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News From Cook’s Corner 06.05.12: The 2012 Hot 100!

June 5, 2012 | Posted by Steve Cook

Hi, hello & welcome to News From Cook’s Corner! I’m Steve Cook, and as most of you probably know this week is a very special week for us. The 411 Wrestling Hot 100 is one of the biggest events of the 411 year and has been the most read article I’ve produced each of the last two years. It’s so big that it’s derailed your typical News From Cook’s Corner column each year, and this year is no different. So if you’re looking for my thoughts & comments on the latest & greatest wrestling news, I suggest tuning into the 411 on Wrestling this Friday night at 10. If you can’t listen live it’ll be available on Blogtalk Radio & iTunes afterwards.

In other programming news, I’ll be taking part in a special edition of Thoughts From The Man Cave this week. Jeremy Lambert & I will be discussing the Hot 100 list and all the stuff he thinks I got wrong with it. It should be a good listen. And if you’d like to tell me what I got right & wrong…well, you can go to the comment section, e-mail me at [email protected] or hit me up on Twitter @OchoSports

All right, enough of my yapping!

Hi, hello & welcome to the third annual 411 Wrestling Hot 100! I’m Steve Cook, and I’m here tonight to present my list of the hottest 100 ladies over the past twelve months in the world of professional wrestling. As always it was very tough to rank these ladies in order and there were many, many folks that missed the cut by an eyelash. I fully expect to be reminded of these people by the News From Cook’s Corner audience, and I certainly encourage them to express their opinions.

People often ask me what the criteria are to be part of the Hot 100. I don’t really have a good answer for that, but here are a list of some of the things I consider:

-Physical Appearance
-In-Ring Ability
-Verbal Competence
-Future Prospects
-Cook’s Insane Standards For Women

Some might accuse me of being biased towards people that have appeared on various 411 columns & pod casts. I would say that’s no different from somebody that really likes a Diva or a Knockout because they replied to one of their tweets or accepted them as a friend on Facebook. We’re all naturally biased towards people we’ve gotten to know, no matter how little it might be. I have done my best to eliminate these biases from the equation, but as I like to say so often…it is what it is.

I’d like to dedicate this edition of the Hot 100 to the memory of Richard Dawson, the greatest Family Feud host of all time and the man that serves as my inspiration for how I approach the womanfolk. Of course, if I tried to kiss any of these ladies when I met them like Richard did for years on the Feud, my head would end up removed from the rest of my body. Here’s to you, Richard!

And now…the Hot 100!

100. Stacey O’Brien: Stacey was a request from a reader who’s name I have sadly forgotten. She mostly works in the Midwest and was widely considered one of the best woman wrestlers in that region last year.

99. Simply Luscious: I haven’t seen this lady in a long, long time, and didn’t realize she was still in wrestling until researching this column. Luscious has mostly been working in Texas, which is her home state and where she trained to be a wrestler.

98. Kylie Pierce: The Northeast staple works many different indy promotions including Combat Zone Wrestling. I watched a lot of early CZW, so it’s weird to see that they have a bunch of women working there now.

97. Kimber Lee: Kimber mostly wrestles in the Northeast and is known for her vicious palm strikes.


Credit; Joe Ferrucci

96. Marti Belle: Marti wrestles mostly in New York, and just last weekend she teamed with Aldo Montoya on a show. I don’t think it gets much better than that.

95. Alexxis Nevaeh: This Northeast regular was known as Lexxus when she had the longest match in the history of women’s wrestling. 73 minutes with Mercedes Martinez on a WSU show in August 2011. I haven’t seen it, but apparently they managed to keep the crowd interested the whole time.

94. Shazza McKenzie: In addition to forming a fun tag team with Veda Scott during her time in America, the Australian has the coolest name in wrestling. Shazza? Good times.

93. Nikki Roxx: Nikki appeared in Season 2 of Lucha Libre as Nikki Corleone, the sister of Marco Corleone. I didn’t think it made sense until I looked at their pictures next to each other, then I kinda saw it. She remains active in the Northeast indy scene.

