Trish Stratus & Ashley vs Victoria & Torrie Wilson (with Candice) Unforgiven 2005

Trish's return match following her herniated disc injury, with no ring rust, whatsoever...

Yeah, you can see from that comment just how high their expectations were of Ashley. Talk about disappointment... I'm sure they don't actually expect much from Kelly Kelly.

And, if there's any doubt aout how awesome Trish and Victoria actually were... They managed to make a match that had Ashley in it a good one.

Vince's Devils was a fun heel stable.

Didn't she have at least one Raw match before this PPV match? :/

And the thing about Vince's Devils which made them so great was that they were three random divas paired together and they had so much chemistry with eachother. You look at the mean girls (Tamina, Rosa, Alicia) and we sort of see it. Tamina is the powerhouse Victoria who doesn't do charisma she just beats PPV up and is the muscle. Alicia is the Torrie, and Rosa is the Candice who is so utterly pointless but brings charisma to the group.

Aww Torrie I miss ya

This is what they should be doing wth the weaker divas. Throw Maryse, Rosa, Alicia together and form an awsome team so that them getting wins by cheating gets them over as heels with the crowd and doesnt push them too hard.

Nah I meant Trish.

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Nah I meant Trish.

No, she did a surprise re-appearance in a segment to help Ashey against Vince's Devils, but this was her first actual match in months.

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This is what they should be doing wth the weaker divas. Throw Maryse, Rosa, Alicia together and form an awsome team so that them getting wins by cheating gets them over as heels with the crowd and doesnt push them too hard.

You'd need a genuine strong worker in there to give the stable cred, like Victoria did here. Beth would be a great fit in this kind of set up.

Vince's Devils also got Mickie James established immediately when she came in and joined Trish and Ashley in a face counter stable against Vince's Angels, which led to the classic Trish/Mickie feud that got Mickie over HUGE.

Considering this was Ashley's 3rd ever match, she didn't do bad. Take into account she was throwns straight into the ring like two weeks after winning the contest, with no prior training in developmental camps.

The worst part? Ashley still had something most of the current Divas don't. It's the reason she won the Diva Search, why the fans took to her and kept voting for her, why she was over as much as she was as soon as she walked in the door.

Last year, Trish and Lita did a radio interview, and the subject came to the current Divas and the state of the Women's Division. They had a lot to say about it, listed the things both the company and the Divas themselves need to do. The thing that applies regarding Ashley was that Trish and Lita think the current girls look, sound, and behave too alike. Back then, they said, all the girls had their own unique look and character. You were never going to confuse any of them with one of the others. They all stood out.

Now, let's look back at the 2005 Diva Search introductions...



One of them is standing out from the crowd immediately. And she continued to do so.



We can see who's impressed Christy Hemme right off the bat.



At this point, it's all pretty much a formality. It's Ashley's to lose. WWE Creative isn't even going to have to develop a look and character for her, because she's already created one. She's not even trying to win the hot dog eating contest. She's just going to eat a hot dog in character.



Even the theme song for the 2005 Diva Search, which is already slated to be the eventual winner's entrance theme, fits the character she's created, perfectly.



So, we can see why JR thought they had the next potential Trish Stratus, here. All on her own, she established a look, a character, and had gotten herself over with the fans. Significanlty, she impressed the trio of Trish, Lita, and Victoria, who, along with Molly when she was there and Mickie when she was called up to the main roster, were pretty much as close as the Divas ever came to their version of the Kliq. Now, that's a group that needs a book written about them, with all the adventures they got into and real backstage feuds (As we saw earlier this year, Melina still holds a grudge against those three, but then, Melina starts crap with every Diva that isn't herself), and how they revolutionized women in wrestling.

Batista goes on and on about the "hostile work environment", and how Melina needs to get away from that, like he did... Um, Dave? Maybe it would have been a less hostile work environment if you and Melina hadn't constantly started crap with everybody? You two made it a hostile work environment! Jeez...

All Ashley needed was to develop her in ring skills. And, that's where she fell short.