8 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE SmackDown (16 Jan - Results & Review)

Ups...

8. Teased Tension & A Fun Match

Alexa Bliss quizzed Charlotte Flair on her absence last week, then pointed out that she got her butt kicked by practically every single one of their enemies. There was some brief tension, but it didn’t really come out during their match vs. Kiana James and Giulia. Also, it was a smart move to have James take the fall, but the actual match itself was well-formatted and well-worked. It's nice to see Kiana get this amount of ring time.

Sadly, fans just don’t react to Giulia’s entrance or much of what she does, so WWE need to work on that pronto if they’re keen on persisting with her a heel who’s a threat to the bigger stars in the division, but this was a decent little segment-into-match combo. No-one should have any issues with Nia Jax and Lash Legend bringing the pain post-match either, because it reflects the competitive women’s tag division WWE’s announcers harp on about.

The real MVP of this situation was Kiana, and that's cool. It's something different. She's usually background noise to Giulia, but James looked the stronger character opposite Flair and Bliss. She can be proud of that, and it bodes well for Kiana once her union with the reigning Women's United States Champion inevitably ends.

Finally, it's lovely that WWE seem keen to show patience with something else that inevitable. There'd be no call for splitting Charlotte and Alexa right now. They've got something nifty going on, and both would be stranded without the other at state of play in January 2026. Give 'em more solid matches like this, please.