3 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Jan 24)

1. A Three-Week Feud

Naomi Smackdown
WWE.com

Naomi came out to the ring for Smackdown's penultimate match, and it was her first time appearing on the show since suffering an ankle injury two months ago. She was supposed to take on Natalya, but the Queen of Harts was put out of action when Nikki Bella attacked her backstage (it was retaliation for Nattie's attack on Bella in the parking lot prior to the show).

Naomi wasn't willing to leave without an opponent, so she made an open challenge - which was answered by Alexa Bliss. Unfortunately, the Smackdown Women's Champion was there to fight - she simply insulted Naomi, then headed to the back.

It looks like this is going to be Bliss's next feud, but this has to be the worst time for Naomi to start a program with the champion. They'll be in a six-woman tag match at the Royal Rumble, and then they'll probably have a showdown at Elimination Chamber - which is two weeks later. It looks like it's going to be a rushed program that does Naomi no favors, and she deserves better. Would it be so bad to stretch it out to WrestleMania and give her a huge win?

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013