Smackdown Live – April 9th 2018
After the commercial break that followed the first match of the night, Sonya's music played. The energetic post-Wrestlemania crowd, consisting largely of British fans, booed her loudly.
"Yes! What a moment this is!" Corey Graves exclaimed on commentary as Sonya and Charlotte walked out into the arena, both looking incredible despite being dressed casually in their WWE merchandise shirts. The most striking thing was that they were both wearing championship gold around their waists.
"Wrestlemania was undoubtedly a success for Flairville," Renee Young said. "Charlotte Flair became the first ever Women's European Champion, and Sonya Deville retained the Smackdown Women's Championship."
Sonya and Charlotte stood side by side at the top of the entrance ramp. Posing, they looked like exactly what they were: the two women who were dominating Smackdown.
"Never say Flairville again, Renee," Graves said. "Anyway, at Wrestlemania, Ember Moon gave it her all against Sonya, but still came up short. Since capturing the title back in December, Deville has never even looked like losing it. The question at this point, I think, ought to be can anyone take it from her?"
"It certainly won't be easy," Renee admitted. "Sonya has elevated herself to the very top of the women's division, and it's going to take something special to knock her off that perch."
Walking with the kind of swagger that only success could bring, Sonya and Charlotte had made their way to the ring. With a look of contempt for the crowd on her face, Sonya walked over and fetched a microphone. With that done, she joined Charlotte in the middle of the ring, where they posed again, facing the hard camera.
Sonya's music faded out, being replaced by another chorus of boos. Slowly, she raised her microphone to speak. "Point proven," she said, slowly and emphatically, receiving more boos. "At Wrestlemania, Charlotte won the Women's European Championship, as she guaranteed. And I kicked Ember Moon's ass before dropping her with The Deville's Lair and pinning her right in the middle of the ring to retain my title. And yes, the Smackdown Women's Championship is my title. The rest of the women back there in that locker room know it, too. I mean, look at Becky Lynch. She ran off to Raw because she knew she had no chance of beating me."
"What nonsense," Renee scoffed. "Becky Lynch was traded to Raw. We hope to find out who has made the jump from Raw to replace her at some point tonight.
"You see," Sonya went on, "I've proven by now that it doesn't matter who steps up to me, they're going to get a merciless beating and crawl back to whatever hole they crawled out from. Because Sonya Deville…"
Lucy Thorne's music hit, instantly recognisable to almost everyone in the arena thanks to her time on NXT. The crowd leapt to their feet, roaring their approval of the surprise debut.
For a few moments, the music played with no sign of Lucy, but then she walked slowly out onto the stage, carrying herself just the way she on NXT, like the biggest, baddest bitch on the show. Her entrance received another roar of approval.
"It's Lucy Thorne!" Graves yelled. "The former NXT Women's Champion!"
"Listen to this place!" Renee cried. "The roof has just come off the Barclays Center!"
The production team got a shot of someone holding up an English flag with Lucy's T logo printed on it. They had obviously correctly predicted that Thorne would make her main roster debut.
The shot changed to show Sonya and Charlotte, looking uneasily at each other. Neither of them were pleased by the interruption, but they plainly didn't relish a confrontation with Lucy, either.
Lucy walked down the aisle like she had owned it for the last ten years and stepped into the ring. Showing not even a hint of intimidation at the two women who faced her, she stepped right up to Sonya. Standing taller than the champion, Lucy's looked down at her for a long moment, their noses almost touching. The body armour she was wearing somehow made her look even bigger and more intimidating.
Thorne's music faded out, leaving the arena full with noise from the cheering fans. Lucy snatched Sonya's microphone out of her hand. "You're standing out here talking about how no one on Smackdown has a chance of beating you for the Smackdown Women's Championship," she said to Sonya, still standing face to face with her. "I'm here to tell you right to your face, I'm on Smackdown now, and I can definitely beat you for it."
"The challenge has been laid down!" Graves cried over another loud cheer from the fans.
"Thorne wants Deville!" Renee exclaimed. "Sonya looks a lot less sure of herself now."
"What do you say, Sonya?" Lucy demanded. "Are you really a devil, or are you a coward?"
"Oh man," Graves said.
Sonya carefully took the microphone back from Lucy to respond to the challenge. "Lucy, something tells me you're not all that smart."
While Sonya and Lucy had been exchanging words, Charlotte had slowly moved around the stand side on to them. On cue, she smashed a forearm into the side of Thorne's head, knocking her down.
As soon as Lucy hit the mat, Charlotte and Sonya were on her like a pack of hyenas, kicking and punching her, trying their best to do as much damage as they could, as quickly as they could.
