Triple H continued to try to portray himself as "fair", by doing unfair things. First he interrupted Vickie Guerrero's Shield handicap gauntlet run, but not until it looked like Rob Van Dam might actually be about to sneak in the one on three victory. Then he granted RVD a World Heavyweight Championship rematch at Battleground, only for Alberto Del Rio to almost instantly ambush Van Dam. Then he put Zack Ryder and Justin Gabriel, who were spared their Shield beatdown, into a tag match against the Wyatt Family. In the main event, Daniel Bryan and the Usos defeated the Shield in a six man tag match, which is impressive, though they had to cheat to win and the Shield had already wrestled five other matches beforehand.
In other news, AJ beat Naomi, and The Ryback beat a local jobber who was totally a bully and deserved what he got. The Big Guy hates bullies, you know.
Next time Nattie's on commentary during an AJ match, Damien Sandow should be next to her yelling "SILENCE!!" constantly. She was horrendous. Like a wood chipper no one would shut off.
They gave Nattie three talking points she droned on relentlessly.
1) "AJ's a titleholder, I'm a born champion." 1) Untrue. 2) YAWN.
2) AJ cheated to win the Divas Title. What the hell is she even talking about? AJ tapped Kaitlyn clean on 6/16/13.
3) AJ's jealous of the Total Divas. Even JBL was trying to steer it to the fact that AJ is the Divas Champion and it's the Total Divas who want what AJ has. This is the muddiest part of the angle none of the people involved can keep straight. AJ keeps getting asked why she's not on Total Divas, she keeps answering she doesn't want to be, and the announcers disregard her answer every time to go back to "AJ, why are you jealous of Total Divas? Is it because you're not on the show?"
For some reason, the closed captioning was on during Smackdown, which garnered this gem:
Originally posted by John Orquiola3) AJ's jealous of the Total Divas. Even JBL was trying to steer it to the fact that AJ is the Divas Champion and it's the Total Divas who want what AJ has. This is the muddiest part of the angle none of the people involved can keep straight. AJ keeps getting asked why she's not on Total Divas, she keeps answering she doesn't want to be, and the announcers disregard her answer every time to go back to "AJ, why are you jealous of Total Divas? Is it because you're not on the show?"
Wrestlecrap's Justin Henry made a great point through a series of Tweets today, related to Total Divas and the recent departure of fitness model Christina Vargas from NXT. Compiled, the message looks like this:
Christina Vargas quit NXT to pursue her 'passion' of being a chef. If you're the kind of person who watches Total Divas for any reason other than irony, you have no right to call her out. You're supporting an 'image industry' that unabashedly promotes bodies over passion. By watching the glorified daisy chain that is the Bella Twins Are Important Because We Say So Hour, you're aiding the slippery slope that is WWE's hiring process when it comes to women. Everybody acted like AJ Lee's angry promo a few weeks back was some big turning point against the WWE machine, when really it was just a way to cast her as a bitter heel, crowd reaction be damned. And if that pisses you off, maybe you need to reaffirm your viewing habits a bit. Think about it, Sara Del Ray is STILL in NXT working as a trainer, and she has more passion for wrestling than just every about every American female. And yet, because she has to support herself, she gets paid to toil behind the scenes in making sure that the Trade Show Vamps of tomorrow don't break their putrid little necks. How much work did Sara put into helping this wannabe chef before she decided, "Oh, I'd rather cook than do something a lot of women less aesthetic than me would give their lives for?" It's one thing to bitch about WWE's practices. It's another to bitch about them while watching, and thus voting with your remote.
And he's absolutely right. Somehow, AJ wanting to focus the division on wrestling and being proud of your achievements supposedly makes her not just a heel, but someone to be made fun of. It's really kind of disgusting and it's made me actively want to tune out the Divas segments.
(edited by It's False on 21.9.13 1403)
"Playing guitars. It's hard to sing while playing...guitars."
Yeah, but you know what? AJ is awesome. And regardless of the angle or how she's being used or in what way - by the way, the crowds are FOR her so why bitch about crowd reaction - AJ continues to be awesome. Tune out the Divas segments if you want for whatever reasons you want but when you do that, you deprive yourself of AJ being awesome. So the only person you're hurting is yourself.
And again, this is where Creative and everyone at Gorilla feeding the announcers keep getting confused:
AJ is the Divas Champion. AJ is the Top Diva. She's the centerpiece of the Division. She's what Nikki and Nattie and the other Total Divas on the confessional segments say they want to be. AJ is the one who has everything all the Total Divas want. It's not the other way around. The Total Divas have nothing AJ wants. What AJ wants is to trounce and humiliate them and retain her Divas Title to prove she's better than them, and to prove that they all needed a reality show on E! to get attention because they couldn't attain any level of exposure and status within WWE themselves.
Somehow, that keeps being translated to "AJ is jealous she's not on Total Divas", even when AJ pointedly denies it repeatedly to their faces.
Now, complicating matters and confusing the wee little brains in WWE is that AJ continues to be the heel in this scenario because is she is a heel regardless, so they need something about Total Divas that AJ as a heel is bitter towards. They keep leaning towards "jealousy" because, well, they're women and all women hate each other, according to expert in the female species Jerry Lawler.
