Previewing The No Mercy 2016 Women's Matches

I had forgotten No Mercy was this Sunday. That is a little embarrassing. It just seems too soon for another PPV. The WWE definitely should not have so many PPVs. Prior to the brand split, the WWE could devote two shows a week to build and hype a feud, both Raw and Smackdown. Now, that is pretty much cut in half. Rare inter-brand feuds will get promoted on both shows, like Randy Orton vs. Brock Lesnar did, but that is not the norm. And it just makes matters worse when they insist on having brand PPVs every month. They should have them every other month, with the exception of major PPVs that will feature both brands, like Wrestlemania. Things would just balance out better that way.

The WWE will once again feature two women's matches on PPV. And I just feel something is off with both of them. I will talk about that today and go through the notable men's matches on Friday.

First, Nikki Bella faces Carmella. This feud has been pretty one-sided. Carmella has mostly dominated it. And I also feel like the WWE has tried too hard with this feud. Carmella has just been way too aggressive and there is no good reason why this feud should be that heated. I have seen grudge feuds in the men's division that don't feature some of the things this feud has had. They had Carmella attacking Nikki Bella when a tag match was supposed to happen, resulting in the match being called off. Obviously, a lot of the things the WWE does with the women on Smackdown are to just tease that matches are going to happen when they really don't intend to go through with the match, whether because they don't have time for it, know that they don't have the depth to feature fresh matches, or whatever. Eva Marie made a gimmick out of backing out of matches. Some fans were starting to think that Natalya attacking other women before matches was her new gimmick. She's not the only heel that has been doing that in the last few weeks. It is really just a cheap trick. I wish the writers could come up with something else. Is every heel's gimmick simply that they are aggressive? Except for Eva Marie, of course.

What really feels off to me about this feud is that it doesn't really seem good enough for Nikki Bella. She was the last eye-candy centerpiece of the diva era. She did not win the Smackdown Women's Championship, but she has still gotten her own feud for herself. But she's feuding with a woman that just debuted from NXT a few months ago and has not really gotten that over at all. Whether haters of Nikki want to admit it or not, there are fans out there that like her. I see it on Twitter. I see it in how fans have reacted to her on Smackdown. But it just feels like the WWE is underachieving with this feud for Nikki Bella. It is probably the best they could do, if all they could do is think in terms of wrestling feuds. They should make better use of the periphery. Just looking at how they are pushing Nikki Bella seems off because it is so mediocre. I would have expected better from the WWE.

Who wins? This is a feud for Nikki Bella to win. What will determine whether she wins this match or not is if the WWE wants to extend the feud. Survivor Series is next month. I do not think this mediocre feud deserves to go all the way there. Just let Nikki win here and move on to something else. This feud has already gone on long enough. It started soon after Nikki returned at Summerslam. It went through Backlash. This can already be considered a feud that will go through multiple PPVs after this Sunday. So just end it.

Onto the title match. Becky Lynch defends against Alexa Bliss. Guess what this feud has already featured? Yes, Alexa Bliss attacking Becky as she is coming out to the ring. If you are a heel diva on Smackdown, it seems that automatically becomes one of your tactics. That is not the only thing Alexa has in common with Carmella. Alexa also just debuted a few months ago on Smackdown. She has done a better job connecting with the audience, but she still has a way to go before really being that over.

What feels off to me about this feud is that it just doesn't really make sense for the WWE to run with it. Becky Lynch is the woman that just became the first Smackdown Women's Champion. She had wrestling credibility before even coming to the WWE. She made some noise in NXT. Her first title defense is against a woman that is pretty much an eye-candy diva. Going by the status quo you had in the diva era, it would be Becky Lynch being built up to put over Alexa Bliss. Going by the status quo you would expect in this new era, you would think the WWE would feature a respectable women's wrestler for Becky to feud with, or at least a diva with more credibility than Alexa Bliss. The WWE has done a lot to make her seem credible in recent weeks, but you would think it would be wiser to go with someone else. I have said before that Smackdown's women's division seems like the diva era's last stand, and this feud definitely supports that. But how will the WWE balance the diva era with the feminist era?

Who wins? Becky just won the title a few weeks ago. This is her first title defense. If the WWE is serious about building her to be a star, which they should be seeing as how they just handed her history, the least they can do is let her retain here. But they really should do even better than that with Becky Lynch. Just like I feel the WWE should come up with something better for Nikki Bella, I would say the same thing for Becky Lynch. I would say she does retain against Alexa Bliss, but it will be interesting to see how the WWE treats Alexa after that.