Tonight’s (Jan. 1) episode of SmackDown featured a tag team match pitting Bianca Belair & Sasha Banks against Carmella & Bayley.
The finish of the match included an extended one-on-one sequence between Sasha and Carmella. Banks had Carmella beat, but Reginald the Sommelier decided to repeatedly interfere in order to keep Carmella from taking a fall.
This included one spot where Carmella was unable to escape from Banks’ submission finisher applied in the middle of the ring. That’s when Reginald reached in and actually dragged Carmella out of the ring, and the referee saw it:
#SmackDown Women's Champion @SashaBanksWWE has encountered an obstacle in this tag team match... a negative one! pic.twitter.com/9lqE7jV4Om
— WWE (@WWE) January 2, 2021
That should be grounds for disqualification in any normal competition, because an outside actor provided clear (and unfair) physical support for one of the competitors. But this is pro wrestling, where most referees are incompetent. No disqualification was called, the match continued, and Reginald continued to interfere until it finally resulted in Carmella pinning The Boss.
Corey Graves remarked that this win should put Carmella at the front of the line for a shot at Sasha’s SmackDown women’s championship. That probably means we’ll see one more championship match between Banks and Carmella no later than Royal Rumble 2021 on Jan. 31.
Get complete results and coverage of SmackDown this week right here.