Maryse Wins The Divas Title and Saves SmackDown

Maryse is the new WWE Divas Champion on SmackDown after defeating former champion Michelle McCool in a match that featured Maria as the special guest referee, held in Toronto on Monday night and aired last night (Dec. 26).

At the conclusion of a hard fought match, McCool got a near two count on Maryse, and felt that Maria was slow counting the fall, when Maryse kicked McCool in the back of the head, and pinned her to become only the second champion in the history of the Divas Title.

After the match, McCool blamed the defeat on the referee, and finally completed her long rumoured heel turn by attacking Maria for several minutes, kicking her in the gut, throwing her against the retaining wall, and then slinging her into the ring post, leaving her lying.

All the while, Maryse looked on smiling, knowing she now has the title, and has probably made a lot of "smart mark" fans very happy.

In a previous article, I spoke about how McCool seemed to be ruining the SmackDown Divas division by making her challengers look weak and supposedly holding down talent, including Maryse.

It appears that Maryse has emulated CM Punk in terms of false Internet reporting, and like Punk, her "punishment" for generating heat backstage is being awarded her brand's championship.

Maria and the Bella Twins appear to be Maryse's main challengers now that McCool has turned heel, although Gail Kim could be brought in to challenge the new champion.

It seems to suggest that McCool is out of the picture for the time being if they took the belt off her whilst turning her heel, as they could have accomplished the same long term goal involving Kim with McCool as a heel champion, and probably a bigger name match as well.

Still, Maryse is more popular amongst the Internet wrestling community, and while McCool develops her feud with Maria, Maryse will defend the belt; hopefully proving to be a good opponent for Kim. She's probably better at generating heat at the moment, too.