Ringbelles Roundup (7 May 2013) – the European scene, Mickie James & more
I’m still buzzing after Insane Championship Wrestling’s Fierce Females show on Saturday, which culminated with Kay Lee Ray winning her first ever championship when she won the tournament to become the inaugural Scottish titleholder. Beating Rhia O’Reilly and Viper in two very different contests, she proved that she is versatile and dependable as a main event talent. However, it was more than just KLR who impressed, with her defeated opponents also impressing, along with Carmel Jacob, Bete Noire, Erin Angel and Blue Nikita putting together great outings, and North American talent like Leah Von Dutch and Crazy Mary Dobson also entertaining. In fact, those two elements got me thinking…
First off, women’s wrestling fans are doing themselves a disservice by ignoring Europe. While places like America, Canada, Japan and Mexico are places which get a lot of attention, there are now three major all-women’s indie promotions to speak of in the UK alone, and plenty of skilled women from all over the continent looking to make their mark, and they can make it in the likes of Fierce Females, Pro Wrestling: EVE and Bellatrix because of their differing standpoints. (more…)
Paige travels with SmackDown roster, plus video of Emma’s NXT debut
Anyone with eyes would have noticed that there is a dearth of options when it comes to the WWE Divas as it pertains to the main roster. After all, there is only so many times that you can have combinations of matches involving Eve Torres, Layla and Kaitlyn. That’s why over the weekend’s house shows, WWE has offered different matches – so AJ Lee and Kaitlyn reunited as the Chickbusters to face Torres and Rosa Mendes (the latter of whom is used sparingly inside the ring). However, one new name appeared on a SmackDown house show in Columbia, SC last night, with NXT’s female standout Paige going on the road with the blue brand to team with Layla in a winning effort against Aksana & Natalya.
Since arriving in the US 11 months ago, the 20-year old has graduated from the dark-haired newcomer with the reflective complexion to the antithesis of what you would expect a Diva to look like, to the most over woman on the NXT roster, to tagging with Layla on bona-fide WWE house shows… and winning to boot. It has been an impressive year for the youngster from Norwich, England, and bodes well for 2013. Could we see her debut before 2012 is out? There are four weeks left – anything’s possible… (more…)
In Video: The future of the WWE Divas?
With WWE Divas seemingly planning their exits from the company at alarming speed – such as Kelly Kelly yesterday and Beth Phoenix reportedly going next month – eyes are naturally drawn to what’s going on in Florida with the women in developmental – although things aren’t exactly going swimmingly there either, and haven’t been for the last couple of months.
However, two hot prospects who are seemingly keeping their heads down are England’s Paige who arrived at developmental in January, and Australian Emma, who arrived in June following her clearance from some pretty heavy shoulder surgery. While Paige has been cutting her teeth there for a while and is set to receive a push on the NXT show, Emma is still waiting for a TV break. While she does that, she has also been keeping busy by wrestling on the house shows in the state, and we’ve got a match between the two which took place just last night. (more…)
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