7 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (July 9)

5. All WWE Could Do

Bayley's injury forced WWE to think on their feet, and that meant a new challenger had to be established for Bianca Belair. To their credit, the company didn't f*ck around too much. They had Sonya Deville announce Carmella as Bayley's replacement, then they whipped the match off MITB and onto next week's SmackDown.

Good call.

That also gave the writers a reason to push Liv Morgan into the women's ladder match. Better yet, they didn't have to work too hard to convince viewers that this made sense. Liv had beaten 'Mella a few times anyway. So, to recap, Sonya got to do her nepotism thing, a heel stepped up to the challenger role and Morgan got her spot.

All's well that ends well, basically. Is Carmella the perfect replacement? No, but WWE's hands were tied here. They had to do something, and it's always preferable to put a heel in there as opposed to some crummy face vs. face situation.