Opinion: WWE should have a Women's Tag Team Championship
WWE has made tremendous progress with the women's division, replacing the Divas Championship with the Women's Championship, adding another Women's title for the Smackdown brand, extending the time for women's matches, first-ever women's matches like Hell In A Cell, Royal Rumble and Money In The Bank, an all women's tournament last summer with the Mae Young Classic. But should the next step be introducing a Women's Tag Team Championship?
Here is a list of the women's roster on both Raw and Smackdown:
Raw: Alexa Bliss, Ronda Rousey, Mickie James, Nia Jax, Natalya, Ember Moon, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Sarah Logan, Liv Morgan, Ruby Riot, Dana Brooke and Alicia Fox. (13)
Smackdown: Carmella, Asuka, Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Peyton Royce, Billie Kay, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Tamina (injured), Zelina Vega (manager but is a wrestler too), Lana and Naomi. (12)*
In total, there are 25 female superstars on the main roster; that's possibly the greatest amount of talent WWE has ever had for a women's division. However, only about 1/4 of them are being used in important and major storylines while the other women are having put together tag team matches or sitting on the sidelines.
Becky Lynch recently had an interview at Comic-Con where she said has been promoting the Women's Tag Team Championships idea to the WWE creative team.
"Numbers wise, I don’t think we have enough to have one [set of titles] on each brand. So, what I think would be pretty cool is if they were traveling, not just between RAW and Smackdown, but NXT too. You’d have a huge range of women that you could go against, and have so many possibilities. I think that would get people excited to watch any of the brands because you wouldn’t know when people would be showing up on [those shows] because they’d all be traveling. I’ve been pitching it for a year, maybe two."
Becky's idea would be the best plan going forward for the women's division for many reasons. WWE currently is not looking into breaking up the brand split at all, especially with the news of Smackdown Live going to Fox in 2019 and Raw remaining on the USA Network. Breaking the Brand Split wouldn't be beneficial to many of the women like Naomi, Becky, Dana, Mickie, Alicia, Mandy and Sonya as they are on the lower card and they most likely won't get many opportunities at the possible unified women's championship. The traveling tag team belts could definitely work if the creative team stay committed to Becky's idea and give various chances to many women and teams who have had the unfortunate luck of either not being in the main storyline (aka the Women's Championship) or being put into random matches that go nowhere storyline-wise.
One of the things Becky Lynch included was the addition of NXT to be involved in the Women's Tag Team Championships. Many wrestlers like Candice LaRae, Bianca Belair, Lacey Evans, Kairi Sane, Dakota Kai, Aliyah, Nixon Newell and Vanessa Borne would benefit as they would get the opportunity at a possible call-up to the main roster or even the chance to compete on a PPV to not only showcase the talent within NXT women's division but getting exposure too. Despite how popular the yellow brand can be in many of their weekly shows and Takeover events, they don't present a large amount of time presenting many of the women's competitors like how Raw and Smackdown do. Since NXT is on the WWE Network, not many main roster fans may know the superstars from NXT. Involving women from Triple H's developmental brand will certainly turn some heads but it could be an interesting way to make the women's tag titles one of the most unique in the company.
If you look at the whole company of the WWE, there are a total of 14 WWE titles and only 3 are for the women's division. That in itself shows that WWE still has a lot more to work to do in this women's evolution. More titles mean more opportunities for many female wrestlers in the company who are not featured that much or used in storylines. Creating Women's Tag Team Titles will allow the majority of the women's division to be on TV every week on all three brands, Raw, Smackdown, and NXT. This will not only make the women's rosters more legitimate but it can be a great tool to sign indie and up and coming tag teams into WWE, couldn't you imagine the epic matches with the likes of Becky and Charlotte vs The Canadian Ninjas (Nicole Matthews and Porta Perez) or even the battle of the sisters with Nikki and Brie Bella vs the return of The Blossom Twins (Hannah and Holly).
There is no other way you could look past this idea, WWE has the numbers, they have incredible wrestlers, they have everything they need, it's now about pulling the trigger on when it would be introduced. Back in Spring this year, there were murmurs of a Women's Tag Team Championship being introduced at SummerSlam, made from a person on Reddit.
“As I reported here in August, NXT is introducing a mid-card title. When it was pitched in the creative meeting it was supposed to be themed after Dusty being TV champion. Vince hates the idea of a Television title, so it was changed to ‘North American.’ The NXT North American Championship is already finished and in WWE’s hands. The belt apparently has a ‘classical’ look. I am trying to get more details. Also, the long-rumored WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships are in the works for a debut around SummerSlam.”
This also discussed the newly debuted NXT North American Championship which was won by Adam Cole in a ladder match at NXT Takeover: New Orleans. The fact that title was discussed last year and now is finally being introduced for the yellow brand as a mid-card championship, be on the lookout for the new women's title around SummerSlam or after. And with Triple H's recent interview during tapings of the WWE UK Championship tournament and his talk of big plans for women's wrestling, could we see a women's tag division being made sooner than later?
What do you think? Comments down below on whether they should there be Women's Tag Team Titles in WWE?