4 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE Saturday Night's Main Event (18 July - Results & Review)
3. Fatal Influence Bags The Gold
Putting the Women’s Tag-Team Titles on Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid in that opener was the right decision.
Paige and Brie Bella’s own reign was on life support pretty much since the first TV following WrestleMania 42. Hopefully, Paige can spin out of this into some singles matches. Meanwhile, Brie can just keep teaming with Nikki when she returns. That's all the twins will be good for going forwards. Individually, they don't have much steam anyway, and one means less to WWE without the other. Just the way it is.
The match here was SmackDown-level, but that’s not meant as a dig - it's just the kind of thing WWE would normally put on weekly TV if they didn’t have a SNME special to chew through pre-SummerSlam. All 4 women (5 if you include Jacy Jayne around ringside) packed a lot into 7 minutes or so. This fan liked the double teaming of Influence, then their subtle moments of inexperience compared to Paige and Bella too.
That was a nifty way to put across the fact that Influence are fairly new to this and still ironing out the kinks. Jacy's interference by rolling Reid over into a pinning combination on Paige could've been smoother (see the 'Downs' section for a moan about that), but that flub didn't outright bury the result. Henley and Reid are the new champs, and that bodes well for them on SmackDown.
Plus, it means Fatal Influence will be able to show up on Mondays and for NXT duty. The more reps they get, the better. Now, find 'em a worthwhile feud. Tiffany Stratton and Chelsea Green, perhaps?