Raw Revelations: The Divas Debacle

You could tell that Nancy O'Dell and Maria Menounos are used to crazy antics, interviews with celebrities and even a bit of acting as they were part of the latest Raw celebrity guest hosting gigs. Monday night's show was done well with them, including probably the best in-ring performance of a guest host since Shaq, with Maria Menounos looking like she could join the divas and be a competitor. She had some nice hair tosses with Alicia Fox, as well as a Sunset Flip, and played a part in her diva team's win when she yanked Rosa Mendes down against the top rope. You've gotta give her credit for getting in there and risking injury like she did with some of those moves. Nancy O'Dell was a fearless hostess as well, and played a good part in the show with several of her backstage encounters. Maria also was part of an interview segment with Legacy, and she actually was one of the better backstage interviewers, thanks to her job experience.

Speaking of divas, the whole Divas Championship and trade scenario was bizarre. It started with an unexplained title match with Jillian Hall as challenger. It's understandable that champions give impromptu title matches, but in the past weeks and month's, they had all sorts of diva matches to earn that spot. Alicia Fox had a shot at the last PPV, and then Jillian Hall gets one immediately, out of nowhere. Apparently she had some big house show wins. To top that off, her win was one of the shortest title reigns in WWE history, because Nancy O'Dell had made a divas trade during the weekend which brought Melina to Raw....and guess what, she got an immediate title shot. Question, why not just allow Melina to challenge Mickie? I realize they're both face divas, but John Morrison did defeat Rey Mysterio in a friendly match for the IC title on Smackdown...

The divas trade is another strange thing. Eve Torres was a regular with Cryme Tyme on Smackdown, but now comes over to Raw. Maybe she'll manage MVP or Primo? Smackdown probably benefited most from the move which brings two of Raw's best divas to its show in Mickie James and Beth Phoenix. ECW gains Rosa Mendes who had been on the losing end of several Raw bouts. Oh and the Bella Twins (ECW) are officially back on Raw...In case you didn't see them in segments with Cedric the Entertainer, Al Sharpton and as Barker's beauties...on Raw.

But enough about the divas, what was up with the DX segments featuring Shawn Michaels by cell phone? Sure it was unique, but hard to hear what Michaels was saying at some moments. You can only imagine how the live audience felt because a crackling cell phone call must be tough to distinguish live. Shawn Michaels explained his reason for not being there as due to his daughter being sick, and that's most likely true. If nothing else it proved HBK is the family man he claims to be.

We found out most of the Raw side of the teams for Bragging Rights. Originally it seemed as if they were going to have the winners from the PPV matches in the tag match, but maybe it was just explained bad by Michael Cole to start with. They held five qualifying matches on Raw for the team spots. One interesting match saw Big Show go up against his partner Chris Jericho, and defeat him by countout. Could there be trouble in paradise for those two leading to a rift soon? Triple H & Shawn Michaels head up a team that features Big Show, Cody Rhodes, Kofi Kingston and Jack Swagger. The final participant is probably Mark Henry, unless Chris Masters beats him on WWE Superstars. Team Smackdown so far is just Chris Jericho, with his team probably being formed on Friday's show.

Another bit of dissension in the ranks seemed to come from Legacy. They were part of a Triple Threat match along with John Cena. When Randy Orton came to ringside, it caused a distraction to both Cena and Dibiase, allowing Cody Rhodes to pin his partner for the victory. Dibiase was not too happy with it, so Orton had to try to make peace. Later in the night, Legacy was forced to take on the team of Cena & Orton. Legacy pulled off the win by pinning Orton. Is this a sign of possible break up between the Legacy team? Should Orton lose at Bragging Rights we just might see Legacy implode, and Dibiase/Rhodes begin a face turn.

Next week is being billed as what could be John Cena's final Raw. Orton said he made a call to Snoop Dogg (didn't know they were pals), and they agreed Cena should face HHH in his final match on the show. If HHH comes away with a win then expect him to be the #1 Competitor for John Cena (or Orton) when he comes to Raw as WWE champ after Bragging Rights. After HHH, there's really just Shawn Michaels and probably Jack Swagger.

I'm going to venture a guess that Sheamus makes his way to Raw or Smackdown soon. Of course he may get into the ECW title picture first, but he seems like the type of bigger contender they need on the primetime shows. Sometimes you have to wonder what WWE really gains from holding these talents away from Raw or Smackdown. Jack Swagger had a nice run on ECW before he was brought to Raw, but maybe he would have been able to form a bigger heel presence if he started on Raw/Smackdown.

The Miz and John Morrison will face off at Bragging Rights in a champion vs champion non-title bout. It's funny but not too long ago on ECW, John Morrison made comments about Miz never amounting to much more in his career. Not long after, Miz beat Kofi Kingston for the US Title on Raw. I'm expecting Morrison takes this match at Bragging Rights just for talent's sake, but it's a good little inter-brand feud match.

So next week rapper Snoop Dogg, another huge WWE fan will host Raw. It'll be interesting to see if Snoop puts himself into the ring like Shaq, Seth Green, Maria Menounos and Cedric the Entertainer have for matches. Snoop was involved in a previous Wrestlemania encounter along with Santino Marella, so he's no stranger to being in the ring.