As everyone is aware, tonight was SmackDown’s move to the Fox Network. With the move came a new set (which is top-notch), and a fresh feeling. Well, the fresh feeling was more of an overall feeling, but certainly not for the women’s division.
It is understood that with a two-hour debut there is a LOT to fit into a show, however, the women could have had way more air time. For a look at what happened during the show, you can check out the Live Coverage post by clicking here.
With the very few women on the show tonight and only one match, let’s get right into the Winners & Losers of the night.
WINNER: Becky Lynch
Lynch was the overall clear winner of the night. She had a huge segment at the beginning of the night with The Rock. She received a tremendous crowd reaction showing that “The Man” is still going strong as the RAW Women’s Champion.
It has been previously rumored that Lynch will be moving to SmackDown from the draft which will start next Friday. If that is the case, she will most likely lose her title to Sasha Banks on Sunday. The one thing confusing about the tag team match from tonight is that neither Lynch nor Banks were involved in the finish yet they are the ones with a match at Hell in a Cell.
LOSER: Bayley
Bayley really got the crappy end of the stick tonight. On a show that is being moved to a major network that she is a champion of, and she loses the match. Losing a match doesn’t necessarily mean someone should come out looking bad. In this case, it made Bayley look bad.
If her tapping out wasn’t bad enough, she doesn’t even have a match for Hell in a Cell on Sunday. Of course, we all know that the match could still be announced up to the moment the event starts, but still. At this moment though we have a SmackDown Women’s Champion who isn’t winning matches and isn’t even on a pay-per-view. It is not an overall good look for the women on the SmackDown roster.
As an additional thought – they had all of these women on the “blue carpet” on the pre-show with not a single one on the actual show. They had Trish and Lita (advertised) to show up and literally be on camera for 10 seconds sitting in the front row of the crowd.
Hopefully next week’s draft may highlight the women more. What were your thoughts on this week’s Friday Night SmackDown debut?
Check back in with Diva Dirt next week for another Live Coverage for the Draft on Friday Night SmackDown and another Winners & Losers installment.
