Kaitlyn Recounts Accidental Divas #1 Contender Battle Royal Win, How It Happened

Kaitlyn famously won a Divas battle royal that she wasn’t booked to win, and she recently looked back at how it all came about. The WWE alumna won a #1 contenders battle royal for the WWE Divas Championship, then held by Leyla, on the August 20th, 2012 episode of Raw. The match ended with Kaitlyn winning after Eve Torres, who was supposed to win, fell off the apron after a clothesline over the top.

Kaitlyn previously revealed that Vince McMahon was laughing backstage after the win, and she spoke in more detail about how it all came about during her appearance on Rewind Recap Relive. You can see the highlights below:

On the Lead Up to the Battle Royal:

“I was still kind of in this weird place, but I had a few of those matches with Eve, kind of that back and forth with Eve. So, we had kind of developed like a little bit of a [rivalry]. It was like very tiny, but it was on TV a few times. And then she got the spot as the General Manager Assistant, and I kind of disappeared from it.

On the Battle Royal:

“There was a night on Raw where they had all the talent there, and it was going to be a Diva’s battle royal with every single diva there. And that night is the one is when — so Fit Finley had to leave the company for one year. It was like, something that happened overseas, he had to leave the company for a year. It was something that happened, and that night was his first night back.

“And Finley was the Diva whisperer. That’s what everybody called him. We all wanted him to help us with our matches, because he understood us. He helped us, and he helped us create good stuff with three minutes, four minutes, five minutes with entrances, right? And when he was gone, we didn’t — we had Goldust for a while. Nobody wanted the women’s matches because we were all, ‘We want more time,’ and there was no — it was like not a fun thing for the agents to come and produce our matches for us.”

On Finlay Changing the Match:

“So Finley comes back, everyone is so excited. I’m still so low on the totem pole. Haven’t really done anything memorable or exciting since winning NXT. And I see him in gorilla, like right outside gorilla. And I gave him a hug, and he pulls the card down with the women’s battle royal match. I was going to be eliminated like second or something. And he was like, ‘Why aren’t you on TV yet?’ I was like, ‘I do not know. I don’t know.’

“And he drew a line through it, I watched him do it. And he was like, ‘You have a little bit of a feud with Eve, right?’… And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And so Eve was set to win that battle royal. Leyla had the title at the time, she was going to be [the winner] because it was for #1 contender. So he rearranged the whole match and put me to be in there second to last. Eve was going to eliminate me, and she was going to win. So in 10 seconds, I went from being second eliminated, super low on the totem pole, 10 seconds of TV time, to being in there the entire match and being second to almost winning.

On the Finish Getting Messed up:

“So the match happens. I was supposed to clothesline her over the top rope. She was going to slip out, hang on, pull me out, eliminate me. Boom, she’s number one contender. Layla’s down there with the title, sitting with the commentary. And I clotheslined her, and like, the physics were off, and she didn’t go all the way over. So we set back up, we got back into the position. Hit the ropes, I clotheslined her as hard as I could, because I didn’t want that to happen again. I hit her so hard that she could not hold on; she fell and got eliminated.”

On the Reaction To the Moment:

“So I’m standing in the ring as #1 contender. I just won the match; wasn’t supposed to happen. Raw is live, there’s only a seven-second delay. The referee that was in the ring with me was Brad Maddox, which was his first time to ref live TV. And he’s mic’d up, so everybody in the gorilla is like, ‘Celebrate, she needs to celebrate.’ So he grabs my hand.

“Eventually, we go to commercial, and I was just like, ‘Oh my God.’ And so, in a moment like that — again, Vince is at every TV. He’s sitting in a chair in gorilla, like your agent’s there, there’s usually 10 people or so in there. And I’m walking back into gorilla. Lights are out, it’s that commercial. I don’t know if I’m going to get fired, yelled at, like whatever. So I opened the curtain to gorilla. Vince is laughing; Eve is crying. Tom, the writer, looks at me. He gives me a hug, he’s like, ‘Oh my god, I’m so happy for you.’”

On the Aftermath:

“It was like such a divine moment. Because I’m like, ‘Here I am, another opportunity that just kind of like — I happened to be in the right place and do the right thing.’ Like, everything just aligned. And there was some pushback. Some of the girls wanted to get me written out, and Eve was very upset. And I — because again, there was only one title then, and the matches were so short. So it’s like, everyone was kind of fighting for that one position… it ended up working out. Eve and I had this super fun feud. Like she was such a wonderful mentor… she helped me so much and we had a very fun feud.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Rewind Recap Relive with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.