killeroflegends

First off, much like last week, the two divas you did not see on Raw will be competing on Superstars this week. It will be Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix.

I said that I wanted to say more about the pairing of Carlito and Rosa, so this is the time. If you have read my blogs before, I do not have to spend time saying how this further kills Rosa’s angle with Beth. Beyond that, I still do not like this pairing. Yes, it does give Rosa something to do. I just spent a lot of time recently on how it is good to get Maria something useful to do, even though she is not a great wrestler. Rosa is in a similar spot in terms of how good she is in the ring. What is my supposed hypocrisy based on? First, Carlito and Rosa were just randomly paired together. Maria’s angle with Ziggler was built better than that, and the angles I hope she gets in the future should be as well. Second, Maria/Ziggler does give Maria something to do, but it also has entertainment value to it as far as their romance angle goes. It can help Ziggler’s character seem more deep and cool, as I talked about before. Rosa/Carlito, based on what has been done so far, is just a pairing lacking a storyline. It will give Rosa something to do, stand there. Does it really benefit Carlito? With the current gimmick he seems to be taking, I think it is a mistake to have her. Third, Maria is over. The fans like her. That is one of the main reasons I stand by the idea of making sure she has something steady and useful to do. To put it simply, Rosa is not over. She may deserve the unemployment line soon, should the stars not be in her favor. Those are the three main reasons why I support Maria/Ziggler and not Rosa/Carlito. And in the end, it just seems like the WWE is trying too hard to find a spot for some divas. This may be the most forced relationship I have seen in a while. Will Alicia Fox be paired with MVP next? Gail Kim and Yoshi Tatsu?

I still want to say a little more about the title match on Raw. The ending was embarrassing, but I see a lot of people starting to just criticize the whole match and the performance either woman tried to put on. No no no. I spent most of my time on the ending as well, while just glossing over most of the action that led up to it. I said it was good, but now I just want to address the criticism even that got. There were one or two spots I could criticize, but it was good. It was a short match. About 4 minutes long. Some are saying that it was rushed. In my honest opinion, it was simply fast-paced. I am about to go into one of my boring discussions on terms. Is it any wonder that I only have like 4 regular readers? What is the difference between a fast-paced match and a rushed match? A rushed match is given a little amount of time? I believe it goes beyond that. In a rushed match, you will often not see sufficient time given for selling. The wrestlers will be rushing to set up the various spots, possibly one straight right after the other. In a rushed match not given a lot of time, you may even see one side dominate the match so the person selling, who may often end up winning, can at least give some credibility to taking offense. In a fast-paced match, you will see the action go back and forth. You will see counters to allow for that. You will see a sequence of moves like this. Looking specifically at what happened during Mickie James vs. Gail Kim, the action did go back and forth. There were a lot of counters. That fits it as a possible fast-paced match, by my definition, but what about the qualities that make a match rushed? Although I will complain about the match not given enough time to allow for selling, the two women did take time out for that. The prime example is when they clotheslined each other. Both were down, selling. There was no real rush in setting up most of the spots. When Mickie set up for the suplex that got countered into the roll-up sequence, she took her time in positioning Gail in the center of the ring. For the most part, I could not see any sloppy spots that could be blamed on being rushed for the first part of the match. By my book, it was fast-paced, not a rushed performance. I do believe there is a difference. I also see people criticizing either diva for looking tired during the match. Stamina is an important part of being a pro wrestler, but so is manipulating that stamina. For the sake of good selling and storytelling in the ring, you sometimes have to act tired, or weak as I usually call it, to put your opponent’s offense over. When did the women look tired? After they clotheslined each other and were just flat out? I already explained how that was respect to straight selling. How about after they finished certain even exchanges and just looked at each other? Look at many other face vs. face matches. You will see that a lot. It is meant to give the opponent respect for just having a somewhat even exchange that ended in a stalemate. The audience is supposed to pick up on that, but it did not work too well with the crowd last night. And when you are in a fast-paced match like that, you do want to stop to show that you are putting on a performance that is pushing yourself, even if you may think you do not need the rest. Then the match may have turned out rushed. That is not what you want. You want to simply send the message that you have an opponent that is as evenly tough as you. Beyond that, there is the obvious selling required to let your opponent set up for a certain spot. When Gail went for her dropkick, Mickie had to play weak or tired to allow her to get up. It is not that Mickie had no stamina left right there, but that she had to manipulate how she sold that stamina to allow Gail to work the spot. And with the final point on selling, do not forget that two people are not facing each other in a video game out there. They will get the wind knocked out of them. They will feel pain from certain spots. There stamina really will be impacted beyond what they would like to portray. Nevertheless, the match those two women put on before the finish was very good. There is no way I will call it rushed or say either was too tired to perform as they should. Outside of the ending, my only real criticisms lie with the audience for not having more appreciation for the good parts of the match and the WWE for not giving it more time, better hype, allowing them to wrestle beyond a typical face vs. face (Even though it was done solidly, I would have rather seen more heelish aggression from one side. But again, it was still a great effort from the two), and all the other things the WWE is guilty of. They should let Gail and Mickie work house shows against each other to become more familiar with the other’s offense. I will say no more about the ending tonight, and hopefully never gain. Again, my only point in revisiting this match was to point out that the two women were actually putting on a good performance before the finish.

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