Tiffany Stratton Pins Bayley Clean, Retains WWE Women's Title In SmackDown Main Event

Tiffany Stratton defeated Bayley in the first defense of her WWE Women's Championship in the main event of "WWE SmackDown." Stratton won the title earlier this month when she cashed in her Money in the Bank contract on Nia Jax, betraying her friend after helping her retain the title over Naomi. Last week, Bayley earned the first opportunity at Stratton's title reign with a four-way win against Jax, Naomi, and her Women's Tag Championship partner, Bianca Belair. It was also an opportunity for Bayley to avenge her own title loss to Jax at SummerSlam last year, during which Stratton interfered to help Jax win, but it would ultimately turn out to be a successful first defense for the champion instead. 

The match started much as it would go on, with Bayley and Stratton exchanging maneuvers and offense to tell the tale of a calculated veteran working against the younger athlete. Another of Bayley's adversaries, former NXT Women's Champion Roxanne Perez, was in attendance for the title match, and with the action spilling to the outside she took a moment to jeer towards Perez. She dumped Stratton back in the ring, hitting an elbow drop from the top rope – only for a near-fall – and cinching in a crossface akin to the Bank Statement. Bayley sought the Rose Plant to finish things off in the closing stretch, only for Stratton to escape the move and land the Prettiest Moonsault Ever to get the winning pinfall.