ricky's weekly thoughts

on Raw, there's a long awaited grudge match coming up on Impact, a match we've never seen before on Superstars and the Divas' Champion stops by the blue brand as well.

Raw - Kelly Kelly vs Melina:
I'm just now realising how limited the heel side is on Raw now with Alicia on Smackdown but at least Melina got back on the A-show for the week. The Bellas were fine on commentary, playing their bitchy characters pretty well. The match of course was rather short and uninspiring considering Kelly isn't exactly a polished worker and Melina's pretty much hit and miss. The offence was fine from both girls though I don't like the idea of Melina using a submission for the whole match since that cut up a good chunk of the time. I feel she could have maybe done a few more moves to make the match look more action oriented. Kelly mixed things up by using a neckbreaker and the K2 this time instead of a roll up and she has her momentum going into the PPV. The promo was iffy, that's the best way to describe it. The Bellas are not LayCool so making fun of Kelly's appearance is a pretty lame way to build heat going into the PPV. How about something as simple as "I'm taking back my title and you can't stop me"? And Nikki it will take us a while to forget that Katy Perry comment. The actual beatdown itself was much better and sold the Bellas as big time heels. Overall rating: 4/10 (3 for the match, and an extra for the beatdown)

Impact - Tara vs Madison Rayne:
Yikes, Madison is still wearing that monstrosity of a crown to the ring. I was looking forward to this match and I was pretty happy with it, though I think it deserved to be on PPV with more time added. It's the same thing with Velvet's two recent feuds with Sarita and ODB in that they were settled on Impact instead of PPV, like they're reluctant to put a women's match that doesn't have the title involved on PPV. Even WWE will put a grudge match on PPV when they actually bother building one. The in ring action was great and I enjoyed it a lot more than the match they last had at Sacrifice maybe because Madison has grown as a worker a lot more since then. I liked the spots at ringside which made the match feel special, and it was great to see Poison return. It was a good decisive ending and I'm thinking maybe that little after match segment might be building towards a second match on PPV where we actually get to see Poison crawl over Madison. Poison is a spider, just so new readers won't get weirded out. 7/10

Superstars - Beth Phoenix vs Maryse:
I wasn't expecting much from this match given what we saw from Maryse's last singles match against Natalya. It's pretty obvious she's still hitting the same moves without really growing as a wrestler. However her character is still as strong as ever and the whole business with Beth's headband was really creative and made the match a bit more memorable. Back when she was champion she was flipping her hair and doing hand gestures to pad out her matches but here the taunting didn't pad it out, it helped move it along if that makes any sense. It was good to see her and Beth finally clash although it would have been much better if it had happened in 2008 when Maryse was actually making an effort. The action was fine anyway and at least Beth mixed things up. Let's hope we get another match next week. Gail and Maryse maybe? 6/10

Smackdown - Kelly Kelly vs Rosa Mendes:
I didn't have much hope when I saw the segment was less than four minutes but it was better than I expected. Out of their three matches together, I think this one was the best. I especially liked the victory roll at the start, and it's good that Kelly is appearing on Smackdown too. Rosa has been looking much better in the ring lately and she didn't look half bad here. I could have stood to watch the match get more time since the action was alright. I'm not saying push Rosa or anything but at least she's finally improving. Kelly goes over to get a bit of momentum back on her side. I liked that little staredown with Alicia. Is this a hint of Kelly's next challenger? I'd say Alicia is ready for a push though I wouldn't put the title on her again just yet. This is Kelly's first reign so she deserves a good long one. 5/10

So I will be watching the PPV on Sunday. I live in Ireland so it's probably free on Sky Sports. It won't be able to top Eve and Alicia's MOTY from last year's show but hopefully it'll top Kelly/Layla. As an aside did anyone catch Melina on Zack Ryder's show this week? His dad was spying on her from the car. Check it out, it's pretty funny.