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On this week’s edition of Thursday Night SmackDown we see the Lass Kicker Becky Lynch take on the Women’s champion Charlotte with the Predator Dana Brooke watching the entire time. Before we discuss the quality of tonight’s actions, let’s quickly recap what actually happened!
Our first sighting is our one and only in-ring contest, and it is a singles match between Becky Lynch and Charlotte (with Dana Brooke in the champ’s corner). The match lasts for a few minutes and consists of a few back and forth movements. After the two battle it out for a bit, Charlotte finds herself in trouble as she’s on the verge of tapping to the Dis-arm-her. Fortunately for our Women’s champion, Brooke is by her side and grabs her to stop her from a humiliating tap out. Though, this does lead to a disgruntled Becky Lynch taking home the win.
Despite losing the match we see Brooke and Flair trying to leave the ring with some form of dignity intact, but the pair are quickly interrupted by Natalya making her way down the ramp to stop their party. Dana and Charlotte are quickly thrown into the ring and then receive a quick beat down before retreating over the barricade, with the championship held over Flair’s head in an attempt to look unbothered by her enemies.
After the match a SmackDown Fallout video of Dana and Charlotte being interviewed by Tom Phillips takes place. In the video Charlotte claims that having Dana by her side is no big deal as she is just an “accomplice.” The champ then tells Becky to “cry [her] a river” and walks away.
Lana then quickly graces our screens as she introduced her fiancé Rusev as he battled The All-American American Jack Swagger. Lana stands very still outside of the ring as Rusev makes Swagger submit to the Accolade, and holds on for longer than he should. Then we see the crowd favourite Titus O’Neil rush to the ring and leave Rusev and Lana running for safety.
Thoughts: Flair and Lynch have had some great battles over the past year or so that truly define them as wrestlers. And that’s what make this match so disappointing. It’s foolish to expect a five star match on this show, but when looking at this week’s performance from a creative standpoint, it’s difficult to not be upset. Both Charlotte and Becky are capable of so much more than what we get, yet what we get is pretty much a repeat of the past two week’s worth of this feud.
It may be difficult at times to keep feuds fresh, especially when the concept is as simple as the one we have, but repeating the storyline in one night isn’t the best way to go about this. If WWE want its audience to take the division seriously, waiting for the inevitable Sasha Banks reign isn’t going to solve anything. What we need is to see fresh storylines each time the women show up on screen, and not redundant plots that reached their expiry date the last few times we saw them.
This week’s match almost adds nothing to the overall plot, and with the fact that RAW was also pretty much a non-event, this feud is proving to be pretty stale already. I don’t want to go on another rant like I did last time, but going another week with no improvement for the main (and only) female storyline is frustrating, to say the least.
We should see these women on the mic, in backstage segments, and in matches that last longer than five minutes. Anything that isn’t what we’ve seen these past few weeks would be great at this point.
What makes this frustrating is that it is clear that WWE are running out of ideas for Charlotte’s reign, and are clearly stretching for something. Her reign as a champion (though this is still technically her second reign) has lasted since September, so it has clearly gone on for an extensive period of time. And with the fact that we’re literally the same situation repeated on multiple shows, is there really a point of this reign at this point? It may be time for Charlotte to drop the belt to another woman, or she may just end up peaking too early.
How do you find this week’s addition of SmackDown? Should the women’s feud be altered? Let us know your views in the comments below!
