Some major botches in SmackDown’s main event tonight. Let’s run through them.
1. Nia Jax shoved Jade Cargill into the steel steps. Jade didn’t protect her head and busted herself open. That was not on Nia. Jade should have used her arms to shield herself.
2. The finish was messy. Cargill hit a power move and covered Nia. Tiffany was late breaking up the pin, so Nia kicked out on her own. Tiffany still dropkicked Jade, who rolled outside.
3. Tiffany pinned Nia. From the way it looked, Jade was supposed to break that pin, but she just lingered on the outside. Nia didn’t kick out, expecting Jade to come back in. The referee counted a near fall anyway, even though Nia never kicked out.
Visibly frustrated, Tiffany rushed into the finish and closed the match. Again, not on Nia. If Jade mistimed the spot, the referee should have called it right there and protected the match. Nia was losing anyway.
This is the issue with WWE’s overproducing. The referees rarely call audibles, even when something clearly falls apart. Instead, we ended up with a sloppy, botched ending.
The important part is Tiffany got the win heading into Crown Jewel against Stephanie Vaquer. But no, I don’t blame Nia for what went wrong. To me, the errors fall on Jade and the referee, but I’d like to see your take on it. 🙂 -Kyle
