Lana Is Getting Another Shot

[Jack-Hammer]

It was revealed today that Lana will get her third shot at the SmackDown Women's Championship on next week's show. The reason why she's getting another shot is because her left shoulder was technically up and she's been "ranting" about it all week on Twitter.

I have this terrible feeling that this whole program will lead to Lana beating Naomi for the title. With next week's show being held on the 4th of July, I could see Rusev making his return and do something to distract Naomi enough to where she loses the match and the title. While she's celebrating, I can easily see Carmella cashing in with Rusev being kept from interfering, due in no small part to him beating the piss out of Ellsworth just long enough for Carmella to get the win. This ultimately leads to some sort of triple threat match for Battleground or both Lana and Naomi get separate rematches so WWE can save the triple threat match for SummerSlam.

Lana's not remotely ready to be in a title feud, she's not ready to be champion, so I can easily see Vince deciding to put the title on her. It just simply seems like the sort of thing he'd do: there's a roster full of women who can actually perform well in the ring but he goes for the buzz of putting the title on a woman who can't.

But yeah, whether or not Carmella cashes in or Rusev returns, there's a strong probability they're moving towards Lana winning the title. Ah well, it took longer than I thought but it looks as though Vince is starting to saddle elements of the blue brand with some Raw nonsense.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Can't say I'm excited for this. Yeah Lana looks great (that's an understatement), but she isn't ready to be champion. She doesn't need to lose again either.

What are Charlotte and Becky doing? They would be much better challengers. And so would Natalya.

 

[Kamala316]

Gotta love WWE logic...the night of Lana's "relaunch":

Lana: "I want a Women's title match."
Shane: "You have to earn a title shot here on Smackdown Live."

5 minutes later, she's awarded a title match. She's been back for less than a month, and she will have had 3 title matches (including this one). She still can't wrestle, and they pretty much gave her the Eva Marie/Emmalina gimmick. Gotta love the "Women's Revolution".

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I don't get Naomi past the entrance and big arse, which is supposed come hand in hand.

As far as I'm concerned, if there were two women's divisions worth having, none of these ladies involved would be anywhere near the belt. So who cares what happens.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

I highly doubt they put the title on either Carmella or Lana this close to Battleground and Summerslam. Carmella needs to milk the case for a while. It makes her and every women's title match far more interesting holding on to it, bragging about it ("I'm the first ever two time women's MitB winner!") and teasing a cash in. Simply using it this quickly is a waste.

Putting the title on Lana whether it is for 30 seconds or 30 days also makes no sense either. I suspect this is just a way to fill time on SD, see if wrestling Lana can get ratings, and introduce the looming threat of Carmella and the case.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Why should Lana get another shot? This is getting ridiculous. She already had her chance and she failed. When a roster has women like Becky and Charlotte who more than deserve a title shot, it's stupid for Lana to get another one when she hadn't even earned the first one. Lana's awful in the ring. Her match with Naomi at Money In The Bank is a contender for the worst match of the year so far. If she does win, I'd hope Carmella cashes in on her immediately. The women and their division have improved so much recently and I would hate to see them go back to having someone who can't wrestle as a champion. Lana should stick to being Rusev's manager. She has no place challenging for the title when women like Becky, Charlotte, and Natalya who can actually wrestle are on the same roster waiting for opportunities they earned with their in-ring skills. The only way Lana winning makes any sense is if they want her to be the one Carmella cashes in on. That is literally the only reasoning I can think of behind these title shots.

 

[Kodo Sawaki]

Logic and booking wise it doesnt make sense. You have bunch of other women who had to try to earn that title shot with MiTB ladder match. And then you give that shot to person who didnt have singles match outside of NXT development brand. Would make much more sense to

1) give Lana a non title match at MiTB
2) give her heelish win there
3) then give her title shot based on that
4) she loses title match

Makes her look fine and not just as some rookie, makes Naomi look good because at the end she retains and it makes much more logic when you have bunch of other women including multi time women champion in Charlotte battling for something you award first women who came on roster not included in MiTB.

