WWE: Why was Carmella vs. Bayley moved from Super ShowDown to SmackDown
Carmella vs. Bayley for the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship was moved from Saudi Arabia to tonight’s SmackDown. Here’s why.
Last week, Carmella won the main event of SmackDown, a Fatal Four Way to decide Bayley’s number one contender to her WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship. In a press release sent out to the media, the match was revealed to take place at Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia, although that tidbit was never officially revealed on television.
In fact, the night of the number one contender’s match, WWE did not specify at all when this title match could take place. It was not until mere days before tonight’s episode of SmackDown that we all learned that the match was moved from the Saudi Arabia show to tonight’s main event. Which, as we then learned mere minutes into the episode, was moved to the show’s opening contest.
The bigger question on everyone’s minds is why did the company move this title match from the big event to the blue brand’s Friday night show instead? Wrestling journalist Tom Colohue has the answer in his latest video report.
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Colohue is a top scoop insider with sources within the WWE backstage area who have told him that the reason was moved from one stated location to another was because WWE want to get Carmella’s storyline out of the way to bring Naomi in.
It’s of no fault to Mella in particular. Apparently, since Sasha Banks had not been cleared to compete prior to the Royal Rumble, her status and proposed match against Bayley for WrestleMania had been put in jeopardy.
As such, Naomi was brought in as a sort of “Plan B,” so to say, as a potential Mania opponent for Bayley, since their post-Rumble feud kicked off in such a hot way. It may be safe to assume Banks has since been cleared to compete, which suggests that the Naomi vs. Bayley blowoff can happen either at Elimination Chamber or at Super ShowDown.
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As such, WWE needed to also quickly blowoff Carmella vs. Bayley and, unfortunately, Mella’s booking had to take a backseat to both matches.