[media-credit name=”WWE” align=”alignnone” width=”620″]
[/media-credit]
The past few months have been pretty dull for the women of WWE. So with the happenings of this week’s RAW, things have gotten a little more exciting. Unfortunately, this edition of SmackDown doesn’t follow that. But before we get into that let’s remind ourselves of what happened this Thursday…
Dana Brooke and Charlotte are initially greeted backstage by the lovely Renee Young. Before Young can get a word in however, our champion decides to say her words for her by claiming that she was just going to on about how Dana “finally proved herself.” The Women’s Champion goes on to say that pair “dominated” Natalya and Becky Lynch at Money in the Bank, and will do so to anybody else who crosses them. After saying this, Renee asks the ladies how they feel about Sasha Banks after her actions on RAW this past Monday.
Charlotte writes the Boss off and says that the only “statement” that will be made is Banks bowing to the champ as despite her being “the Boss,” Charlotte is “the queen.” Dana then chimes in and says that this means that “playtime is over” and she’s going to finish off what is left of the “carrot top” Becky Lynch.
After the interview is over, Becky enters the ring before a quick look back on the Money In The Bank match as well as the backstage RAW interview is shown. Once Dana enters the ring, the match officially begins.
The match is fairly quick (probably no longer than 2 minutes) and ends after Flair causes a distraction for Lynch and allows the “carrot top” to be rolled up for a 3 count. After the victory, Charlotte gets into the ring to attack Becky, leaving her defenseless and rolling out onto the floor. As the champ begins to gloat about her dominance, the Boss struts down to the ring for a stare off. Charlotte cockily yells “you wanna go?” as the two strip off into their wrestling gear but as soon as Sasha pounces the champ dashes out of the ring to safety. In defense of Flair, Dana tries to attack Sasha but is then sent to the floor with a punch and falls victim to the Bank Statement whilst a smug Banks smiles at the retreating champ.
Thoughts: If you’ve seen any episode of SmackDown for the past month, you won’t need to watch this one to know what happens with the women. Seriously, just watch any episode and replace Natalya with Sasha Banks and you’ll know everything that goes on. It’s the same story of Dana and Charlotte ruling over someone, and then the pair are overtaken by an intervening member of the division, leading to a face off at one point or another. This scenario does nothing to the story other than just remind us that there is a division.
It’s understandable that this is the “B-show” of the weekly programming, but to showcase the same scenario we’ve seen for the past month even in a new storyline is appalling. The story just started and SmackDown is still relying on old writing to keep everything moving. It’d be nice if Sasha were to get on the microphone or maybe even commentary, just so that we could get something refreshing from her point of view. Instead we get a muted challenger doing everything we’ve already seen before, and it feels all too redundant.
The biggest frustration I have with this though, is the fact that the repetitive storytelling is making Charlotte out to be a boring champion. When she finally loses her belt, stories like these will make us look back at her reign in a negative light, despite her being talented and a good champion in her own right. Before Extreme Rules, her reign was great, but now it’s as if everything WWE has planned for her has already been done and they’re just holding out until a certain date before any real change happens.
Despite all of this, I do remain optimistic. Battleground is still a month away, as well as an entire draft, so some shake up is bound to happen. And with how supportive fans are of Banks, even after the recent drought, it’s highly unlikely that her first storyline back will go to waste… Or maybe I’m just being foolish.
How do you feel about this week’s segment? Is the future promising? Let us know your views in the comments below!
