WWE & E! team up for Divas reality show
It has been discussed for a while – provisionally for the WWE Network, which is seemingly still a long way from becoming a reality – but today, WWE and E! made the announcement that a new series featuring five current and two new Divas will launch on the entertainment channel on July 28. Titled Total Divas, it is one of five new reality shows the channel is launching in the near future. This one will follow Natalya, Funkadactyls Cameron & Naomi and Nikki and Brie Bella, with WWE’s press release insisting that it will “[highlight] the professional and personal lives of WWE’s leading ladies”, as well as “complete and utter access to the backstage workings of WWE, the show examines the preparation and fallout from matches, [and] the romantic entanglements of a WWE locker room”.
As mentioned, there will also be two new Divas, hired as part of a privately-held Diva Search which happened recently. They are Natalia Eva Marie – who will be known as Eva Marie – and Joseann Alexie Offerman - who will will be repackaged as Jo-Jo Offerman. (more…)
Mixed tag match bumped from WrestleMania card
Under normal circumstances, now would be the time when we would do a review of the match which occurred on the previous night’s PPV offering, pointing out what happened, what we liked, what we didn’t and whether it was a successful contest. However, for WrestleMania XXIX, we won’t be needing to do that, as for the first time since WrestleMania 13 back in 1997 – ostensibly before WWE started calling their women “Divas” – no women competed on a WrestleMania card. (more…)
Ringbelles Roundup (2 April 2013) – Femmes Fatales XI, SHIMMER Volume 53, WrestleMania XXIX & more
Last week, I repeated my previous assertion that two championships would change hands at NCW Femmes Fatales XI in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on Saturday. Lo and behold, that’s what happened – with the Bellatrix World Championship and the Femmes Fatales International Titles being won by Courtney Rush and Mercedes Martinez respectively.
Martinez’s victory over Kalamity is only part of her story in the show. She continued her cross-promotion feud with LuFisto following her defeat to the Super Hardcore Anime at Women Superstars Uncensored’s An Ultraviolent Affair in February by attacking her foe during LuFisto’s challenge for the SHIMMER title against Saraya Knight. The steel chair attack to LuFisto’s head was enough for Knight to lock in the Bridal Rocking Horse for the stoppage and retain the belt, meaning that no matter what happened with Mercedes’ challenge to Kalamity, the Martinez/LuFisto programme would continue.
As it turns out, the programme will likely feature the International Championship, as the Latina Sensation used a Fisherman Buster onto a steel chair to gain the pinfall and bring The Oncoming Storm’s 17-month reign to an end. (more…)
Funkadactyls & Bellas to clash at WrestleMania XXIX
We mentioned it during yesterday’s Roundup and today it came to pass: WWE made it official that at WrestleMania XXIX on April 7 at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ Team Rhodes Scholars and the Bella Twins – Nikki and Brie – will square off against Tons of Funk and the Funkadactyls – Cameron and Naomi.
While Damien Sandow and Cody Rhodes have been on a mission to censure the antics of Brodus Clay and Tensai since before Elimination Chamber, Clay’s backing dancers were brought into the fold following the return of the Bellas on the March 11 Raw, and set their sights on Cameron and Naomi on the subsequent SmackDown. (more…)
Nikki Bella wins WWE Divas Title from Beth Phoenix
Since WrestleMania, we’ve had a grand total of ZERO Divas matches on WWE’s flagship Raw Supershow broadcast. In some ways it’s hardly surprising, as the entire Divas division has been in a depressingly shallow holding pattern for months as Eve got to strut her stuff out of the ring and everybody sat and quietly waited for the return of Kharma. Even Beth Phoenix, the Divas Champion, was little more than an afterthought… leaving the talented Phoenix to get involved in twitter wars with the likes of Madusa and Chelsea Handler just to keep her profile up, even as her “Pin Up Strong” partnership with Natalya was quietly dissolved.
So here we are, Monday 23rd April, and Beth is back on Raw – ready to avenge a seemingly pointless loss to Nikki Bella on Smackdown a couple of weeks ago – or so you’d think. First of all, Eve Torres uses her “executive assistant” power to make the match a lumberjill match (which added nothing), and then secondly, Beth Phoenix gets schoolgirled after an apparent ankle injury and Nikki Bella is your NEWWWWW Divas Champion. (more…)
Ringbelles Roundup (10 April 2012)
We’re in that post-WrestleMania period where everything is supposed to kick off for the next year. Brock Lesnar is destroying John Cena and making him spit blood, the word “yes” is replacing “what” and “whoo” as the cool thing to say, and CM Punk is being drowned in alcohol. But there is nothing for the Divas Champion Beth Phoenix. In fact, there is less than nothing.
The only in-ring Divas action on regular TV (as NXT hardly counts) for WWE since WrestleMania is a sub-three minute affair between Nikki Bella and Phoenix, which Bella won after Beth was distracted by Kelly Kelly. Presumably, this would lead to a title shot for Nikki, as she had just pinned the Divas Champ. That may happen on the live SmackDown happening later (though it may be a foregone conclusion, as I’ll discuss later), or a continuation of Kelly v Phoenix from WrestleMania, even though it was Maria Menounos who got the pin on Beth. Either way, things are flimsy at best, and it hasn’t looked good for the titleholder for many months.
Barring a decent build and match against Tamina Snuka in February, Phoenix has hardly set the world alight in 2012. This may be a combination of forgettable matches, no storylines – including the fizzling of the Pin-Up Strong angle when it should have exploded – or no interest from any of the writers. Indeed, nothing has happened with the in-ring product involving WWE’s women for at least half a year, and it must be frustrating the Champion. (more…)
Kelly retains at Money in the Bank
It was the worst match at Money in the Bank by a long way, and nobody would have bought the show to see it, but Kelly Kelly retained the WWE Divas Title over Brie Bella in the second match of the show.
Brie spent much of the match working over Kelly’s abdominals after faceplanting her on the arena floor from the apron before Kelly fought back and claimed the victory with her K2 finisher.
Eve Torres accompanied Kelly to the ring after the angle on Monday’s Raw where she was beaten down by the Bellas after Kelly defeated Melina, but had absolutely no impact on the content of the match or the outcome.
It seems pretty redundant, as it was a fairly throwaway contest, but let’s look again at what was thumbs up, what was thumbs down, and what was thumb in my arse then into my mouth… (more…)
Over The Limit: Brie retains, Eve attacks Cole
In what turned out to be a pretty nothing pay-per-view, Brie Bella retained her WWE Divas championship by beating Kelly Kelly. Well, we say Brie, but it was actually Nikki Bella who scored the pinfall after the twins switched places for the finish.
As has become customary for these pay-per-views here at Ringbelles, we break down what was good, what was not, and what was horrid. (more…)
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