By Graham "GSM" Matthews SmackDown General Manager Called Out Daniel Bryan It is always nice to see Raw's top-tier storylines carried over to SmackDown, especially when Bryan is involved. It makes the blue brand feel important, although sometimes overexposure can hinder a storyline. Regardless, both Vickie and Bryan played their respective roles well here, which helped hype the gauntlet match for later in the night. Divas Champion AJ Lee def. Naomi (Non-title) These two always work well together and this match was no expection. Namoi is still somewhat green in the ring, but her amazing athletic abilities more than make up for it. AJ always seems to bring the best out of Naomi, thus making for a fun match in the process. Natalya's logic on commentary was a bit flawed when she said AJ resorts to dirty tactics to win matches despite the fact she defeated Naomi clean on this show. Nonetheless, the eventual AJ vs. Natalya matchup for the title should be a good one.
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By Graham "GSM" Matthews Magnus Called Out EGO I'm never usually a fan of promos opening up the show, but this was a rare exception. It was cool to see Mangus featured prominently for once, especially following his strong showing against AJ Styles in the finals of the Bound For Glory Series last week. He kept his short and sweet before brawling with EGO, which felt rushed a bit. However, the save from Sting and Samoa Joe set up the six-man tag team match for later in the show nicely. Jeff Hardy def. X-Division Champion Manik (Non-title) The crowd didn't appear to be into the action at all, which was understandable. TNA hasn't given the fans an incentive to care about Manik in the slightest, despite the fact he is the current X-Division Champion. He lost another meaningless non-title match that also didn't do anything to help Hardy. Chris Sabin's heel turn could be seen coming from a mile away, and I'm not high on the idea of turning him heel when he is still semi-popular. Not even that, but after feuding with Bully Ray for the World Heavyweight Championship a few short months ago, why demote him to a rivalry with Manik? By Graham "GSM" Matthews Sami Zayn def. Curt Hawkins I liked how the commentators made mention of the fact that it was Hawkins who Zayn defeated in his debut match a few months back. Alex Riley said how that he had something to prove by beating Zayn, which also slightly portrayed him as the underdog. Both competitors are excellent wrestlers, but I never imagined their match would receive as much time as it did and provide such exhilarating action. It was a hard-fought victory for Zayn, despite the fact that Bo Dallas said later on that it was rather irrelevant since he could remember the last time Hawins won a match. Hawkins is highly underrated and I would love to see him actually utilized on the main roster. As for Zayn, he is main roster bound following his feud with Bo Dallas, who he hopefully beats for the NXT Championship sooner rather than later. Aiden English def. Michael Cuellari I have been watching NXT on a regular basis for only a few months now, but wasn't English utilized as an enhancement talent up until this point? I never really saw much in the guy until just recently when I saw a video with him cutting one of the best promos I've heard in a long while. He didn't cut one of those promos on this show, but his singing gimmick won him over with the crowd. There are many aspects of his character that are Damien Sandow-esque, but if they can tweak his gimmick just a bit, then he might have a bright future in NXT. His finish looked vicious and he is already garnering good reactions from the crowd after only one match. By Abiel Tesfamariam The Women's Championship was a championship made 57 years ago. This championship was held by 29 ladies and changed hands 59 times. The first title holder to win it was The Fabulous Moolah. The last was Layla El. Let's take a look at all the former title holders. The Fabulous Moolah was the first person to hold the title. She won it from Judy Grable who held in NWA in a 13 lady battle royal. Moolah then lost it to Betty Bouch, Yukiko, Sue Green, and Evelyn Steven respectively but does title changes were not recognized. After 27 years of holding the title (10,170 days) she lost it to Wendi Richter in a match that forever changed wrestling. Seven months later, she lost it to Moolah's new protege, Leilani Kai. One month later, she lost it back to Wendi Richter at the debut at the first ever WrestleMania. Almost eight months later Wendi lost in a first time ever controversial screw-job to Moolah who was came into the match as a disguise being called "Spider Lady." Moolah than held it for eight more months before she lost it to Velvet McIntyre who held it for 6 days in Australia where Moolah won it again. Moolah held it for a year. She lost the title to Sensational Sherri. Sherri held the title for 441 days before she lost the title in Paris to Rockin Robin. Robin later held the title for 451 days before vacating it as the last title holder. |
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