Natalya Gets The Title Shot

Of all the women that had a chance to challenge Naomi at Summerslam for the Smackdown Women's Championship, I believed Natalya was just the least deserving. She wasn't fresh. She didn't have an angle going for herself. She wasn't built up to deserve it. There was no interesting storyline that you could get from her winning. Naomi vs. Natalya was just not a big match for the WWE's biggest PPV of the summer. There just was not one good reason for Natalya to win.

And to the surprise of no one, Natalya ends up winning. Smackdown has a tendency to do this kind of thing with their women. From last year, Becky Lynch didn't really have any momentum or creative interest on her prior to becoming Smackdown's Women's Champion. She won it. Some believed there was no way Alexa Bliss would beat Becky Lynch for the title. She did. Naomi just returned from an injury and steamrolled Alexa Bliss for the title. She returned from another injury and got the title handed back to her. The WWE didn't even wait to see if she could stay healthy. They just do not build things properly in their women's division.

Obviously, I would not have had Natalya win it. This is nothing personal against Natalya. I just believe, if you are going to do it, do it right. Build her up to deserve it. Do it at a time when there aren't other women that are fresher or have some angle going for them that might make for a better story with Naomi.

I would say the problem is Smackdown trying to give too many women something to do. Of the in-ring performers, Naomi is Women's Champion, Natalya is the challenger, Carmella has the briefcase and her angle with James Ellsworth, Tamina and Lana have their angle together, and Becky Lynch and Charlotte beat them in a tag match this week. Everyone has something going. But does that mean they have something great going anywhere? I don't feel it. You need supporting players and that is hard to do when everyone is tied up in some angle already.

Of course, another variation of Smackdown's issue with giving everyone something to do is these multi-women matches. Let me go back to that six-woman tag they had on a PPV a few months ago. They made this heel stable, The Welcoming Committee. They even had that stable beat the faces. And what really became of that? Nothing. Carmella has obviously broken out. Now Natalya is getting a solo push. Tamina has a separate angle with Lana, who wasn't even in the group back then. What was even the point? Creating that stable just looks like flavored filler now. The story didn't go anywhere. The WWE will obviously have the commentators mention it and website writers talk about it, but in terms of building a great storyline, this was nothing. There are some women on Smackdown that have not won a PPV match in months, namely Becky Lynch and Charlotte. And that is because they have been caught on the wrong side of these multi-women matches. The Welcoming Committee storyline should have led to a moment where the faces eventually conquered a strong heel stable, if the WWE was interested in doing this right. If they had done it right, maybe Natalya might have even looked more deserving of her current push. Money in the Bank also got in the way. I would say telling a proper story matters more than screaming history to get fans to tune in. The WWE has really been fumbling around on Smackdown and not utilizing these women right.