What’s the story?
According to Cageside Seats, WWE is putting together a multi-woman match that will see Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Naomi take on Carmella, Natalya and Tamina in a six-woman tag team match.
In case you didn’t know...
The current Women’s division storyline on SmackDown Live involves all the available women. Natalya, Carmella, and Tamina formed a faction known as “The Welcoming Committee” along with James Ellsworth. They took out Charlotte Flair, current Women’s Champion Naomi, and inaugural SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch.
The storyline seems to be leading to a 3-on-3 confrontation between them, though the Welcoming Committee still has the numbers advantage due to James Ellsworth. Last week, Becky Lynch teased joining the new faction but turned on them quickly before being beat down.
The heart of the matter
The new faction will be occupying the women of SmackDown Live for a while to come perhaps. From the look of things, the SmackDown Women’s Championship won’t be on the line at Backlash. However, there will be another SmackDown Live PPV a month later: Money In The Bank. It would make sense for the title to be defended there.
Naomi last defended the title against Charlotte nearly two weeks ago, so the “30-day rule” of defending the title won’t be taken into account this time around for the champion. She can even defend it on SmackDown Live between Backlash and Money In The Bank.
What’s next?
The 3 babyface women will feud against the Welcoming Committee, and it will likely culminate at Backlash.
Author’s Take
The Welcoming Committee storyline as a whole is quite bad, as Natalya doesn't come across as a heel in any way. Carmella seems to suit the role as leader of the group more as she’s clearly the best talker among the 3 women.
Hopefully, the storyline is just a short-term one and ends fairly quick.
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