"Flair and Deville are attacking Lucy Thorne!" Graves cried. "You've got to admit, Lucy had that coming. You don't get in the faces of Charlotte and Sonya unless you're very brave, or very dumb."
Thorne was being absolutely savaged by the two heels, who were incensed by the way she had brazenly confronted Sonya.
Charlotte hauled Lucy to her feet and held her up so that Sonya could brutally kick her in the head. The fans booed furiously as Lucy collapsed to the mat.
Lita's music began to play, sending the fans over the edge again. There was a shot of the crowd, with everyone getting to their feet again and cheering.
"Wait a minute!" Graves yelled. "That music can mean only one thing!"
"It is, it's her!" Renee screamed.
"That's Lita's music!" Graves exclaimed. "The new Smackdown General Manager! Is Lita here?"
Indeed she was. The new boss walked out onto the stage, looking a lot less than pleased with what she was seeing in the ring. Wearing a denim jacket over a black t-shirt, she certainly didn't look like a businesswoman.
"That's enough of that! Let go of her right now!" Lita ordered Sonya, who was dragging Lucy back up again.
Showing contempt for the new GM, Sonya complied by throwing Lucy through the ropes like a piece of trash, sending her crashing to the floor.
"You ladies want to throw your weight around tonight?" Lita asked heatedly. "Well, that's good, because as the new General Manager of Smackdown, I'm going to let you do exactly that. Charlotte, you're going to defend the Women's European Championship, against Mandy Rose!"
Now that Mandy was a face character, that announcement drew a cheer.
"As for you, Sonya," Lita went on. "You want to talk about mercilessly beating anyone who challenges you? We'll see about that, because in tonight's main event, you will defend the Smackdown Women's Championship. I'm going to go back there now and find you an opponent. So if I was you? I'd go get ready."
Lita turned to leave, but Sonya decided that she had to have the last word.
"Who do you think you are, Lita? Huh? Who are you to show up here like anyone respects you? I don't respect you at all."
"Oh, is that a fact?" Lita asked theatrically, now looking down at the ring again. "If you don't respect me, you're probably not going to respect this, either. There is now going to be a special guest referee in tonight's main event, and her name is Ember Moon!"
With the crowd cheering again, Lita's music played again and she walked off the stage. In the ring, Sonya and Charlotte raged at each other about what had just been announced.
"Both Charlotte and Sonya will defend their titles tonight, and Deville doesn't even know who her opponent will be," Renee said.
"Who gave Lita this job?" Graves objected. "How can you have a champion prepare for a match when they don't know who it's against? And why is Ember Moon the referee? What was Mr McMahon thinking when he appointed Lita?"
Sonya definitely agreed with him. The Deville inside was close to being unleashed. Face red with anger, she repeatedly kicked the bottom rope in anger.
"Whoever the challenger is going to be, I'm not sure I'd want to be in their position," Renee said. "Deville looks like she's going to snap at any moment."
For the main event of the night, Sonya and Charlotte once again came to the ring side by side. They were both wearing championship gold, as they had been at the start of the night, Charlotte having defeated Mandy earlier in the show.
Ember Moon was already in the ring, wearing a referee shirt over her ring attire. She didn't look particularly thrilled to be there. It didn't take much to figure out that she would have preferred to be the one going for the title.
There had been no confirmation from Lita regarding who Sonya's opponent was going to be, and the champion looked to be in a vile mood as a result. There was no posing or kissing on this occasion, all Sonya had on her mind was dismembering whoever came out to face her.
When Sonya entered the ring and her music faded out, the moment was at hand to find out who Lita had selected. The entire crowd seemed to be standing, looking towards the big screen. A 'Lucy Thorne' chant went up, the fans voicing their opinion as to who they wanted it to be.
As the chant began to die, Valentina Ferreira's music hit. The reaction from the fans was one of surprise more than delight. No one had anticipated Val getting a call up, let alone a title match on her debut.
The popular young star rushed out onto the stage, loving the moment even more than the fans were. She went to each end of the stage, delighting in the cheers she received.
In the ring, Sonya's demeanour had quickly changed. The boiling anger was receding, and she now looked like a great white shark eyeing up a particularly juicy-looking seal.
"You've got this," Charlotte could be seen saying to her. Putting an arm around Sonya's shoulders, Charlotte gave her a brief, loving squeeze before retreating to ringside, where she would have the best seat in the house to watch the destruction.
With the commentary team hyping up her arrival, Valentina made her way to the ring, stepped through the ropes, and removed her duster cardigan. She then removed the flannel shirt that had been tied around her waist, twirled it above her head and threw it at Sonya in a gesture that the fans cheered their approval of.
