Even though most fans, the other wrestlers on the roster and SmackDown management didn’t think Lana deserved a title shot for her first singles match on the main roster, Women’s champion Naomi demanded it, so it happened.
Then the Ravishing Russian complained she was distracted at Money in the Bank by Carmella and James Ellsworth, which led to the champ agreeing to put her down again.
After a second defeat, Lana again has raised an issue - this time, that her shoulder was not down at the end of her quick loss to Naomi on the Tuesday, June 27 edition of SmackDown:
I obviously did NOT get pined! I want a FAIR title match! Clearly the ref & all of @WWE are cheaters & favor @NaomiWWE over me! #SDLive pic.twitter.com/puUUrbWIap
— CJ (Lana) Perry (@LanaWWE) June 28, 2017
General Manager Daniel Bryan and commissioner Shane McMahon have decided to take action. While they won’t go so far as to change the outcome, like when they stripped Carmella of her Money in the Bank ladder match win two weeks ago, they are calling for another do-over...
.@shanemcmahon & I have seen the photo of @LanaWWE shoulder up at the end of her match w/ @NaomiWWE. While we won't reverse the decision...
— Daniel Bryan (@WWEDanielBryan) June 30, 2017
...@NaomiWWE will again defend her title against @LanaWWE this week on #SDLive so that we may have a definitive winner.
— Daniel Bryan (@WWEDanielBryan) June 30, 2017
Hopefully they have some interesting direction to take this story (Rusev return? Carm cash-in?) because running the same match over and over again isn’t really that exciting. Lana has acquitted herself pretty well considering her experience level, but remains someone whose heat is of the same “meta” variety as Eva Marie or Roman Reigns.
Still, that could work... or Team Blue could just have decided that since the repeat ladder match kept viewers around, why not try it with this program?
You’ll have to tune in Tuesday to find out... just like WWE drew it up.