WWE SmackDown Live: Examining The Best and The Worst of the Brand for 2017

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Best Match: Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match, June 27

The reason for even having this match was beyond stupid. A week earlier, Carmella won the inaugural women’s MITB match after James Ellsworth climbed the ladder to retrieve the briefcase for her. It was a slap in the face to everyone who pushed and fought for women in wrestling to be seen as equals to men, just to get some heat on Ellsworth.

Thankfully, WWE decided to do a redo. So on SmackDown, we got the second women’s MITB match. And much like the first one, it was a really good match. A lot of the drama was missing, because you kind of figured Carmella was going to win again. But it was definitely one of the better matches on SmackDown in 2017.

In fact, it may have even been better than the pay per view contest nine days earlier. Tamina, Natalya, Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, and Carmella all left everything they had in the ring. Ellsworth worked around the ringside ban he was issued to try and recreate the finish to the first match, but Lynch stopped him to a huge pop. Tamina looked dominant for the majority of the match, Carmella was the brains, and Charlotte and Becky were the stars.

It was a great moment, and a pay per view worthy match.

Honorable Mention: Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin vs. New Day vs. Aiden English & Rusev, Dec. 26

SmackDown started the last show of the year off with a bang. This triple threat tag team match was great. The prize was a shot at the SmackDown Tag Team Championships against Jimmy and Jey Uso, and all three teams could have been the winner.

But in the end, Human Suplex Machine Chad Gable and his partner Shelton Benjamin earned the opportunity. Some of the best tag team wrestling in 2017 took place on SmackDown Live, and this was one of the clearest examples of that. I mean, a Stackolade? Rusev is the best.