SmackDown Live gets a lot of things right, and it’s almost hard to believe that their show is run by the same company as Raw. One of SmackDown’s best traits is its ability to utilise all of the talent on the roster, as opposed to just headlining one or two feuds.
Whereas Raw has only focused on the same four main eventers or has promoted the epic Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks rivalry at the cost of other superstars. SmackDown, on the other hand, has a long list of intriguing feuds.
Currently, the headlining feud in the women’s division remains Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss, with a steel cage Championship match on the horizon. Lynch and Bliss have certainly brought the heat over the past few months, and it is remarkable how both superstars have been able to keep this rivalry fresh.
However, the feud between Nikki Bella and Natalya is suddenly becoming just as captivating, as both veteran wrestlers had an all-out brawl on the last episode of SmackDown.
Last week’s episode gave us the best moment of the rivalry so far, but the WWE needs to make sure that this rivalry lives up to its potential.
Even though no title is on the line here, there can be a feeling of something at stake. Here are five ways the blue brand can ensure that Nikki Bella and Natalya deliver an excellent rivalry early in 2017.
#5 Emphasize the in-ring work
When Nikki Bella and Natalya battled it out in November for the right to be the captain of the SmackDown Women’s Survivor Series team, I thought it would be nothing more than a filler match.
As expected, Nikki prevailed, but the match completely exceeded my expectations. Both women made the captain spot feel kind of important because they absolutely killed it.
Also read: 5 Best Diva matches in WWE PG era
Nikki Bella defeated Natalya by getting her to tap out to the STF, and many joked that her version of the submission hold was superior to John Cena’s. She certainly did a great job with the move, and the entire match was filled with solid counters and quick pins.
It was exciting, and it made me hopeful that SmackDown would consider making this a future rivalry. After someone attacked Nikki Bella prior to the Survivor Series 5-on-5 match, my hopes only rose.
We haven’t seen the two competitors face off in an actual match yet because they merely brawled in last week’s episode. That’s perfectly fine, because, in this case, it served to up the ante when it comes to the animosity between the two superstars.
However, the WWE needs to make sure that we get to see both athletes showcase their in-ring ability plenty of times because this should be the heart of the feud. Natalya has been busy dissing Nikki’s looks, while Nikki brought Bret Hart and the rest of Natalya’s family legacy into the picture.
That’s all fine, but when you have two superstars who are this talented in the ring, the focus needs to be on the actual wrestling.
#4 Stop bringing up John Cena
The feud between Nikki Bella and Carmella should have been an even better one for “The Princess of Staten Island”, but one thing that held her back was the constant references to Nikki’s partner John Cena.
I get that SmackDown Live wants to blur kayfabe and reality to enhance its plotlines, and it has mostly been successful in doing this.
Dolph Ziggler’s promos were so good because you could tell that some of what he was saying came from the heart – the frustrations at his lack of a push following big moments in his career, such as the cash-in against Alberto Del Rio.
More recently, the feud between The Miz and Dean Ambrose has done a nice job of involving Maryse and Renee Young.
However, there’s a difference between involving a partner, such as Maryse, directly into the feud, and merely using the partner as a way to get a cheap jab in. Most of Carmella’s insults and taunts seemed to reference Cena. In Nikki Bella’s current feud with Natalya, we’ve seen Natalya go to the Cena well often in promos.
She has done the “You can’t see me” taunt, and she once told Nikki that “John will never marry you”.
There’s nothing wrong with occasionally referencing Cena, especially if the joke is too good to pass up on. However, since I can’t see a way in which Cena could be reasonably involved in this feud directly, I just don’t see the point in using him.
Quite frankly, the constant references to Cena are mildly insulting to Nikki Bella, who doesn’t need to be hitched to Cena, and I’m sure Natalya can have plenty of savage insults that don’t involve “The Face That Runs The Place”.
This feud is capable of so much more than recycled insults that were used in Nikki Bella’s previous beef.
#3 Get Natalya to talk about her career
If the creative team is having a hard time coming up with insults for Natalya to throw at Nikki Bella that go beyond John Cena or Nikki’s looks, perhaps they could focus more of Natalya’s promos on her career arch.
More specifically, they could address her decision to attack Nikki Bella in a more coherent manner. The “I have always despised you” line when Natalya first admitted that she attacked Nikki Bella at Survivor Series doesn’t shed enough light on Natalya’s character or the mentality behind the heel turn.
Natalya has been successful in the WWE, but you could argue that she hasn’t been given enough opportunities to shine by the company, especially when you consider just how talented she is in the ring.
She has one of the best move-sets of any female superstar in the history of the company, and, no, it’s not just because she uses the sharpshooter.
I would like to see Natalya air out some of her frustrations, including those that aren’t specific to Nikki but are rather about her own career path and future goals in the women’s division.
We could see some passion from Natalya, and this could be beneficial after Natalya has secured sufficient heat from the fans.
#2 Keep it savage
Although I would like to see more of Natalya’s character and motives shine through in her promos, it has been entertaining to hear some of the insults tossed by both superstars. While some of them have been amateurish, the savagery has been critical in building tension, which boiled over with last week’s brawl.
SmackDown Live has done a great job using pointed, personal one-liners to elevate The Miz, Dean Ambrose, Alexa Bliss, Becky Lynch and AJ Styles in feuds, and the same could be done here.
The key here is to make sure that it doesn’t feel cheap. When Natalya told Nikki Bella that she will “die alone”, it didn’t feel clever or entertaining; it felt nasty and cheap.
Now, Natalya needs to draw heat from the audience in order to establish herself as a heel, because it can feel weird seeing her as the “bad guy” now. However, there’s a correct way to do it, and the correct way is to make it at least mildly humorous.
Creative could give her insults that strike the same chord as The Miz’s or Charlotte’s do. Those are the two best heels in the company, so it can never hurt to draw from them.
#1 Don’t make it obvious that Nikki Bella will win
Conventional wisdom states that Nikki Bella will win this feud, and she’ll probably win most of the feuds that she’s involved in. However, she did make Carmella look strong throughout their rivalry, especially at their quality “Tables, Ladders, and Chairs” match that Nikki won.
It would make plenty of sense for her to go over Natalya in this rivalry because she could end up in the main event picture against Alexa Bliss after this feud.
That said, it is important to make it seem like Natalya has a valid chance of winning this rivalry, because, ultimately, it’s the best way to make sure the fans are invested. Great zingers and solid wrestling are important, but it’s hard for the fans to take a rivalry seriously if it’s obvious who will come out on top.
It appears the WWE thinks this is important right now, too, because it was Natalya who stood tall over Nikki Bella on the last episode of SmackDown Live after the referees got involved and the fight spilt outside the ring,
Natalya locked “The Fearless One” into the sharpshooter before she let go. This came a week after Nikki Bella had stood tall over “The Queen of Black Harts”, following a powerful right-hand to the face.
Keeping the balance between both superstars is vital, so it will be interesting to count up the number of victories and number of times both competitors stood tall to end segments.
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