Hey guys! Here’s your last SmackDown Redux of 2015! Hopefully everyone has had the best holidays and are enjoying the beginning of 2016. But for now, let’s look at the last bit of WWE TV of 2015.
Our first helping of Divas was Summer Rae in the corner of her beau Tyler Breeze, who gained a victory over Goldust:
After the match, Summer grabs the microphone and says the two have a major announcement. To commemorate the New Year, the pair has decided to part ways, but first, let them take a selfie. No more Summer Breeze!
Our only Divas match was a tag match pitting Team Bella (Brie Bella & Alicia Fox) against Team B.A.D. (Tamina & Naomi):
The bell rings and Tamina and Brie lock up, but Tamina pushes Brie out of the way. Brie gets up and tries to take down the leg, but Tamina pushes her away again. Brie ducks a clothesline and gets some kicks in and tags in Alicia Fox.
Foxy comes in and nails a few forearms and Tamina blocks and delivers a headbutt, sending the Foxy one into the corner. Tamina charges in, but Alicia jumps to the top rope and flip for a sunset flip for a nearfall. Foxy continues with a series of dropkicks. She tries to whip Tameezus but gets a kick in. Foxy counters a hair wringer but gets a Superkick for her troubles. Tamina only gets two after a cover.
Tamina talks trash to Brie. And the she follows up with a scoop slam and gains a nearfall. Tamina goes for a chin lock, but Foxy powers out with some strikes. Tamina headbutts Foxy again and sends her to the corner. Tamina goes for a splash, but Foxy moves out the way. Tamina tags in Naomi and Foxy tags in Brie!
Brie cuts off Naomi and hits a dropkick off the second rope. Brie hits some Daniel Bryan kicks to the chest. She missed the head kick and then ducks a Rear View attempt. She goes for the Bella Buster but then goes for the knee to the ropes to Tamina, who pushed Naomi out of the way. Naomi takes advantage and tries to drive Brie’s head into the corner but gets countered. Brie hits the Bella Buster and the three count for the win!
On SmackDown Fallout, Alicia and Brie looked back at their win and forward to what 2016 has in store for them:
Thoughts: What an interesting way to end 2015. Some things were subtle, somethings were major. Firstly, the tag match was nothing special but I noticed two major things from that four minutes.
Thing #1: Team Bella is eventually going to turn face.
The match dynamic had Team Bella working as faces. There was not Brie doing any “Loser” hand signals. She smiled to the crowd and tried to pump of the crowd for her hot tag. Foxy did a great job of being whipped around by Tamina and really doing the best job I’ve seen all year of actually selling Tamina’s strength (especially the headbutts). With Nikki’s DOTY Slammy speech and these performances, it will be clear that Team Bella will be on the babyface side of things in 2016, probably as soon as Nikki makes her very anticipated return.
Thing #2: Naomi was barely in this match.
Is this apart of some punishment? Why was it that Naomi did not get any moves of offense in, and then as the fresh tag partner, eat the pin? This made no sense. It says a lot about the booking of Naomi. A lot of it makes no sense. Things like this in matches make me as a fan think more of what’s going on behind the scenes than what I’m supposed to be paying attention to: the match. Hopefully, this strange booking is not a sign of things to come for Naomi in 2016.
And then we had the heartbreak of the end of Summer Breeze. 2015 was the tale of Summer Rae turning things that sucked into compelling and riveting television. I’m not sure why these two are over, but hopefully 2016 is the year Summer Rae FINALLY gets a role she can sink her teeth into and shine regardless of whatever happens with other people. I liked that the split was amicable and nice. But fingers crossed that Summer SLAYS us even harder in 2016 and proves why she is one of the most versatile and dynamic Divas in the WWE.
