WWE Friday Night SmackDown rolls on. After that little extracurricular to start, Sasha Banks takes on Tamina. The latter has a women’s title match with Bayley on the line.
Tamina vs. Sasha Banks
Tamina with a shoulder block, fireman’s carry takeover sends Sasha over the top rope and barreling to the floor. Commercial break. As we come back, Sasha fights her way back into the ring and gets Tamina with a Meteora for a nearfall. Chokes her against the middle rope, pump kick to the back of the head. Sasha starts talking trash now. Gets her in a chinlock that actually looks like a chokehold. Tamina struggling here, actually kind of surprised to see her being held down by this for as long as she is. But Tamina does stand her way up, Sasha forced into Piggyback Sleeper Hold position until Tamina drives her into the corner to break the hold. Sasha avoids an avalanche but gets taken to the apron.
Pump knee from the apron, tries to spring in with what may have been an attempt at a Cedric Alexander style springboard Reverse STO but Tamina just clobbers her with a shoulder block out of the air! Takes her to the outside. Bayley stands up and starts yelling at Tamina to get her attention. The distraction workers, Sasha posts Tamina, gets a 619 from the apron and then takes her into the steps! Sasha enters the ring and starts to trying to get a ten count as Bayley takes off her shoe and prepares for further cheating. I’m guessing Sasha was gonna distract the ref but before it could happen in comes Lacey Evans to take out Bayley! She springs off the steps for a big forearm. Tamina dodges a baseball slide from Sasha Banks, nails her with a Superkick! Takes her back into the ring and a second Superkick earns her the victory.
Winner: Tamina
Not a bad match all things considered, but the end there did make it seem like Tamina’s moveset is hilariously small. Probably would’ve come up with something better for her to do than two consecutive Superkicks, first could’ve been a big boot atleast. That said I appreciate that even though she lost, it’s actually not totally Sasha’s fault. Tamina was made to look strong but Banks was distracted just enough that I could say she might’ve won on a different night. This is key because eventually Bayley/Banks is obviously going to be the main feud.
SUBSCRIBE NOW: Get TheOvertimer’s Hottest Stories, Breaking News and Special Features in your email, CLICK HERE!
