WWE No Way Out 2012 Results: Layla Defeats Beth Phoenix

Layla has retained the WWE Divas Championship by defeating Beth Phoenix at No Way Out. It's the second straight pay-per-view victory for Layla over Phoenix after beating her at Over the Limit last month.

It's been an impressive run for Layla since returning from injury a couple months ago. She won the belt from Nikki Bella at Extreme Rules and has looked to be back at full strength in the ring, which is good news for the division.

The Divas haven't been given much air time in recent years. Most of the matches last only a couple minutes and there's been no storyline development to speak of. As AJ and Eve have shown, the best path for female talents is other marquee angles.

Perhaps the additional hour of Raw will change that. That's a lot of extra programming every month, and it wouldn't hurt to let the Divas start having more opportunities to make their appearances seem like something more than space filler.

Superstars like Layla and Phoenix have a lot of actual in-ring ability. Fans just don't get many chances to see it because the company would rather spend time having John Laurinaitis stumble through promos than give the Divas a chance to shine.

Phoenix actually had a championship reign of more than 200 days starting last October, but it didn't generate much hype because there would be weeks when she wasn't on Raw at all. In reality, there's no reason for that little respect for a title.

We'll find out over the next couple months leading up to SummerSlam if anything is going to change for the Divas due to the extended Monday night shows. It would actually an interesting portion of the show if they got more of them involved.

As for now, Layla will have to continue her run atop the division with limited time. Phoenix will likely remain in the title picture leading up to a potentially big match at SummerSlam in a few months.

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