Recapping the Second Quarterfinal Match in the 2026 Queen of the Ring Tournament

The 2026 Queen of the Ring Tournament got underway in amazing fashion on Monday's Raw, coming one day after WWE's Clash in Italy event. Similar to last year's tournament, the format features a Quarterfinal round consisting of four-way matches, with the four winners advancing to the Semifinals. The first Quarterfinal match saw Iyo Sky victorious over Lash Legend, Roxanne Perez, and Giulia, becoming the first to advance.

As Michael Cole stated on that night's Raw, the tournament would continue on SmackDown, but while we did know what Quarterfinal match would take place on the next Raw, we did not know which of the other two matches would take place on this week's SmackDown at the time. The website's promo of the show told the story: the tournament's second Quarterfinal was the four-way that featured Bayley, Raquel Rodriguez, Kiana James, and Jacy Jayne.

Bayley doesn't need a description. First Women's Grand Slam Champion, Royal Rumble winner, MITB winner. She's done it all, despite fans acting like WWE's slighting her. Raquel Rodriguez is a former NXT Women's Champion, and has been tag champion so many times on the main roster. Kiana James has been paired up with Giulia for months, but that business relationship has been showing cracks lately, and Jacy Jayne's been on the main roster for a cup of coffee, but she's put in situations with Rhea Ripley already.

This was quite an interesting bout, and the interest started before the bell rang. Jacy had Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid with her at first, but they went to the back, Bayley entered on her own anyway, Raquel had Liv with her, but Liv went to back. Giulia didn't go to the back. Days after her loss on Raw, Giulia was in Kiana's corner. That's where the interest increased. The contest saw all four women show out, but a moment where Kiana had Bayley pinned was broken up by Jacy. When Kiana saw Giulia, she put the blame on her client. Oh boy. The beat went on, and after a string signature moves, it was Raquel's that made the difference, as she got the pin on Kiana.

This was obvious from the get-go. Kiana's still a few months away from some serious elevation, Jacy's not ready (yet they want to keep her working with Rhea), and Bayley doesn't need the win. Also, Raquel's win (which sets up a Semifinal between her and Iyo Sky) continues the planned friction among (at least) the women of Judgment Day. Remember: Liv ran her mouth about her and Dominik being on their way to winning their respective tournaments, pretty much dismissing Roxanne's disappointment after her loss, and not acknowledging Raquel. I'll be honest, Judgment Day should have ended about a year ago. The faction's been around for four years. You know how long ago it started? The Avalanche didn't trade for Artturi Lehkonen yet! That's how long ago that Judgment Day started! I say either just kick the guys (JD and Dom) out and make it a female faction, or kibosh it altogether.

Speaking of kiboshed:

It's finally over. The business kinship between Kiana James and Giulia finally came to an end, as Kiana lashed out at Giulia and pretty much blamed her for the loss. Kiana stated that she put her own aspirations on hold for Giulia, which, in a way, has been accurate. But we all knew Kiana had her own plans, she always did. Giulia finally had enough and took down her now-former partner/manager, and just like that, Giulia's a face again, which makes me happy. I honestly do think that Giulia works a little bit better as a heroine; she has that strong babyface energy and she has an ability to use it without coming across as overly white-meat. You just know that Kiana will plan some sort of revenge against Giulia, though; she is not a woman to be crossed.

So we now know which of the remaining Quarterfinal matches will occur on which show. Raw will feature the match pitting Becky Lynch, Chelsea Green, Alexa Bliss, and Women's World Champion Liv Morgan (how Liv is in this instead of Maxxine, Ivy, or Jordynne--to name a few--is appalling). As for next week's SmackDown, that will feature the fourth and final Quarterfinal, which will feature Lyra Valkyria, Women's Intercontinental Champion Sol Ruca, Jade Cargill, and Charlotte Flair. While Iyo vs Raquel is set as one Semifinal, the winner of the upcoming Raw match will face whoever wins next Friday. That means we could get Charlotte vs Alexa, oh man! We could also get Becky vs Sol in another match, or we could actually get Becky vs Charlotte (we won't, but still).

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The Queen of the Ring Tournament has been exciting so far, and I truly think that the remaining Quarterfinal matches will be show stoppers and will have some amazing moments. It should be very thrilling to see how this entire tournament shapes up!