Xia Li has arrived on WWE SmackDown.
Naomi and Sonya Deville have been feuding for the past few months, and the former WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion was set to finally get her hands on the WWE official on Friday night. A match between the two had been scheduled for the October 15 episode, but Deville turned the bout into a handicap match where Shayna Bazler did all the heavy lifting.
On the December 10 episode of WWE SmackDown, Deville came to the ring for her scheduled singles match with Naomi, but she brought some “surprises” with her. Natalya was her special ring announcr, and Shayna Baszler was the special time keeper.
.@SonyaDevilleWWE is back in action!#SmackDown pic.twitter.com/JTe74SxbIp
— WWE (@WWE) December 11, 2021
The match quickly turned into a three-on-one situation, but right before the trio could attack Naomi, Li came to the ring. Previous vignettes have hyped up Li as “The Protector”, and she lived up to the name by saying Naomi from Deville and her enforcers. She and Naomi cleared the ring, and when the former champion took the fight to Deville, the WWE official left the area and opted to fight another day.
Welcome to #SmackDown, @XiaWWE! pic.twitter.com/YbahHF9RPq
— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) December 11, 2021
Li signed with WWE in 2017 and slowly worked her way through the system after she participated in the inaugural Mae Young Classic. With her match in this tournament, she became the first Chinese woman to ever compete in a WWE ring. In the past year, she rose to prominence as a member of Tian Sha on WWE NXT before she got drafted to SmackDown in October.
RELATED: WWE SmackDown Results (12/10/21)
