The Hot Stuff 12.18.11: Divas & Knockouts & Indies, Oh My!

First and foremost, I have to apologize for there being no column last weekend. Last week was my first triple-header of shows. Had to be at three shows in three days and the one on Saturday, which is when I turn my column in, was the bout between myself and Impact Knockout Winter. So I was a tad stressed and distracted. I apologize for the absence and I promise I’m back now!

The 2011 Slammys

Yay, Lita is here. Made me happy to see her and damn she looked good. Absolutely beyond ridiculous that Kelly Kelly won the “Divalicious” Slammy over the top rope Glam Slam and it goes to show exactly why a lot of people frown upon the Divas nowadays. All you have to do is pose a bunch of times on magazine covers and do absolutely nothing for the business and you become a huge superstar. I like that Beth and Natalya came out after her, but was disappointed that there was only a slap and Lita wasn’t invlolved at all. Even if they weren’t planning on bringing Lita back, you can still have her side with either one of the groups for one night. It would give a great push to which ever side she ended up on, to be honest.

Tribute to the Troops
Okay, so I have no problems with this match as far as the move execution and I’m extremely surprised at Miss Maria with the stuff she was doing. However, I do have a problem with this storyline wise. Here’s the thing. You build up these two women, Beth and Natalya, as super heels. It takes everything to beat these girls (unless you’re Kelly Kelly, then you can do anything) and yet they give the win to the celebrity over Beth. If she had won over one of the Bellas, it wouldn’t have bothered me so much because I like the Bellas more as the talking heels rather than the working heels.

So you just bring in a woman who has “celebrity” status and because of that she has the strength to take on the best Diva on your roster? Like I said, props to her for doing what she did, I just think the writers messed up with this one making Beth look weak.

Smackdown

Alicia and Nattie! This is the makings for a very good match. Alicia automatically takes over and shows she isn’t scared of Natalya. Alicia and Eve really are the top two of the Barbies, making me wish they weren’t on that team. Alicia gets another roll-up for the win. Holy crap, is that Natalyas hair in her hand? Girl how dare you rip out her weave! Cracked me up. Alicia gets the microphone and starts cutting a rare Diva promo. Not going to lie,for it being a short promo, it was great. Natalya comes back in and Alicia embarrasses her some more. Wow, they REALLY wanted to push her this match. I am happy. She’s been getting better leaps and bounds so it looks like they are taking notice. Hooray!

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There really wasn’t much to talk about for the Diva’s this week. Granted, I can do some recaps on the storylines with Maxine and Tamina on NXT, but I’d rather keep to the in-ring stuff because my goodness can those storylines go bouncing around. I am also completely ashamed of WWE for calling Maxine’s mother “Portia Perez”. Granted, originally it could have been a complete accident, but WWE isn’t stupid. They check into those things. If they are going to give a name to anyone, they look it up first to make sure it’s not some pornstar or something along those non-PG lines. So they bring in a woman and name her Portia Perez, you know for a fact they looked up the name and when you type it in, all you will get is footage after footage after interviews after interviews of indy sensation and badass ninja, Portia Perez. So boo on WWE for doing that.

Can I just say that is the best referee face in a picture ever?
Final Resolution

You ever have one of those moments where you think you pressed the wrong button and messed up whatever you were watching, or accidently went back a chapter on a DVD? Thank you to Impact for making me feel like that by doing a double playback of the Knockouts summary. I did have to actually laugh when even the commentators were completely confused on what to do or say. Cracked me up.

Now we have Mickie James vs Gail Kim for the Knockouts Title. Normally going into a match, I can normally guess the outcome, especially when it’s a television match. However, I honestly wasn’t sure on this one. On one hand you have Gail who they are obviously pushing the crap out of post-WWE and she’s one of their strongest performers they have. However, on the other hand you have Mickie James who within the last few weeks, they’ve been making look like Superman. She’s been taking everyone out. You also have to factor in where Mickie is pissed at Gail for all her claims against WWE and then coming into Impact and doing exactly what she claimed made her leave. So I was leaning more toward Mickie on this one, which is sad because I thought Gail needs a long title reign. So needless to say I was quite happy with the outcome of this match.

Mickie looks adorable in her ring gear, but what the hell is on her ass? It’s distracting like crazy. Gail looks absolutely gorgeous. I don’t know what it is with her from WWE or TNA, but everytime she’s in WWE she is eh… Everytime she is in TNA, especially right now, she’s absolutely stunning. Okay, enough with the girl crushing. There’s a match to watch!

Enjoying the chain in the beginning and the hair cut off on Mickie. These two show why they’re the top of the Knockouts division. I like that they are keeping on each other the entire match. It’s not one taking over. They’re equally kicking ass and countering each others moves. The face plant from the top rope looked devastating. Glad Gail gave the poor girl a minute to recover. James’ roll up from the sidewalk slam was really clever. This is definitely a good match to watch for women who want to pick up ideas on reversals. I know I am studying it for my ring work as well.

