6 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE SmackDown (21 Mar - Results & Review)

1. Triple H Picks Another Duff Challenger

Zelina Vega entered to almost literally no noise from the Italian fans. Maybe that has something to do with some of the utterly terrible entrance tracks WWE has been giving wrestlers lately, but perhaps that's being too charitable to Zelina; the ex-LWO member (assuming that's yesterday's news, at least) can be a plucky babyface, but what is up with this trend of picking poor challengers for Chelsea Green? She deserves better than this phoned in tripe.

Surely there are better opponents she could be working with?! WWE aren’t making it easy on the Women’s US Champ. First, she was handed Michin for months in a feud that trundled along, and now it's this. To that point, the match between Vega and Piper Niven was slow and uninspiring, but that’s mainly due to Zelina being a puzzling choice for this role in 2025.

The way she’s done next to nothing of note for a long, long time then suddenly the writing team’s content to view her as a title challenger is too latter day Vince McMahon for this fan’s liking. McMahon used to to that sort of ice cold to "red hot" trope all the time, and it got wearying. Triple H shouldn't be following in his bland booking footsteps there.

For what it's worth, a numbers game beat Zelina here to give Piper the win, but one can see a title challenge coming regardless. After all, if you ask WWE's writing team, there's nothing else worthwhile for Chelsea to do. They better not end up botching her title reign. If it succeeds, then it's in spite of those penning her first two rivalries.