5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE SmackDown Live (Oct 18)
2. Winner: Alexa Bliss
It says a lot about last night’s SmackDown that the winner of a bang average first-hour match came away with one of the show’s biggest momentum boosts, but there were few big steps forward last night. Alexa Bliss took a disappointing loss to Naomi at No Mercy after entering the show thinking she’d face Becky Lynch for the Women’s Championship, but she rendered that match’s outcome null and void last night.
Alexa and Naomi were given close to 11 minutes to impress. They didn’t exactly blow the roof off, and the match visibly slowed down towards the middle, but there was little wrong with it as a whole. Naomi exhibited some good babyface fire, Alexa’s character work remains top notch, and she was able to put Naomi away after dumping her from the top rope and hitting Twisted Bliss.
Post-match, Alexa promised that Becky Lynch’s fairytale was over, and that she was taking the title in three weeks. SmackDown definitely misses Becky’s on-air presence, but Alexa is doing a decent job of building towards the match on her own. With Natalya out of the title picture and Carmella still developing, Bliss stands tall as the division’s alpha heel, and while it might be too early to put the title around her waist, she’s making few bad moves at this stage.