— A new report has surfaced with more details on the botched ending of the WWE Women’s Championship match on SmackDown.
As we’ve been reporting here on WrestlingHeadlines.com, the Triple Threat bout between Tiffany Stratton, Nia Jax, and Jade Cargill ran into issues when Stratton tried to steal a pin on Jax after Cargill’s offense. Jax didn’t kick out, but the referee stopped the count before three. Stratton eventually hit her Prettiest Moonsault Ever to score the win. The mishap was initially attributed to an on-the-fly change, as Cargill was busted open and required medical attention.
On today’s edition of “Wrestling Observer Radio,” Dave Meltzer explained that this was the same match the trio had been running on house shows and that the planned finish was always Stratton stealing the pinfall. He clarified that the confusion wasn’t anyone’s fault, noting that the referee simply stopped the count because there were over three minutes left in the show.
Bryan Alvarez added another perspective, suggesting that perhaps Stratton was meant to break up a pin attempt and then immediately steal the fall. But when Jax kicked out before Stratton could get there, the backup plan may have called for Jax to keep kicking out, and she didn’t hear the referee relaying the change.
Stratton is now set to defend her title against Stephanie Vaquer at WWE Crown Jewel: Perth.
— Torrie Wilson recently appeared on “The Wrestling Classic” podcast to discuss a variety of topics, including a bikini contest with Sable at Judgment Day 2003. Wilson revealed that WWE originally wanted her to wear body paint in the segment, but she refused and insisted on competing in an actual bikini instead.
She also looked back on her evening gown match at WrestleMania 20.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On her bikini contest segment with Sable: “It’s like that nightmare where you wake up in the middle of the night and you’re at school naked. Believe it or not… I negotiated that swimsuit from paint. They wanted me to do paint, and I was like, I’ll do crystals. I don’t know how I did that yet.”
On her WrestleMania 20 evening gown match: “Just to even be on the show at WrestleMania is a big deal… back then when it was one night, there’s a lot of people that don’t get that opportunity. We would be like waiting in Gorilla about to go out, and they’d be like, ‘Girls, your match just got cut from 8 minutes to 4.’ And that’s including entrances, which is crazy.”
On how she got the news that Playboy wanted her: “I was at TV one day. JR said, ‘Hey, Tori, do you have a second? I want to talk to you about something.’ And we were literally standing in the ramp during the middle of the day. And he was like, ‘Playboy wants to do a spread with you. Are you interested?’ I was like, ‘Yep. I don’t even have to think about it.’”
On how she loved Playboy Magazine: “Like, I love Playboy. I knew that was a great opportunity.”
On how she and Sable came up with the idea for their joint Playboy spread: “The second one came about when Sable and I were in Mexico on one of those bikini shoots and we were like, ‘You know what we should do? We should take photos together and then show Vince and be like, we should do a storyline where we do Playboy together.’ And we’re both thinking like, this is a great payday for us again, right? And of course, he loved the idea.”
On kissing Dawn Marie on TV: “I still… like, I do remember I was very uncomfortable with kissing Dawn Marie. And I do remember, like, I think we had champagne or something there, and I was like trying to like numb my senses a little bit.”
On who came up with the storyline: “Paul Heyman actually… that was his idea. I know him and Dawn Marie were really close. She had come over from ECW, and oddly enough, I was in Idaho visiting my dad when I got the call from Paul Heyman. He was just like, ‘I have this storyline idea. We can totally get an actor to play your dad if you want, but if you want your dad to be in the storyline, we’re happy to use him too.’ And I was like— I mean, I didn’t think twice about it, ’cause I was like, what a cool experience for my dad to have.”
On how she was mortified by stuff she did in WWE for a long time: “For a long time I didn’t really want to even see it—I was kind of mortified. But now I’m kind of in on the joke and I just appreciate it for what it was.”
— Natalya has been a mainstay in WWE for nearly two decades, breaking ground as the company’s first third-generation female Superstar. Over the years, she has stepped into the ring with nearly every major name in the women’s division.
In a recent interview with DS of “Ring the Belle,” Natalya revealed that Naomi stands out as her favorite opponent. The two looked back on their clash at SummerSlam 2017, where Natalya defeated Naomi to capture the SmackDown Women’s Championship, a match she remembers fondly. She said,
“By the way, Naomi is my favorite. She might be my favorite opponent. Wow, she was just so fun to wrestle. I love her. I love her so much. The night that I found out that I won the title, Naomi was so happy for me, because, you know, even though she was losing the title, she still celebrated me. She’s just always been so supportive of me. She’s a sister to me. She’s a sister for life.”
(h/t – Fightful)
