WWE TLC 2018: The SmackDown Women’s Division Owned The Show

Asuka, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte Flair were fully expected to main event WWE TLC 2018 when the fought for the SmackDown Women’s Division. Not only did WWE grant our wishes by making it happen, but the three women absolutely tore down the house in yet another memorable match for that title.

Becky Lynch’s unprecedented level of success in 2018 has helped the SmackDown Women’s Division becoming one of WWE‘s most prestigious titles. Arguably no title is as valuable as this one right now, as evidenced by the fact that Becky, Charlotte Flair, and Asuka main evented WWE TLC 2018.

On a stacked card that featured 12 matches, including standout bouts between Nia Jax and Ronda Rousey for the Raw Women’s Championship and AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship, nobody shined brighter than the SmackDown Women’s Division.

Anyone who has followed WWE over the past few months wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the women of SmackDown Live owned TLC, but watching that reality unfold in real time was truly a special sight to behold.

All three women in the main event Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match tore each other apart to put on one of the best matches of the year. In all honesty, that bout was arguably the second-best of 2018 on the WWE main roster behind Charlotte’s and Becky’s legendary Last Woman Standing match at Evolution.

While Charlotte and Becky didn’t main event when they made history at Evolution, they main evented TLC and unsurprisingly owned the show again.

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Notice, of course, that they didn’t steal the show. TLC was unequivocally and inarguably their show, regardless of Ronda Rousey’s decisive interference or any of the other perfectly good matches that preceded theirs. Nothing was going to outdo Becky, Asuka, and Charlotte on this night, and these three elite superstars made sure of that.

There were so many memorable spots in this match that the fact that this was the first ever women’s TLC match is almost a mere footnote. The history-making aspect of this match pretty much paled in importance compared to the visceral reactions that the specific, jarring moments of this match created.

Charlotte speared Asuka into the barricade, Becky hit a leg drop off the top of a ladder to a visibly hurt Flair, the chops in this match were brutal, Charlotte’s somersault senton through a table onto Becky was insane, and the thunderous kendo stick and chair shots in this match nearly reached bone-shattering levels.

This was a TLC match that had it all, and with so many fans clamoring for the SmackDown Women’s Championship to main event the final Pay Per View of a ground-breaking 2018 (one that featured the first all-women’s PPV, two women’s WrestleMania singles matches for titles, a women’s WrestleMania battle royal, an all-women’s Rumble, and the first women’s Elimination Chamber match), these three women showed that they are at the summit of WWE.

Few wrestlers can touch Asuka, Charlotte, and Becky in terms of overall ability and popularity, and while Asuka was the one to grab the title – her first on the WWE main roster after months of coming up short despite being the first women’s Rumble winner – the buzz generated by this match makes the “everyone wins” cliche fit here.

There’s almost a snowball effect for the SmackDown Women’s Division, because everything they do strikes gold, leading fans to become more excited for what they will do on the next episode of SmackDown or at the next PPV. And when they deliver on these lofty expectations, the hype only grows, because WWE fans know that they can expect excellence from whoever steps foot in their ring.

Finally, WWE is trusting their women to knock the big matches and storyline angles out of the park, and they’re forcing everyone around them to step up. Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles are two of the most decorated wrestlers in history and are mired in a feud for the WWE Championship, yet the main talking point from TLC is clearly the main event. Fans are excited for Asuka’s championship reign and cannot wait to see how the Becky, Charlotte, and Ronda dynamic unfolds, especially with all three being active on social media.

While WWE fans are focused on sliding Raw and SmackDown ratings during the holiday season, perhaps they should concentrate more on promoting the women of WWE further so that Raw eventually mirrors SmackDown in its usage of the talented women on the roster. They have delivered time after time this year, and they put an exclamation mark on a strong set of dual-branded PPVs in 2018.

So much more will be in store in 2019, and it is up to every single fan of women’s wrestling in WWE to keep pushing for these kinds of opportunities. Asuka, Becky, Charlotte, Naomi, and countless others have consistently starred, and it’s important for fans to deliver in the same way that tonight’s Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match did.