Reviewing the Opening of the Queen's Crown Tournament

The season premiere of SmackDown featured, among other things, the beginning of WWE's first-ever Queen's Crown Tournament. Rumors and stories about WWE doing a Queen of the Ring Tournament had been swirling for about a year, and after many requests from women's wrestling fans such as myself, it finally came to pass. However, what should have been a great start to a monumental first for WWE's women's division was, well, anything but that.

The tournament opened with Zelina Vega facing off against Toni Storm, and it was during Zelina and Toni's entrances that we were introduced to the actual bracket. Much like the King of the Ring during both brand splits, there's a SmackDown half and a Raw half of the tournament bracket. Now for those of you asking about the Draft, well, it has been stated that the new post-Draft rosters will officially take shape on October 22, one day after Crown Jewel. Half of the eight-woman tournament actually switched brands in the two-night draft; Carmella, Liv Morgan, and Zelina Vega were moved to Raw, while Shayna Baszler was moved to SmackDown.

Anyway, Toni and Zelina each gave promos during their entrances, with Zelina comparing herself to Cleopatra and Alexander the Great; while Toni referenced music icons Joan Jett, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, and also referring to herself as the Queen of Rock. The match itself wasn't too long, and it ended with Zelina winning over Toni, who still hasn't had any momentum since being called up from NXT.

Thoughts: I'm actually fine with Zelina winning; I'd have been happy either way, even though I think Toni needed this more. A thought I just had is that WWE could be trying to make it up to Zelina for a) unjustly firing her, and b) releasing her husband. The only negative is that it came at the expense of Toni Storm, whose call-up to SmackDown was heavily promoted, but has sadly been followed by severe underutilization.

The second SmackDown match featured a pair of Raw-bound women continuing their feud: Liv Morgan and Carmella. Liv and Carmella had been at it for several weeks, including Extreme Rules, which saw Liv pick up her first singles PPV win in her WWE career. Their most recent encounter saw Carmella debut her face mask, which came weeks after Liv was kicked in the face during a tag team bout. Carmella won that match, so I figured that this tournament bout would see the opposite happen. I was sadly mistaken; Carmella defeated Liv for the second straight week.

Thoughts: I can accept Zelina winning over Toni, but I am extremely LIV-id over this (see what I did there?). Liv Morgan should have not only defeated Carmella, she should have been the one to win this whole tournament. Carmella hasn't had many big moments, but compared to Liv, Carmella's practically a Horsewoman. Liv has had the rug pulled out from under her too many times. I can go as far back as her main roster debut four years ago as one-third of the Riott Squad. Never got to hold the tag titles. Had a great angle with Lana, but that got kiboshed. Was off TV for no reason at all. And now, after getting a huge PPV win, instead of giving her momentum, they do this to her. Honestly, I wouldn't blame Liv if she followed her former sister-in-arms in the Riott Squad to AEW, which, unlike WWE, isn't run by someone who doesn't know what year it is.

And as a result of this, we have a heel vs heel semifinal on the SmackDown side: Carmella vs Zelina Vega. That makes no sense. Though Zelina should win that because, again, I think WWE is trying to make it up to her. The tournament will continue on Raw with Doudrop facing Natalya, as well as Dana Brooke facing Shayna Baszler. Carmella vs Zelina will take place on the following SmackDown, while the other semifinal will occur on the October 18 Raw. The finals of the tournament will take place at Crown Jewel in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, giving the event two women's matches, as the other will feature Becky Lynch defending the SmackDown Women's Championship against Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair.

If you like this story, feel free to click the heart below, and if you really love this story, feel free to leave a tip (if you want)!