Charlotte Flair returns, immediately wins SmackDown women’s championship

Raquel Rodriguez won a Gauntlet match just last week to make herself the top contender to the SmackDown women’s championship. WWE decided to have her challenge Ronda Rousey on the end of year episode of Friday Night SmackDown in Tampa, a big show featuring the return of John Cena for his first match of 2022.

Would they actually do a title change here? With that little build?

Of course not.

A big focus of the match, unsurprisingly, was the fact that Rodriguez was working with the arm injury Rousey and Shayna Baszler saddled her with before even the Gauntlet match. She fought valiantly despite it, getting a few big comeback spots that made it look like she may actually have a shot at winning.

Alas it was not to be.

In the end, while she was protected in a way many others wouldn’t be, Rodriguez lost.

Then, Charlotte Flair made her return to television after spending most of the year away from WWE, and immediately asked for a shot at the title. Rousey, despite Baszler begging her not to accept, went for it.

They had a short match, and wouldn’t you know it, Flair won the championship by rolling Rousey up through an armbar attempt. Then she went into the crowd to celebrate her 14th title win in WWE.

How about that?

Get complete SmackDown results and coverage of this week’s entire show right here.