WWE NXT Season Three Diva Rundown

News, Top Story

The decision to make the abbreviated third season of NXT into an all-women’s show was made very shortly before it was announced. WWE had filmed vignettes with twelve wrestlers at FCW, eight men and four women, to go with their original plan of using four men and four women for the short season. There is hope that perhaps the women will lead to better ratings and thus enable NXT to get a new TV deal. Another hope was that the inclusion of Aloisia can increase ratings to the point where Syfy will decide to keep the show, although if her release is legit, nevermind.

Another reason is that WWE is unhappy with many of the women currently on the roster. Talent relations was upset with the behaviour of many of the women in recent weeks, especially during the SummerSlam week in Los Angeles. Tiffany was indefinitely suspended for getting arrested after a fight with her husband, Drew McIntyre. Serena was fired due to behaviour that was distinctly not straight-edge. They were not the only ones who made scenes in public. WWE is very strict about the image the wrestlers portray to the public due to promises made to sponsors about a wholesome product image.

Some of the men considered for NXT were current FCW champion Mason Ryan (Barri Griffiths, a Batista look-a-like who was on the UK version of Gladiators), Xavier Woods (formerly Consequences Creed in TNA), Bo Rotundo (Husky Harris’ younger brother), Wes Brisco (Gerald Brisco’s son and former wakeboarding champion) and Richie Steamboat (Ricky Steamboat’s son).

The two new additions to the four women earmarked for the show were former NXT ring announcer Jamie Keyes and Aloisia, who had just signed within the last week. Aloisia, 23, is 6-9 and was to be paired with Vickie Guerrero. She has wrestled for about a year as Isis the Amazon. TNA looked at her a few months ago but passed. They felt she was too big to work with the women and served no purpose working with the men, since her working style was equivalent to the Great Khali. There was hope that she might be a freak-show attraction but the longevity of that depends on how fast she can learn.

Naomi will be paired with Kelly Kelly. She is Trinity McCray, 23, an African-American dancer from the Orlando Magic dance team. She is a good athlete and a quick learner but is still very green.

Maxine will be paired with Alicia Fox. She is Karlee Leilani Perez, 24, and worked in FCW as Liviana. On WWE.com there was a story on her that called her name Liviana, so the name change was made after that point. She modeled for three years as Karlee Leilaini before getting into wrestling. She is a good promo.

Aksana will be paired with Goldust. She is Zivile Raudoniene, 28, a fitness competitor from Lithuania. She was the love interest of Eli Cottonwood in FCW. She was then in the Tony Atlas role with Abraham Washington, doing the gimmick that she couldn’t understand English and kept saying stupid things without knowing it. She was a bodybuilder and won the 2009 Arnold Fitness Classic. WWE signed her in October but her wrestling is poor.

Jamie Keyes will be paired with the Bella Twins. She is Brittany Beede, 25, a model who appeared in TNA as Kevin Nash’s one-night valet in December. She is muscular and competed in both bodybuilding and track before getting into wrestling, and, as is obvious, is an avid lifter.

A.J. will be paired with Primo Colon. She is April Jeanette, 23, an independent wrestler from New Jersey. She attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in New York City while wrestling. She is by far the best in-ring worker of the bunch. She was at one time the girlfriend of Jay Lethal. There was talk this week of changing her name, because of A.J. Styles, but they decided they don’t care. She signed with WWE 16 months ago, and was going to be brought up to Smackdown a few weeks ago as a new babyface, to replace Mickie James as the cute smaller girl, introduced by a series of vignettes. The first vignette actually was written into a Smackdown show on Tuesday, but on Wednesday after the show was filmed, was edited out because of the decision that they were introducing Alberto Del Rio via vignettes, so didn’t want to introduce anyone else on vignettes at the same time.

Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, 6 September 2010 (subscribe here)