Nov 26 2008
Raw’s Katie Lea
I do not believe I have said much, if anything, about Katie Lea Burchill. I had high hopes when she debuted, since I was sick of having Beth Phoenix shoved down my throat. She came on Raw with an incest angle. Not really something I would have wanted to see, but the brother-sister pairing was refreshing. An actual intergender team was formed that may last a while. Katie and Paul did indeed start out on Raw wrestling male wrestlers in 2 on 1 matches. The matches could have been booked better to show what Katie could give, as well as take, but it was a good concept. Sadly, they ended it. As the WWE became more kid-friendly, the incest angle was forgotten as well, but I will not miss that.
As far as talent and potential, I like her. She has decent mic skills, as she often acts as the voice for her brother. She also has a nice, arrogant character that is perfect for a heel. Her ring work is pretty good too, although she did show some clumsiness early on. She seems to have shaken off all that. She is very technically sound. I do not like her finisher that much, but that is a small matter. She has a good aggressive attitude. I would have loved if she won the Women’s title from Mickie, but it went back to a woman who started out sloppy and still continues in that tradition after all this time.
Where is Katie Lea now? Her talent is being wasted. She was not a part of the Survivor Series Divas match. She was on Raw, so she can job, and play along with Jillian’s little concert. They are ruining her aggressive character by making her look like part of a comedy act. Some of the little fans may love that. Comedy is becoming too overrated in the WWE now. All the divas are becoming slowly generically the same. Victoria is the perfect example of this. Was she not awesome once? Now she is dressing up like a fat sumo wrestler, a banana, and a turkey. Why? For the comedy factor. Then when she gets in the ring, they have to treat her like a credible threat? She always gets beat, so how is she still that credible? And then she oversells some of the other divas’ offense now, and not in a good way, but sloppily. Katie Lea is being treated just like that, but her ring work has not started to suffer yet. All the heel divas on Raw seem to be the same in that they must be targets of comedy in segments and promos, and then serious threats in the ring. Beth has Santino, Jillian has her gimmick, and now Katie Lea is slowly being brought into the act. Does the WWE want the fans to think that the heel divas are fun too? They can do that without making them all follow the same path. Leave Victoria and Katie Lea as serious, threatening divas, although I believe Victoria is responsible for much of her own foolish segments and is trying to make a statement, but it is failing (I may talk about that another day). They are making Katie Lea easily replaceable by making her so generic.
On a side note, I also like her “brother”, Paul Burchill. He was very impressive on Smackdown, working with William Regal, and continued to be just as good on Raw. However, he is being treated as a jobber as well, and even worse than Katie. At least Katie is used because the WWE frequently lumps all the divas into tag matches, so an extra heel diva to job is always needed. But where is Paul Burchill? It has been months since he had a match. I would not be surprised if they released him soon. Once he goes, what great reason will they have to keep his “sister”, Katie Lea?
