WWE SmackDown: Becky Lynch Should Feud With Natalya
Natalya retained the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship in Las Vegas by defeating Naomi, whom “The Queen of Hearts” dethroned at SummerSlam. For her next feud, “Nattie” should defend her title against Becky Lynch.
Over the past few months, fans of WWE SmackDown Live haven’t seen much of Becky Lynch or Charlotte Flair on television. Charlotte’s situation is understandable, as her father, Ric Flair, had a brush with death. But according to Cageside Seats’s daily rumor section, Charlotte’s absence is currently more of a creative decision, even if she is promoting her book.
The WWE needs to figure out how to get both of these superstars involved, and one easy way to get Lynch, who is the most over babyface on the roster, back on television is to have her feud for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. She hasn’t truly been in the championship picture ever since Alexa Bliss cheated, with Mickie James’s help, to retain the title in a steel cage.
SmackDown has done an incredibly poor job of building singles feuds ever since that Lynch vs. Bliss rivalry ended, and they have been even worse at using their women who are not involved in a feud for the title (Natalya vs. Nikki Bella is the lone successful example).
Natalya is the current SmackDown Women’s Champion after collecting the title at SummerSlam in what was a rare “feel-good” moment for a heel. She has worked extremely hard to help others and is one of the best technical wrestlers around, so she thoroughly deserved her win. I thought her reign would be very short-lived, but Carmella hasn’t cashed in yet. Plus, Natalya turned aside Naomi in last week’s rematch on SmackDown, ostensibly leaving her without a babyface challenger.
A program between Charlotte and Natalya would be compelling, because the two are capable of tearing the house down together. But we’ve already seen a match between these two, and I think Natalya would have a more engaging feud with a pure babyface like Becky. The two of them have more of a history together on SmackDown, as they’ve traded pinfalls and submissions in matches frequently over the past several months. They’ve also traded insults, as Lynch once called her “The leader of a locker room full of snakes” on an episode of Talking Smack.
For quite some time, I’ve been interested in seeing a feud between Lynch and Carmella, as the physical punishment Lynch has given James Ellsworth has paled only to their back-and-forth Twitter jabs in entertainment value. Ellsworth costed Lynch in matches multiple times, and Carmella was once a real thorn in her side with her underhanded tactics that would often frustrate “The Lass Kicker”.
Seeing a feud between these two would be great, and I would ideally like to see Carmella cash-in on Lynch shortly after Becky wins the championship from Natalya. That would lead to an excellent feud in which Becky is forced to fend off Carmella and non-physical distractions from Ellsworth. When she eventually vanquishes those two – and forces them to finally break up for real – it will be an awesome moment.
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The SmackDown Women’s Division needs better stories and captivating rivalries, and a long-term program pitting Becky, the best babyface in the division, against Natalya and, later, Carmella would be thoroughly enjoyable with a legitimate pay-off.