WWE Champion Frustrated Over Lack Of Time For TV Match

A current WWE champion isn’t thrilled about having a short match on television. 

The July 3rd episode of WWE SmackDown was actually taped days earlier, right after Monday Night Raw, because of the Fourth of July holiday in the USA and WWE wanting talent & staff to get some time off.

It was also the start of a change for SmackDown, as the blue brand returned to a two-hour show in the second half of the year, similar to last year.

Since SmackDown lost an hour of television time, some matches had to be shorter than fans were used to in the first six months of the year, when the blue brand was a 3-hour broadcast.

The shortest match on that July 3rd SmackDown episode saw Women’s Tag Team Champion Brie Bella face off against Lainey Reid of the Fatal Influence group. Reid got the win with a running knee after Brie helped her tag team partner Paige deal with Fatal Influence’s Jacy Jayne and Fallon Henley outside the ring.

That Brie-Reid match only went about 3:15, so the women didn’t have much time to tell a story.

While speaking about SmackDown on The Nikki and Brie Show, WWE Hall of Famer Brie Bella said she understood the match was shorter, but she was still bummed about it.

“So I have as everyone saw this past Friday Night Smackdown, I finally got a singles match. I’ve been pitching a while to have a singles match, I’ve been wanting it forever. But so when I finally was like, oh, I get a singles match, I was like super excited. When I heard the times, I was bummed. But also I understand, you know, SmackDown is back to two hours, it’ll be two hours until January.

So all of a sudden when you have all these storylines going on SmackDown and it’s a three-hour show and then boom, you get cut down to two hours, you’re back to fighting for TV time and they’re going to condense a lot of stuff. So a part of me understood it. I mean, obviously I won’t lie, I was bummed.”

Brie Bella Admits She Was “Pi**ed” About Having A Shorter Match On WWE SmackDown

As she continued, Brie Bella talked about how frustrated she was that her SmackDown match was so short, but also offered the perspective of a veteran, saying she is grateful for the WWE career she has.

“I’ll admit, like even when I heard my time before I got to the building, I was like, I was pissed. But then I was like, you know what, Brie, look what I got to do for, like, right? Which is so beautiful.

You can give me s***and I’m going to make something out of it… I’ve always been used to obstacles. It’s like I’m the type of person, it’s like, give me lemons, I’ll make lemonade.” (H/T Ringsidenews)

After Reid beat Bella on SmackDown, WWE made it official that at Saturday Night’s Main Event on July 18th, Brie Bella & Paige will defend the Women’s Tag Team Titles against Fatal Influence’s Fallon Henley & Lainey Reid.

The date of Saturday Night’s Main Event will be right around the three-month mark from when Brie & Paige won the titles at WrestleMania 42 in April.