SmackDown Women’s Championship match
Carmella (c) vs. Asuka
This building was good to these ladies last year. Will Asuka leave Allstate Arena in 2018 with gold like she did after TakeOver: Chicago last year? Or will Carmella have another great night in Chicagoland... possibly with the help of the same fella who got her the briefcase in 2017?
The Road to Money in the Bank
The Princess of Staten Island bidded her time, but finally cashed in on Charlotte Flair after The IIconics made a statement by attacking her in their main roster debut. She would go on to defeat Flair again (just ask her, she’ll tell you how many times she’s defeated The Queen), the planned a Royal Mellabration for herself in London.
SmackDown General Manager ruined that by introducting the new champ to her next challenger...
If the prospect of now having to defeat a woman who went years without one isn’t daunting enough, Carm and Asuka have history. They ran into each other in the build to and during a Survivor Series match last fall when The Empress of Tomorrow was on Raw...
... and followed that up with lots of online trash talk. So in addition to wanting to win her first main roster title, the Japanese Superstar has other reasons to want to kick the champ’s face off.
The build to this one has featured moments for each. Carmella “unmasked” Asuka a couple weeks ago, which led to a handicap match the former NXT Women’s Titleholder would win... with a belt shot and superkick from Carm as her prize. Then on the ‘go home’ show, Asuka would win a multi-person tag match for her team by making the champ tap to an Asuka Lock.
What’s at stake?
A major emphasis of the storyline has been that Asuka was devastated when Charlotte ended her undefeated streak at WrestleMania 34. That’s kayfabe, of course, but another high-profile loss for The Empress would sting.
Unless there’s major storyline cover for such a loss, and it only adds more fuel to the fire of an eventual win for the babyface. While Carmella has a definite talent for getting heat and generally pissing people off, she isn’t much of an in-ring technician. WWE’s managed to cover for that so far, and they may have a familiar trick up their sleeve to keep this one short and ensure there’s lots of heat for a rematch...