92. Josette Bynum: Lady JoJo became OVW’s Talent Arbitrator after losing the Women’s Championship to Taeler Hendrix, and ever since then she’s been leading the Family to great success in the promotion. She occasionally appears in other southern indies, but OVW is where she’s spent most of her career and attained her greatest achievements.

91. Melanie Cruise: The Resistance Pro Womens’ Champion has been active throughout the Midwest for a few years now, and may get her big break with the promotion run by Billy Corgan.

90. Lucky O’Shea: Lucky regularly wrestles on the West Coast and has made appearances for NWA Hollywood. Our admiration for redheads is well-known.

89. Caylee Turner: Caylee appeared in the latest edition of Tough Enough after getting released from FCW. She was back in FCW not long afterwards. I thought for sure she was the one that said her favorite match was between Alicia Fox & Melina, and that would have made sense because Alicia is her sister.

88. Jenny Rose: The wrestler formerly known as Jamilia Craft repackaged herself over in Japan and came back to America early this year unmasked and with a new persona. She was trained at the ROH wrestling school and mostly wrestles in the Northeast at the moment.

87. Davina Rose: I don’t think I’d heard of Davina until Buggy posted some pictures of herself posing with Davina 8 X 10s. I don’t ask why Buggy does what she does, but Davina has made some SHIMMER appearances and wrestles regularly in her home state of California. Her mentor is none other than Serena Deeb, who we hope returns to wrestling soon.

86. Chrissy Rivera: Chrissy has been a staple of CZW for several years now, managing folks like Ruckus, Sabian & Niles Young. The person who recommended me to her asked if I was familiar with Snooki. I said “Of course, she was on WrestleMania last year!”

85. Tina San Antonio: Though her name suggests she’d be big in Texas, Tina mostly works in the Northeast. The New Yorker spends most of her time in that part of the country and regularly appears in all sorts of indy promotions there.

84. Alicia: Out of all the women that missed last year’s Hot 100, Alicia was the one that created most of a fuss with the readership. She’s on it this year, and she’s been having a pretty productive year in WSU as one of their top faces. This is probably the oldest picture that appears in this column, I just liked it so much I had to include it.

83. Rachel Summerlyn: Rachel has mostly been working in the Texas indies over the past year, her most frequent appearances being in Anarchy Championship Wrestling. One of the tougher women in the world of wrestling.

82. Portia Perez: The Canadian NINJA is Ryan Byers’ favorite lady wrestler. I think I’d like her more than I already do if I didn’t associate her with his message board posts.

81. Darci Drake: Remember when Greg DeMarco wanted to find her? Turns out she was spotted nearly getting killed by Hernandez in an MVP music video! Darci was active in San Antonio’s River City Wrestling for most of the last year and was quite successful in tag team competition, but recently got taken out of action.

80. Su Yung: Su was under WWE developmental contract until she was released in August 2011. This came as a surprise to most because…well, you can see her. She currently wrestles in various indies and is surely hoping for another chance in the big time.

79. Holly Blossom
78. Hannah Blossom
: The Blossom Twins have been wrestling in their homeland of England for most of this year, but word on the streets is that they’ll be back stateside later this year. With the departure of the Bellas we could definitely use some twins on television.

77. Brittney Savage: Brittney’s Lucha Libre USA stint came to an odd end, as the commentators constantly buried her after she was replaced by Lizzy Valentine. Either way she remains quite active in the Northeast indy scene.

76. Sexi Star: My lack of AAA watching does a lot to explain Sexi’s somewhat low placement on the list this year. She won the Reina de Reinas championship for the second time in December, defeating Pimpinela Escaralta. Pimpinela is a man dressed as a woman. This is pretty commonplace in Mexican wrestling.

75. Taylor Made: Taylor works in promotions across the Midwest, including Resistance Pro. Which makes sense because people call her the Chi-Town Temptress.


Credit: wrestling911.com

74. Jessie Belle: Jessie was involved in some controversy recently when Tracy Smothers requested that she stop using the name he gave her. She hails from Kentucky and spent some time in OVW before heading south to Florida to find more work.

