Last week’s episode of SmackDown featured a six-woman tag team match pitting Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, and WWE Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley versus Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley, and Lainey Reid. This seemed like standard fare in WWE after a couple weeks of Fatal Influence getting called up to the main roster and running amok on SmackDown. Earlier in the show, Henley and Reid made it clear that they are coming for the WWE women’s tag team championship. Meanwhile, Jayne was being positioned to likely challenge for Ripley’s title at either Saturday Night’s Main Event (May 23) or Clash In Italy after defeating Flair in a singles match the week before. In other words, the WWE women’s division on the blue brand was moving along just fine with a pretty clear direction for Fatal Influence’s hostile takeover following WrestleMania 42.

That was until Jade Cargill made her surprise return. Cargill hit the ring (along with her henchwomen Michin & B-Fab) to lay waste to the babyfaces in the 6-woman tag, allowing Fatal Influence to pick up the win. Jade took out Ripley. The Baddies took out Flair. Fatal Influence backed out of there rather than get into a physical confrontation with Cargill’s faction. The bottom line is that things are suddenly a lot more uncertain at the top of the women’s division on the blue brand now that Jade is back, and GM Nick Aldis needs to quickly sort this out. Tune into SmackDown tonight to find out more about his plan for the WWE women’s championship as Saturday Night’s Main Event and Clash In Italy approach later this month.

 Paul Heyman no longer owes GUNTHER a favor after setting up a contract for his WWE championship match against Cody Rhodes at Clash In Italy. The only problem is that GUNTHER hasn’t signed the contract yet. Heyman says the onus is on Rhodes to find a way to get the Ring General to sign on the dotted line, but I’m not so sure about that. Solo Sikoa is trying to bolster the MFTs after JC Mateo and Tonga Loa were taken out by Jacob Fatu and then released by WWE. To that end, Talla Tonga has stepped up and is beating the hell out of wrestlers like WWE Tag Team Champions Damian Priest and R-Truth. Sikoa has not given up on recruiting Royce Keys, even though the powerhouse is clearly on Jacob Fatu’s side. Meanwhile, Tama Tonga is frustrated by the whole thing and doesn’t get why Solo is wasting his time on Keys.