User blog:CEDJunior/Aksana: Face or Heel?

I have been slacking on the "Face or Heel?" blogs lately, and I apologize for that. I do have a good subject for this latest blog, however. She's one of my favorite Divas who really deserved a big push but didn't get one, instead only ending up released this past summer. The Diva I'm referring to, of course, is Aksana.

Face Aksana:  Aksana was terrific and hilarious as a babyface on NXT and on the main roster. Despite her immense sex appeal, she was portrayed a lot like how some foreign characters were typecast on TV. In the fashion of Taxi's Latka Graves and (more notably) Balki from Perfect Strangers, Aksana's dialogue mostly stole the show, with a lot of her line being almost nonsensical and hilarious.

This was especially true when she was called up to the main roster and served as the love interest to then-SmackDown GM Teddy Long. Aksana (who went from blonde to raven-haired) for her role, was often shown in backstage segments with Teddy, usually speaking in double entendres. As for her in-ring work, she did compete a number of times on the NXT competition, but not so much on the main shows. The fact that she was paired with Goldust on NXT made Aksana stand out a bit more. I think I recall reading comparisons to Terri Runnels online.

Heel Aksana:  A lot of fans (myself especially) mainly recall Aksana's stints as a heel, with her first one occurring on NXT. An angle was done where Aksana was to marry Goldust to remain in the country, and a wedding took place on an edition of NXT. When it came time for Goldust to kiss the bride, Aksana turned into a villainess and slapped him, and later revealed on the following week that staying in America was the only reason why she married him. Heel Aksana wouldn't last too long on the NXT program; in fact, she was eliminated just a week after her heel turn on the program.

After Teddy Long lost his GM job to John Laurinaitis at WrestleMania 28, I knew that Aksana would turn heel and eventually dump him. It took a while, but I was right. Aksana became a main-roster villainess for the first time and publicly dumped Teddy Long and announced that she was in a relationship with newcomer Antonio Cesaro, and she would later act as Cesaro's manager during his matches. After that angle ended, Aksana's heel character received a huge boost (IMO) when she aligned with Eve Torres, and was revealed as the one who donned a blonde wig and attacked Kaitlyn at Night of Champions. She would attack Kaitlyn again at Survivor Series, but she would pay for it that night and the following night on Raw, when Aksana was defeated by Kaitlyn. On Backstage Fallout, the evil Aksana stated that she had been attacking Kaitlyn in an attempt to get ahead in the Divas Division. However, 2013 and beyond would see her mostly serve as a punching bag for Kaitlyn and involved in various matches against the ''Total Divas. ''Up until her release, Aksana served as one-half of Foxsana with former Divas Champion Alicia Fox.

Regarding the titular "Face or Heel?" question, the answer is very easy:  Heel Aksana all the way! Aksana has the look of a sexy and evil supervillain, even as a blonde. With dark hair, Aksana had the look of a seductive vampire. But Aksana's clearly more than a pretty face and a gorgeous body. She really showed improvement in the ring in her last year in WWE, and I was really disappointed and upset that she wasn't given the push that she deserved. What I loved the most about Aksana's role as a villainess was the tremendous amount of personality she brought to her gimmick. That and her abilities should have been enough for WWE to push her. As much as Aksana and Kaitlyn fought each other, I had often wished to see them together as a villainous tag team, mainly because both women possess strong physiques and they could really destroy their opponents in the ring.

Face Aksana or Heel Aksana? Which do you prefer?