11 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Dec 4)

8. Huge Win For Deville & Rose

Mandy Rose Asuka
WWE.com

As weird as it is that WWE decided to present Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville as the united front after teasing their split throughout the past month or so, their tag bout with Asuka and Charlotte Flair hit the mark.

The villains looked good. Sonya is developing particularly quickly, but Mandy is underrated too, with her flying knee strike looking nastier every time she hits it. They worked was as a tandem and the babyfaces sold for them, proving WWE's decision to hand the ex-Absolution duo increased opportunities justified.

Understandably, the story revolved around Charlotte and Asuka. They held it together early on, but their relationship disintegrated towards the end, with the increasingly c*nty Flair booting her partner off the apron at one point. This led to 'The Empress' retaliating by kicking Charlotte in the head, allowing Deville to score an opportunistic pinfall on 11 minutes.

This was the right route to take, and the visual of Sonya pinning a decorated former champion gives the writers something to work with. It was a decent rub for her and Mandy, while Asuka and Charlotte (who'll wrestle next week and at TLC), shouldn't be able to cooperate with each other, particularly at another team's expense.

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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.