This week’s Friday Night SmackDown certainly had its moments for the women’s division. Coming off a Survivor Series loss, SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley and Sasha Banks addressed their fellow colleagues in disgust. The one to answer their tirade was Lacey Evans.
The only match of this week’s show was between Sonya Deville and Nikki Cross. The match itself was short but with Cross pulling off a victory it led to the return of Alexa Bliss.
For the full rundown of the show, you can head over to the live coverage that you can view here.
Here are the Winners & Losers from this week’s SmackDown:
WINNER: Alexa Bliss
Alexa Bliss made her return and although it wasn’t entirely a surprise it puts her as a big win. Bliss is scheduled to be in a Fatal 4-way this weekend at Starrcade on Sunday, so her reemergence was expected. She was last seen almost two months ago at Hell in a Cell and has been nursing a shoulder injury since.
WINNER: Lacey Evans
Lacey Evans received the biggest win of the week. Although it hasn’t been confirmed that she is Bayley’s next challenger for the title it can be assumed. The face turn for her still remains to be seen on how good it will work, but it is a start. She received a decent reaction from the crowd as well.
Although personally, Evans wouldn’t be my first choice for the next opponent for Bayley, at least it isn’t the same Nikki Cross/Alexa Bliss feud that has been done way too much. More than likely it is only going to be a temporary feud as I don’t see Bayley losing the title until at least WrestleMania.
LOSER: Bayley
Bayley’s heel persona fell big this week. Generally, I feel like her heel turn has been working even if it is a little lackluster. This week however was not a good way to build the champion up especially after a loss at Survivor Series.
After Lacey took down Sasha Banks her bestie simply stood there. It is not a good look for the SmackDown women’s division to have a champion who doesn’t have that fire. She should have won at Survivor Series in order to further her character development.
Final Thoughts:
Sasha Banks could use her own feud and break away some from Bayley. It looks like this could be Carmella. And if nothing comes from this, it should.
I am not opposed to Lacey being Bayley’s next opponent, especially as it may just be a one-off to get to the Royal Rumble. However, this was the perfect time to give Dana Brooke her moment. With her Twitter romance with Batista, Brooke is the talk of wrestling social media right now.
They could have built off of this and had Brooke as the one to come out to confront Bayley and Sasha instead of Lacey. Instead, she was just provided with a backstage segment with Drake Maverick trying to give her a little smoochy smooch. Missed opportunity and we all know Dana loves her opportunities.
What were your thoughts on this week’s SmackDown? Who were your Winners & Losers? Discuss this week’s show and developments in the comment section below.