By Greg Parks, PWTorch columnist

Monday night saw one of the most unintentionally strange finishes in Raw history. During a mixed tag match featuring The Great Khali & Natalya taking on Big E. Langston & A.J. Lee, Natalya was supposed to win by submission, using the Sharpshooter. Something went wrong, and fans spent some time trying to decide who to blame. It wasn't quite the Zapruder film, but I did comb through the video several times, and here's what I gleaned from it:

The players:

-Natalya
-A.J. Lee
-referee Marc Harris

The situation:

At the conclusion of the match, following a distraction by Hornswoggle, Natalya dragged A.J. across the ring and applied her finisher, the Sharpshooter. Referee Marc Harris was in position, and A.J. Lee tapped out. However, just before she tapped, almost simultaneously actually, Natalya inexplicably let go of the hold. One could assume Natalya heard A.J. flailing on the mat with her hands and assumed she tapped, thus letting go of the hold, but the bell never rang and Nattie did not act like she had won. Instead, she stood with her hands on her hips.

Although it's a little unclear from the video, it did appear as if Harris called for the bell. He at least looked in the direction of the timekeeper. The bell never rang. Harris seemed to signal for the match to continue, getting down on one knee to check on A.J.'s condition. Natalya walked around toward Harris and grabbed his hand, apparently hoping he'd raise hers to declare she and Khali winners, since A.J. gave up. Harris did no such thing, and Natalya walked back over to A.J., still selling the move. Nattie pulled A.J. back to the middle of the ring and reapplied the move. Natalya AGAIN nearly let go of the move too soon, but held on just long enough for A.J. to officially tap out.

Harris went on Twitter to defend himself, saying that the match continued because the move was released before A.J. tapped. However, former WWE ref Jim Korderas, also on Twitter, noted that it appeared Harris called for the bell the first time. Whether or not he was overruled by someone backstage who had seen A.J. tap after the move was released, or he didn't in fact call for the bell and was perhaps waving off the tap out, we'll never know. There are even conspiracy theorists out there who believe this was all part of the plan to add to the drama of Total Divas, of which Natalya is one of the stars. In the end, it appears this entire scenario could've been avoided had Natalya not let go of the move early. Why she did so is still a mystery.

Also a mystery: Why A.J. and Langston, who have a mixed tag match on Summerslam Sunday, would job to the comedy team of Natalya and Great Khali.


Greg Parks has been covering WWE Smackdown for PWTorch.com since January of 2007. Follow him on Twitter @gregmparks for live Tweeting during Raw, Impact, and PPVs, as well as other bits of wisdom. Comments, questions and feedback are welcome, and can be sent to g_man9784@yahoo.com.

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