Raquel Advances In QOTR; Charlotte Teams Up With Tiffany

Friday Night SmackDown aired another pre-recorded episode from the Unipol Arena in Bologna, Italy. With Clash in Italy coming and going, Rhea Ripley retained her WWE Women’s Championship over Jade Cargill. But all eyes are now set on the Queen of the Ring tournament, which kicked off this past Monday on Raw. IYO SKY has come out on the top so far in the first round, but who else joined her tonight? Let’s get started and find out.

Raquel Rodriguez, Bayley, Jacy Jayne, and Kiana James (accompanied by Giulia) battled it out to determine the next woman who would qualify. All competitors tried to attack Rodriguez early on, with Bayley clotheslining her out of the ring. As the remaining three scrambled to get the upper hand, Rodriguez returned with a crossbody before the commercial break. 

While Rodriguez threw Bayley on top of the commentary desk, the show returned with Jayne and James trying to pull Rodriguez, only succeeding when Bayley pushed her into the steel steps. Bayley and James then met a cannonball from Jayne, which translated into some momentum for the former NXT Women’s Champion before Rodriguez re-emerged. 

After attempts by all participants to try get pins, Giulia was pushed by Jayne to the floor; the Beautiful Madness soon retaliated when Jayne pulled at the feet of James, who had them on the ropes for leverage when pinning Bayley. However, only seeing Giulia taking action, James began to argue with her. Trying to take advantage, Bayley’s attempt at a Rose Plant was stopped by an attempt at a Rolling Encore from Jayne, stopped with a big boot by Rodriguez. A Tejana Bomb to James proved successful, with Rodriguez winning the match.

In the ring, Giulia helped James get up to her feet, only for James to push her and tell her to get off her, blaming Giulia as she said she was going to win, that their partnership was done after everything she did for her, and that she would be nothing, planning to focus on herself. Push came to shove and Giulia snapped, attacking her. Giulia stood on the ropes as James seemed unfazed on the outside.

The WWE Women’s World Champion, Liv Morgan was with Judgment Day stablemates JD McDonagh and Dominik Mysterio backstage. After mentioning Roxanne Perez, who is still sulking after losing her Queen of the Ring tournament match to IYO SKY on Raw, Raquel walks up to them, with Morgan saying she knew Raquel could do it on her own. If she keeps on winning, the two can face each other in the finals so that one of them can take the Women’s Championship off of Rhea Ripley. Morgan is also excited at the prospect of Dominik and her being King and Queen of the Ring, with Rodriguez somewhat dismayed, but Morgan says the focus tonight will be on Dominik winning his first round match.

Rhea Ripley made her way out to the ring for a promo. This past Sunday at Clash in Italy, she finally put the Jade Cargill chapter behind her. Obviously, she didn’t come out completely unscathed, as she showed one of her knees covered in tape. Jade had come into the match with a game plan to use the numbers against her, but Jade failed to take her out because she is still your WWE Women’s Champion. And as for the numbers game she tried to play, Ripley had a nice, unexpected friend come out and help her with that little situation, didn’t she? 

Out comes Charlotte Flair to say that she knows Mami didn’t ask for her help, and as The Queen, she understands not asking for help, but she had her back because she respects her, and if she’s being honest, the last few weeks, she’s had a lot of fun teaming alongside her, getting a tattoo after Clash in Italy, and just wrestling beside her after their history, but here’s the thing: the Queen of the Ring tournament is taking place, and she is a competitor at heart, she is The Queen, she is Charlotte Flair, she is the 14-time women’s champion, so if she’s being honest, for as much as she’s had alongside her, at SummerSlam, it’s going to be her standing in front of Ripley, because she still has what she wants. 

The Women’s United States Champion Tiffany Stratton makes her way out to say hi to Rhea and Charlotte. In regards to Flair, she knows it’s been a while, but she knows, if someone were to tell her that they would be out here not beating the crap out of each other, she would have called them crazy. Wondering if Tiffany is going to apologize to her, the Buff Barbie says that would be crazy, but she’s not here for Charlotte, she’s here for Rhea. 

