Although most of the talk regarding Survivor Series 2016 has centered on that 86-second Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar main event, there was also a lot going on in terms of storyline as far as the other matches went. And that included the mystery of who attacked Nikki Bella prior to the Survivor Series women’s elimination match. While the obvious suspects include Carmella and Natalya, could Nikki’s attacker be someone far more unlikely, possibly fellow babyface competitor Becky Lynch?
In the months leading to Survivor Series , Nikki Bella made her comeback in August after missing ten months with a neck injury, returning as a member of the SmackDown Live roster. She was pushed as a babyface upon her return, and this was established when recent NXT call-up Carmella attacked her after a match, leading to a long feud between both women.
The run-up to Survivor Series also saw Bella face off against Natalya in a match to determine membership in SmackDown Live’s women’s team. As Nikki had won that match, that left Natalya with no choice at first but to serve as Team SmackDown’s “coach,” but Natalya ended up wrestling after all at Survivor Series , as an unknown attacker took Nikki Bella out of action in the locker room, right before the women’s elimination match.
As Nikki had been feuding with Carmella, and Natalya didn’t seem all too happy with her role as the Team SmackDown women’s coach, that made both of them “suspects,” with Carmella singled out by Nikki as the prime suspect. But a new report from WrestlingNews.co (c/o the Wrestling Observer Newsletter ) suggests that neither woman may be responsible for attacking Nikki Bella at Survivor Series 2016.
The report suggests that Nikki Bella was removed from the women’s elimination match not because she had suffered an injury. In fact, the Internet Wrestling Database shows Nikki taking part in four matches after Survivor Series 2016, putting to rest any speculation that she may have re-injured her neck. Instead, the backstage attack was a storyline element that had been planned out weeks in advance, one that would eventually result in the mystery attacker’s revelation.
Nikki Bella believes the Survivor Series backstage attack was carried out by Carmella and had said as much on the past week’s SmackDown Live episode. This set up a no-disqualification match between her and Carmella at WWE’s TLC pay-per-view in December. And while WWE Creative apparently wants fans to believe that it was Natalya who had ambushed Nikki, possibly over jealousy at not being an original member of SmackDown’s women’s team, it might all be a red herring, and a setup for an unexpected reveal at some point in the future.
In a fantasy booking scenario, WrestlingNews.co’s Corey Jacobs suggested that Nikki Bella’s Survivor Series attacker be revealed in March, in order to set up a match at WrestleMania 33 in April. What’s interesting, however, is his suggestion that SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch be revealed as the attacker.
“If they wanted to do this right then they should hold off on revealing the attacker until March. That would lead to the reveal being Becky Lynch (turning heel, of course) with the reason being that Lynch was jealous that she was not the team captain at Survivor Series and jealous that Nikki gets more air time even though Becky is WWE Smackdown Women’s Champ.”
Would such a fantasy booking scenario make sense, and give SmackDown’s women a chance to shine at WrestleMania 33 ? Since joining the main roster, Becky Lynch has not yet played a villainous character, and she is currently enjoying a pretty good run as the brand’s top female babyface. But she did play a heel role at times in NXT, and she had recently told GamesRadar that it would be nice to turn heel “when people least expect it,” and “mostly for social media.”
The identity of Nikki Bella’s Survivor Series attacker is still anybody’s guess, and if it isn’t Carmella, Natalya, or even Becky, there are still several other surprising possibilities to consider. But it seems clear WWE wants to pull off a big shocker, and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out when the big reveal is made.
[Featured Image by WWE]