Smark Out Moment

Each week, DIVAS DEBRIEF runs down the events that transpired in women's professional wrestling from the past couple of days. From the WWE Divas to the TNA Knockouts including some other companies as well, Smark Out Moment attempts to keep you up to date on all things going on with the ladies of the ring.



Paige vs Sasha Banks

After their previous encounter was a waste of segment as the third leg of the Divas' Beat the Clock Challenge, Paige and Sasha Banks get another chance to square off in a regular match. Paige begins the by tossing around Banks, still visibly upset over Sasha preventing Paige from becoming the number one contender to the Divas championship. She dominates the early portion of the match until Banks get Paige stuck in between the corner ropes and Banks drives both knees to Paige's guts from the top rope and goes for the pin but only musters up a two-count as we go to commercials.

When we come back from break Banks has the momentum, but Paige escapes and hits a Thesz press on Banks. She loses that momentum quickly as Sasha reverses and puts Paige in the corner, picking up her feet, and slamming her to the floor. Sasha goes for a pin, but only gets two after a big punch from Tamina. Paige gets a quick roll up off a reverse, but is only able to get a near fall. The two former NXT Women's champions exchange some near pinfalls, but then Sasha gets Paige in a choke hold. Paige starts to fight back only to be stopped in her tracks from a punch. Paige counters with a couple of big kicks, throws Sasha in the corner to hit on a running knee. She attempts another fall, but only gets a two-count. Paige almost hits Banks with a Rampaige but Banks retreats to the floor. Paige takes out Tamina instead of Sasha. Paige hits a huge slam, but only gets a two-count. Paige goes for a submission attempt, but Team B.A.D. uses a distraction as Sasha rolls her up with a pin to get the win. Good match between the two, but as the week progresses, this was the best match.



Gail Kim vs Brooke Adams (Knockouts Championship Match)

Another Knockouts match in less than month here on Impact, but instead of Velvet Sky, it will be Gail Kim's turn to win the belt. After Kim gets Brooke in a headlock, Brooke, baseball slides out of the ring, as Kim follows suit, initiating a fight on the floor until Kim pushes Brooke into the ring post. A couple of pin attempts on Brooke and out comes Lei'D Tapa to interfere in the match. She hits Brooke with the title belt and takes out Kim with the TKO. Tapa stands alone in the ring until suddenly, Awesome Kong appears and is getting in the ring to face off against Tapa. The two begin brawling, trading shoulder blocks and body slams. Kong connects on some spinning backfists and a clothesline to knock Tapa out of the ring as Kong holds the Knockouts title belt alone in the ring.

Can we get one Knockouts match that has a clean finish? This has been a recurring thing lately, and while I understand that there is a depth in the Knockouts division, don't integrate them into storylines at the expense of the championship. That's not good booking. If this match was not for the title, I would not have an issue with it, but if you keep interrupting title matches, it diminishes the value it has in the company.


Carmella vs Peyton Royce
Dana Brooke vs Billie Kay

The first match on NXT this week is between Carmella and Peyton Royce. The match begins with Royce showing off her technical prowess and both exchanging backslide pins, but to no avail. Carmella does a nice moonwalk and hits an atomic drop and standing dropkick to Royce. The next three minutes of the match are mostly lengthy chinlocks by both women. Carmella was able to make Royce submit to a modified figure-four head-scissors, preceded by Carmella hitting Royce with a reverse STO. Overall, it was a decent match and both women showed that they can be good workers in NXT, but they still have a ways to go.

The next match is Dana Brooke vs what seems to be NXT's women's jobber to the stars, Billie Kay. Kay does get to apply a headlock to Brooke early on and stay on it for a while. Even when Brooke got out of the headlock, Kay shortly hits a hurricarana. Brooke now starts to get in control of the match, applying pressure using a variety of lower body moves and even a scissor-head leg lock on Royce. Brooke is starting to get better in the ring and expand her moveset a little bit. Brooke injures Kay's ribs and while Kay did get some offense afterwards, Brooke is able to hit an Enzuigiri, followed by her Samoan Driver finisher to get the win.

In terms of outside the ring news, NXT had plenty of them this past week. WWE's latest signee, Japanese women's wrestler Kana, will be debuting a new ring name, Asuka. The name is inspired from Japanese women wrestling legend, Lioness Asuka, who was one-half of The Crush Gals, one of the most successful tag teams in Japanese wrestling history. I'm pretty excited for hr debut. Just looking at videos from her career in Japan, Asuka will bring a lot of technical experience, especially as a submission specialist. A Bailey-Asuka match will definitely be a great match.

Speaking of Bailey, it was announced that the next NXT TakeOver special, which will be aired next month, will have the Bailey-Sasha Banks rematch for the Women's title be not just the main event, but it will be a 30-minute Ironwoman match. This stipulation was a bit of a surprise, but I very much welcome this. These two had one of the greatest women's wrestling matches I have ever seen back in August at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn and giving them 30 minutes of uninterrupted wrestling will only enhance the value of this main event match. Count on this writer to be glued to his television for this match.



Paige vs Sasha Banks

For the third time in two weeks, Paige and Sasha Banks square off. Before the match can really begin, both teams start jawing each other and attack each other until the referee bans all non-competing members from both teams from the ring. Paige goes for several pin attempts t start the match, forgetting the fact that this is not the Beat the Clock challenge form Raw last week. Both exchange their offense for a while but chaos then ensues shortly as both women just abandon the match and start brawling until multiple referees and both Team B.A.D. and PCB reenter the ring and fight. No winner is announced for this match.

What was the point of this segment? This was basically the same ending, minus the pin, as the one from Raw. Charlotte will be competing for the Divas title next week on Raw and there was practically nothing done to enhance that storyline. There wasn't anything done to enhance whatever angle Paige and Sasha Banks and by extension, PCB and Team B.A.D. I think the whole, "The story here is that they're all good" has now officially run its course. If I didn't know how good these women are at wrestling, I would have tuned out at this point. After Night of Champions, WWE creative seriously needs to shake up this division because we've been watching the same women compete in some form of the same match for two months now and I really want to get invested in this angle, but there isn't much to get excited about, except, again, these women are talented and that's about it.


So there you have it, the breakdown for the week in women's wrestling. What were some of your favorite and least favorite moments from these women? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!