They really need to drop Nattie's new catchphrase. Honestly the farting gimmick was better than "J00R A TITLE HOLDER, ME BORN CHAMP EVEN THOUGH ME NOT HOLD TITLE IN YEARS AND NO ONE REMEMBER WHEN I DO"
I get that they need to keep the E! show a babyface, which is why they need to just nix this gimmick because they only way to make it work is to make being one of many women on a TV show more important than the only women's championship belt. Keep the Total Diva stuff out of anything with AJ, when one of the TDs faces AJ don't make it "AJ is jealous cuz she wants to be on the show", make it "Total Diva X wants to be champion." Have Total Divas feuds be unrelated to championship feuds.
That being said, The Shield killing a third of the roster tonight was hype. Even in defeat (and one near victory) RVD, Dolph and Kofi looked strong. The show ends with a phenomenal 6-man tag where Ambrose gets his face broken by a Uso/Bryan Ultra Combo! I'm one happy nerd.
I agree with the acknowledgement that most Divas will be pushed more if they are more physical attractive. There have been exception to this rule however, but beauty is subjective. For every push a Kelly Kelly/Christy Hemme/Stacy Kat Karter got for who they "knew" and for being really pretty there was also pushes for women that worked hard for their craft and were rewarded eventually.
AJ is awesome. To lump her in as an over-pushed Diva is unjust generalization. She is more like Amy Dumas in the sense that she loved wrestling as a child and tailored her life towards it. She also works hard on her promos, in-ring ability, is very good looking and unique enough to hold a hardcore fanbase. The story is being painted that her character is jealous of the reality show stars, but I think most prime WWE fans know better and cheer for her anyway.
Sara Del Rey could make it to the main roster one day. Wasn't Ivory near 40 when she became a three time Women's Champion? Anything is possible in the WWE....except Ryder getting any kind of respect.
Daniel Bryan standing tall, bad guys left laying 5 shows in a row, why is WWE burying the heels oh noooooo
That main event was great. We haven't had a kick-ass Shield 6-man with Daniel Bryan in a long time. As of late it's usually just a kick-ass Shield singles match with Daniel Bryan.
I liked the psychology in the handicap gauntlet where the faces kept doing better and better as it went on and the Caliber of Athlete increased.
Originally posted by It's FalseBest part of the Ryback squash: Yelling with the three count "I...HATE...BULLIES!"
ahaha yes.
Do Ryder and Gabriel have a Superstars-only team name like Team CoBro and Team Justin Gabriel & Tyson Kidd? The Capetown Broskis or the WereWOOlves or some such shit?
Christina Vargas quit NXT to pursue her 'passion' of being a chef. If you're the kind of person who watches Total Divas for any reason other than irony, you have no right to call her out. You're supporting an 'image industry' that unabashedly promotes bodies over passion. By watching the glorified daisy chain that is the Bella Twins Are Important Because We Say So Hour, you're aiding the slippery slope that is WWE's hiring process when it comes to women. Everybody acted like AJ Lee's angry promo a few weeks back was some big turning point against the WWE machine, when really it was just a way to cast her as a bitter heel, crowd reaction be damned. And if that pisses you off, maybe you need to reaffirm your viewing habits a bit. Think about it, Sara Del Ray is STILL in NXT working as a trainer, and she has more passion for wrestling than just every about every American female. And yet, because she has to support herself, she gets paid to toil behind the scenes in making sure that the Trade Show Vamps of tomorrow don't break their putrid little necks. How much work did Sara put into helping this wannabe chef before she decided, "Oh, I'd rather cook than do something a lot of women less aesthetic than me would give their lives for?" It's one thing to bitch about WWE's practices. It's another to bitch about them while watching, and thus voting with your remote.
:-/ This is almost tragic in its punching-at-ghosts-edness. Saintly saints of peak modern women's wrestling Trish Stratus and Victoria were fitness models just like Christina Vargas. But for sure, NXT is a travesty of superficiality with all its trade show vamps like the daughter of two pro wrestlers, the girl from Lance Storm's school, the Irish indy worker, the girl from Chaotic Wrestling, and Ric Flair's daughter the volleyball star.
And poor Sara Del Ray, toiling with the indignity of a good job with a steady income that she was sought out for because she's respected. She must be miserable that she's not a contender for the prestigious women's championship belt. Shouldn't you want there to be someone really good training the women?
Nevermind that Natalya and Naomi, the two best female athletes on the roster, ARE ON Total Divas, and it's only because of Total Divas that Natalya is out of obscurity.
AJ is a heel because AJ is a heel. She's mean and she complains and she cheats at wrestling matches. She picked a fight with the girls on TDs because she is mean. She got over by boning 5 dudes! What a hero to Title IX.
Total Divas rules and I hope Ariane squashes everyone in Shimmer. Girl bye.
Just wanted to share: The program description for Raw on Universal this Saturday says "featured: The Rock; Undertaker; CM Punk; and John Cena." 1 out of 4 ain't bad.
