5 things SmackDown got right on this week’s episode (January 24, 2020)

#4 SmackDown Women’s Championship build-up

Tensions ran high between the women of SmackDown

Michael Cole got into the ring to interview Lacey Evans ahead of her big match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship against Bayley this Sunday.

Evans spoke about how frustrated she got after Sasha Banks got in her daughter’s face and taunted her. She vowed to take revenge and the title from The Hugger. This brought out Bayley who attacked The Sassy Southern Belle from nowhere and continued to beat her down.

As we moved to a segment backstage involving Kayla Braxton, Carmella, and Dana Brooke, the action spilled over there and the brawl took the spotlight away.

Soon after, as Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross took the ring to take on Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville again, Bayley and Evans brought the fight back into the arena and had to be pulled away by several people.

This segment not only helped bring the women of SmackDown on the screen just before the women’s Royal Rumble match, but it also did a lot for the SmackDown Women’s Championship match.

As SmackDown has been ruled by the rivalries between Universal Champion ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt & Daniel Bryan, and Roman Reigns & Baron Corbin, the brand needed to do something interesting like this to keep the women in the picture.