WWE Rumors: Vince McMahon had no plan for the Women’s Tag Team Titles (Exclusive)
What’s the story?
To much fanfare, WWE introduced the Women’s Tag Team Titles at February’s Elimination Chamber pay per view. Since then the titles have been noticeably absent from our screens, especially considering that they are supposedly cross-brand to a huge degree.
Sources are now indicating that this is because Vince McMahon didn’t have any real plan for the titles from the moment that they were debuted.
In case you didn’t know…
After a sustained campaign, let by inaugural champions Sasha Banks and Bayley, Vince McMahon finally relented and introduced the women’s tag team championships at the beginning of the year. The first champions were decided in an intense Elimination Chamber match; a match in which many of the women that wrestled performed very admirably.
At WrestleMania, Banks and Bayley would lose their championships to The Iiconics in the booking decision that is widely believed to be behind The Boss’ current prolonged absence from the company. Since then The Iiconics have been largely missing from our TV screens. A possible feud with The Bella Twins was reportedly ended before it could begin due to injuries to Nikki Bella. A feud with The Kabuki Warriors was heavily teased but never really came to fruition.
So what exactly has caused their omission?
The heart of the matter
A WWE source close to the creative team had the following to say:
“Vince didn’t want women’s tag titles. He was under a lot of pressure so he brought them in early without thinking much about it. There was no plan. We still don’t know if there’s any plan.”
The women’s tag team titles were supposedly brought in prematurely. One source suggested this was to “appease Banks” whereas another just cited “horrible timing” for their lack of use thus far.
I’ve been told previously by other sources that women’s tag team title segments have been cut from SmackDown Live in the past to make way for alternative content, particularly in light of the wild card rule taking up additional TV time.
It’s believed also that a lot of bad luck went into The Iiconics title reign. A factor which some people considered very unfair.
“Peyton and Billie did the best they could…nothing went right for them.”
What’s next?
The Wrestling Observer suggested that we would see a fatal four-way match for the women’s tag team titles on Summerslam. That match actually took place on Raw this past week, which Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross winning the championships. It is very rare to see a storyline featuring Alexa Bliss that hasn’t been planned out with meticulous detail. This is a good sign for the titles.
However, there are still a lot of question marks. With Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff both known to favor clear and obvious brand splits, it’s hard to know for certain what might happen.
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