On August 16th’s episode of SmackDown, Eva Marie skipped her in-ring debut for the third week in a row.
Marie was scheduled to go up against Naomi on Tuesday’s episode. After an incredibly long and flashy new intro for Naomi, Eva Marie’s entrance was hyped up, only for it to be announced that “Eva Marie…has been delayed due to traffic and will unable to compete.” A confused Naomi was left standing in the ring as the show quickly moved on.
Obviously, there was no real traffic. This is the continuation of an ongoing joke on SmackDown where Eva Marie’s debut is scheduled, only for the performer to find some way to get out of it. It started when Marie faked an injury to avoid going up against Becky Lynch. Last week, she was scheduled to fight Lynch a second time, only for the match to be cancelled due to a “wardrobe malfunction” that was very clearly set up.
Making the joke even funnier was the fact that this segment was previously promoted on the USA Network as “Eva Marie’s spectacular debut.”
Shortly after the segment aired, Marie said on Twitter that she is sorry and that traffic in Austin is horrible.
Eva Marie actually did show up about 40 minutes later, when she walked out in the middle of a match between Carmella & Becky Lynch and Natalya & Alexa Bliss. Naomi entered right behind Marie, going after her in an attempt to finally have that fight. Marie evaded, and Becky Lynch was able to win the main match in all the chaos.
Ahead of the debut of SmackDown‘s upcoming Women’s Championship title, rumors have begun to spread that the title will be given to Eva Marie. As evidenced by this running gag, which has caused fans to go wild with laughter on social media, she certainly knows how to get a reaction out of viewers, in this case by trolling them each and every week.