10 Ups And 8 Downs From WWE SummerSlam 2016

7. SmackDown Women Schmozz

Anyone else notice how the women’s and tag matches for SmackDown consisted of forced teams to cram the entire divisions into two matches? The women were forced into a six-woman tag match with no real purpose.

The big story here was that Eva Marie was in reality suspended for a wellness policy violation, and it was going to be interesting to see how she was written out. They went through her entire intro, then announced she was suffering from exhaustion, anxiety and stress due to hostile fans, and she’d be taking a vacation in the British Isles. Cute.

She was replaced by a returning Nikki Bella, giving the match some clout… and telegraphing the end of the bout as well. The match itself was kind of a jumbled mess, with only Becky Lynch getting a big reaction from fans. Nikki won by hitting her new finisher, the TKO, on Carmella.

Let’s be honest: Aside from Becky, Natalya and Bella, is there anyone who you’d trust with a new women’s title? Naomi has athleticism but just can’t seem to click. Alexa Bliss and Carmella are still raw and learning, though Bliss has potential. This match just highlighted those shortcomings, which hopefully will be ironed out in the coming weeks.