Hall Of Famer Explains What Went Wrong In SmackDown Women’s WWE Title Match
The WWE Women’s Title was on the line on SmackDown, and it was a match that had a sloppy ending.
Tiffany Stratton defended the WWE Women’s Title against Nia Jax and Jade Cargill on SmackDown in Orlando in a match where all three women did their best, but the ending did not go well.
In the last few minutes of the match, Cargill suffered a nasty cut on her forehead, and she was bleeding heavily from her forehead.
Late in the match, Carigll hit the Eye of the Storm spinning slam on Jax for two with Jax kicking out on time. Stratton dropkicked Jade, and it’s possible that was supposed to be what broke up the pin attempt, but Stratton was late with it. That’s when the awkward moment happened as Stratton covered Jax for two because the referee, Daphanie LaShaunn, stopped counting even though Jax didn’t move.
After the referee stopped counting, Jax talked to the referee, and Jax lifted her right shoulder up with a delayed kickout. The fans booed loudly because it was an awkward situation, and the fans could tell something had gone wrong. The referee communicated with Stratton and Jax, so Stratton hit an elbow drop. Stratton went up top and hit Prettiest Moonsault Ever on Jax for the pinfall win after about 14 minutes.
As for what went wrong, TC of Wrestlevotes explained on X/Twitter that Stratton winning was the planned finish, but there were communication issues.
WWE Hall of Famer Bubba Ray Dudley (aka Bully Ray) did his best to inform fans on what really went wrong in the match as he spoke about it on Busted Open Radio.
“You see Jade sit on Nia’s chest and hook both of her legs. Nia is looking towards her left, and Nia is looking at Tiffany Stratton.
Why is Nia looking at Tiffany Stratton? Because Nia knows that Tiffany is responsible for making the save. Nia realizes that Tiffany is not going to be there in time… Tiffany is definitively late, which puts Nia in a bad position where she has to kick out.”
Bubba Ray Was Confused By The Conversation Between Nia Jax And The Referee During WWE Women’s Title Match
Even though Jax didn’t lift her shoulder up, the referee, Daphanie LaShaunn, stopped counting. Bubba Ray continued discussing it.
“The ref swiped on three because she clearly does not think that this is the finish.”
“What I don’t understand is why Nia decides to have a conversation with the referee. Nia turns to her right and starts going, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The ref is looking at Nia trying to understand what the hell is going on.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen blatant communication like I saw there.”
Bubba Ray’s co-host, Dave LaGreca, chimed in as well, so Bully responded to that.
Dave: “Nia looks at the referee and you clearly hear her mouth the first two words are ‘what happened?'”
Ray: “The ‘what happened’ is telling me that Nia knows Tiffany is stealing the victory, thus not kicking out.”
As he continued, Bubba Ray gave his take on what he thought was supposed to happen.
“What I think was supposed to happen was that Tiffany Stratton was supposed to steal the victory from Jade Cargil.
Jade hits the black hole, slam, one, two. Tiffany hits the basement, drop kick, the baseball side, drop kick, and then covers and gets the 123.”
On the WWE YouTube channel, they showed the whole Stratton-Jax-Cargill match, except for the messed-up pin attempt in the final moments.
Looking ahead, WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton now moves on to Crown Jewel where she will face the Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer to crown this year’s Women’s Crown Jewel Championship. The two women had a staredown to end this week’s SmackDown episode.