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Should Nikki Bella’s Title Reign at WWE Night of Champions Continue?

By Michael Whitlow

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Nikki Bella is officially the longest-reigning Divas Champion in WWE history, thanks to a technicality in her title match with No. 1 contender Charlotte on Monday. Should her title reign continue Sunday at Night of Champions?

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This past episode of Monday Night was atrocious for many reasons. Not only is the Rusev-Dolph Ziggler program still going on, Nikki Bella retained the Divas Championship via disqualification against Charlotte.

Nikki, thanks to her twin sister Brie, was disqualified for trying to pull “Twin Magic” during the match, and was actually pinned by Charlotte, who was thought to be the new Divas Champion.

Stephanie McMahon — the so-called “overseer” of the Divas Revolution (which is totally not true, but I digress) — would come out on to the Raw stage and give Charlotte the victory, but the title remain with Bella thanks the DQ ruling. Steph would go on to give Charlotte a rematch for the Night of Champions pay-per-view.

Like many who were turned into Raw on Monday, I was extremely disappointing with the entire segment. What’s the point of a “Divas Revolution” if backstage politics are going to rule the roost in how the women’s division moves forward?

The politics I’m referring to? The rumors that golden boy John Cena (who is also the boyfriend of Nikki Bella) had discussions about keeping the title on Nikki, instead of one of the newer “Four Horsewomen” (specficially Charlotte) taking the reigns as champion in the division.

Also, Nikki becoming the longest-reigning Divas Champion ever means that WWE can erase A.J. Lee from any kind of references moving forward. Why would WWE do that? Oh yeah, because she’s the wife of Phil “CM Punk” Brooks.

(A hat tip goes to Daily DDT’s Jordan Campbell, who wrote about Nikki taking over as the longest-reigning champion over A.J. before it actually happened.)

(If I seem bitter, you’re right. I am.)

It’s not the fact that Nikki’s a terrible performer, because she’s not. She took a backseat to Brie for a long time during their run in WWE, and her heel turn at SummerSlam was somewhat predictable, but still was a great move moving forward. What they did after that however, isn’t something I’d called “quality television“.

But, if you’re going to call up three tremendous in-ring performers and dub their arrival as a “revolution”, you have to make that trio look powerful (à la The Shield, just not as a group). Charlotte is more than ready to follow in her father’s footsteps as a great champion, Sasha Banks is the best female performer in wrestling, and Becky Lynch continues to grow and progress into an awesome Lass-kicker.

So tell me, why are we doing this again?

“BellaTrons” and “Bellabrations”? We’re getting a 30-minute Ironwoman match for the NXT Women’s Championship next month at another NXT: TakeOver event, and this is what the main card is doing?

Nikki Bella is not Trish Stratus. She’s not even in the same discussion as the seven-time Women’s Champion and the greatest female performer in WWE history. There’s really no reason for her to hold the title this long, let alone past Night of Champions. If she does retain the gold on Sunday in a rematch with Charlotte — which after Monday’s reaction from many, it’s not likely — it will legitimately destroy the “Divas Revolution”.

Personally, this revolution has been an overall disaster. It’s definitely not Paige, Charlotte, Becky or Sasha’s fault. There’s no stories being told inside or outside the ropes and fans have no reason to get behind any of these ladies, which isn’t their fault either. The revolution starts when “inmates start running the asylum” as the great Theodore Long would say.

Simply put, Charlotte needs a clean victory on Sunday night in Houston. NXT went through their transition by having Sasha drop the title to Bayley in Brooklyn, and now it’s time for a better-known star to do the same and pass the torch.

(h/t to Wrestling Inc. via The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer on the Cena/Bella/Divas rumors.)

Next: Why Was Nikki Bella Retaining On Monday Such A Bad Move?

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