5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE SmackDown Live (July 26)
3. The Women’s Division
As beguiling as the Becky vs. Natalya outcome was, the post-match segment really left the WWE Universe scratching their head. Becky was all-set to deliver a post-match interview when the debuting Alexa Bliss interrupted and proclaimed herself the future of women’s wrestling on SmackDown. The returning Naomi soon followed, then Carmella and Eva Marie. Each competitor delivered a couple of banal lines about nothing in-particular (apart from Eva, which, let’s be honest, is probably for the best…) and that was that.
No fight, no confrontation, no budding rivalries: just… nothing.
It was exactly the kind of pointless filler segment that you’d expect from Raw at its absolute worst, not SmackDown. WWE really shouldn’t be scrambling to fill air-time this early into the Brand Split, particularly on the shorter show, but they are, and this segment did absolutely nothing for the SmackDown women.
Becky and Natalya are fantastic wrestlers who’ll be great anchors for the division, while Alexa and Noami are loaded with potential. Carmella is still a little green, and would probably have benefited more had she been drafted to Raw with Enzo and Big Cass, and while Eva isn’t exactly the most natural performer in the world, fans absolutely love to hate her. There’s plenty potential for a decent, competitive Women’s division on SmackDown, but while Raw’s women benefit from well thought-out storylines, SmackDown’s suffer from this kind of lifeless filler.