WWE Elimination Chamber 2012: Why Beth Phoenix vs. Tamina Will Be a Great Match

Some astounding news, everyone: WWE's stale women's division finally has a fresh matchup! 

You see, it was announced on last week's episode of Monday Night Raw that Beth Phoenix would defend her Divas Championship against Tamina Snuka in a match at the Elimination Chamber.

Of course, the move was not unexpected: Phoenix and Snuka have interacted and clashed on various episodes of Raw and SmackDown over the past month, with Tamina often coming out on top. 

When interviewed for WWE's new Youtube show Backstage Fallout last week, Phoenix (who won the Divas Title from Kelly Kelly back at October's Hell in a Cell pay-per-view and has been woefully under-used ever since) even noted she was "looking forward" to a challenge from the second-generation diva.

Yes, it seems Phoenix has gotten tired of facing Kelly Kelly, Eve and Alicia Fox in an endless cycle of short television matches, and is looking for someone new to feud with; someone who will push her to her limits. She said as much in a exclusive interview with the company's official website last month, in which she complained of having no new challengers and having "defeated everyone." 

Well, Phoenix has certainly found a challenge in the tough and feisty Tamina Snuka (the daughter of WWE legend Jimmy Snuka), who has possibly the most potential out of every woman on the current roster.

In fact, while many of the other females in WWE struggle greatly with their in-ring skills (Rosa Mendes, we're looking at you) Snuka is a natural worker with good instincts for the business. She's still quite green, sure, but she is a far more polished and smoother worker than your typical WWE diva.

This may be attributed to her wrestling pedigree (due to her family, she's been around the business her entire life) or the fact she had some indie experience prior to joining WWE and was not signed from a modeling agency or a Diva Search contest like most of the women on the roster were. Either way, she has shown herself to be a competent performer who, with the right amount of training, could become one of the best female workers the promotion has ever had. 

Considering Phoenix's impressive skills at carrying weaker, more flawed performers (she managed to make the inexperienced and clumsy Kelly Kelly look like a far better wrestler than she actually was during their feud in the summer and autumn of 2011), she should be able to work even better with the talented Snuka. Indeed, the two should manage to churn out a decent little match on the pay-per-view.

Well, provided they get enough in-ring time from the promotion and don't get their time cut short because WWE has to run an extra-long video package or have a Teddy Long/Aksana segment on the show. Hopefully that won't happen, but with WWE these days, you never know.