6 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (8 May - Results & Review)

2. A Fun 6-Woman Tag

Fatal Influence vs. Rhea Ripley, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss was a good watch and is well worth your time even if you don't typically sit down with a cuppa to watch SmackDown.

Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid are a high energy act who are already smashing it on the main roster after leaping up from NXT, and their heel antics opposite 3 popular babyfaces went over well with the live crowd. To that point, it certainly helps that the babyface trio are all over in their own right, and that Influence have made such a strong start on SmackDown. They're coming across as a proper threat.

Giving Jacy’s crew the win was the right call too. The stronger WWE makes Influence seem, the better, and it's nice that neither Henley nor Reid are out there looking like mere backups to Jacy. If agents/producers can iron out some of the flubs and nervousness in Fallon and Lainey on the mic, then we could be looking at one of the best female stables to hit Raw or SmackDown. That's how well they're doing thus far.

Serious kudos has to go to veterans like Bliss, Flair and Ripley for doing everything in their power to make Fatal Influence look like equals too. Charlotte, in particular, once had a tendency to swallow up newer acts or make them seem less-than, but she seems much more comfortable in her own skin these days. Some organically positive responses from the fans (for maybe the first time in her entire career) has helped with that.

Good match.