WWE: Naomi’s Big Moment Against Mandy Rose Is Coming
For weeks, the WWE Universe has set on edge watching the storyline between Naomi and Mandy Rose unfold, and on this upcoming week’s episode of SmackDown Live, justice is about to be served in the strongest way possible.
Mandy Rose has done absolutely everything to get inside Naomi’s head in an effort to make a name for herself as a singles competitor on SmackDown Live. There’s no doubt that over the past year-and-some-change, Rose has been one of WWE‘s most improved performers on the mic and in the ring, and she has a chance to show more of that ability in a match with Naomi, a two-time SmackDown Women’s Champion, on this week’s episode.
WWE fans have been troubled by some of the racial undertones in this feud between Mandy and Naomi, but, thankfully, nothing egregious has occurred. It has been a nerve-wracking several weeks on that front, and many fans would have preferred for this feud to focus on both of their in-ring abilities.
But the storyline of Mandy pretending to go after Jimmy Uso has drawn more attention to the rivalry, and the silver lining is two-fold. Firstly, the additional views at least raise the stocks of two talented women in the division, and, secondly, fans are more invested than ever in seeing Naomi beat the living hell out of Mandy.
Both women have to be praised for their social media work in strumming up more interest in this feud, and the brunt of that praise should go to the wise and experienced Naomi. Being the babyface in a feud like this isn’t as easy as it appears, because we’ve seen so many faces look gullible or weak when a heel makes it personal.
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We’ve seen exactly the opposite occur with Naomi, whose intelligence and inner strength have made her an even stronger babyface. She’s been witty and firm on Twitter, she threw a dang shoe at Mandy, and she and The Usos easily outsmarted Mandy in her hotel room by setting up a little “sting”. Rose has been a formidable opponent for Naomi with her mindgames and total lack of a moral compass, but Naomi has been more than up to the task.
On SmackDown Live this Tuesday, Naomi will have a chance to finally get her hands on Rose in a match. The two have brawled a couple of times with Rose getting the upper hand as a way to generate more heat to the feud, so this is Naomi’s chance to decisively come out on top.
While I could see Mandy win given how high WWE seems to be on her and how it would help build a new star, I think Rose’s stock has already sufficiently risen as a result of this storyline. It’s more important for Naomi to win, serve justice to Rose, avoid a distasteful ending to this controversial rivalry, and get a shot of momentum as she looks to remain in the title picture.
Naomi is a threat to win the Women’s Tag Team Championships (she can conceivably tag with Carmella, Lana, or even Asuka) or the SmackDown Women’s Championship. Mandy, as she showed at Survivor Series, now has the talent to believably compete for a title, but WWE can afford to keep parsing out her character traits over the coming months. After all, there’s far more to Mandy than just a “homewrecker”, and hopefully that doesn’t define her; hopefully WWE uses the aftermath of this storyline to focus on Rose’s viciousness and willingness to do anything to get to the top (her attitude even took Sonya Deville by surprise).
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More importantly, this SmackDown Live match between Mandy and Naomi has a chance to be a legitimately great bout on a show that will also contain Mustafa Ali vs. Samoa Joe and a potential all-time classic, two-out-of-three falls match between Andrade and Rey Mysterio. Naomi has been excellent in the ring for some time, and Mandy is coming into her own. This is a big opportunity for both women, and the WWE Universe has been waiting for this match – and Naomi’s big moment of revenge – for more than a month.