73. Christina Von Eerie: CVE had a brief run in TNA as Toxxin alongside Ink Inc., but left soon after her boyfriend Jesse Neal was released. Since then she’s returned to the indies she frequently appeared in before TNA, such as DGUSA & SHIMMER. To the best of my knowledge she is not on food stamps.

72. Saraya Knight: Saraya’s daughter moved on to WWE, but it’s not like she’s resting on her laurels or anything. She became the SHIMMER Champion by defeating Cheerleader Melissa at the most recent SHIMMER tapings and should be tough to beat due to her ruthlessness.

71. Summer Rae: Summer was the woman from the Lingerie Football League that was signed to a WWE developmental contract late last year that looks like Kelly Kelly. It’s not too hard to see her potential.

70. Cherry Bomb: Cherry mostly wrestles up in Canada and was in talks for a WWE contract a few years back. It hasn’t happened as of yet, but at least we can drink cherry bombs during Raw & SmackDown to make the shows more fun.

69. Misaki Ohata: Misaki was a suggestion from Ryan Byers. She is a former SHIMMER Tag Team Champion and wrestles pretty much exclusively in Japan these days.

68. KC Cassidy: I haven’t seen a whole lot of KC’s work, as she wrestles in her homeland of Australia. (Otherwise she’d probably be higher on the list) But she looks a heck of a lot like Jessie McKay and that’s good enough for me. Hopefully she’ll make her way stateside soon.

67. Allysin Kay: Allysin is one-third of the Midwest Militia, a group that has pretty much taken over WSU and seems to be working on the rest of women’s wrestling as well. She’ll be taking on Terra Calaway in Terra’s first WSU match on June 16…if I was her I’d keep an eye on that Josh Damian fella that will be in attendance and loves him some Terra.

66. Leva Bates: Leva keeps very busy on the indy circuit (she pretty much wrestles everywhere) and has yet to run out of comic book characters to dress up as. That’s not a bad thing.


Credit: Ed Darcey

65. Amber O’Neal: Amber is still active in the indies, but her greatest contributions probably come outside the ring, as she runs the Arenachicks promotion that frequents wrestling conventions. She also hosts a popular radio show alongside Angel Orsini that airs on PW247Radio.com

64. Vickie Guerrero: All Vickie does is get heat from the WWE Universe every time she appears. Even if her current charges Dolph Ziggler & Jack Swagger rarely win matches she still manages to help keep them relevant by annoying the crowds and making them want to see her guys get beat. Nobody in wresting does it better than Vickie.

63. Tamina: I like Tamina a lot better when she has straight hair. When it’s curly she reminds me way too much of her dad. No offense to the Superfly, he was a fun wrestler & all that, brotha, but he doesn’t do a whole lot for me on lists such as this one.

62. Angelina Love: Angelina hasn’t done a lot in TNA since her storyline as Winter’s hypnotized lesbian lover came to an end, but she went to Ring Ka King and two guys there were so entranced that they wanted to marry her. One of them even gave her a small automobile. It was an interesting deal.

61. Sassy Stephie: Stephie wrestles all over the Midwest & East Coast, and has recently made waves as part of the Midwest Militia. Having watched a couple of her promos, the “sassy” moniker certainly fits.

60. Traci Brooks: Traci returned to TNA last year and was involved in a storyline where she was assisting Karen Jarrett with running the Knockout Division. Of course this led to Karen mistreating Traci, and she eventually turned against Karen and feuded with Gail Kim & Madison Rayne for a little bit. Traci left the company a few months back, but I never rule out a return by the Original Knockout.

59. Tara: After feuding with Madison Rayne, Tara formed a team with Brooke Tessmacher called TnT. They held the Knockouts Tag Team titles for a time, and then Tara challenged Gail Kim for the singles title a couple of months afterwards. She recently appeared on some TNA house shows in California, one of which took place in her hometown.

58. Nevaeh: The HWA product has been active in the Midwest for years and recently made her way over to CZW. She’s continued appearing in SHIMMER after her tag team partner Ashley Lane (AKA Madison Rayne) left for TNA, and even defeated her in her return to the promotion.

