8 Ups And 12 Downs From WWE Royal Rumble 2021

7. Perfectly Acceptable Title Match

sasha banks carmella
WWE.com

Sometimes you have different expectations for matches when you see who is competing. So when you see Carmella in a PPV match, you aren’t expecting a classic, but if you get a decent bout, you’re happy enough.

That’s why Mella’s SmackDown Women’s Championship match against Sasha Banks was a pleasant surprise. It wasn’t great, but it was perfectly competent, straightforward and fun. They stayed within their range and strung together enough good matches to work. Few were buying Carmella walking out of the Royal Rumble with the title, but she had a couple nice moments, including blocking a frogsplash with her knees and then locking in the Code of Silence.

Banks pulled together another solid title defense, landing her trademark moves and even taking out Reginald in the process before catching Carmella off-guard and locking in the Banks Statement for the tap-out.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.