10 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE Backlash 2018
8. Winner: Carmella
The amount of trust management has in Carmella to be a long-term women's champion was on display Sunday during her SmackDown Women's Championship defense against Charlotte.
Not only was she allowed to get some considerable offense in on The Queen, she would eventually take advantage of a momentary opening and pin the former titleholder clean in the center of the ring.
The win not only lent credibility to Carmella's reign as champion, it earned her legitimacy as a wrestler. Early in the match, it appeared as though WWE would take the Honky Tonk Man approach with The Princess of Staten Island.
She avoided contact, rolled to the outside of the ring and teased leaving with her title, content to retain via countout.
Instead, she seized control, survived a comeback and retained her title.
On a show featuring heels like Big Cass, Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, it was Carmella who was booked the best and strongest.
Whether WWE Creative can continue building on the momentum Carmella has after the show, or if she will descend into the formulaic booking that adversely affects most heels in WWE, remains to be seen.