Fatal Influence beat Chelsea Green, Tiffany Stratton and Paige on SmackDown.
Jacy Jayne pinned Paige after Nikki Bella interfered, the Rolling Encore followed and that was that. Seven-and-a-half minutes of television wrestling, three champions leaving victorious and another piece added to the increasingly strange relationship between Paige and Nikki.
Except this wasn’t really just about the result.
Because right now, Fatal Influence look exceptionally polished. And when a wrestling faction reaches the point where throwing a coat at a camera feels almost as important as holding three championship belts, I think we are allowed to start paying attention to the details.
Chelsea Green Knows Exactly What Could Go Wrong
Before the match at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on September 25, Chelsea Green had already spent part of SmackDown worrying about Money in the Bank.
Somebody could cash in on her.
Yes, Chelsea. They could.
But that is precisely why the current Chelsea Green 2026 character works for me. She is WWE Women’s Champion, yet becoming champion has not suddenly made her oblivious to the enormous target strapped to her back. If anything, it has made her more aware of it.
There is Nikki Bella hovering around the division. There is a Money in the Bank contract waiting to become relevant. There is also the small matter of Rhea Ripley eventually returning, with Green essentially occupying the position Ripley left behind.
At this moment, one can only assume WWE wants those threats to keep circling her.
I can already picture the particularly cruel possibility: Nikki attacks Green, leaves her vulnerable and somebody else arrives carrying that briefcase. Wrestling loves a champion whose problems begin multiplying faster than they can solve them.
Then Green’s partners arrived.
Paige. Tiffany Stratton. The diamond-crusted mask. Everybody looked appropriately expensive.
And then Fatal Influence walked out.
They looked better.
Who Are the Members of Fatal Influence?
For anybody arriving late, the members of Fatal Influence are Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid.
And presently, they have quite a lot of jewellery.
Jayne entered Indianapolis as WWE Women’s United States Champion, while Henley and Reid held the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. Since moving from NXT to SmackDown in April, the group have increasingly stopped looking like visitors from another programme and started looking like a proper main-roster faction.
There is a difference.
Henley demonstrated it before anybody had really done anything. Walking towards the ring, she removed her entrance jacket and launched it directly onto the television camera.
Wonderful.
Completely unnecessary. Therefore, obviously, absolutely necessary.
This is professional wrestling. Nice heel work should be protected like a listed building.
Paige Starts a Fight
Fallon Henley and Paige started the match.
Paige slapped her.
Not a polite wrestling slap either. It looked horrible.
Lainey Reid tagged in and immediately ate several knees before Chelsea Green entered and continued throwing strikes. Tiffany Stratton decided she fancied some of this as well.
Jayne attempted to intervene and received a Paige superkick for her trouble.
No fun for Fatal Influence.
After the advert, however, the structure changed. Jayne and Stratton were legal before Reid came in and Fatal Influence began using quicker combinations, isolating Tiffany and producing a slick double-team sequence for a two-count.
Henley tagged in. She and Stratton collided with simultaneous clotheslines.
Both down.
Green and Reid entered.
Green immediately accelerated things with Japanese arm drags and drove Reid face-first into the canvas. She tried to go upstairs and Reid answered with a superkick.
It was all moving ridiculously quickly.
That matters.
When watching Tiffany Stratton matches, it is tempting to concentrate on the enormous athletic moments because Stratton is very good at producing them. But six-person tags live or die on the little pieces between those moments. Somebody has to be standing in the correct corner. Somebody has to disappear from the frame. Somebody has to tag at precisely the right second.
Otherwise you get Godzilla trampling through the choreography and everything collapses.
This didn’t.
Five Seconds of Wrestling That I Loved
Eventually we reached Paige and Jacy Jayne.
There were German suplexes, Paige hit the Paige Turner and Henley had to intervene to prevent the pin.
Then came perhaps my favourite little sequence of the match.
Henley and Reid pulled Chelsea Green from the ring by her feet. Suddenly Green was outside and Fatal Influence had manufactured a two-on-one situation.
It probably lasted about five seconds.
That sounds incredibly simple.
It isn’t.
In a live wrestling match, Henley and Reid have to get Green outside, surround her, establish the visual and leave enough room for Tiffany Stratton to arrive at exactly the right moment.
Stratton did.
She launched herself onto both women with a diving frog splash.
Bang.