But then again, Smackdown women division title picture at the moment sucks. You have Naomi as Champion, Lana as no1 contender and Carmella with briefcase. I cant really see any good match there because none of them is that great in ring and character-wise Lana(who is worst in ring) has most character of them. Meanwhile you have Charlotte, Becky and even Natalya there, maybe even returning Nikki Bella. I get that "Smackdown- land of opportunity" gimmick thing, but it is getting ridiculous with both women and men divisions.

 

[Glacier]

They are doing it because it is summertime and they want Lana to do
some of those bikini matches like they had years ago.

 

[Snugglebites]

This is the right decision. She was robbed in both matches and it's only fair she has another shot.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

Who else are they going to trot out there?

Charlotte? AKA the worst face in the women's division.
Becky? When was her last meaningful win? She works much better as the one chasing the belt
Natty? Remember when she farted all the time? Literally the only personality she has ever shown. She wrestles the exact same match each night and her gimmick is "Bret Hart is my uncle"
Tamina? I'd rather cheese grate my own nipples than watch her wrestle

Honestly their best bet would be to have Ellsworth win the title. He is the most over person in the division.

 

[The Life Of Pablo Ren]

She has to be winning the title then, even if she lost the other two "unfairly" there's no point in having three matches if the payoff isn't gonna be Lana winning the title.

UNLESS

Like I've said in threads previously, this is her punishment. WWE knows she's not ready for any of this at all so they keep trotting her out there to quite frankly keep embarrassing herself in front of millions.

 

[stingray11214]

What do you mean Lana should not have the Women's strap? She has EVERYTHING VKM and Dunn look for in a Women's Champion: A nice rack, nice legs, blonde, firm and tight ass. So what that she cannot wrestle to save her life. It is not about Lana. It allows VKM and Dunn to do some, ahem, wrestling, of their own while watching Lana. And, if their right hands get tired: "Pat", VKM will call, "Help us out, please. We are trying to enjoy Lana." SMDH.

And, Kairi Hojo and Io Shirai are walking into THIS?!? May Asuka, Kairi and Io NEVER get out of NXT. VKM and Dunn will probably turn them into Asian hookers with Tamina as their "mamasan". So much for the "Women's Revolution". SMDH.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

This make sense considering how last week's match ended. I don't see lana winning this unless somebody interfere on here behalf.

 

[Navi]

I've been struggling to understand why Lana even got her first title shot to begin with. We could have had number one contenders matches and let someone else have a go at Naomi, but Lana who has what two matches under her belt now, gets a third chance.

The way this belt has been booked has been atrocious to start with. If Naomi's most memorable feud is with Lana before she drops the title, then it was a waste of time to give it to her. Naomi is one of the most athletic women's wrestler's they have but on the mic she is dismal to say the least.

I do like Jack Hammer's suggestion though of Carmela cashing in if Lana wins. Then we get the added bonus of Rusev hopefully beating the tar out of Ellsworth, who from his last appearance will surely help Carmela. That alone will be worth the watch.

 

[The Life Of Pablo Ren]

What is she being punished for?

For "ruining" that awful storyline between her/Dolph/Rusev/Summer Rae. There were reports of there being nuclear heat on her and although it happened almost two years ago, they could've let it simmer until now.

 

[OYDK]

I'll be honest, I can't stand Naomi; I've never thought (and still don't think) that she was good enough to be the champion. Her promos are awkward, her entrance was cool for about 10 seconds, her 5 minute dance routine to the ring is annoying and stupid, and while her fans constantly try and ignore her shortcomings by labeling her "extremely athletic", that's still not enough to cover up her deficiencies in the ring. She's passable for sure, but she's never going to have more than an average match.

Personally, I'll take anybody else on the Smackdown roster (other than Tamina) and that includes Lana. At least I understand her character and she can entertain me on the mic. From a wrestling purist standpoint, yeah it's a joke that Lana's first three matches on the roster are for the title, but for me as a fan, I'd be happy if she won just so the title can finally be off Naomi.

