As SummerSlam creeps closer in just under two weeks the focus is surrounding the women’s matches for the event. The match on SmackDown this week was tag team action between the SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley and Ember Moon facing Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross.
The match culminated with Moon in the ring after a tag by her partner. She delivered an enziguri to Bliss knocking her in the corner. She then takes out Cross with an Eclipse. Bliss drives Moon into the ring post and knocks Bayley off the ring apron to make sure she would no longer be a factor. Twisted Bliss is hit on Moon followed by the pin. Bliss picks up the win for her team.
After the match, Bayley helped Moon up off the mat. She hit the Bayley to Belly on her to receive some retribution from last week.
As reported earlier, Trish Stratus vs. Charlotte Flair has been made official during the King’s Court segment with Jerry Lawler. In this dream match announcement, Flair taunted Stratus to accept her challenge. The majority of the taunting was the fact that the seven-time Women’s Champion is a mother and she is using that as an excuse to not get back into the ring.
.@MsCharlotteWWE wants @trishstratuscom at Summer Slam.@MsCharlotteWWE's GOT @trishstratuscom at Summer Slam! pic.twitter.com/jlEQVrl1xC
— TDE Wrestling (@tde_wrestling) July 31, 2019
Once Stratus had heard enough she agreed to the match and summed it up with, “to be the woman, you got to beat the woman.” If Flair wants to be the self-proclaimed best woman wrestler of any era, she has to take down a trailblazer to earn that title.
As mentioned last week, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville were supposed to have a match against The IIconics this week. There was some confusion between Rose and Deville in their segment on if the match would be a title match. It was confirmed later by Rose that if they defeated the Women’s Tag Team Champions then they would get a title match. This match was bumped from this week’s SmackDown and the women’s tag team division keeps getting overlooked.
In a WWE Exclusive, it is explained that Billie Kay is “sick” again due to a “puppy fever.” As a result, she could not compete this week as originally planned. The Kabuki Warriors and Paige appear to argue their case.
Paige argued that her team deserves to have the title match with The IIconics instead of Fire and Desire. The reasoning is because The IIconics retained their titles by being counted out on purpose from their prior encounter with The Kabuki Warriors.
The exclusive ended without a clear picture as usual for the tag team division and titles. It was previously rumored that these three teams will have a triple-threat match at SummerSlam. If this does occur it probably will be on the Kick-Off show.
Let’s discuss the Winners and Losers of the week.
WINNER: Charlotte Flair
Charlotte Flair is the winner for the week. She got her match at SummerSlam confirmed. The match is against a Hall of Famer and possibly a higher profiled match than any other women’s match on the upcoming card.
Like it or not, Flair facing Stratus is going to be one of the biggest matches at the biggest event of the summer. The focus continues to be on her without even being in the title picture.
LOSER: Ember Moon
There was simply no reason for Ember Moon, the number one contender, to lose to Alexa Bliss weeks away from her title match. Bliss being in this match or on SmackDown wasn’t needed. This does absolutely nothing for Ember’s character to have her lose to Bayley’s former opponent that she has moved on from.
They need to allow Ember to go full heel and make this upcoming championship match worth watching. The match itself on paper will be good. The build-up and storyline is lacking.
LOSERS: The IIconics and Fire & Desire
They had their match bumped and were resorted to a WWE Exclusive. They couldn’t even have that segment on the actual show.
The women’s tag team division is non-existant. These two teams have huge potential to put on quality tag team matches for titles that were once heavily pushed. For whatever reason, the tag titles haven’t been a priority since WrestleMania. It doesn’t appear to be getting better anytime soon.
What are your thoughts on SmackDown this week? Who were your Winners and Losers? Discuss the show in the comment section!!