Originally posted by John OrquiolaNext time Nattie's on commentary during an AJ match, Damien Sandow should be next to her yelling "SILENCE!!" constantly. She was horrendous. Like a wood chipper no one would shut off.
They gave Nattie three talking points she droned on relentlessly.
1) "AJ's a titleholder, I'm a born champion." 1) Untrue. 2) YAWN.
2) AJ cheated to win the Divas Title. What the hell is she even talking about? AJ tapped Kaitlyn clean on 6/16/13.
3) AJ's jealous of the Total Divas. Even JBL was trying to steer it to the fact that AJ is the Divas Champion and it's the Total Divas who want what AJ has. This is the muddiest part of the angle none of the people involved can keep straight. AJ keeps getting asked why she's not on Total Divas, she keeps answering she doesn't want to be, and the announcers disregard her answer every time to go back to "AJ, why are you jealous of Total Divas? Is it because you're not on the show?"
See, that's actually a really GOOD promo. The trouble is, it's a really good HEEL promo. I mean, "sure, she holds the title, but I'm the real champion because I was BORN that way"--that's one step shy of "everyone in this city is a fat loser" as cheap heel heat. All of this works perfectly well for those of us who are rooting for AJ.
As for Justin Henry's Twitter message, all I can say is, when there are good female wrestlers on my television, I watch them. And, in fact, ISTM that when WWE and TNA have put the Gail Kims and the Awesome Kongs and such on TV, they've done well. (And, yes, I purposefully pick one wrestler who is generally regarded as "hot" as well as "a tremendously talented wrestler" and one who is only generally regarded as the latter.) Yes, I know, I could go track down Shimmer online, and I don't, because, well, I'm just not enough into wrestling to deal with and pay for iPPVs and such. But when has the mass audience really had a chance to watch a women's division with serious women wrestlers that was booked sensibly, and not watched?
Originally posted by JustinShapiroDo Ryder and Gabriel have a Superstars-only team name like Team CoBro and Team Justin Gabriel & Tyson Kidd? The Capetown Broskis or the WereWOOlves or some such shit?
Originally posted by Peter The HegemonBut when has the mass audience really had a chance to watch a women's division with serious women wrestlers that was booked sensibly, and not watched?
When people start watching NXT.
Paige, Summer, Baily, Emma. If Lamarck was Right, then Charlotte will be excellent.
All of them trained by Sara Del Ray, who frankly is in the right role right now.
Let me say, Johnny O's recaps are the only thing I like about Total Divas. Mainly, because he is the best reviewer, I've ever read and he can turn shit into gold. He is our literal Ric Flair and the show is a broomstick. Nothing will ever make me watch Total Divas and the recaps make me think less of everyone on it including Daniel. Cena seems to be the reasonable guy and every other guy have their balls in a mason jar or a complete dick.
The women's division has been a joke for years. Even with AJ, its still a joke and almost unwatchable. Katylin/AJ was one of their better feuds and somehow they make Kate look terrible. Women's wrestling is a niche product for niche fans. WWE hasn't cared about it even though you could make a giant argument that from 2002 to 2006, it was the only constantly good thing about Raw. To me, Trish was the MVP of 2003 on Raw mainly for awful HHH was. So, there is precedent that this division can be great and profitable.
This company gutted that division and decided to go with the fashion model division thus they are Divas. Its been hot and cold since then and its bee mostly iceberg. I love Sara Del Rey and its great, she is doing well with NXT. Yet, no one watches NXT and for all that training, its nothing like having the real thing. A Sara Del Rey and AJ feud would be amazing. Yet, it would mean the Total Divas have to go to the back of the bus. I doubt that will happen when the number one and two face are banging them. So, we will have to deal with AJ being jealous (Not, really, but our commentators suck, soo..) and having to sit through a Bella title reign that will somehow someway have a way into the Bryan vs. the World storyline.
(edited by lotjx on 22.9.13 0946) The Wee Baby Sheamus.Twitter: @realjoecarfley its a bit more toned down there. A bit.
Originally posted by Reverend J ShaftJust wanted to share: The program description for Raw on Universal this Saturday says "featured: The Rock; Undertaker; CM Punk; and John Cena." 1 out of 4 ain't bad.
THEN. NOW. FOREVER.
I saw them :D
"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Frown and the world laughs at you." -Me.
Originally posted by El NastioWhen people start watching NXT.
Paige, Summer, Baily, Emma. If Lamarck was Right, then Charlotte will be excellent.
All of them models out of a swimsuit catalogue, right? Even Summer Rae is a former professional football player!
Originally posted by Mr Shh
Originally posted by JustinShapiroDo Ryder and Gabriel have a Superstars-only team name like Team CoBro and Team Justin Gabriel & Tyson Kidd? The Capetown Broskis or the WereWOOlves or some such shit?
Originally posted by lotjxLet me say, Johnny O's recaps are the only thing I like about Total Divas. Mainly, because he is the best reviewer, I've ever read and he can turn shit into gold. He is our literal Ric Flair and the show is a broomstick.
Was there live. Watching that tag title match just made me even more angrier at the people who run RAW and Smackdown. I was totally invested in that match and I don't even watch NXT on the regular.