WWE Summerslam 2014 - A way of redemption for the poor build up for Paige and AJ Lee

AJ Lee has been mocked continuously by Paige

What was expected to be a momentous clash has been hampered by a weak build up. Many expected and still expect AJ Lee and Paige to revitalize the divas division. Their feud had the potential to be something on the lines of Trish Stratus and Lita.

After two blink and miss matches, they were finally given an official match on a Pay Per View. Paige still hadn’t turned heel. She was still pretending to be miss goody two shoes, and a good friend to the Divas Champion. The match was certainly better than many other divas matches. It had its moments but these are just the few good points from the clash.

There is a difference between an actual grudge match and a friendly match.

Why The Rivalry has been disappointing

The best moment of the feud was when Paige actually turned heel. Way before Lesnar and Heyman came and announced Raw to be their house, Paige had AJ thrown all around ringside exclaiming belligerently that it was her house.

That was the one and only high this feud has had till now. The heel turn was very well executed and that set into motion the rising expectations that Paige might return to being the anti-diva she was in NXT or maybe somewhere close to that. But a week later she followed that momentum with quite a weak and confounding performance where she showed that she is still trying to be AJ’s friend. Either Paige was made out to look really dumb after the crystal clear events that took place the week before or Paige was trying to mock AJ’s well documented fictional mental state.

I think the latter is the right explanation but in that process they have made Paige look a bit or mostly like AJ was when she was a derailed heel. This has in fact left Paige with not much to call something as her own style. In the process of mocking AJ throughout her screen time- be it smiling nonsensically, talking in a long, stretched manner or trying Lee’s trademark move of skipping around- Paige has had no time to show what her gimmick is made off. And what is so special about a feud if there is no clash of personalities?

That is exactly what the problem has been with the build-up throughout the road to Summerslam. AJ has been tossed around Raw and Smackdown and then was defeated by Eva Marie, of all divas, not once but twice. So AJ has been wronged multiple times and she hasn’t been able to get her hands on Paige. The 21 year old from Norwich has got the better end of the deal in this build-up to a title match. This just means that AJ will win on Sunday and if she does not then Paige’s dominance has not played out too well. But Paige winning the title might serve better for the feud than AJ winning again and seeming almost invincible.

Pros and Cons of their respective wins

If Paige wins, she can take off that charade of mocking AJ and then start being her own self. That’s when her gimmick should kick off. There is no reason why her gimmick from NXT should not be extended over to the main roster.

But having Paige win might just be another instance of switching titles again and again

If AJ wins, this will be her third win in a row over Paige. That does not help Paige much but seeing her arrogance during the road to Summerslam, this might serve as a lesson to stop mocking AJ and get serious. This might kick off her anti-diva persona as well. And she might be a much serious contender if she herself becomes serious about getting that title back from AJ.

It seems the better bet is to have AJ win on Sunday. Let’s see if I’m right.