SmackDown Live this week featured the “same thing, different day” mentality. The show featured one women’s match and it was a triple threat to determine the No. 1 contender for Bayley‘s Smackdown Women’s Championship. The match came to fruition during Alexa Bliss‘ wild card appearance with her “A Moment of Bliss” segment where Bayley was her guest.
The match featured Charlotte Flair vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Carmella. All three women are former SmackDown Women Champions battling it out to win gold again. Yes, Flair is trying to win gold again. While we have talent that hasn’t been seen since WrestleMania, we have three women who have had their time with the title.
Carmella hasn’t had a title in almost a year and has only held it once. So that’s understandable. Bliss has been struggling with injuries and hasn’t had a title for a year. This one could slightly be argued depending on which side you want to be on. Flair? She can certainly start taking a back seat and allow others to shine for a moment. She doesn’t always need to be floating around a title that she will just lose shortly after she wins it.
The match itself could arguably be defined as solid. It wasn’t earth-shattering, but far better than the matches we have seen as of late.
Let’s dive right into the winners and losers of the night.
WINNER: Alexa Bliss
Alexa Bliss is an obvious winner of the night. She is officially the next challenger for Bayley’s title. This kind of takes away from her and Nikki Cross possibly facing The IIconics for the Women’s Tag Team Championships. Many people may want Bliss nowhere near a title, but at least with the tag titles, it would create a new tag team. The idea of tag teams in the women’s division continues to be obsolete.
WINNERS: Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose
Team Fire and Desire fall into the win column this week. They were able to successfully cost Carmella her chance to become Bayley’s next challenger. This does continue the feud between them and Carmella. It is a lackluster storyline, but a storyline nonetheless.
What is confusing is the placement of the storyline. They have a side one happening with Ember Moon. In a WWE Exclusive, Moon rips up Mandy Rose’s magazine. This is their second encounter backstage recently. Moon and Carmella teaming up will probably be the outcome of this.
LOSER: Charlotte Flair
On the basis of her not becoming No. 1 contender justifies her on the loser list this week. Carmella took the pin, but it seems unfair to list her as a loser. She shined through the match and continues to put on stellar work with R-Truth. Pulling double duty alone makes Carmella stay off the list. Flair will probably use the “I wasn’t the one pinned” argument as a result. She will launch her way into a title match yet again soon enough. It will happen at least by the SummerSlam pay-per-view.
Final Thoughts: Can we please have other women on one of these WWE shows? Just one at least? It isn’t even an issue that they are using the ones they are, they just need to do more. Bayley even mentioned on her Twitter prior to SmackDown she rather defend her title against fresh faces. Whether her tweet was her gimmick or not, she has a point. Carmella would be the preferred winner of the match tonight.
What did you think of this weeks SmackDown? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!
Check back with Diva Dirt for future Winners & Losers.