57. Courtney Rush: The Rush Revolution is pretty popular on the Interweb, as I got more requests for Courtney to be in the Hot 100 than any other indy female this year. She works a lot up in her native Canada and currently holds the SHIMMER tag team titles with a reluctant Sara Del Rey.


Credit: WWE.com

56. Natalya: The daughter of Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart started off the past year pretty strong…Pinup Strong, as a matter of fact. Unfortunately her team with Beth Phoenix got tossed aside and she found herself saddled with a farting gimmick. This seems to be the story of Natalya’s time with WWE. She takes one step forward then gets pushed two steps back.

55. Mia Yim: Mia has been appearing all over the indy circuit, but her most viewed appearances have been for Ring of Honor as part of The Embassy Ltd.. She, Prince Nana and the Barrister RD Evans frequently accompany Tommaso Ciampa as he beats the crap out of some poor fool.

54. Barbi Hayden: Barbi wrestles in promotions all across Texas, where it seems like there are so many promotions that people never need to leave the state in order to get work. She is the first DeMarcette to appear in this column, and you can catch her & the others frequently on the Greg DeMarco Show.

53. So Cal Val: Val hasn’t done much other than hold the ropes open for Ric Flair and occasionally get threatened on Impact, but she remains a big part of Impact Wrestling’s website & international programming. She often appears on Xplosion and interviews wrestlers frequently for impactwrestling.com.


Credit: WWE.com

52. Lilian Garcia: We were happy to see Lilian return to WWE a few months ago to take over ring announcing duties on SmackDown. It’s not surprising that most of the developments with her involve screwing up names and tripping over stuff on the way to the ring, and I think that makes her endearing. Not everybody is perfect, even women that look a good ten years younger than they actually are.

51. Santana Garrett: Santana appears in many different Florida indy promotions and occasionally makes her way to the Midwest. She will be one of the featured performers in SHINE, a SHIMMER sister promotion that will run in Florida.


Credit: WSU

50. Annie Social: Annie wrestles all over the Northeast and recently made her way to Ohio to wrestle Taeler Hendrix in a match I wished took place closer to Cincinnati than Cleveland.

49. Karen Jarrett: Karen served as Vice President of the Knockouts Division during the later months of 2011 and did a pretty good job enraging fans & Knockouts alike. She also got all of Mexico mad at her while she appeared in AAA alongside her husband.

48. Trina Michaels: Trina remains unlikely to catch on with the major promotions because of some videos she’s done in the past, which is a shame in my book. Not that I’ve seen those videos and thought she did some good work in them.

47. Scarlett Bordeaux: Scarlett’s only wrestled a handful of matches, but has quickly become a favorite of 411 readers. I wonder why. OVW may be in her future, and you can expect her to be a lot higher on the chart next year if that happens.

46. Shelly Martinez: Shelly is still begging WWE & TNA to sign her, and they still haven’t done so. Until somebody there gets a clue she’ll still do her thing on the indies & the Internet.

45. Alicia Fox: Alicia turned face in August 2011 and became one of the challengers to Beth Phoenix’s Divas title. She was unsuccessful in her quest and has been pretty quiet over the past few months.


Credit: Missouri Wrestling Revival

44. MsChif:
Chif remains too successful in her private life to make it big in the major promotions, but she has plenty of fun scaring the beejezus out of people in the Midwest.


Credit: FCW

43. Paige: The girl formerly known as Brittani Knight made her way to FCW a few months ago and classifies herself as an “anti-diva”. She isn’t the first to claim that moniker, but at 19 years old she has plenty of time to become the best.


Credit: FCW

42. Raquel Diaz: The daughter of Eddie & Vickie Guerrero has been learning how to wrestle in FCW, and I think she’s catching on. I don’t know about this Lady GaGa gimmick they have her doing now, or why she’s not wrestling as a Guerrero, but hopefully she’ll get a chance.


Credit: WWE.com

41. Cameron
40. Naomi
: The Funkadactyls have played an important role in getting the WWE Universe behind Brodus “Funkasaurus” Clay. Naomi was the runner-up on Season 3 of NXT while Cameron was eliminated from Tough Enough due to a lack of passion for wrestling. It seems she overcame that somewhere along the way.

