Nov 24 2008
Survivor Series Diva Match Thoughts
One of my predictions came to be. Beth Phoenix was the last diva left in the ring. Why is she getting this monster push? She wins at Summerslam, No Mercy, and now Survivor Series. She probably would have won at Cyber Sunday too if she had a match, or if it was possible for the WWE to ignore the votes of the fans and just book her as the winner of the costume contest. They were building Beth up as unstoppable earlier this year, which was for Candice until she got hurt again, and they seem to be doing it again, possibly either to have her drop the title to Kelly Kelly, Melina, or Gail Kim. Point is, Beth Phoenix sure did not need this win just to make her look strong. They even played with her being face in this match, since Maryse was an obvious heel. Are they that desperate to get Beth over? Women’s Champ, angle with Santino, on the border of face/heel (tweener), and booking her like she is really unbeatable. Too bad her ring skills are messy and not exciting enough to get her over with the mass majority of fans. Sorry Beth fans, but there is a reason it took over a year for Beth to get a good pop, and that came only after she got a comedy angle going with Santino.
As far as good match quality and furthering a plot, they seemed to combine the two, and it did not make for a very sound match. Victoria was there simply to lose. The Maryse/McCool/Maria feud got new heat, and Maryse was booked to look good in this match, taking out three members of Team Raw, and slapping Beth around. I do not think Maryse, of all people, deserved to look strong, but it may be due to her after what McCool reportedly put her through. I would have rather seen the divas that actually got hired because of their skill get a pin, like Natalya, if not Victoria. McCool and Mickie got into a nice sequence of mat wrestling and counters, and seeing these two go at it one on one may not be too bad. As for the other divas, most seemed to be using the same offensive style all match, flippity-flips. I appreciate when Mickie James does it, but she knows not to do it all match, and she didn’t go for the Mickie-canranna tonight, which is good. The other divas seemed to monopolize the move and variations of it anyway.
On the subject of Mickie, tonight was bittersweet for her. She got to hit the Diva’s Champion with her finisher and eliminate her from the match. That is something. But then she immediately gets eliminated, due to a small distraction, by a roll up from Maryse. They toss Mickie a bone and then toss Maryse an even bigger one at Mickie’s expense. That is not good. That kind of booking makes Maryse look super-strong, so they better not let it go to waste. Mickie’s elimination better not be in vain. As far as who won the match, Beth Phoenix may have been soul survivor, but that counts as a win for her team. Based on how I am seeing other wrestling fans take it, that means Team Raw was victorious, so Mickie was on the winning side. Getting to the point, and going by the fact that Team Raw won, Mickie is still undefeated at Survivor Series. She has been on the winning side of every match she has been in on this pay-per-view. 3-0!
