Tonight (Dec 17th), Charlotte Flair successfully retained the SmackDown Women’s Title against her long-time rival Natalya.
The match held under Lumberjack rules, saw Charlotte become the first to use the stipulation by kicking Natalya to the outside. Naomi landed two kicks to Natalya before tossing Natalya back in the ring.
With the action back in the ring, Charlotte managed to connect a neck breaker and kick that brought Natalya down for a two count. Natalya turned the tides after avoiding a corner attack and consecutively tossing the SmackDown Women’s Champion to the outside, where was repeatedly attacked by six of the seven Lumberjacks.
After the damage was done to Charlotte, Natalya locked in a grounded chin lock and followed up with a low dropkick. Natalya went for a sliding dropkick but missed, landing to the outside instead. Carmella immediately tossed Natalya back in the ring where was hit by multiple chops at the hands of Charlotte.
As Charlotte began to climb a corner, she was yanked off by Natalya who then set Charlotte up for the Sharp Shooter. Charlotte countered out of the Sharp Shooter before the move could be locked in and took Natalya down with a big boot.
Good thing #SDLive #WomensChampion @MsCharlotteWWE has @NaomiWWE watching her back in this #LumberjackMatch at #WWEClash of Champions! pic.twitter.com/yjK1nl0JHb
— WWE (@WWE) December 18, 2017
Charlotte went for the Figure Eight but Natalya was able to kick the champion out the way and to the outside. Soon an all out brawl broke out between the Lumberjacks ending with Naomi taking everyone out with a springboard cross body.
In the midst of the chaos, Tamina landed a Super Kick to Charlotte which was followed up by Natalya locking in the Sharp Shooter. Charlotte managed to reach the ropes to break the hold but was soon pulled to the outside by Lana, which led to another all about brawl between the Lumberjacks
Wait a minute… Is @CarmellaWWE cashing in her #MITB opportunity?!?!? @MsCharlotteWWE #WWEClash #WomensTitle pic.twitter.com/jm2D72Uoqk
— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) December 18, 2017
Throughout the brawl, Carmella tossed Charlotte back in the ring and teased the chance of cashing in her Money in the Bank briefcase. The Riott Squad interrupted this as the brawl between the Lumberjacks continued. This came to an end when Charlotte landed a top rope moonsault that knocked them the entire SmackDown Women’s division down.
ALL HAIL THE ?!@MsCharlotteWWE is STILL your #SDLive #WomensChampion! #WomensTitle #WWEClash pic.twitter.com/sXB6HaUEKF
— WWE (@WWE) December 18, 2017
Natalya avoided the moonsault and tossed Charlotte face first to the ring post. After tossing Charlotte back in to the ring, Natalya went for another Sharp Shooter but Charlotte countered out with the Figure Eight, forcing Natalya to tap out.
— TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) December 18, 2017
In a post match interview, a teary Natalya claimed that the WWE Universe and Women’s Division turned on her back and that she would now turn her back on them.
What did you think of the match? Would you like to have seen Carmella cash in her MITB briefcase? What do you think the future holds for Natalya? Let us know in the comments below!