She may have the U.S. title and she looks damn good with it, but she thinks she wants that one. Jade Cargill, Michin, and B-Fab then interrupt. Saying that the three of them look stupid together, she says that Charlotte didn’t save Rhea, she damn sure put herself next in line, and seeing how they’re both going to be in the Queen of the Ring tournament, she’ll make sure that little side quest she pulled is rewarded. Calling Alexa Bliss “stupid”, Cargill turns her attention to Stratton, she says they’ve done this so many times, she suggests she’ll learn her lesson and stay out of grown folk’s business. Lastly calling out Rhea, Cargill tells her to enjoy her title while she can, because she’s coming after what’s hers. Actually, she’s coming now for what’s hers.

Nick Aldis comes out and says that Rhea knows she is in no condition to compete here tonight.  Charlotte decides that since Alexa isn’t in the building, as much as she doesn’t like Tiffany, she will team up with her because she dislikes Jade and her “backup dancers” more. The match is made for after the commercial break.

The resulting tag team match started with Flair and Michin going at it. The two gave it their best shots throughout the match, with Stratton and Cargill having their moments at times. Michin notably hit a Styles Clash on Flair, a tribute to her former OC teammate and WWE Hall of Famer AJ Styles. Cargill was tagged in later on and executed a sitout powerbomb that did not put Stratton away.

Flair tried to reach her arm out, only for Michin to trip her, but after throwing her into the ring post, she was kicked in the face by B-Fab. Stratton almost countered Jaded into a pin, but after Cargill kicked out, tried to do the Prettiest Moonsault Ever, which resulted in Cargill hitting Jaded successfully to win the match for her and Michin.

NOTE: Starts at 5:46 for Fatal Influence segment.

Right afterwards, Jacy continued to fume over her loss as Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid tried to calm her down. Cathy Kelley tried to get an interview, but Jayne furiously told her it was not a good time and to read the room. Kelley knows that Jayne was looking to advance in the Queen of the Ring tournament, but Jayne continued to mock her as she said that anyone with eyes could see that she was better than all of the women she faced and that she was on a different level. 

The three then ran into the Women’s Tag Team Champions, Scream Mode (Brie Bella and Paige) who were getting photos taken when Jayne brushed the photographer aside. Trying to confront them both, Fallon, Lainey, and Jacy launched an assault on Brie and Paige, holding the Women’s Tag Team Championship and laughing before walking off.

Tiffany Stratton was still banged up backstage when she ran into Chelsea Green, who wondered why she didn’t tell her she was going to go out there, as Green knows she would have been out there for Stratton as she thought being out there with Charlotte was weird. Nonetheless, she needs to tell her because Green will be there right by her side.

Stratton says she didn’t think she needed her out there, which Green finds sweet as she believes Stratton didn’t want her out there as she didn’t want her injured. Green also thinks that this is why everyone is calling them “the dream team”, especially after what happened last week with Nia Jax and Lash Legend. Green has a match with Lash up next, but she needs Stratton’s support, to which the champ says she needs to go to the trainer’s room, but she’s sure she’ll do great.

NOTE: Video starts at 1:35 for the Blake Monroe vignette.

Another vignette airs for Blake Monroe as she relaxes in the shade. This week’s diary entry is:

“Dear Diary, 

Okay, we have to talk about it. Tiffany Stratton. You are quite the star. Your rise to the top is very impressive.

Looking at you is like looking in a mirror, which I do love to do.

When we finally meet, it’ll be the box office event that fans are dying to see, but the difference between you and I is if you scratched just a little bit beneath the surface, you’ll see a princess that isn’t used to getting her hands dirty, no.

Tiffy Time is about to run on Monroe minutes, so run whilst you can, because The Glamour is coming to SmackDown.

Yours truly, 

Blake Monroe”

Mwah! If Blake’s time in NXT is any indication, she is not one to make friends. 

Back in the ring, it is now time for Lash Legend, with Nia Jax by her side, and Chelsea Green to square off. Legend dominated her pretty easily from the start, with Green having minimal chances to fight back. After hitting Jax on the outside, a missile dropkick took Legend to the mat, but wasn’t enough to put her away. Trying the Un-Pretty-Her afterwards turned out to be a bad idea as Legend reversed it into the Lash Extension for the win.