WWE SummerSlam 2011: Exploring the History of Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix

On paper, it's an interesting contrast: stunning and popular blonde Kelly Kelly (or K2 as some fans have affectionately nicknamed her) battling against the mean, mighty Beth Phoenix for the WWE Divas Title at WWE Summerslam 2011.

Aside from their on-screen images, the backgrounds of both women are very different, too: Kelly was just 19 when she was plucked from the pages of a bikini catalogue and signed to a talent contract by the head of WWE talent relations Johnny Ace (or Marty Funkhoser, as some now call him). At that point, Kelly knew little of wrestling and was not a fan. She mostly stuck to managing for her first few years (as well as a stint as a dancer for the short-lived Extreme Expose in ECW), and taking the odd bump here and there, before becoming a full-time wrestler.

Beth, on the other hand, was a tomboy growing up and had a very successful amateur wrestling career in high school before turning pro and working her way through the rough and low-paying American indie scene for a few years, notably women's company SHIMMER, before finally achieving her dream in 2004 and getting signed to a WWE contract.

Partly because of the contrasts between both women, the Kelly vs. Beth feud is infinitely more interesting that most of the hastily thrown-together women feuds churned out by an apathetic WWE team these days. Let's face it: Whether it's because of fan apathy, poor wrestling performances or a lack of overness on the part of most of the women, WWE's women's division has been a non-entity for a long, long time.

Things were briefly looking up for the women's division when the newly signed monster Kharma (formerly Awesome Kong in TNA) debuted and began to tear through the women's division—and seemed to have her sights set firmly on Kelly. Of course, as everyone knows, personal issues interfered with the promising Kharma's storyline and she was quickly written out, with an aim to hopefully bring her back next year and resume her angle.

But interestingly, WWE have now returned to the notion of the pretty and perky underdog Kelly going up against a monster character, now in the shape of the threatening Beth Phoenix.

There were a few hints WWE were headed in this direction, even before Beth savagely attacked Kelly after the battle royal on Raw last week. In the eight-woman tag match (where, as usual, the wrestling only lasted a couple of minutes and most of the women didn't even get tagged in) Beth scored the pin against perennial jobber Gail Kim. Kelly, who had a week earlier won the belt after the fans picked her to challenge for the title on the interactive Raw, initially seemed happy and celebrated with the rest of her team (consisting of all the face divas).

Then, as Beth soaks up the moment and applause from the fans and the other women, the mood noticeably changed and Kelly seems to grow mildly irritated. In a somewhat aggressive manner, Kelly then held up her belt, right in Beth's face. It was very subtle, but many fans did pick up on it. Then nothing happened on the following week's Raw and I privately wondered whether WWE had just dropped the storyline, as they are occasionally known to do.

Of course, WWE responded to the critics last week.

During the battle royal to determine the next No. 1 contender for Kelly's title, the Divas champion was on commentary, where she spent most of the time swatting away the insults of Michael Cole (who, I notice, has quickly gone from being annoying in a good way to simply being annoying in a bad way.)

After Beth impressively eliminated both Bella Twins at the same time by picking up both girls and effortlessly tossing them out, Kelly left the announcer's table and went to congratulate her. The two women then shared a hug of friendship and mutual respect, and Kelly then respectfully stood back to allow her friend to her moment in the sun.

"The Glamazon" then shot Kelly a terrifying glare for several seconds, and proceeded to grab her and violently throw her out of the ring, marking Beth's official heel turn. Beth then left the ring and viciously threw poor Kelly into the guardrail. As a feeble, sobbing Kelly meekly tried to fight back, Beth grabbed the microphone and angrily sneered: “Kelly, your days as the perky, cute, blond little bimbo are officially over.”

Beth then threw the mic down and stomped off, leaving an injured and shell-shocked Kelly behind, as well as the fans in the arena and the viewers at home wondering if they were seeing the first WWE women's feud in quite some time that actually looked pretty interesting.

Better yet, WWE followed up the angle by some after-Raw comments from both women that aired on the company's official website. “Why I attacked Kelly Kelly? Why are you even asking that?” Beth sneers. “You should be talking about what everybody else is talking about and that’s [that] I just defeated 11 other Divas to become the #1 Contender for the Divas Championship.”

An aggressive and triumphant Beth finishes by saying: “You want a real story? Tune into SummerSlam and watch me win the Divas Championship for the first time.”