Hey guys! Sorry for this very late Redux (my New Year’s resolution is better time management) but let’s get things underway!
Our first bit of Divas is some Summer Rae managing her beau Tyler Breeze in a match against Titus O’Neil:
Next, we hear the GLORIOUS tune of “Beautiful Life”:
Brie Bella is making her way to the ring! We see the string of tweets in the Twitter war between Brie and Becky Lynch after the controversial match on Raw and then we are headed to commercial break.
After the break, we see Team B.A.D. (Naomi, Tamina, Sasha Banks) in the audience holding signs and sporting Team Bella gear, almost appearing to “cheer” Brie Bella on. Becky makes her way to the ring and Team B.A.D. seems to “enjoy” seeing Becky on her way to the ring as well and we get a recap of Charlotte and Paige‘s match at TLC that ended in controversy as well. We also get a recap from Raw, of the questionable win in the tag match over Team Bella.
The bell rings and we get Brie Bella with a kick to the midsection. She attempt to whip Becky into the corner and gets reversed but when Becky runs at her she lifts her up and Becky lands on the apron on her feet. Brie goes for a punch and gets blocked. “We Want Sasha” chants start in the arena. Brie gets the better of Becky and knocks her to the floor.
Brie exits the ring and slams Becky’s skull to the apron. She takes the time to throw shade at Team B.A.D.’s antics by putting up her iconic loser hand sign. She whips Becky in the ring and lands a kick to the back as Becky tries to get up. She gets Becky into a seated position and clobbers her with elbows to the neck and applies a chin lock and as she applies pressure we hear “Recognition”…
THE DIVAS CHAMPION IS MAKING HER WAY TO THE RING!
The distraction allows Becky to power out of the hold and hit Brie with a series of strikes leaving Brie reeling into the corner. The Lass-Kicker goes to hit her springboard kick but Brie moves her leg out of the way and gets to the second rope to hit a missile dropkick sending Becky across the ring. Charlotte is trying to cheer Becky on.
Brie screams out a “BRIEEE MOOODDEE” and knees Becky in the head and goes for a cover, but only gets two. She tries to get Becky up and as she does, Becky counters with a pumphandle slam! We get a shot of Sasha Banks, now sporting a Becky Lynch t-shirt.
Becky lands her springboard kick and tries to trap the arm of Becky Lynch. Brie uses the momentum to send Becky into the ropes and then goes for a Bella Buster but Becky sends her into the ropes and Charlotte pulls Brie’s legs (as the referee’s back is turned towards Becky). Becky looks perplexed but eventually uses the moment to apply the DisArmHer and gets the submission victory. But as soon as the bell ring, she is not pleased with how she got the victory. Charlotte gets into the ring and tries to celebrate as if nothing happened but Becky is having none of that.
Backstage, Charlotte is trying help Becky celebrate her win of Brie but Becky is not pleased. When asked what’s wrong, Becky responds by saying the reason they won on Monday was because “Ric was being Ric” but she wanted to face Brie on SmackDown to prove she can beat her but Charlotte interfered. Charlotte chimes in and defends her actions saying she has Becky’s back and she is not a bad person. Becky knows she is not a bad person but she wants the matches to be on her terms and accuses Charlotte of thinking that she can’t win a match on her own.
Thoughts: This whole storyline is taking the most interesting of turns this week. I don’t know if this is the work of the new booking style of “no heels or faces anymore” or the slow burn of different Divas turning heel and face. I guess the game plan going forward is to increase the tensions between Becky and Charlotte and eventually Charlotte will become a full fledged heel and the Flair Family will run wild and do the whole gimmick of heel debauchery (Just think Evolution from 2002-3 but a LOT more painful to sit through).
And with Team B.A.D.’s taunting and Team Bella losing two matches via very odd means may mean that Team Bella may be turning face and feuding with Team B.A.D.? I really don’t understand the random ways they have Team B.A.D. included in these segments. It’s almost like they want to make them the female New Day without any of the push and actual momentum. It takes matches on Raw, strong segments, and focus, not just random placement. Going back to Charlotte, I kinda like this slow burn into a heel turn. This route makes sense and will makes sense for her to form a cocky character when she says she had to cheat so Becky can win. I guess the missing holes here are where Paige fits here when it goes back to the title picture. I thinking these advances are more promising than the past few months and that’s a good thing. Progress. Sweet, sweet progress.