Gail flying out like that on the side where the ringsteps were was a very, very bad idea and I’m glad she didn’t get hurt by that. Mickie takes over from there and shows why Impact is pushing her like crazy. Hello, Mickie splits. I love the reversal from both women out of their finishers. Absolutely great. Gail takes her titles and tries to go home, but Mickie brings the fight to the outside and the crowd loves it. The crowd always gets so into women beating the crap out of each other on the outside. Madison comes out to distract and it works, giving Gail the win. Both women are loopy and beat up so it really shows they are a great match together. Absolutely great match, enjoyed it top to bottom.

Impact

I am not a fan of Madison Rayne. I think she has a great look and a great attitude, but not a fan of her in-ring work. However, this match with Traci did surprise me. Maybe it’s because Traci took on most of the offense and destroyed her at the beginning, showing all the frustration from the crap she’s had to deal with. Yay storytelling! Madison takes over and starts her heat. Once again, not a huge fan but she didn’t mess up so I can’t be too negative on her. I am glad she put a match like this out. Madison ends up winning which continues to show dominance for the Knockouts Tag Champions.

Now here is where I go back to realizing I’m watching TNA. They’ve been doing SO well with this whole Karen angle, making her into a complete monster and making the whole Knockouts roster suffer. Great angle, enjoying the crap out of it. Man oh man, Karen is one hell of a heel. Wait… What do you mean she’s fired? You mean to tell me you go and take out the best heel you’ve got because of a stupid Jeff/Jeff feud. Really? Where is the Miz when I need him?! This drives me insane.

The ONLY way they can save me from wanting to hate their product is if Gail steps up as the vocal piece and picks up where Karen left off, but then again Gail doesn’t have the power that Karen had. Sigh. Now here’s the part where I am conflicted. I’m not sure one hundred percent why Karen was written off. A good friend of mine is a on that Impact India project, right next to Jeff Jarett. Now, I know why Jeff was written off, which is to give him time to be in India and start taking care of things. Karen could have very well decided that she really did need to be home with the children because Jeff won’t be around or she may be going to India with him. So if she left for being a good wife or mother, then I can’t be mad at her as a woman. As a wrestler, I can be completely mad at the writers and blame it all on them!

Other News

Maria seems to be popping up in all sorts of wrestling news, which I’m completely okay with. After listening to her on the After Buzz show with Lillian Garcia, I’ve gained a lot of respect for her. Especiall when she goes off on a rant about the Divas, where she’s so fumed that she looks to almost be in tears. Anyway, Maria is making her in-ring debut in New York next year, taking on Tara. A very exciting match that I’m looking forward to watching.

Maria also announced that she’ll be debuting for Ring of Honor, as a valet for her real-life boyfriend. I’m hoping that her coming into Ring of Honor will actually get her back into the ring full-time and have her start doing her thing. So welcome back Maria, time to kick some ass.

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Now here’s where I stop talking about this week in wrestling and I talk about why I am as opinionated as I am. I’ve touched on this before, but independent wrestlers look to WWE and TNA as our future employers. Even if we have no shot o getting there, we still have that hope and dream. So as a female indy worker, you’d look to the Divas and Knockouts as your hopeful co-workers.

So when I watch WWE and see K2 being Superman and getting the win no matter what and her not having the skills to back it up in the ring, it’s discouraging. It gives indy women a complex. We’re working our asses off in the ring every week, busting them off for maybe $20 and a crowd of 100 people if we’re lucky. We are taught to fight to the top, to train and train and train and keep going no matter what. We fight through injuries because if you miss one show, it might be the one show someone with connections finally notices you. So we take all these beatings, mentally and physically, and realize that it will get us nowhere because we don’t pose almost nude on Maxim magazine. It’s insane.

Now you have Impact, where they are hit or miss with the women. A few months, they’ll focus heavily on the girls and make them out to be stars of the show. Then a little while later, you realize you haven’t seen a Knockout in ages. It’s another one of those situations where you’re looking at them as a potential employer. So that’s why I am so harsh on both products. We, as indy workers, are supposed to look up to these companies? It’s very hard to watch WWE sometimes and my readers are lucky I love them, because I really hate watching Kelly, but hey someone’s gotta rant about it, right? Hah! Thank you for reading this week. Like I said, the Indy Girl of the Week section is still out for some rethinking and will be back soon! Promise.

Winter is a big meanie. Putting me in a chair camel clutch and all…

I also want to thank the readers that reached out to me via e-mail or my Facebook/Twitter about my match with Winter last Saturday. You guys are the best and your positive vibes really helped with all of the controversy going on with the SoCal women’s scene going on. I cannot thank you enough for your love and support in both my wrestling and my writing. I also have to thank my fellow 411 writers Steve Cook and Greg DeMarco for the love and support on the Greg DeMarco show and of course, Tony Acero for coming to the event in person. Even if he didn’t come get a picture with me this time around. Teehee.

You are all the best! See you guys next week!