Arbitrary WWE Match Thoughts

It feels weird being the guy championing workers within the Divas division. Usually that spot is reserved for creeps and...well I'm not sure anybody else has really supported or defended the Divas division aside from creeps.

But I really enjoyed the Paige/Alicia Fox match from the 4/14 Raw. I've been a fan of Fox for awhile, but most of the time you talk about Divas matches you have to qualify any praise with "...for a Divas match." Whenever I've mentioned a decent Divas match to Phil he immediately thinks I'm working some sort of short con on him, as if getting tricked into watching a Divas match will end with some stranger popping up and slapping him. across the face. But there's no con. Sometimes I just enjoy Divas matches.

And at this point I feel comfortable saying that Alicia Fox is actually really damn good at pro wrestling. Her offense really works for her. I loved her triple spinning backbreakers here, and Paige is super pale so every backbreaker she did would cause Paige's back to get redder and redder. It's like in a video game boss battle where you can tell which areas you've damaged. Fox also is great at talking trash, like a female Mark Henry. It never seems like she's distracting from the match, or using it to stall. Most WWE workers can't be bothered with trash talk as I'm sure it could take your own brain out of the match. But Fox does it so naturally. WWE is a promotion that requires almost all their heels to work a chinlock into a match to be used as a babyface comeback spot. Doesn't matter if the match is alotted 2 minutes or 12. So in a promotion full of people required to use this spot, Fox clearly has the best chinlock in the promotion. She really throttles Paige, making it look like actual damage is being done, not just using it as a comeback device. She also really yanks Paige around by the hair whenever she picks her up for more offense. Most wrestlers use the "hair pick up" as a way to signal to the other person that they want them to get up, but Fox really grabs Paige by the hair and yanks her up. Paige has some cool offense too and I really dug her three straight short arm clotheslines, but Fox is also really great at selling and putting over offense. Fox's stumble after getting hit with a Paige mule kick was great. Paige has a cool submission finisher, but even cooler was Fox not just offering her arms up and getting into position for Paige. Fox struggles to keep her arms out of reach and Paige really has to work to lock on her position. It made everything look so rough.

The match was only 3 1/2 minutes, but didn't really need to be longer. It was really great as is. The little touches Fox has been putting in her matches remind me of things Finlay would do. He wouldn't let opponents rest on their laurels within a worked setting, never went through the motions. And now Fox is doing that same stuff. She's already selling strikes based on how each one looked, not how each one was supposed to look. All the struggle, all the flair, it's all coming together.

Am I saying Fox is Finlay? No. That's crazy. But if you miss Finlay (as we all do), then she's a really good female, black, leggy Finlay substitute. I'd never thought I would actively look forward to watching a Divas match, but at this point Fox matches are well worth your viewing time.