Instead of waiting for the TLC pay-per-view event a week from Sunday, Carmella made her return to the ring on this week’s SmackDown. This was her first match since April back when she took on Mandy Rose. She faced Sasha Banks this week in the main event for the SmackDown Women’s Title. A title she will be facing Banks for at the TLC event.
Before we get into how all of that went down, let’s discuss the “mystery” partner for Billie Kay – which was far from a mystery. As expected, WWE decided to do the most predictable thing and put Natalya with Kay to face The Riott Squad. If you didn’t know, last week on Talking Smack, Kay interrupted Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan‘s time on the show. They challenged her to a match this week and asked her to find a partner.
So for a week, people either forgot this was going to happen, or they predicted the most common thing to take place. The main two names that were floating around were Tamina or Natalya. We could have also seen Bayley, but she is in a feud that is brewing with Bianca Belair. This would have been the perfect time to introduce some from NXT.
The rumors of Vanessa Borne and Santana Garrett‘s call-ups that never took place over the summer could have happened. Or, I don’t know…maybe the several women in NXT that they could move over to help give the blue brand more depth. These people could have been Mercedes Martinez, Aliyah & Robert Stone, even Kacy Catanzaro & Kayden Carter could have been brought up to actually give a team for The Riott Squad to feud with. Regardless, we saw perhaps the least exciting “surprise.”
The Riott Squad defeated Billie Kay & Natalya
The Riott Squad was able to pick up the win after Natalya was “hit” by accident from Kay on the apron. Riott and Morgan used their teamwork to put Kay down from the Facebreaker from Morgan into the Riott Kick from Riott. Riott got the pin.
The Riott Squad had a Network Exclusive after their win. They were questioned on if perhaps Kay’s resume would work in joining the squad. They agreed that they don’t really care about her resume and they already had a third member who is now away being a mother.
The break up of The IIconics continues to be founded as one of the dumbest moves of 2020. Both Kay and Peyton Royce could be good on their own, but trying to put them with other people is the biggest head scratcher.
Before we get into the main event, there was a backstage segment between Bianca Belair and Bayley. As mentioned earlier, their feud continues to brew and this time, Belair brought the receipts. No, seriously…she brought the literal receipts.
She mocks Bayley by letting all the facts fall. Belair is the one who defeated Natalya, was the last woman standing at Survivor Series for the SmackDown roster, and she is the strongEST, roughEST….as Bayley walks off.
Now we have the main event, which originally started the show as a contract signing for TLC between the champion Banks & Carmella. It didn’t quite happen the way that the champion wanted it to go as Carmella would not make her way to the ring and the contract itself was missing.
Carmella had the contract with her before she had it hand-delivered by her “messenger boy”. Banks would then challenge her to face for the title tonight in the main event which was made official by Adam Pearce.
Carmella defeated Sasha Banks via disqualification – SmackDown Women’s Title Match
We finally get to see the full reinvention of Carmella after several months with this new “Untouchable” gimmick. I personally enjoyed it. Good entrance, the music fits her (more than most of the newer music), it was a good thing to repackage her. There is a lot of criticism about it by some who say that they don’t see a huge difference but I am willing to give her a shot to come into the character.
As for the match, I thought it was a great first match between the two. A little leery of them doing it before TLC but it was better than them attacking each other from behind for another two episodes. Carmella had her assistant at ringside along with several bottles of champagne to celebrate with when she wins.
She would end up winning the match but not the title as the match was called due to the disqualification by Banks. Banks would erupt and not break away from the corner which made the official call for the bell after she wouldn’t break for the count of five. What prompted this was the assistant to Carmella who got involved. He did so after Banks countered the Code of Silence into the Bank Statment.
After the match, Carmella would wreak havoc on Banks and do so thanks to her champagne at ringside. After dumping Banks’ head into the bucket of ice, Carmella took a champagne bottle and smash it over the lower back of the champion. The show would end with Carmella spraying The Boss with champagne and taunting her.
Let’s get into the Winners & Losers which I feel are pretty straight forward this week:
WINNER: Carmella
Doing this match actually made me excited for their match at TLC. I would assume with how the attack went down afterward we may actually get a stipulation still added for it, but that remains to be seen. I think Carmella held her own. Of course, Sasha has a way to make her opponents shine and is amazing at selling, but Carmella did great after not being in the ring since April.
I think there could be some improvement for the character though and it could use more depth. Mainly to separate her from what she is known for. Sasha could bring that out of her.
WINNER: Sasha Banks
She may have ended the show laid out on the floor in champagne but she is the queen of selling. If they do add a stipulation to their TLC match, which they should, I am excited to see it. I feel that she plays off well with Carmella as well, which is surprising because they haven’t had a one-on-one match televised before.
LOSER: Billie Kay
This whole mystery partner thing did nothing for her. Please do something with her. She is hilarious and although I do chuckle at the resume stuff, there needs to be way more. Just put The IIconics back together. Thank you.
What did you think of this week’s SmackDown? Who were your Winners & Losers? Leave your thoughts below.
