It was the first Smackdown of the new year.

2025 is here.

It was also the first Smackdown in the three-hour format,

so long to two-hour Raws and two-hour Smackdowns.

But it was also the first time that we have had a money-in-the-bank cash- in on Smackdown in six years.

Finally, finally, it has happened. Tiffany Stratton, all the teases that we have had now for

months. Every single week it felt like Tiffany Stratton would tease, is tonight going to be the

night that she would cash in her money in the bank?

And then she would pull back or something would happen.

Something would get in the way.

And it was to the point of absurdity where you just are begging for it to happen already.

Not even so much that, you know, you obviously want to see Tiffany win the championship because she's very popular, even though she's a heel, but just enough with the teases. You got to give us something at some point.

And it felt like maybe this being the first three-hour Smackdown, the first Smackdown of the New Year, everything is all about raw on Netflix this Monday, that they might want to give the fans something.

They might want to throw them a bone here on the first Smackdown of the New Year, and that's

exactly what they did.

Apparently, this was a closely guarded secret and was known internally for many weeks

that this is what they were going to do.

And the way they did it was actually very smart because we had Naya

Jacks tonight defending the WWE Women's Championship against Naomi. These two had a really good

match on Smackdown a couple of months ago. No real explanation of why Naomi was all of a sudden

getting another shot at the title, but they did the match tonight. And the way they did this,

they had Tiffany Stratton come out late in the match and make you think that not only was she not going to cash in, but that this whole thing, all of this

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