11 Ups & 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (3 Sept)

8. Cross & Bliss Fall

Sonya Deville Nikki Cross
WWE.com

WWE's trope of having champions lose non-title matches to set up a title fight gets tiresome and often makes the belt-holders look weak. This column criticizes it often but just like anything else in this sport, context is king.

Having Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss lose to a thrown-together team of, say, Ember Moon and Lana wouldn't have worked here. Falling to Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose does work. While Bliss is the most tenured and decorated main roster wrestler of the four, her and Cross have only been a partnership for a few months, while Fire and Desire have been best friends for years. Thus, it's believable that their superior chemistry and understanding could lead them to victory over the champions.

The match itself was solid enough. It wasn't anything out of this world, but didn't need to be, and Sonya and Mandy wrapped it up when Deville got her knees up for Twisted Bliss before her and Rose went high and low with a jumping knee/sliding tackle for the win.

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Channel Manager
Channel Manager

Andy has been with WhatCulture for eight years and is currently WhatCulture's Wrestling Channel Manager. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.