39. Jessicka Havok: The leader of the Midwest Militia saw her profile grow tenfold over the past year mostly due to her work in WSU, where she currently holds both of their singles titles. She’s considered one of the rising stars in womens’ wrestling, and you’re sure as heck not going to see me argue that. The girl pulled a knife on somebody in the ring! I’m just hoping she’s rated high enough that she won’t pull one on me if she hears about this.

38. Jayme Jameson: Jayme mostly wrestles for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling in North Carolina and made some appearances for Lucha Libre USA that unfortunately never saw airing on MTV2. She recently made the news by getting engaged to Mr. Intensity, Immortal’s Gunner.


Credit: FCW

37. Sofia Cortez: Most of WWE’s name changes kinda stink, but I like this one because I was never able to spell Iveliesse’s name when she was on Tough Enough. I hope that’s right. With all due respect to Martin Casaus, I expect Sofia to be the most successful of the 2011 TE contestants when it’s all said and done.


Credit: FCW

36. Audrey Marie: Many have compared this FCW beauty to Mickie James, and if she has a career similar to Mickie’s she will be very successful. She started in FCW last year and won their Divas title in September. She dropped it to Raquel Diaz in January and has yet to regain it despite multiple opportunities.

35. Veda Scott: Veda might be the biggest geek in pro wrestling, and that’s definitely not a bad thing. The girl’s also got brains…to the best of my knowledge she’s the only lady on this list that’s graduated from law school. She’s been interviewing people on ROH TV for a few months now and is a welcome change of pace from Kevin Kelly.


Credit: saradelrey.com

34. Sara Del Rey: Death Rey hasn’t been back in ROH since the Kings of Wrestling departed, but she was a major part of CHIKARA’s 12 Large Tournament, almost making it to the finals. She figures to be a big part of the SHINE promotion, a sister promotion of SHIMMER that hopefully will catch on and give women more shows to work.


Credit: WWE.com

33. Aksana: The Lithuanian recently ended her relationship with Teddy Long to hook up with fellow European Antonio Cesaro. It’s tough to blame the girl, especially since Long is no longer the SmackDown General Manager.


Credit: Mike McDougal

32. Buggy: The Greg DeMarco Show Starlet recently left the show to move on to bigger & better things. Her quirky personality should help her stand out from the other people she’ll be competing with for the spotlight. You don’t see anybody else in the big time covering themselves with bugs unless somebody’s pulling a rib on somebody.

31. Terra Calaway: Terra’s had herself quite the year. She’s won multiple championships in various west coast indies, she’s getting booked in more high profile promotions such as WSU, and she wrote a column for 411wrestling.com for a short time where she talked about women’s wrestling. Terra’s notoriety has increased dramatically over the past 12 months, and I expect it to increase even more by this time next year.

30. Nicole Matthews: The Canadian Ninja has kept busy over the past year wrestling in ECCW, SHIMMER, and also made her Australian debut. I read somebody refer to her as the most hateful woman in wrestling, and obviously that raises her stock a few notches in my book. What can I say…I embrace the hate.


Credit: @RositaTNA

29. Rosita
28. Sarita
: These two were the highlight of the Mexican America faction in TNA, and eventually they were the only two members regularly appearing on TV. Their plan to woo Eric Young away from ODB failed, which should have been expected since its Eric Young.


Credit: impactwrestling.com

27. Christy Hemme: Christy hasn’t been active in the ring over the past year, but she remains in TNA to ring announce and drool over Bully Ray. Tough to blame her…you seen those calves?

26. Mickie James: Mickie held the TNA Knockouts title during the summer of 2011, but has not gotten it back since losing it to Winter in September. She’s been working on her second album, which was partially funded by her fans donating to a Kickstarter campaign.

25. Reby Sky: Reby didn’t have the easiest of years. She had a couple of TMZ moments and had to deal with her boyfriend’s life spiraling out of control to the point where we wondered how exactly it would end. The girl’s a fighter though, and largely thanks to her his life was turned back around. Not too many people could have pulled that off, and hopefully that determination will help lead to bigger things in her wrestling career.

