Liv Morgan Deserves Better
Liv Morgan is the current Smackdown Women’s Champion, but she deserves better.
Liv Morgan is one of the most improved superstar in the women’s division. You can most definitely tell she has put in a lot of work and training to get where she has. Thankfully, the WWE Universe and management have noticed. Even if you haven’t followed Liv since NXT as I have, you can see the noticed improvement since her main roster debut.
Riott Squad
Liv was one third of the trio of women superstars called up to the main roster from NXT. Ruby Riot, a somewhat familiar name was coupled with two lesser unknown women superstars, Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan. They were mashed together to form the Riott Squad in 2017. Ruby Riott, as the leader, seemed to be the most established wrestler and who would be the break out singles competitor. Liv and Sarah Logan appeared as more of supporting superstars set to raise Ruby up.
Singles Career
Riott Squad was mostly a heel faction, but Liv’s persona and blue tongue started to win over the WWE Universe. The team lost steam over time and slipped down the card to irrelevancy. In 2019, they separated due to injuries, hiatuses, and drafts. Ruby Riott was out with an injury, Sarah Logan’s single career didn’t go so well and …
“Liv Morgan inexplicably became involved in the Bobby Lashley, Lana, and Rusev love triangle, where her inclusion was never properly explained, and her being there felt like just a way to appease the fans who had clamored for Morgan to be used on TV.”
- Andrew Kelly, WWE’s Riott Squad Was An Awful Stable Full Of Potential
After a brief awkward feud amongst each other, Logan was then released. Ruby and Liv briefly reunited as a tag team and climbed the ranks, but were unsuccessful in winning the Women’s Tag Team Championships. Shortly after Ruby Riott was released and Liv Morgan was the last woman standing.
Liv bounced around in the low to mid card of the women’s division, before being off WWE television for a long time, and further developing her #WatchMe tagline. When she returned to WWE programming, we were, indeed watching her.
Title Picture
After putting in a lot of work, we all noticed, including WWE management it seemed. Liv was put in to the title picture in a feud with Becky Lynch. Although coming up short, Liv put on an impressive display and took Becky the distance. Unfortunately, after that, she dropped down the card, although her presence on WWE Raw was regular and the fans approved.
Smackdown Women’s Champion
I (and many, many others) were ecstatic to see Liv win this year’s Money in the Bank match. Then the surprising cash in later that night on Ronda Rousey was incredible! The “you deserve it” chants erupted and we all were extremely happy for Liv. Her hard work had paid off. Unfortunately, that was the height of the excitement.
It wasn’t long before her win was devalued by the constant mention of Ronda being injured by Natalya in the match prior to Liv cashing in. Many, many MITB cash-ins, Men and Women’s alike, have had similar outcomes. However, they seemed to dwell on this fact. Other than trying to “save face” for WWE’s “prized part-timer” Ronda Rousey, there was absolutely no reason for the constant reminder.
Next up was a Summerslam title match against Ronda. I wasn’t sure how they were going to book this match, nor sure of how the outcome would be effected. WWE backed themselves in to a corner here where you don’t want to pull the title from Liv so quickly, nor have a complete clean win over Ronda. Becky and Charlotte have been the only women to beat Ronda, prior to Liv’s MITB cash-in.
The match time was shortened before it even started due to Logan Paul vs. Miz going over the allotted time. The approximately 4 minute long match resulted in Liv being “rag dolled” around the ring, generating very little offense. As the Champion, Liv came off being very weak in this title defense. The tainted finish just extended this sentiment. If it was a long back and forth match with the same finish, it would have been a respectable finish. However, the booking of this was completely terrible for the fans and for Liv’s first championship.
Following this match, when Liv appeared on Smackdown, the fans chanted “you tapped out”. I’m not sure if it was scripted or just an impromptu reaction, but Liv snapped back with a censored comment for the television viewers. This whole segment seemed like there was an impending heel turn coming. I don’t believe that is part of the current plan, nor would I support that plan. I think part of the reason why Liv is the champion is because of her rapport with the fans.
Conclusion
I honestly think Liv Morgan deserves better booking for her first championship run and if WWE creative doesn’t adhere, they will tarnishing any momentum she has left and possibly any future she has staying in the main event and title picture.
What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear them in the comments below.