Total Divas Recap: Paige And Alicia Help A Fan, Ambrose Guest Stars, Eva Marie, More
We open with Mark Carrano suggesting Eva dye her hair blonde. This is a deeply horrifying suggestion, Mark.
Eva's bright red hair is one of the best things about her. It makes her look like a cool cyberpunk heroine out of a dystopian sci-fi graphic novel. I never know if Eva is going to wrestle or save the world from a shady corporation that secretly makes killer robots.
It's also suggested to Eva that she forms a tag team with Mandy. She talks it over with some of the girls at the training center. She's not that keen on the idea, frankly, feeling that she's improved too much as a wrestler to work with a newcomer like Mandy. Later, Nattie urges Eva to focus on herself first. And also to buy two or three cats.
Following her first NXT main event against Bayley, Eva tells Mandy she wants to put their prospective team on hold for a while so she can pursue her singles career. Mandy is cool with it. Mandy does, in general, come off as quite a cool person.
Speaking of Mandy, Nattie invites her and her relatives on the annual Neidhart family vacation. Question: Is it really a family trip if you're bringing another family?
"Who's Mandy?" a puzzled TJ asks when he hears about this. Once again stressing the fact that Nattie needs to talk to her husband about something before doing it. This is roughly the 3,526th thing on this show that Nattie has done without asking TJ.
Things don't get better when Mandy ends up bringing about 16 people along, which is more than Nattie expected. Previews for next week suggest they will all clash and bitterly argue because, you know, it's reality television and no one ever gets along.
Meanwhile: A fan named Dustin needs Alicia and Paige's help in coming out to his religious family. He's worried they'll take it badly. The girls manage to talk him around with kind, sensitive words and convince him he has to be honest.
Later, Dustin tells his family the truth. On national television. In front of a camera crew full of strangers and two pro wrestlers no one in the family seems to know. And all these folks just randomly burst into their house one night. Thankfully it all ends well and his dad hugs him and Dustin's sexuality appears to be no big deal for them. But that could've gotten embarrassing if they'd had a bad reaction to it. Or called the cops right away because they thought it was a home invasion.
I am drawn to this idea of Alicia and Paige travelling around America helping random wrestling fans with their problems, though.
Can't balance your household budget? Call Paige and Alicia! Having problems getting that promotion at work? Call Paige and Alicia! Suspect your spouse is cheating on you? Call Paige and Alicia! They'll solve it all! (Fee to be negotiated at a later date.)
Deciding that their spirits need to be cleansed and healed, Bryan, Brie, Renee Young and Dean Ambrose all take a trip to Sedona. It involves meditating and Yoga and being at one with nature and all that other Oprah stuff.
Yeah, Dean is probably the last person in the world who would mediate or do Yoga or be at one with nature. As it is, he looks like he can barely get through these scenes without laughing. He seems to be here just for the free booze. I suspect this because he is wearing a t-shirt for most of his scenes that explicitly says "I am just here for the free booze." Then he plays with a bongo for a while and ninja-kicks thin air.
A highlight of this whole segment: "We're actually meeting up with a reincarnated Buddha." "Oh my Gosh!"
You'd think a deity would have better things to do with his time than be on Total Divas and talk to some crazy wrestlers, but there you go. I guess World Peace is just going to have to wait.
On next week's episode: Nattie decides to adopt a giant panda without asking TJ first or even mentioning anything on the subject. TJ just comes home one day and is shocked to see Xi Lan casually sitting in the corner of the living room contentedly eating a stick of bamboo. "Teej, there's something I have to tell you..." Nattie says apologetically. TJ sighs.