5 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE Smackdown Live (Aug 23)

7. Up - Gold Beckons

Smackdown Tag Titles
WWE.com

The first match on Smackdown pitted two of the show's women - and by extension, two of the competitors in Backlash's six-pack challenge for the Women's Title - against one another, as Becky Lynch took on Alexa Bliss.

The bout wasn't anything special - though it was good for a short match - but what was more notable was the way the competition was put over. As Becky and Bliss fought, Natalya and Naomi were on guest commentary. It was made clear just how important the upcoming title match would be - Nattie and Naomi spoke about how much they wanted the belt, while Becky and Bliss showed it.

So yes, the title may be the fourth title with the same shape and giant WWE logo, but it's off to a decent start. Becky ended up making Bliss submit to the Dis-arm-her, establishing her as an early favorite to be crowned the inaugural champion.

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