Smark Out Moment

Each week, DIVAS DEBRIEF runs down the events that transpired in women's professional wrestling from the past couple of days. From the WWE Divas to the TNA Knockouts, the hot prospects of NXT and the upstarts at Lucha Underground, Smark Out Moment attempts to keep you up to date on all things going on with the ladies of the ring.

In this edition, AJ Lee continues to pursue her beloved championship, Charlotte warms up for her title defense next week, and it's the first exploration into the female stars of Lucha Underground.



On RAW this week, the effects of the Cyber Monday edition of the show were in full effect in creating the night's diva match. AJ Lee and a partner of the audience's choosing would battle the team of the Bella Twins, recently reunited for reasons still yet to be explained. Those voting on the WWE App were given the choice of Natalya, Naomi and Alicia Fox, and selected the former Funkydactyl as AJ's teammate.

This proved to be a capable combination, despite AJ's usual unwillingness to work with others. The Bellas showed themselves to be on the same page, with Naomi the victim of the majority of their tandem offense. However, there were some signals of discontent and separation present between the sisters, including Brie maintaining her distinct style of entrance. After already being the recipient of some undesired attention from the Miz earlier in the show, Naomi demonstrated her resilience and athleticism in working her way out of danger.

Eventually, AJ received the hot tag after Naomi escaped a back suplex attempt, and got her hands on Nikki, beating her into the mat. A tornado DDT brought Brie in to rescue the match, with Naomi returning with a running dropkick to take down Nikki. A Shining Wizard and the Black Widow later and AJ had forced the champion to tap out, sending a message as the Bellas angrily retreated up the ramp. A decent match with some mistakes, but nothing to become too incensed over. Their keeping this feud strong with the charisma of Nikki and AJ, and hopefully their match at TLC has an interesting stipulation attached to it.


For the second week in a row, Impact Wrestling prepares for its move to Discovery America by presenting a recap of the best moments of 2014. Yes, I'm also surprised they managed to make it two hours long, and this is only part one! For enthusiasts of the Knockouts then, you had to make do with a match between Madison Rayne and Angelina Love for the Knockouts title, including the reformation of the Beautiful People.



For the first time, it is time to explore the latest wrestling promotion looking to make a name for itself in the competitive market, Lucha Underground. If you like luchadores, hurricanranas, and telenovelas, then this is the show for you. It maybe cheesy and overly dramatic, but it more than makes up with it with some talented performers, especially on the female side, with the likes of Ivelisse Velez and Karlee Perez (previously known as Maxine) on their roster. And it has Matt Striker on commentary, but nothing's perfect.

This edition however featured a woman not widely known outside of Mexico, but is gradually building a significant following. Sexy Star is a masked female athlete and a two-time AAA Reina de Reinas Champion and current mixed-tag team champion. She was in tag team action alongside Fenix to take on Chavo Guerrero and Pentagon Jr. Despite being placed against two male athletes, she has shown on numerous occasions that she is a threat to any opponent, no matter what size or gender.

Sexy Star took plenty of shots from her male counterparts, but kept fighting back as the crowd cheered for her recovery. After being choked in the opposition corner, she slaps Guerrero out of the way to make the tag to Fenix. But, when he was beaten down by their adversaries, she brought the fight from a tag, with headscissors and a tornado DDT that made me dizzy. Most impressive was a corkscrew splash off the top rope onto Pentagon at ringside, and her efforts were eventually rewarded when she pinned that same man to get the win.

Lucha Underground may have its fair share of tacky elements, but it is good fun and well worth a watch if only to witness a new perspective on the presentation of professional wrestling.



One week away from the highly-anticipated Takeover III: R Evolution special, this edition of NXT did its best to sell its various matches and performers to the audience, and in large part succeeded. But whilst the focus has been predominantly on the NXT Championship match and the long-awaited debut of Kevin Owens, fans would be wrong to ignore the potential of the NXT Women's Championship clash between Charlotte and Sasha Banks.

These are the two most polished female competitors in NXT right now, and have in many ways surpassed the talents of many on the main roster at this moment in time. The champ and daughter of Ric Flair took to the ring this week to warm up for her defense against independent star Mia Yim. The current Shine Champion and one of the hottest rising women's wrestlers on the circuit, Yim was unfortunately not given much opportunity to demonstrate her skills. After about a minute Charlotte had already connected with Natural Selection in a squash victory.

It's what happened post-match which truly built towards the title bout next Thursday, as Sasha Banks stepped out to verbally spar with the champion. At that point Bayley also made her way to the stage on crutches after last week's attack, in order to tell Banks to shut the hell up. Banks took a cheap shot to the injured knee of Bayley, and was duly dragged to the ring by Charlotte for some retribution. However, a brief distraction from Becky Lynch allowed Banks to hit the Backstabber, and she ended the segment holding the title over the fallen champion.

Don't be surprised if this scene is repeated next week, but hopefully it is after a strong and impressive match for the pair. Whoever wins is more than worthy of holding the title, and both will soon be working towards revitalizing the divas division in no time.



SmackDown took on as per usual where RAW left off, with a match between Naomi and Brie Bella. Of course, Naomi continued to be caught in the middle of tensions brewing between her husband Jimmy Uso and potential suitor the Miz. But, she put those aside to battle Brie, who has maintained her own 'Brie Mode' entrance theme in spite of being reunited with her sister Nikki. And unsurprisingly, AJ Lee was lurking on commentary to keep an eye on her title rival.

The match itself was solid, Brie in particular looking good as the heel. A flying clothesline especially looked like it hit Naomi fairly hard, showing she is becoming a more convincing competitor. Naomi fought back with her flexible and quick offense, which did bring about a botch when attempting some kind of wheelbarrow maneuver that left both women on the canvas. Eventually Naomi floored both Bellas on the outside with a baseball slide, and when she climbed the top rope, Nikki's attempted interference was dealt with by AJ. Naomi then leapt over Brie, and what would an edition of Divas Debrief be without a roll-up victory.

AJ once again gets one over the Bella sisters in her hunt to become champion again, and when that match is announced for TLC it should provide an interesting result. It can't be worse than last time (he says with an overwhelming sense of dread), and with any luck features more than two moves.

So there you have it, the breakdown for the week in women's wrestling. What were some of your favorite and least favorite moments from these women? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!