Welcome to this week’s SmackDown Redux! To quote the great philosopher Chris Riddle, we are on the Road to Roadblock to WrestleMania! And in Divaland, it seems a new rivalry has been started with Brie Bella and Lana. And on RAW, Lana hit a Bella Buster on the former Divas Champion after costing her a match against Summer Rae. How will the Bella Dragon rebound from the attack from the Ravishing Russian in a rematch on the Blue Brand? Let’s watch!
Brie Mode hits the arena as we head to a break. Back from break, Summer Rae is already in the ring, and Lana is sitting on the commentator’s desk. We are shown the events from RAW.
The bell rings and the Divas lock up. Summer takes control, pushing Brie to the ropes and kicks her out of the ring. The commentators are asking Lana about her motives and she responds by explaining she was just telling the truth when she shaded D.Bry and American women are inferior to Russian women because they are real women (insert eye roll here) and at the same time, Summer tosses Brie into the barricade and then tosses her into the ring for a nearfall.
Summer follows up with a modified Cobra Clutch, and as Brie tries to fight through it, Summer knees her in the midsection. She then whips Brie into the corner and stomps a few times. She goes to charge and Brie gets her feet up to send Summer flying. Brie uses this moment to hit a dropkick from the second rope.
Brie honors her husband with a set of “YES!” kicks followed by a dropkick. Summer is prone on the bottom rope and goes for the Brie Mode knee but Summer moves out of the way to hit an interesting pinning combination. They trade nearfalls before Brie locks in the YES Lock for the submission victory.
Brie celebrates with YES chants before countering Summer’s post match attack. However, this provides the distraction to allow Lana to hit Brie with a Bella Buster for the second time this week.
Thoughts: This show was kinda meh for me. I’m not a fan of the cycle of rematches that seem endless that the WWE has used as a crutch the past four years. It come across as lazy to me. Literally, the exact same thing happened on SmackDown that happened on RAW. It feels like what happened really did not propel the story forward for me.
But on the action side, it always good to see Summer wrestle. She can switch from the comedic to an aggressive side and I love that about her. It’s great to see how smooth she is in the ring and has shown no signs of ring rust. I love that pinning combination from that headlock that she did to Brie.
Brie provides the perfect foil for Lana because she is universally cheered and respected, more so since FastLane. And Lana for what it’s worth was as good as can be expected in this limited role on SmackDown. I was not a fan of the “real women” line because it’s repetitive as fuck at this point. I like the shade about D.Bry but can we let Brie have a storyline that doesn’t have to be about Daniel or Nikki? I want Lana to have more digs towards Brie personally. Discuss her losing streak, her “relevance”, and other kinds semi-delusional points INCLUDED with the shots towards her family.
What did you think of this week’s SmackDown? Are you Team Lana or Team Brie? Let me know in your comments!
