We may be heading for a Nikki Bella vs. Carmella No DQ match at No Mercy

This week's episode of SmackDown Live once again featured Carmella going out of her way to mercilessly beat up Nikki Bella. She explained why that's the case on Talking Smack on the WWE Network just after:

"My deal is... SummerSlam, right, my first pay-per-view. I was so excited to go out there, hometown crowd -- I'm from Staten Island, the princess of Staten Island, by the way -- New York, my first pay-per-view. All eyes should be on me but all eyes were on Nikki Bella. Nobody cared about Carmella, everyone was talking about Nikki Bella and the big return, she came back from neck surgery. ... Boring. Nobody cares. ... I'm here to make a statement, make a name for myself. The longest reigning Divas champion so obviously she's good at what she does, right? I'll give her that, I will give her that. However, I don't want people to be talking about Nikki Bella anymore. I'm here to make a statement and what better way to go out there against the longest reigning Divas champion of all time. ... Honestly, I'm here to be the best. I'm here to be champion. I'm here to make it to the top, to be women's champion. What better way to do that than to take out the toughest competition there is, Nikki Bella? ... Make sure she wishes that she never came back. Nikki Bella should have stayed retired."

Daniel Bryan liked where she was coming from and had an idea for what to do about their situation:

"That's the type of attitude you need if you want to be champion here in WWE. But I do think she's wrong in this: she does have to win matches to get into championship contention. And she has attacked Nikki Bella from behind multiple times. She doesn't seem to care if she gets disqualified. To me... we're doing the whole women's revolution thing, I mean, if she doesn't care about getting disqualified I'd love to see her and Nikki Bella in a No DQ match. ... I'd have to talk to Shane (McMahon), there's probably a lot of hurdles we've have to jump through to get to that."

Today, Nikki Bella agreed to the match:

Women's matches aren't typically given the gimmick treatment and Bryan is right in the sense that it's time they get the same treatment as the men. Nikki's neck may be cause for concern as far as what they could do with the No DQ stipulation but even going for it would be a nice change of pace and a small step forward.

Here's to hoping.