The dancing Diva known as Emma returned to a WWE broadcast show for the first time in roughly three weeks last night (July 15, 2014) - and it has been a rough three weeks for the Australian.
She's been arrested, sentenced, fired and rehired.
The male wrestler she's been paired with since her call-up from NXT, Santino Marella, retired from in-ring activities due to injury.
Word was that WWE would punish her for her legal trouble, and keep her out of the limelight until the public's attention shifted from her crime at a Connecticut Wal-Mart (and the company's handling of the incident). We have no idea what is or isn't going on with her punishment, but we can report that she appeared on the WWE Network exclusive Main Event last night, and even scored a pinfall victory over Cameron in a decent Diva's match that managed to focus on wrestling despite featuring three women who have spent more time dancing than grappling on the main roster.
Even though she won, Emma's role in this match was effectively as enhancement talent. She was a means to an end in the build of Sunday's pay-per-view (PPV) Kickoff match between the former partners in the Funksdactyls. Her roll-up victory was a result of Cameron paying too much attention to taunting Naomi, and she takes a small beatdown from the heel after winning before the more prominent babyface chases off her Battleground opponent.
And maybe that's the best thing for Emma right now. A chance to work matches instead of doing comedy segments (this was her first match on a main roster show since May 26th when she faced Alicia Fox on Raw), and to connect with the audience as her own character instead of as Santino's sidekick.
Time will tell. For now, I'm just glad she's back. The fact that she didn't have a sock puppet is just an added bonus.