BRM Reviews the 8/5/2011 Smackdown

[Big Red Machine]

SHEAMUS vs. THE GREAT KHALI- 6.75/10. A good Khali match? Smackdown is absolute magic right now! Great nearfalls here!

THE MAHAL-KHALI ANGLE- Khali’s WWE contract doesn’t pay him enough money to also support his sister?

AJ LEE vs. NATTIE NEIDHART- No rating. This was the most technically proficient Divas match in years. Unfortunately, it was a bad segment. AJ controlled the whole match until Nattie locked in the Sharpshooter, at which point AJ immediately tapped. That was bad enough, but then the aftermath was even more problematic.
These are not the right women for this angle. The problem comes from two places: First of all, Nattie looks a lot more like the cookie-cutter diva than AJ does. Even more importantly, though, in order for this angle to work, you have to have Beth and Nattie target the right people. The Punk angle wouldn’t have worked anywhere near as well against Randy Orton. It had to be Cena because he is the one who gets the criticism. AJ, has never been accused of only being hired for her looks, or of not being a good wrestler. Kelly Kelly was a great target for Beth. AJ was a terrible target for Nattie. Also, Nattie’s promo sounded wooden and scripted. AJ’s selling, on the other hand, was awesome. She is like the Ring Crew Express, but with boobs!

DANIEL BRYAN vs. TYSON KIDD- 6.25/10

RYDER & FRIENDS SEGMENT- good
EZEKIEL JACKSON vs. ZACK RYDER- 4.5/10

TEDDY LONG & AKSANA SEGMENT- the music in the background hurt kayfabe, thus angering me.

MARK HENRY vs. VLADIMIR KOZLOV- good use of Kozlov in his last match before being released.

SHEAMUS PROMO- GREAT!

OTUNGA, MCGILLIGUTTY, & JTG vs. THE USOS & TRENT BARRETTA- 4/10

CHRISTIAN & R-TRUTH SEGMENT- Christian was good. R-Truth… not so much.

R-TRUTH & CHRISTIAN vs. RANDY ORTON & JOHN MORRISON- 7.25/10.

Overall, a very good episode of Smackdown. Not as good as it has been, but still the best televised wrestling show.

[cero2k]

AJ LEE vs. NATTIE NEIDHART- No rating. This was the most technically proficient Divas match in years. Unfortunately, it was a bad segment. AJ controlled the whole match until Nattie locked in the Sharpshooter, at which point AJ immediately tapped. That was bad enough, but then the aftermath was even more problematic.
These are not the right women for this angle. The problem comes from two places: First of all, Nattie looks a lot more like the cookie-cutter diva than AJ does. Even more importantly, though, in order for this angle to work, you have to have Beth and Nattie target the right people. The Punk angle wouldn’t have worked anywhere near as well against Randy Orton. It had to be Cena because he is the one who gets the criticism. AJ, has never been accused of only being hired for her looks, or of not being a good wrestler. Kelly Kelly was a great target for Beth. AJ was a terrible target for Nattie. Also, Nattie’s promo sounded wooden and scripted. AJ’s selling, on the other hand, was awesome. She is like the Ring Crew Express, but with boobs!

i'm liking where this is going, it kinda feels like Nat and Beth will continue with what was to be Kharma's story.
the problem with what you're saying is that there aren't many other face-cookie-cutter divas. a bunch of them are heels, and so AJ seemed like a good option i guess.

[Big Red Machine]

AJ LEE vs. NATTIE NEIDHART- No rating. This was the most technically proficient Divas match in years. Unfortunately, it was a bad segment. AJ controlled the whole match until Nattie locked in the Sharpshooter, at which point AJ immediately tapped. That was bad enough, but then the aftermath was even more problematic.
These are not the right women for this angle. The problem comes from two places: First of all, Nattie looks a lot more like the cookie-cutter diva than AJ does. Even more importantly, though, in order for this angle to work, you have to have Beth and Nattie target the right people. The Punk angle wouldn’t have worked anywhere near as well against Randy Orton. It had to be Cena because he is the one who gets the criticism. AJ, has never been accused of only being hired for her looks, or of not being a good wrestler. Kelly Kelly was a great target for Beth. AJ was a terrible target for Nattie. Also, Nattie’s promo sounded wooden and scripted. AJ’s selling, on the other hand, was awesome. She is like the Ring Crew Express, but with boobs!

i'm liking where this is going, it kinda feels like Nat and Beth will continue with what was to be Kharma's story.
the problem with what you're saying is that there aren't many other face-cookie-cutter divas. a bunch of them are heels, and so AJ seemed like a good option i guess.

But everything we have been told about AJ's character is that she isn't cookie cutter. She is the everyman living her dream. She is alternatively "mousy" and overly excited. She isn't a perfect ten and she doesn't just take things in stride like the more wooden divas do. This would have worked a lot better with Kaitlyn, while AJ's part in it would be to sit there and mope because her mentor has turned out to be a huge jerk (and beat up her friend). I would have AJ caught between them, ending in an inspirational speech by Trish or Lita to give AJ some guidance.

