Have we finally broken the cycle of the rematch? At least on SmackDown we may have. This week’s SmackDown had two matches and neither one was a rematch or multi-woman tag team match thrown together.
The results are as follows:
Natalya & Tamina defeated The Riott Squad
Bianca Belair defeated Carmella
The first match was a non-title match with The Riott Squad wanting to pick up a big win over the champions. This would certainly have put them in position for a title shot if they had won. Commentary was referring to them as the “new” Riott Squad because Tamina was taken out before the start of the match. Unfortunately this was not shown on TV as it happened during the commercial break.
Ruby Riott tried to deliver an arm drag off the top turnbuckle but Tamina wasn’t having it and shoved her to the mat. Outside the ring, Liv Morgan had taken out Natalya. Still on the top turnbuckle, Tamina delivered the Superfly Splash to get the pin on Riott.
After the match there was a WWE Exclusive which shows the anger that has built up in The Riott Squad.
The second match was another fresh match up between SmackDown Women’s Champion Bianca Belair and Carmella in a non-title bout. As the match started, Bayley joined commentary to makes sure she got in all of her heckling sitting right next to her buddy Michael Cole.
Although Carmella came extremely close to pinning the SmackDown Women’s Champion at one point in the match, she went to put Belair away by hitting a facebuster. Belair countered and executed the K.O.D. to get the pin and the win. As Belair wins, Cole calls her “Belanca” in typical botch fashion and Bayley called him out on it. Bayley then gets on the announce desk and laughs at the EST.
On to the Winners & Losers for this week’s SmackDown that is hard to determine. Mainly because we finally have seen something new.
The Riott Squad and Carmella both have only been seen once since WrestleMania. Even with such a small roster, it is insane that half of the roster was still not being utilized. This shows how bad we need call ups. Without new women we are going to start getting stuck into a rematch situation all over again.
Some may say that The Riott Squad were on the “loser” end this week. I see it as a chance for this to actually go somewhere with them and hopefully they will be the ones to take the titles off of Natalya and Tamina when that time eventually comes.
One woman who everyone keeps waiting for is Mia Yim. It was reported weeks ago that she had moved to SmackDown after RETRIBUTION split in March. Then it was rumored that she was supposed to start a rivalry with Carmella but it was cut due to time restraints on a previous episode. Now we are weeks from that and still no Mia. She has not had a match since December against Nikki Cross on Main Event.
Bayley excels on commentary. Having her out there during the Carmella/Belair match was a good decision.
What did you think of this week’s SmackDown? Was it a step in the right direction? Did you have any Winners & Losers? Leave your thoughts below.
