”
WWE’s website has listed the wildest Divas matches of all-time. They listed the following matches in no particular order:
* Beth Phoenix vs. Michelle McCool in an Extreme Makeover Match: Extreme Rules (April 25, 2010)
* Trish Stratus vs. Victoria in a Hardcore Match: Survivor Series (Nov. 17, 2002)
* Stephanie McMahon vs. Trish Stratus: No Way Out (Feb. 25, 2001)
* Natalya & Beth Phoenix vs. Lay-Cool in a Tables Match: WWE TLC (Dec. 19, 2010)
* Jacqueline vs. Lita in a Hardcore Match: Raw (Oct. 9, 2000)
* Beth Phoenix vs. Melina in an “I Quit” Match: One Night Stand (June 1, 2008)
* Victoria vs. Molly Holly in a Hair vs. Title Match: WrestleMania XX (March 14, 2004)
This is the fourth, and final, column for Terri Bey on WrestleChat.net. She has done a few guest columns over the last month and may do more in the future. Feel free to follow Terri (the biggest Edge fan in the world) on Twitter, @GioPontiFan.
I would like to make a formal apology to the WrestleChat.net staff and to you readers for the long wait for my final guest blog. I had to take care of some health and other personal issues, so I ask for forgiveness. It was a situation that could not have been helped.
That being said, I would like to thank Brett Clendaniel, Jr. for allowing me to write these four guest blogs. He is not only a great reporter and webmaster, he is a great friend of mine. It’s an honor to write for him.
Now that I got that out of the way, I will start my final guest blog.
The majority of people have heard the classic song, “Where Have All The Flowers Gone,” by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Pete Seeger. The song is a very famous anti-war song talking about how war eliminates the flowers, and eventually the soldiers (a generation) from the earth. There is the famous line, “When will they ever learn?” “When will they ever learn.”
Well with the news of now former WWE Diva Kelly Kelly’s departure from WWE, and former Diva’s and Women’s Champion Beth Phoenix on the way out, it looks to me that the Divas division is going to be full of just models trying to wrestle. Let’s face it, after Phoenix leaves at the end of October, the only diva left that can work a match is going to be Natalya.
Where HAVE all the Divas gone anyway?
I have watched professional wrestling closely for 14 years. Of course, I am learning more about the “old” days, and I still have a lot to learn, and I realize that. However, WWE has had great women wrestling stars like Wendi Richter, the Fabulous Moolah, and Mae Young as wrestlers in its company.
Since I started watching, I saw the rise of two great women wrestlers. One is Lita, and the other is Trish Stratus. I remember when Trish Stratus started out as a valet as part of “T & A.” I am obviously talking about Test (RIP) and Albert (now Tensai). Stratus was not great when she started, but she worked hard and became a top wrestler, and won the Women’s belt 7 times.
Lita was with the Hardy Boyz as Team Extreme. What Lita (4 Time Women’s Champ)brought to the table was her high flying moves. I always found Lita to be a very excited wrestler in the ring. She also after the “Love Triangle” incident became a valet for eventual WWE Hall of Famer Edge later in her career.
Through the last 14 years that I have watched, I have seen WWE hit and miss on WWE Divas. They had the good such as Mickie James, Victoria, and Ivory. They also had the bad such as Ashley Massaro, Candice Michelle, Amy Weber, and Christy Hemme. I am not going to comment on Chyna. Let’s say she fell off the deep end.
With that being said, this bunch of Divas would be better than what is passing for a “Diva Division” right now in the WWE. As the song says, “When will they ever learn?”
According to rumor, Triple H wants less emphasis on the Diva division. I’d like to know why he’d want to do that, if true. I don’t know if Hunter who was not a big fan of John Laurinaitis, is mad because Laurinaitis hired a bunch of models for WWE, including Kelly Kelly. I think WWE could have benefited from having the two women that could work a match, Beth and Natalya actually feud.
While Beth was in the midst of her Diva Title reign, WWE did nothing with her. They didn’t even have her feud with Natalya. Now that Beth is on the way out, they FINALLY gave her a match with Natalya, and let Beth win in her own hometown of Buffalo. It did not make sense.
One other thing that didn’t make sense was when Michelle McCool was in WWE, Vince/Creative let McCool dominate. I mean, I liked McCool, but at times I wished that her partner Layla got a chance to show what she could do. After all, they were LayCool. I also thought that McCool was too protected, and she/Creative could have let whichever babyface she was working with get one over on her. When do they ever learn?
I think WWE can have a Diva division if they get women who can work. Fans like ACTUAL WRESTLING. Speaking for myself, I like GOOD WRESTLING and I don’t care about the gender of the wrestler. There is no excuse for WWE not to have wrestlers doing one minute matches because they know the wrestlers (male or female) can’t wrestle out of a paper bag.
I have heard about Sara Del Rey’s signing and Edge’s protege Leah Von Dutch’s tryout with WWE. This does give me some hope.
It also appears that with the departure of the Bella Twins, Kharma, Kelly Kelly, and soon, Beth Phoenix, WWE may not be the ultimate career. The Bellas evidently want to do stuff outside of WWE. Kelly Kelly evidently wanted to do stuff outside of WWE. I don’t know Beth’s plans. I know her boyfriend Edge is going to have neck surgery in November as he said in recent interviews, so I am sure she is going to be tending to him for 3 or 4 months.
We are left with, and I am not including the women wrestlers in FCW, Eve, Layla, Alicia Fox, Natalya, Beth Phoenix (til the end of October), Aksana, A.J., and a couple of others. Some division.
Perhaps the Division should disappear for a time and the remaining divas should be valets until some fresh blood comes in. That is what I would do instead of letting the division rot on the vine.
When will WWE ever learn? When will they ever learn?
Terri Bey
Wrestlechat.net Guest Blogger
edgegirl7@insightbb.com
Twitter: @GioPontifan
FB: www.facebook.com/TerriBey
WWE.com is featuring an article by Zach Linder, Andy Green and Brian Pellegatto looking at the trainers for Tyson Kidd, Natalya, Zack Ryder,Daniel Bryan, Sheamus, Damien Sandow and more. The article features a quote from Daniel Bryan saying he almost killed Shawn Michaels (his trainer).
“One night I nearly killed Shawn Michaels. This was before his return from his back injury. I was trying to do a thing where I’d spring off the second rope onto the top rope, spin and do a hurricanrana. Keep in mind, at the time I was 175 pounds, and that’s a lot of weight to land on somebody’s shoulders. I was trying to do it on Brian Kendrick, and it wasn’t working. We thought Brian was too small. He was probably 150 pounds at the time. Shawn watched us do it a couple of times, and he got in the ring and wanted to do it with me. I go to do the hurricanrana, land on him and he ends up landing right on his head and rolls right out of the ring. We all freaked out. That was the night I nearly killed Shawn Michaels.”
The last update on WWE Legend “The Anvil” Jim Neidhart came back in May. After being arrested, Neidhart had a hearing in early April and was scheduled to be released to the Salvation Army in the Tampa area for a substance abuse in-house rehab program.
The last word we heard was that Neidhart was waiting to be released from jail into the rehab program. Neidhart appears to be doing much better now as his daughter, WWE Diva Natalya, spent yesterday hanging out with him. Natalya posted photos of the two together and noted that they were in the gym training:
