The SmackDown women’s division has been going through a transitional phase recently as Alexa Bliss took the top spot and Nikki Bella has been forced to find another feud. Factor in the recently Mickie James and Naomi who both recently returned, and you’ve got a lot of stories going on simultaneously for the women on the blue brand. There were essentially more things going on than they have time to feature during the Royal Rumble (although it is scheduled to be a 4 hour event), so they simply booked six of SmackDown’s finest in a tag match for the kick-off show.
Nattie and Nikki started off the match and Nattie mocked the Bella by doing a “you can’t see me” gesture to Nikki, but she quickly tagged Alexa Bliss in to tangle with Nikki first. Alexa and Nikki wrestled around for a bit until Naomi got the tag. She hit Alexa with a move, and Bliss scurried back to her corner to tag Natayla back in.
All three heels ended up outside and took stereo baseball slides from Nikki and Becky, while Naomi opted to perform a splash over the top rope on the bad girls in the match.
Becky and Nattie fought on until Becky took Nattie down with a pair of clotheslines, and followed up with a flying forearm smash to the outside. Mickie James got involved and threw Lynch into the barricade. Nattie told the fans to shut up and snap suplexed Becky on the outside.
Nattie grounded the Lass Kicker for a moment until she was able to escape, but she was pulled back by Nattie and Mickie James got the tag. James put the boots to Becky in the corner for a moment then made a tag to Bliss so she could do the same. Bliss diverted the ref’s attention and James hit Becky Lynch with a cheap shot for a two-count.
Nattie got the tag and continued her assault on Becky Lynch. Lynch kept taking punishment until she was finally able to mount an attack and went to make the tag to Nikki Bella, but Nattie pulled Nikki off the apron before she could make the tag. Naomi finally got the hot tag and pulled off a springboard cross body attack, followed by a drop kick on Bliss.
Mrs. Uso executed a nice looking dropkick and got the two-count. Chaos broke out for a moment, but Naomi was able to pull off a split legged moonsault on the SmackDown Women’s Champion for the win.
Winners: Naomi, Nikki Bella, and Becky Lynch
