The wrestling world rejoiced when the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship was announced in December of 2018. Fans believed the WWF will revive the Women’s Tag Team Championship, which was discontinued 30 years ago. Alexa Bliss announced the titles on “A Moment of Bliss” in January and said the first champions will be crowned at Elimination Chamber in February.
Six teams were involved in the Elimination Chamber match. Nia Jax & Tamina, Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan, and Bayley & Sasha Banks represented Monday Night Raw in the match. The Smackdown teams consisted of Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville, The IIconics, and Carmella & Naomi. The WWE Women’s Tag Team Title will be defended on Raw, Smackdown, and NXT, making it the only cross-brand championship. Sonya Deville tapped out the Bank Statement from Sasha Banks and Bayley. Sasha and Bayley seemed like the ideal inaugural champions. Best friends and were not randomly put together as a tag team, it felt as though the Boss n’ Hug Connection would be a prominent feature of the tag team division for a long time. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.
At Wrestlemania 35, only 49 days after winning the Championship, the Boss n’ Hug connections lost their titles to the IIconics in a fatal four-way match that also featured Natalya & Beth Phoenix, as well as Nia Jax & Tamina. Sasha and Bayley were striving to add dignity and respect to the fresh new Championship, and dropping the championships less than two months later would harm the future of the championship and division.
The IIconics did hold the Championship for 120 days but lost them in yet another fatal four-way elimination match when they were eliminated first and Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross picked up the victory. Alexa and Nikki held the championships for about two months but were defeated by the Kabuki Warriors at Hell in a Cell 2019. The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane) were arguably one of the most successful teams to hold the Championship as they were champions for an impressive 172 days – an impressive record that still has not been broken.
Since the Kabuki Warriors, the Tag Team Championship has changed hands multiple times in the past almost three years. Teams such as Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler (twice), Asuka & Charlotte Flair, Natalya & Tamina, Nikki A.S.H & Rhea Ripley, Carmella & Zelina Vega, and Sasha Banks & Naomi have all won the championship. Sasha Banks & Bayley, Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross also held the championship twice.
So, with all these super talented women, how did the Women’s Tag Team Championship end up fading into obscurity? I believe the company simply did not do enough to actually build a women’s tag team division. It seemed like the championships were always a prop for a greater plot or there if they didn’t have anything for some of the ladies on the roster to accomplish. Tag teams sometimes seemed cobbled together randomly simply to battle for the championship.
Many of the tag teams did not seem to have chemistry or seemed to be forgettable altogether. Each week, the ladies did their best with what they were given to make the tales and matches as interesting as possible. They weren’t given enough TV time, and it felt like anybody could obtain a title shot without earning it, causing the championship to lose its status.
Some huge news lately is the fact that Sasha Banks and Naomi walked out of Raw reportedly due to creative differences involving the championship. The rumor is that Sasha and Naomi were supposed to be involved in a match that would see them facing each other (and four other women) in a six-pack challenge for a chance at the Smackdown Women’s Championship. The issue came up yet again of it feeling as though the Championship didn’t matter to the company. WWE initially proposed a tournament to crown new champions after stripping Sasha and Naomi of their crowns and suspending them. However, nothing about the tournament has been said since with rumors swirling that any plans had been indeed scrapped.
As of this writing, the Championship remains vacant, with nobody mentioning it on television. I’d love to see the Championships return with actual tag teams competing. I hope WWE treats the championships seriously, but if they don’t, it may be better to ditch the WWE Women’s Championship.
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