24. Rain: Rain has been competing in WSU & other promotions over the past year, but more of her time has been concentrating on her career as a yoga instructor. That’s a yoga class I wouldn’t mind signing up for, even if it’d result in me breaking every bone in my body.

23. Becky Bayless: Becky is another name on the list of people TNA underutilized. It seemed like they had something going with her & Robbie E, but they got put on the backburner and she eventually got released. She returned to WSU & other Northeast indies afterwards, and hopefully we haven’t seen the last of her on TV.


Credit: @KristinB1111

22. Kristin Astara: Kristin spent some time in Lucha Libre USA this year, but unfortunately the show was cancelled put on hiatus by MTV2 before it got to her episodes. She now regularly appears on the Home Shopping Network, and frankly looks better than she ever has. Not getting beat up in the ring a lot will do that for you.

21. Maria Menounos: Most female celebrities that show up in wrestling don’t exactly do much to earn their paycheck. Maria is an exception to that rule and has shown up well in a couple of matches, including her WrestleMania match with Kelly Kelly against Beth Phoenix & Eve. Her work to promote the match, her work in the match, and a crush on her that I’ve had since she was appearing on Channel One News in the early 2000s ensure that she gets a spot on this list.


Credit: WWE.com

20. Maryse: Indeed, it was a sad day when the lady that finished first in the very first 411 Wrestling Hot 100 left WWE. I don’t expect Maryse to be in future editions of the Hot 100, but we’ll remember her for her pleasant demeanor & her good looks. OK, one of those things.

19. Winter: She’s still on the TNA roster, but Winter has not been seen in Orlando very often since Bound For Glory, where she lost the Knockouts title after a run as champion. It’s a bummer, but she keeps herself busy on the indy circuit having matches with people like Terra Calaway that learn tons from working with her.


Credit: wwe.com

18. Beth Phoenix: I think the Glamazon’s hotness is underrated by most, but her in-ring ability is held in high regard by most. Certainly in comparison to the rest of the Divas. After a period of inactivity Beth turned heel in August and won the Divas title from Kelly Kelly a couple of months later. She then had a period of inactivity while still champion. Hey, I don’t book the stuff.


Credit: wwe.com

17. Layla: She was so close to breaking out as a star on her own in the Divas division after her longtime partner Michelle McCool left the company…unfortunately she tore her ACL & MCL and had to miss ten months of action. She finally returned last month and won the Divas title her first night back. Her extended time out of action played a large role in her ranking here. I say that because people complained when she was “only” in the top 10 last year.


Credit: PWA

16. Jessie McKay: With all due respect to Mathew Sforcina, Scott Rutherford and others from the continent, Jessie is my favorite Australian. She remains one of the most popular performers in SHIMMER and made her way to CHIKARA last year, winning over fans there as well with her positive attitude and Aussie accent. It really is quite the accent.


Credit: wwe.com

15. Kaitlyn: After winning Season 3 of NXT Kaitlyn’s been working to become a more complete performer. Lots of work on NXT & FCW, not so much work on Raw or SmackDown. She’s shown some charisma and has a look that isn’t common among the WWE Divas…the potential’s there for big things.


Credit: wwe.com

14. Maxine: It’s weird…on one hand Maxine deserves much more than to just be on NXT. She’s got the look & the charisma to be at or near the top of the Diva division. But she’d never get the chance to be the focus of the show on Raw or SmackDown like she is on NXT. Maybe her fans are better off getting to watch her on one of the B shows where she can shine while WWE brass doesn’t pay attention.

13. Madison Rayne: Madison had a breakout year in TNA in 2010, but 2011 was rather quiet by comparison. After losing the Knockouts Title to Mickie James she was involved in some B-level storylines, including being the sidekick to Gail Kim & Karen Jarrett. Hopefully she’ll get the chance to do more in the near future.


Credit: wwe.com

12. Rosa Mendes: Rosa seemed like one of the more expendable people on WWE’s roster until she became Epico & Primo’s valet in November 2011 and started shaking her hips constantly. They finally found something that Rosa excels at, and now she’s one of my favorite parts of the show.

