There is a new girl on the scene as Mandy Rose arrives on Total Divas this week.
Talent relations’ Mark Carrano held a mandatory meeting with the diva crew. He brings Mandy — runner-up on the Tough Enough reality competition — into the room and announces her as the newest diva.
She had apparently signed a five-year deal with the company. Paige’s face tells the story of someone who is not so hot about the idea of the blonde bombshell coming aboard. Let’s just say the two didn’t see eye-to-eye on Tough Enough when Paige was a judge on the show.
Eva Marie is excited about Mandy, though, because it takes the heat off of her. The two bond quickly and find they have a lot in common.
With Eva returning backstage to Raw, she works to integrate herself back into the group. Eva tries to mend fences with the Bella Twins after things got heated in the past. The Bella sisters saw a lot in Eva when they first started and were glad she came to clear the air. They all made up — which translates to it being okay to follow each other on Instagram again.
Alicia Fox, Rosa Mendes and Paige ride with Eva and Mandy on the road. Eva tries to smooth things over with Paige during the evening. Paige apologizes and recognizes Eva’s efforts to improve in the ring.
Alicia isn’t buying Eva’s apologetic actions, though, and wonders why she hasn’t come around sooner to make things right. Eva isn’t quite sure where the animosity comes from, but Mandy listens and sees what’s going on. The rookie starts to wonder if it was smart to align with the Lady Red.
The group visit Total Intensity to see how makeup is made since the company is partnering with Total Divas to produce a line of cosmetics. But Mandy still wants to make sense out of what has transpired among the ladies and goes to Alicia, who gives her words of wisdom in dealing with the impending drama we know is to come.
With WWE in Florida, Natalya wants to throw a surprise house party to cheer her husband TJ up. She thinks he is down in the dumps being injured, off the road and not wrestling. Those invited include TJ’s bestie Cesaro and R-Truth, who, it turns out, has a phobia of cats. TJ comes home early from the gym before everything for the party is set up.
The party doesn’t go quite as planned. The cats get loose from the bedroom, freaking Truth out. Watching Truth run away from the cats and attempting to keep them in the room could be a show in itself.
TJ also doesn’t like the fact that Nattie told the boys he was depressed and felt the gathering was more of a pity party for him. R-Truth and Nattie talk outside, and R-Truth goes all Steve Harvey with the advice. The next day Nattie tells TJ she was trying to do something nice for him and apologizes. TJ says if there was something wrong with him, he would tell her, but he does recognize that what she did was out of love.
Elsewhere, Carrano alerts the Bella Twins of a potential national endorsement opportunity with a major food company. Brie isn’t feeling it because the products they would sell go against her beliefs. But Nikki still wants to do it. Nikki has the idea to make a campaign that is “fitness sexy” as a way to compromise with Brie, because there is still a healthy message. She tries to get her point across to Brie by doing a mock commercial for what would be for eggs or a hamburger or … a wheelbarrow.
In the end, Brie stands by her decision not to do the endorsement. Nikki complains to boyfriend John Cena. He says Nikki can’t hold this against Brie for feeling the way she does. The talk gets her thinking of potentially doing the gig solo. Brie meets with her colleagues from Experience Local and Nikki joins them. Nikki says she respects Brie for standing up for herself and her beliefs. Nikki believes she can make it on her own, determined to become a female equivalent to The Rock or John Cena in branching outside of WWE and building up her own brand.
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Photos Courtesy: WWE