 

[enviousdominous]

Meh, I'm down with whatever.

Naomi has had a great run, I just hope that if she drops the belt that they don't put her in the limbo of being another Dana Brooke.

The Women's Championship scene is still trying to figure itself out, so literally any woman on the roster -- to include Lana -- could win the belt and I wouldn't mind.

 

[Messiah]

I've been done with the women on RAW for a while now, but if Lana doesn't get the title here and it's another squash, i'm done with the women on Smackdown to.. Fuck this, every story they try telling with these women is terrible.

 

[TJ Matics]

I thought Lana did fine at the PPV, the match was just there to basically show off that she's more competent in the ring then most would have guessed. Still, I'm not looking for a ravishing champion right now. I enjoy Naomi as champion, and don't want her dropping the belt until Carmella cashes in.

 

[MWRedskins]

eh, hopefully this is a way to end the Lana push. She's trying hard, but she's simply not good enough to be in a Women's Title match. my guess is Naomi will win here and it'll set up here next feud with Nattie at Battleground and then after that, WWE could set up the Charlotte vs. Naomi match and in that match (if WWE wants) they can have Carmella cash in there and take the title off Naomi (without damaging Charlotte)....my guess is that Charlotte will win the Women's title at a bigger event....maybe by the time Charlotte wins the title, Asuka will be on smackdown and dominating the Women's roster.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Everybody ok now?

She didn't win. Carmella didn't cash in. Looks like we have a new partnership in Lana and Tamina. I'm not saying that it will be cutting edge tv or won't lead to Lana getting the belt but clearly this match was just a chance to piss some people off, give Naomi something to do, and take us to a new story. Lana may give Tamina a voice she could use or Tamina could give Lana some muscle.

But everyone can exhale now. It is over. The match happened, Lana lost. No belts changed hands, no cash in.

 

[ShinChan]

It never made sense to give her the title match. Without earning it. She just debuted in the title match. And then got another rematch. And then another rematch. A women division which boasts of Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch shouldn't be having Lana in a title match against Naomi. Alexa Bliss leaving Smackdown left a big negative impact on this division.

 

[Navi]

Lana was never booked to win, as a matter of fact it was almost a squash everytime, so still don't really understand why the whole thing was put together. I mean surely to God they could have done something just a little better.

Oh well it did accomplish a couple of things. It gave Naomi something to do for a couple of weeks, introduced Lana's in ring skills or lack thereof, and now Tamina has someone else to be a bodyguard for. In other words a dog and pony show that went nowhere.

 

[ShinChan]

Lana was never booked to win, as a matter of fact it was almost a squash everytime, so still don't really understand why the whole thing was put together. I mean surely to God they could have done something just a little better.

Oh well it did accomplish a couple of things. It gave Naomi something to do for a couple of weeks, introduced Lana's in ring skills or lack thereof, and now Tamina has someone else to be a bodyguard for. In other words a dog and pony show that went nowhere.

That's when Raw's Women Division has at least 3 interesting women now. And we have only Carmella (Big maybe) on Smackdown. A champion who is meh in both ring and mic department. A talking segment is going on in the ring but when this champion appears, we've to see her dance for a while first. Then she'll may be speak something. Extremely uninteresting title picture.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

It never made sense to give her the title match. Without earning it.

It made perfect sense. In fact it was written in crayon on tv for all to see. Lana stuck her HEEL nose in a segment that had nothing to do with her asking to be in the MitB match. McMahon denies the request. Lana further talked HEEL trash to the champion. Lana, in her HEEL hubris says she can beat Naomi and Naomi being hotheaded and having nothing to do wants to fight Lana for what she did and said and is willing to put her title on the line. McMahon says she doesn't have to do it but agrees to it.

This was all very simple logical storytelling. If you didn't like it, that is fine but don't make it out to be something it is not.

Getting a champ to put their title on the line is earning a title shot. It's as much earning a title shot as being the one who can climb a ladder and grab a briefcase.