11. Gail Kim: Gail was going nowhere in WWE, so she said to hell with that and returned to the site of her greatest artistic success in wrestling: TNA. She won the Knockouts Title from Velvet Sky not long after her return, and she teamed with Madison Rayne to win the Knockouts Tag Team Titles. She no long holds the tag titles, but she has set the record for the longest Knockouts Title reign. All she needs is some real competition.

10. Taeler Hendrix: The One Girl Revolution made her way to OVW in September 2011, and in December she defeated Lady JoJo to win the Women’s Championship. She held the title for over two hundred days and defended it against a number of challengers before losing it last Saturday night at the Davis Arena. Along the way she began an association with fellow trainee Dylan Bostic and turned against the OVW fans due to their lack of appreciation. I hope they learn to appreciate the Leading Lady soon since she doesn’t plan on staying in Louisville forever.


Credit: wwe.com

9. Kelly Kelly: Kelly is the John Cena of womens’ wrestling. She’s popular with casual fans and gets a better reaction than any other WWE Diva, but most hardcore fans can’t stand her at all. There will be some people mad I put her in the top ten, and others will be mad that she isn’t higher on the list. It is what it is. Kelly won the Divas title in June 2011 and held it until the Hell in a Cell event in October. She teamed with Maria Menounos at WrestleMania, but other than that she’s been kinda quiet the last few months.

8. Maria Kanellis: Maria retuned to pro wrestling in the corner of her boyfriend Mike Bennett at ROH’s Final Battle event, and has remained in his corner ever since. The First Lady of ROH has shown a lot more attitude in that promotion than she ever did in WWE, and that ain’t a bad thing at all.

7. Cheerleader Melissa: Melissa won the SHIMMER title at their 44th DVD taping, but would lose it at their 48th DVD taping several months later. She appeared in Ring Ka King as Alissa Flash, and has been keeping busy on the indy circuit wrestling both women & men. How TNA missed out on this girl, I honestly have no idea.


Credit: impactwrestling.com

6. Brooke Tessmacher: Most women in WWE & TNA have downtime where they don’t do a whole lot. Brooke kept herself busy by taking part in Hooters contests and even won a Viewers Choice Award for her appearance in a televised swimsuit pageant. She’s recently become one of the top contenders to the Knockouts Title and had a series of wins over Gail Kim.

5. Velvet Sky: Last year’s #1 overcame bullying from the likes of ODB & Jackie Moore and finally achieved her goal of becoming Knockouts Champion at Bound For Glory, but lost the title to Gail Kim the next month at Turning Point. Since then she hasn’t done a whole heck of a lot, but at least she looks good doing it.

(I’m sorry. That was a horrible line.)


Credit: wwe.com

4. Nikki Bella
3. Brie Bella: It was a sad day at the Corner when we found out that Nikki & Brie would be taking some time off from WWE. Their final months were book-ended with Diva title reigns (one for each twin), and they got to talk trash on Kharma on her way out the door. Unfortunately WWE didn’t follow that up with Kharma killing the Bellas like everyone expected, instead Layla beat Nikki for the title and they were fired by Eve on WWE.com. They deserved a higher profile exit, but we hope that it won’t be their curtain call.


Credit: wwe.com

2. AJ: She treaded water for a few months on NXT, but she got her chance to shine via hooking up with Daniel Bryan during his run as WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION. Daniel’s mistreatment of AJ leading to him breaking up with her slowly drove her nutty, and now she’s with CM Punk because he digs crazy chicks. Who doesn’t? AJ’s done a great job in her role the last few months and I expect it to continue the rest of this year & beyond.


Credit: wwe.com

1. Eve Torres: We’ve been on the Eve bandwagon since day one here, long before she became the most consistently pushed Diva in WWE. A couple of years ago she was hanging around in the background not doing much of note and now she’s got the chance to shine in the spotlight. Eve’s rated in the Top 5 each year we’ve done this, and her performance this year shot her to the top of the charts.

And there you have it! Thanks so much for clicking…AND LET THE DEBATE BEGIN! Nick Marsico will be in tomorrow for the Wed Wi, and I’ll be back next week with more News From Cook’s Corner!

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