My addendum to my 3/13 live review, which attempted to enlighten anyone pondering the continued presence of Maria drew a comment which noted that the face divas are always popular with the crowd as long as they perform decently, while suggesting that the heel divas are less beloved.  In certain cases, I have to disagree.  For example, Natalya debuted as heel, but she seems well-liked overall (no doubt due to her obvious wrestling skills) and got a decent crowd response.  Maryse is another example.  Again, she garnered a fairly strong crowd reaction...and mostly cheers btw.  To be honest, I am liking Maryse more and more.  And I think the reason is that she has the title. 

Before you begin sharpening knives, hear my justification.  When she first became #1 contender, any who read my blog at the time will know I was utterly dumbfounded.  And its not that I think the title proves she's a great wrestler. Au contraire! She's not the best of the Smackdown bunch, but she's not the worst either.  She's improved her match skills over the last few months and she's evolved well  beyond the Queen of Clumsy we saw last summer. Better yet, she brings a lot to the ring besides wrestling ability.  She has a wonderful sense of her character.   And she doesn't forget who she is when she's in the ring; she plays it up.  When she was sitting in with the announcers, she was able to add to what they were doing in a humorous and interesting way without being led by the nose, without need for Tazz to apply the Socratic method to pry out commentary.  Her contributions flowed out easily and appropriately.  And even there, she didn't let us forget who she was, adding her "absolutement" to the conversation in graceful French. 

Maryse has used the title to add a credibility to her character she never had before.  Her egotism, which before seemed to be all talk, now has some creedence.  Instead of "show n' blow", she is evolving into a heel who can back up her ebullient self-confidence.  The title has created the opportunity to speak more and she's come up with some cute pet lines (calling McCool her number one fan, for instance).  Its clear she has a sense of how to entertain.  And to a certain extent, that takes the place of what she lacks in wrestling skills.  Would I put money on her being named "Miss Wrestlemania"? Not a brass farthing! But, that being said, I really have enjoyed watching her evolve and I'm pleasantly surprised by what she's done with her character.  She entertains me and she's getting better and better at doing so with each opportunity she is given.  ToS, Maryse! (I wish I knew how to say that en francais!)

(c) BE 2009