WWE Summerslam 2011 Results: What's Next for Beth Phoenix After Loss to Kelly

Challenger Beth Phoenix fell short of her goal to win the Divas Championship off of foe Kelly Kelly at WWE SummerSlam 2011, surprising many who had predicted a title change. Despite being savagely dominated and beaten by Beth in the latter stages of the nearly seven-minute match (a very long running time by diva standards), plucky underdog Kelly managed to brave through and snatch the victory after impressively countering the GlamSlam into a roll-up.

Unsurprisingly, Beth was furious after the result and had to be calmed down by tag partner Natalya, who was in her corner. Interestingly, both women actually came to the ring with company: Kelly brought along on-screen ally Eve for support. Although neither interfered or had anything to do with the finish.

Despite a few botches here and there, the match was fairly decent by current WWE women's standards (and also outshone most of the Knockouts matches in TNA). Credit should to go to both women for this, as they both tried extremely hard, particularly Kelly, who compensated for her athletic shortcomings by taking some absolutely brutal bumps.

After a few sloppy performances, notably in an awful match with Brie Bella at the Money in the Bank PPV, she redeemed herself somewhat here and answered some of the critics who have branded her title reign a flop and a disaster.

So where does 'The Glamazon' go after this disappointment? Will she booted from the title picture and promptly be forgotten about? I feel this is very unlikely.

While I can't say for certain Beth's big push will be sustained (and we should remember the fickle nature of the WWE writing team), all indications are that this Kelly and Beth feud will continue and thrive on WWE television—and a few of the other divas, like AJ Lee, Eve and Natalya will become embroiled in it too. I can easily see Beth getting another title shot at WWE's next PPV, Night of Champions, on September 18th—and this time she likely will bag the gold.

Why? Well, first of all, there is simply no-one else for Kelly to feud with. Nor is there anyone except Beth (and her “Divas of Doom” tag partner Natalya) that can carry her to anything good. Laycool are gone. Fellow female wrestler/crazy person Melina has been fired. Gail Kim is also on her way out and currently on a tweeting rampage against the company.

There is little sense in putting Kelly with the Bella Twins again since the three lack any real chemistry together and the matches were a complete disaster. It's possible Kelly could be paired with Maryse, but she's largely been absent from Raw and stuck on a show that about five people watch, so it wouldn't shock me if fans have forgotten about her. While she showed some fire and eagerness to learn during her title push last year, Alicia Fox also seems to have been forgotten about and isn't really relevant anymore, either.

On the SmackDown side, things aren't much better: Rosa is a complete non-entity and laughably bad in the ring, thus the idea of pushing her as a challenger is ludicrous. Kaitlyn has barely been seen and her ring work also leaves a lot to be desired. New diva A.J Lee is promising but, similar to Eve, she's a natural face and there seems no reason to turn her at the moment.

Aside from having limited options in finding a new challenger for Kelly, there also seems to be a long-term storyline developing in WWE's women's division—one being built around Beth and her new best friend Natalya, as both women attempt to dominate their division and rid the company of what they see as the “pretty, perky divas” ruining the women's product.

Phoenix and Natayla have been teaming up on house shows and television lately, and have shown considerable chemistry together. This may be WWE's most promising female pairing since Michelle McCool and Layla El teamed up. Besides that, this is simply an interesting and intriguing storyline: Beth and Nattie, while good-looking girls, were not models who got signed out by Johnny Ace when he was flicking through a bikini magazine one day, unlike Kelly and Alicia.

No, these two were genuine wrestlers with established reputations on the indy scene who worked incredibly hard to get to WWE. It's often been said that the best heels feel strongly that are fully justified in their actions and, considering all the times Natalya and Beth have played second-fiddle to the model brigade, this frustration and anger should not be a hard thing for either woman to portray on-screen.

While this sounds very promising, that doesn't mean things are perfect, either. Personally, I still question pushing a flawed performer like Kelly as the division's top babyface. Aside from her struggles in the ring (why does she always look like she's terrified of the ropes?) a babyface needs to be interesting and sympathetic to get over. Kelly has never exuded either of these qualities on-screen.

Indeed, the only time anyone has ever liked her or sympathized with her was when Randy Orton unfairly trashed her over aspects of her personal life. And it's not like we can call in Randy every Monday Night Raw to come out and run down Kelly so the fans feel sorry for her and want her to win. With this current storyline, there is the real potential for the fans to turn Beth face (and she's already garnering cheers in some of her recent matches) and wildly cheer her as she viciously beats up the pretty and bland Kelly. Perhaps WWE management may be forced to do a double-turn if this situation gets ridiculous and Kelly starts getting booed out of the building all the time.

Regardless of how this angle ultimately turns out, fans of Phoenix can be reassured of one thing: whatever the future of the women's division, she will likely play a big part of it. In many ways, women's wrestling in WWE looks more promising than it has in a long time.