WWE Payback 2015 match card preview: The Bellas vs. Tamina Snuka & Naomi

Divas Tag Match

Tamina Snuka & Naomi vs. Brie & Nikki Bella

A match that was booked as bruptly as the champ and her twin sisters face turn landed on the card with an announcement on WWE.com last Thursday night. Should we expect anything meaningful from the Divas, or stick to watching NXT if we want quality women's wrestling on WWE Network?

The State of WWE Women's wrestling, aka "Divas" heading into Payback

Divas division apologists, if there is such a thing, would tell you that the quick alignment shifts for three-quarters of the performers in this match were because AJ Lee left WWE unexpectedly, and Creative has had to re-cast her role as the foil for champ Nikki Bella and re-write the entire angle to account for the loss of a once in a generation talent.

And there's some truth to that. We saw a little of it last Summer during her honeymoon break - but at least then we had Paige to soften the blow - but WWE has let the Divas coast along without characters and in feuds that don't make a whole lot of sense because AJ was charismatic enough that most people either didn't notice or let it slide. Their plan is probably to resume doing that as soon as the Diva of Tomorrow is back from making Christmas pictures.

In the meantime, though, their laziness and mismanagement has been exposed by the fact not only are the Bellas now faces, but that their being good guys is about as justified as their being bad ones was. They correctly realized that it would be easier to sell Naomi as a heel, so everything was adjusted accordingly. But when Nikki is the best talker and most charismatic presence in a program, let alone the entire division...you've got a problem.

So, hurry back Paige. And if Vince McMahon and company ever get serious about telling stories about something more than catty crazy chicks, maybe they could think about calling up the NXT Four...

Oh, this match?

Naomi was pissed because she beat Nikki in some non-title matches but Paige won a battle royal to become #1 contender, so she attacked The Anti-Diva and "injured" her off television so she could go film Santa's Little Helper with Miz. Even though she was supposed to be the heel at that point, Brie cheated to help Nikki retain her title at Extreme Rules, so Mrs. Uso went to a family get together and recruited Tamina Snuka to do for her what she used to do for Lee.

Tamina and her cousin-in-law beat up the Bellas while they were walking to the ring on Raw, Snuka beat Brie in a singles match, someone realized they forget to book a Divas match for Sunday and...voila!

The title isn't on the line, so not much will change as a result of this one. All four wrestlers have their in-ring moments, but the champ is the only one capable of wowing you on the regular, so hopefully Nikki will get the bulk of the five-to-seven minutes this match is likely to get.

Speaking of the master of the Rack Attack (ugh), if Bella can hold the butterfly belt through Night of Champions, she'll break AJ's record for longest Diva's title reign. Since it's always interesting to see just how petty the McMahons can be, that'll be worth watching.

Will we be able to say the same about the tag match on May 17th in Baltimore, or any other stories that come from the machine that gave us this program?

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