One of the brightest spots on tonight’s “SmackDown” was once again the partnership, now borderline friendship of Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair. I really enjoyed Bliss’ match tonight against Roxanne Perez ahead of their Women’s Tag Team Championship match at SummerSlam, and Bliss got an excellent pop, as they were in her home state of Ohio. For just a simple singles match, it really did a lot to further the story of their pairing going in to “The Biggest Party of the Summer.” Last week, Bliss was a cheerleader, complete with black pom poms, for Flair, and this week, it was Flair cheerleading for Bliss. And, she actually looked happy about it and it was honestly pretty cute.

The match itself wasn’t anything crazy and of course involved a lot of interference from Flair and Raquel Rodriguez, but that was to be expected. The Twisted Bliss off the top rope to Rodriguez on the floor wasn’t as clean as it could have been, and while noteworthy, I didn’t mind that too much. Perez got the rollup win by holding on to the rope, which was the right call going into the premium live event. The tag champ got the victory, but also, Flair can’t be mad at her partner because of how messy everything was at the end, with Flair attempting to take on Rodriguez on the outside herself.

Poor Bliss also was busted open to end the match. It didn’t look too bad, like maybe her nose was just bumped the wrong way, but the image of Flair looking concerned for her in the ring actually worked out really well. As did their short backstage heart-to-heart after the match. Flair checked on Bliss and said, “We’re partners, aren’t we?” To which Bliss noticed Flair almost said they were friends. It was a cute interaction on a night that really needed something a bit more lighthearted.

I’ve been saying for awhile now that their tag team is doing wonders for Flair’s character, which really needed the rehabilitation post-WrestleMania. Ashley Fliehr is doing some work on that herself, but thankfully, WWE is also focusing on her character within this story and Bliss was the right call as a partner for “The Queen.” I’m hopeful that they realize this should absolutely continue with Bliss and Flair winning the titles. I think it’s best for all stories involved, with them continuing on as babyfaces, and maybe even Bliss can turn heel on Flair to make things interesting, and of course, there’s the Liv Morgan storyline with Perez and Rodriguez. I’m really liking all of this and finding it intriguing, so thankfully, SummerSlam is right around the corner. This is one match that WWE has absolutely gotten right.

Written by Daisy Ruth