5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (10 Oct - Results & Review)

Downs...

3. There’s Zero Tension

There was nothing technically wrong with the tag bout pitting Tiffany Stratton and Stephanie Vaquer vs. Kiana James and Giulia, but the story framing it just isn’t interesting enough. There’s been next to no beef between Tiffany and Steph heading into Crown Jewel, and there was no call for them teaming together on SmackDown 24 hours before working against one another.

Wade Barrett came up with whopper of the month when he said that this was “probably the biggest match of their careers”. Behave, sir. Sure, he has to hype up matches and is only doing his job, but nobody’s buying that line. Fingers crossed WWE has something waiting on the backside after Saturday for both top female champs, because they deserve more than this half-baked stuff.

There was no real tension between them before, during or even after the match, so what was the point of this? These ‘Champ vs. Champ’ matches are a hard sell. Simply seeing Stratton and Vaquer hoist respective belts high above their heads in front of the Crown Jewel Title isn't enough. It really, really isn't.

Hey, at least the match will be good once the bell rings. It better be, because this build has sucked.

Giulia looked like a lesser star whether she was mixing it with Stephanie or Tiffany too. She should be kinda worried by that, and even more so by the fact that it was Kiana who looked most impressive on the heel squad. The writing team have their work cut out for them to make Giulia's Women's United States Title reign memorable, and this proved it.