[cero2k]

But everything we have been told about AJ's character is that she isn't cookie cutter. She is the everyman living her dream. She is alternatively "mousy" and overly excited. She isn't a perfect ten and she doesn't just take things in stride like the more wooden divas do. This would have worked a lot better with Kaitlyn, while AJ's part in it would be to sit there and mope because her mentor has turned out to be a huge jerk (and beat up her friend). I would have AJ caught between them, ending in an inspirational speech by Trish or Lita to give AJ some guidance.

ok, true, i see what you're saying. makes sense. I'm actually thinking that Kaitlyn will be joining Beth and Nat

[Rabid619]

ok, true, i see what you're saying. makes sense. I'm actually thinking that Kaitlyn will be joining Beth and Nat

I can see that. Kaitlyn isn't a cookie cutter Diva, she's more dominant like Beth & Natalya. They need more face divas on SD to do that OR have her do it on RAW to Kelly Kelly.

[Big Red Machine]

ok, true, i see what you're saying. makes sense. I'm actually thinking that Kaitlyn will be joining Beth and Nat

I can see that. Kaitlyn isn't a cookie cutter Diva, she's more dominant like Beth & Natalya. They need more face divas on SD to do that OR have her do it on RAW to Kelly Kelly.

Which would kill the angle. Let's be honest. WWE realized that playing to the smarks is good for business. They tried it out with the Piggie James angle, but they realized that they didn't do it right because a lot of smarks have this need to feel superior to others, so having them all cheer the same person (Mickie) didn't work as well.

Now, with Cena vs. Punk, the smarks get to feel smug and superior cheering the heel against the guy who they hate and everyone else loves. This is the same thing. Smarks dislike Kelly Kelly and they love Beth and Nattie because of their biases. Smarks think that Kelly is a bad worker and Beth is a good one, so they want to cheer for Beth. They see this "era of the pretty princesses" as something inherently wrong with the product and they want to see it ended. Putting Kaitlyn in their were Beth and Nattie would kill the angle because smarks don't view Kaitlyn as having wrestling ability.

[Styles]

ok, true, i see what you're saying. makes sense. I'm actually thinking that Kaitlyn will be joining Beth and Nat

I can see that. Kaitlyn isn't a cookie cutter Diva, she's more dominant like Beth & Natalya. They need more face divas on SD to do that OR have her do it on RAW to Kelly Kelly.

Which would kill the angle. Let's be honest. WWE realized that playing to the smarks is good for business. They tried it out with the Piggie James angle, but they realized that they didn't do it right because a lot of smarks have this need to feel superior to others, so having them all cheer the same person (Mickie) didn't work as well.

Now, with Cena vs. Punk, the smarks get to feel smug and superior cheering the heel against the guy who they hate and everyone else loves. This is the same thing. Smarks dislike Kelly Kelly and they love Beth and Nattie because of their biases. Smarks think that Kelly is a bad worker and Beth is a good one, so they want to cheer for Beth. They see this "era of the pretty princesses" as something inherently wrong with the product and they want to see it ended. Putting Kaitlyn in their were Beth and Nattie would kill the angle because smarks don't view Kaitlyn as having wrestling ability.

put it right here big red!

having watched the show last night, this is an intriguing female segment, female wrestling in the wwe as a whole tend sto bore me, but this is wwe's current smark angle to the male punk smark angle.

i dont know who is listening out to the IWC at the minute from inside wwe headquarters, but DO NOT PUT KAITLYN IN THE GROUP. it'd work bad, nattie and beth have been kayfabe (and prolly real) friends for quite some time, in kayfabe terms, theyd have sat and got pissed about as big red put it 'cookie cutter' divas.

i agree going after AJ was the worst thing, because she has bags of ability, if they were to have chased Kelly Kelly or Aksana we wouldn't be having this discussion.

wwe needs to reign it back and just let beth and nattie do their thing and not go all 'nwo' over it. I say nwo, because nwo was working well... and then they added another person to the mix and begun fucking up the chemistry.

[KILLdozer]

AJ isnt being pushed as a "Cookie Cutter" diva.....theyre going after her because shes "Little" and "Cute" ...not the above before mentioned reasons..they just want her taken down solely for her looks,..like Beth told Kelly.."All the cute lilttle shit is over" its about real tough strong in ring women takin out the pretty faces

[Big Red Machine]

AJ isnt being pushed as a "Cookie Cutter" diva.....theyre going after her because shes "Little" and "Cute" ...not the above before mentioned reasons..they just want her taken down solely for her looks,..like Beth told Kelly.."All the cute lilttle s**t is over" its about real tough strong in ring women takin out the pretty faces

This makes slightly more sense, but Nattie is still much more classically beautiful than AJ.