This was a great tag match between Candice & Mickie and Melina & Victoria.
I suppose the reason they put Candice in here was to get revenge on Victoria for the legit broken nose.
As much of a Mickie and Victoria mark as I am, I will say that I was most impressed with Candice’s performance tonight. Perhaps it’s because she showed a lot of improvement. In fact, I’ve notice the entire women’s division on Raw has stepped up its game. Many people believed after Trish and Lita left there would be nothing left for the women’s division. Perhaps I have completely gone mad, but it seems as if the division has actually gotten better. What do you readers think?
Candice showed a lot of verbal anger and displayed a lot of fierce physical aggression. This is certainly new for Candice. Her anger was so intense that a rather funny spot came about (accidentally I’m sure). After Melina and Victoria do some sort of double teaming to Mickie, Candice runs into the ring and runs towards Victoria to give her a beating. However on her way there she runs into Melina…hard! JR mentions that she is so determined to get at Victoria that she ran right over Melina. Just the way it happened makes me believe that was pure accident. Melina was visually and verbally pissed over that, but I can’t tell whether that was Kayfabe anger or not.
There was another weird moment I am not sure about. Mickie was in her opponents corner when Victoria backed up slowly to the center of the ring and then charged forward to ram or splash her. Mickie moved out of the way in the nick of time, and did so to Victoria’s left. So immediately after Victoria hits the corner, chest first, she staggers a step back and then turns to her left and swings at Melina, stopping just in the nick of time, and then appears to apologize to her, then turns around just as Mickie lunges for the tag.
When I first seen this I didn’t understand what I had just seen. On replaying it, I figured this was just scripted. But afterwards, I watched a few more times, and I have to admit that there appears to be a pretty good chance this was an accident. As I said, Mickie dodged Victoria’s telegraphed splash effort, and did so to the left. Mickie continued to run around Victoria and to her corner. Victoria hit the turnbuckles, staggered one step, and turned around expecting to see Mickie right about where Melina was standing (just on the other side of the ropes LOL). Add into the equation that Mickie and Melina were both wearing leopard print clothes, and it may have been a case of mistaken identity.
And yes, Mickie and Melina, two women who are constantly compared to each other and accused of copying each other’s look, were both wearing leopard print tonight. I feel this has to be one of the two mocking the other.
Aside from those two weird moments, the other highlights I’d like to mention are:
Mickie rolling Melina up so that her butt’s in the air, then looking directly at Victoria, Mickie licks her hand and smacks Melina’s butt. Victoria then rubs her own butt cheek in empathy.
The other moment was Candice getting the pin on Victoria after a nice second rope spinning (or turning) back elbow. It looked as if she was originally going for a spinning wheel kick. Either way, I was very impressed with this display of athleticism by Candice.
Candice has really upped her game. She went from strictly eye candy, to being a legit female wrestler. She still has a long way to go before she reaches the same status as Trish, Mickie, Victoria, Lita, Ivory, Melina, or any other “real” female wrestler. But, if she does continue improving as she has, I feel that Candice could be on par with these girls in a couple of years.
Candice shows talent, and a desire to go all out and take her wrestling career seriously. The only thing wrong with her performance is her greenness; her simple lack of in ring time. Many wrestlers of both sexes come into the business doing some fancy stuff, but there is no substituting for genuine experience.
I really foresee Candice becoming an incredible wrestler.
The match’s figures go like this (click here for an understanding of my point system)
Candice and Mickie win; Candice scores the winning pinfall on Victoria. The Match was 3.08 minutes long.
Mickie
Striking: 4
Tosses: 3
Locks: 0
Aerials: 1
Kickouts: 1
Candice
Striking: 4
Tosses: 2
Locks: 0
Aerials: 1
Kickouts: 0
Victoria
Striking: 8
Tosses: 4
Locks: 1
Aerials: 0
Kickouts: 1
Melina
Striking: 6
Tosses: 3
Locks: 2
Aerials: 0
Kickouts: 0
Totals
Mickie: 14
Candice: 12
Victoria: 19
Melina: 18
The reason Candice didn’t have many points, despite being the one to score the winning pinfall, is that she had very little ring time.
Mickie also didn’t get too many points because even though she had the longest in ring time, she spent that time getting beat up and double teamed by Victoria and Melina. Victoria and Melina had a high score because they spent most of their time double teaming and wearing down Mickie.
All in all, it was a damn fine match for a women’s tag team match lasting only 3 minutes. It was certainly the most entertaining 3 minutes of that Raw.
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