WWE WrestleMania 28: Maria Menounos Could Surprise Us with Her Performance

As most will know by now, it was officially announced last week that celebrity Maria Menounos, host of NBC's showbiz recap show Extra, would team with Kelly Kelly to take on the heel duo of Beth Phoenix (the current WWE Divas Champion) and Eve Torres at this year's WrestleMania.

The match came about after Phoenix and Torres, disgruntled because Menounos had never asked to interview them on her show, stormed the set of Extra and challenged the best-selling author to a fight, which she quickly accepted before wondering just what she had gotten herself into. Thankfully, Kelly was nearby to lend her support to Menounos, and vowed to have her back at WrestleMania. 

While the announcement of bout may be considered a huge disappointment for those who wanted to see the much-talked about "dream match" of Kharma vs Beth Phoenix, this match may be the next best thing.

For one thing, it's a relatively high-profile match, coming at a time when WWE's women's division is more neglected and badly booked than ever (despite being Divas Champion, Phoenix has only made a handful of appearances on Raw and Smackdown in recent months and many fans have forgotten she's even champion).

In good news for the Divas' Division, the presence of an established star like Menounos guarantees them a fair amount of mainstream attention and airtime as we head into WM week.

There's also the fact that Menounos, while not a wrestler, will likely manage to deliver a decent and respectable performance during the tag match. 

You see, Menounos, a lifelong fan of WWE, has experience in wrestling, having gotten into the ring twice before for the company.  

Her first go at wrestling happened in October 2009, when she guest-hosted Raw with Access Hollywood's Nancy O'Dell.

At the show the Greek beauty ended up teaming with Kelly Kelly and Gail Kim to take on Alicia Fox, Rosa Mendez and Beth Phoenix. While her role was limited and the star was clearly being protected by whoever laid the match out, she performed admirably during her brief time in the ring, even slapping Beth Phoenix at one point.

More recently, she appeared at WWE's annual Tribute to the Troops show in December of last year, this time teaming with Alicia, Eve and Kelly to team on the Bella Twins, Beth Phoenix and Natalya. Most noticeably, she wrestled far more in this match than she did in the 2009 tag bout, indicating her growing confidence and capability as an in-ring performer. 

For the match, she performed her moves well and even managed to pin the Divas Champion after a shock, out-of-nowhere sunset flip.

It is this sensational upset that has help lay the foundation for the current WM match. Phoenix is clearly still harboring a grudge about being embarrassingly beaten by a non-wrestler and is desperate to even the score.

Summarily, with her previous smooth, crisp in ring performances, the hard-working Menounos can be expected to churn out a decent performance at Sun Life Stadium on April 1. Indeed, I would even go so far as to say that, even with only a modicum of training, she's already vastly superior to some of the botch-prone divas who, despite being on the roster for years and years, remain as awful and laughable in the ring as ever.

Aksana, Rosa...we're looking at you, girls.