7 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE SmackDown (24 April - Results & Review)

2. Fatal Influence Debuts

Fatal Influence Jacy Jayne Fallon Henley Lainey Reid WWE SmackDown
WWE.com

Nick Aldis must've got on the blower to Adam Pearce and asked to borrow Dominik Mysterio's old heat-seeking machine from Raw, because the live crowd were on for Fatal Influence's debut and Jacy Jayne's duelling promo opposite Rhea Ripley. Firstly, Jayne and her pals Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid took their main roster bow by wrecking a match pitting Paige and Brie Bella vs. Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss.

That was a vehicle to introduce Jayne and the rest of Fatal Influence to SmackDown. Can’t say fairer than that. Jacy has deserved this debut for a while, but seeing Reid and Henley come with her is another positive, especially when the group appears to be gunning for the Women’s Tag-Team Titles as well as singles gold.

Again, Influence got great heat from the live crowd, who chanted “YOU SUCK” and jeered hard. It's all about how WWE follows up on this, of course, but it was a strong debut and one of the strongest for an NXT act in a while. Influence should be really proud of that, and chuffed that all of them got to do some talking during the bit with Ripley later on.

Henley and Reid coming after Paige and Brie sounds good, as does seeing the newcomers match up vs. Flair and Bliss. That babyface pairing will almost definitely campaign for another title shot after all of this, which is cool. This is the best use of workers like Charlotte, Alexa, Paige and Brie imaginable.

WWE is dead set on clearing out and building towards the future.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.