Every WWE Smackdown Women's Title Reign Ranked From Worst To Best

17. Carmella: 10 April 2018 - 19 August 2018

It might seem unfair to rank Carmella’s months-long reign as worse than several shorter reigns. But in terms of match quality and impact on the division, her four months as Smackdown's Women's Champion was a nightmare, one that damaged the aura of one of the best wrestlers in the company and didn’t even make her feel important in her own title loss.

Her successful cash in on Charlotte Flair the Smackdown after WrestleMania felt like a terrible decision at the time, especially since Charlotte had just controversially ended the undefeated streak of Asuka. Worse was Carmella’s subsequent victory over Flair at that month’s notorious Backlash event, cementing Charlotte’s WrestleMania win as a pointless decision. If she had dropped the belt to Asuka at the Money in the Bank or Extreme Rules events, her reign would have been remembered as a mediocre one, but not unforgivably terrible.

While this wasn’t the fault of either woman, the booking of her matches against Asuka made the 'Empress of Tomorrow' look stupid, and amplified the damage that her loss to Charlotte did. It was a lazy way to book a Women's Title feud, gave both her and a returning James Ellsworth huge go-away heat, and ensured that Asuka didn’t recover momentum until her title win at TLC 2018. Her work in ring didn’t start improving until her final match as champion, where she was undermined by the Charlotte/Becky angle. It’s unfortunate that her only reign was such a failure.