Everything fitted.
These are the moments where a wrestling match begins feeling effortless precisely because everybody involved has put considerable effort into making it look that way.
Then Green and Stratton looked at each other.
Smile.
Dance.
“It’s Tiffy Time.”
Indianapolis went nuts.
Lovely stuff.
Jayne responded by cannonballing into both of them.
Even better.
And Then Nikki Bella Appeared
Back inside, Paige was preparing another attack.
And there was Nikki Bella.
Bella reached from ringside and pulled Paige’s feet away, knocking her off balance. Jayne did not need a written invitation.
Rolling Encore.
One.
Two.
Three.
Fatal Influence win.
And crucially, nobody really loses.
Paige was beaten because Nikki Bella interfered. Green wasn’t pinned. Stratton wasn’t pinned. Fatal Influence got another major victory and Jayne was clever enough to capitalise immediately when an opportunity appeared.
There’s a case to be made that this is exactly what television wrestling should accomplish. Move six wrestlers forward without making any of them feel smaller than they did eight minutes earlier.
Then came the really good stuff.
Jacy Jayne Still Understands the Assignment
Nikki Bella isn’t a member of Fatal Influence.
She didn’t ask permission to interfere.
She certainly didn’t require Jacy Jayne’s approval.
But when a Hall of Famer gives you a helping hand, why wouldn’t you acknowledge it?
Jayne turned towards Nikki and blew her an enormous exaggerated kiss.
Perfect.
For approximately three seconds I wondered whether Nikki Bella joining Fatal Influence might actually work.
No.
Stop it.
That’s silly.
Bella then performed a hair flick that appeared to open a wormhole directly back to the early 2010s. Somewhere, the spirit of Total Divas stirred.
I’m here for it.
Jayne’s first celebration, meanwhile, was to flex her biceps.
Again: why not?
Although I am afraid Jacy does not possess the largest arms in Fatal Influence. Reid’s conditioning is genuinely impressive. She looks exceptionally powerful at the moment and, if she continues in this direction, Jade Cargill’s abs may eventually have some competition.
There are serious wrestling reasons why Reid works in this group, but presentation matters too. Jayne is the centrepiece, Henley has developed the mannerisms and opportunism, while Reid provides an immediate physical presence.
They look different.
They behave differently.
Yet they look like they belong together.
That is harder to manufacture than simply putting three people in matching colours.
Nikki Bella Goes Full 1980s Villain
The camera eventually returned to Green, Stratton and Paige.
All three were annoyed.
Their attention was fixed much higher in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, where Nikki had retreated into the crowd. Smoky eye make-up, enormous hair, entirely pleased with herself.
There was a stare-down.
And then came something wonderfully stupid.
We didn’t get the clearest view of the entire incident on the broadcast, but reports surrounding the show suggested Nikki took a young fan’s “Tiffy Time” sign and shredded it.
Now that is heel behaviour.
Not attacking somebody backstage.
Not delivering a 12-minute monologue explaining your motivations.
Take the child’s sign.
Destroy it.
Leave.
Some wrestling traditions do not require modernisation.
Fatal Influence Are Becoming More Than Their Championships
The temptation with Fatal Influence is to point towards the belts.
Jayne has the United States Championship. Henley and Reid have the tag titles. Obviously the faction is succeeding.
But belts alone don’t make a group compelling.
It is the coat hitting the camera.
It is Henley and Reid creating that tiny two-on-one situation outside.
It is Jayne immediately recognising Paige’s vulnerability after Nikki’s interference.
It is the cannonball interrupting Green and Stratton’s celebration.
It is Jacy flexing after the victory and blowing a ridiculous kiss towards somebody who isn’t even part of her faction.
Those things accumulate.
Fatal Influence arrived on SmackDown needing to demonstrate that what worked in NXT could survive the larger ecosystem of the main roster. Months later, perhaps the more interesting question is no longer whether they belong there.
It is how far WWE intends to take them.
Because Chelsea Green still has a briefcase somewhere over her shoulder. Paige has Nikki Bella staring back at her from the stands. Tiffany Stratton remains enormously popular. Rhea Ripley’s return still sits somewhere in the future.
And Fatal Influence?
They walked out of Indianapolis with all their championships, another victory and somehow even more swagger than when they entered.
For now, everything is working.
The interesting part will be discovering what happens when somebody finally makes it stop.