While the crowd loved the show of disrespect, it wasn't the smartest thing Valentina had ever done. Incensed, Sonya roared like a wild beast and charged the much smaller woman. Valentina was only five feet three, and Sonya ran over her like a train.
It was the start of one of the most vicious, relentless ass kickings Smackdown had ever seen. Ignoring any instruction from Ember Moon, Sonya beat Valentina half to death, both inside and out of the ring, while being careful not to do quite enough to get herself disqualified.
Eventually, Ember reached the point where she had seen enough. Sonya was choking Val in the corner of the ring. When Ember's count reached four, she grabbed hold of Sonya and forcibly dragged her out of the corner.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sonya yelled, pushing Ember hard in the chest.
Ember didn't answer the question. She pushed Sonya back, equally as hard. But what she hadn't noticed was Charlotte entering the ring.
Sprinting across the ring, Charlotte delivered a Big Boot to the side of Ember's head, knocking her clean out.
"Great. Now we have no referee," Renee said.
"Ember Moon deserved that. A referee shouldn't put their hands on a competitor like that."
"Pick her up and finish her off," Charlotte said loudly to Sonya, pointing at Valentina, who was lying face down on the mat in the corner.
In a deliberate manner, Sonya walked over and dragged Val to her feet and set her up for a vertical suplex. It was the starting position for her new The Deville's Lair finisher.
Lucy Thorne's music hit. For the second time that night, it sent the fans into meltdown.
"Wait! Lucy Thorne! That's Lucy Thorne's music!" Renee yelled.
"Thorne was beaten down by Deville and Flair earlier tonight!" Graves reminded everyone.
Sonya had tossed Valentina aside and was ready to fight Lucy. Charlotte was equally ready. Standing side by side, they faced the stage, waiting for the attack to come.
Little did they know, Lucy had already climbed over the ringside barricade by the timekeeper's corner, and was now rushing the ring.
Charlotte realised Lucy was coming at her only in enough time to turn around and catch an exceptionally stiff clothesline, knocking her down.
As Lucy went after Sonya, knocking her down and proceeding to batter her with hard, fast-paced stomps, the fans were going crazy, loving every moment of it.
Regaining her feet, Charlotte ran at Lucy, trying to hit another Big Boot.
Thorne saw the move coming and ducked it.
After failing to connect, Charlotte turned around, only to be scooped up onto Lucy's right shoulder, in position to receive her sitout piledriver finishing move called Thorne in the Side.
Lucy hitting the move drew another cheer. She was able to get back up in time to position herself behind Sonya when the champion groggily made it back to her feet.
"No! Someone get her out of the ring!" Graves cried as Sonya was scooped up onto Lucy's shoulder.
"My god, what a pildedriver!" Renee exclaimed as the move was delivered.
Everyone in the ring apart from Lucy Thorne now seemed to be out cold. She took a step towards the ropes, making to leave, but then she noticed the dishevelled remains of Valentina still lying in the corner.
The noise rose again in the arena as people figured out what Lucy was thinking.
Lucy grabbed Valentina by the arm and started dragging her across the ring.
"Lucy Thorne has got Valentina Ferreira. She's putting her on top of Sonya Deville!" Renee called.
Ember had just started to recover, and was able to crawl over and make the count.
"One!"
"Two!"
"The title's on the line!" Graves yelled.
"Three!"
"Valentina's the champion!" Renee cried. "Valentina Ferreira is the Smackdown Women's Champion! Lucy Thorne just helped her win the title!"
The crowd erupted. Happy with her handiwork, Lucy sent a few choice words in Sonya's direction before leaving the ring and walking up the ramp.
Moments later, Charlotte was the first to recover from the assault. Realising what had gone down, she frantically got Sonya back up and they ran after Lucy, although it was much too late for that.
"Flair and Deville going after Lucy Thorne, but that's not the story here," Renee said.
Still almost unconscious, Valentina was being helped up by Ember Moon. Val had at least been able to grasp her newly-won championship in her right hand.
"Valentina Ferreira is the Smackdown Women's Champion?" Graves shrieked in disbelief.
Ring announcer Greg Hamilton provided the confirmation. "Your winner, and the new Smackdown Women's Champion, Valentina Ferreira!"
"This is the biggest shock in the history of Smackdown," Renee said, bringing the show to a close. "My God. What is Sonya Deville going to do now?"
A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter.
We have a new Smackdown Women's Champion! I bet no one say that coming? :D
Next time, we have the first road trip for the new group of four. How do you think they will get along?