We are nearing the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view airing live on the WWE Network on Feb. 17th. Which teams have the best chances at winning the Elimination Chamber match to decide the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions?
Credit: WWE.com
It feels like only yesterday that Santa Claus – who looked suspiciously like WWE Chairman Vince McMahon under that beard – gave WWE the greatest gift of all by bringing WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships into existence after us fans have been begging for them for so long.
We did not get much info on when those belts will be implemented officially into WWE canon though, until a momentous episode of Alexa Bliss’s talk show segment, A Moment of Bliss.
On this historic episode, Bliss not only revealed what the titles would look like, but that the inaugural champions will be decided inside of the Elimination Chamber between six women’s tag teams.
After several weeks of qualifications and declarations, those six teams would be revealed to be The Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection, Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose, Naomi and Carmella, Nia Jax and Tamina, The IIconics and The Riott Squad.
Theoretically, in the unpredictable universe of the WWE, anything is possible and the match could be anyone’s ball game.
However, with just under two weeks to go before the show is officially underway live on the WWE Network on February 17th, we decided to take the time to rank which teams have the best chance at winning the match and becoming the first ever WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions.
We ranked each team in the match from who has the least likely chance at winning to which team had the most likely chance at walking out as WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions.
via wwe.com
6. Naomi & Carmella
The first team we are going to talk about is the last team to enter the Elimination Chamber: the team of Carmella and Naomi. Unlike half of the Chamber’s participants, these two did not have to qualify for the match.
In fact, unless we count the last couple of SmackDown vs Raw Elimination matches and a Six-Woman-Tag match from SummerSlam 2016, Carmella and Naomi have never teamed up together before.
They are the very definition of a thrown together tag team. It is understandable, given that WWE is at a shortage of women’s tag teams, especially on the SmackDown side of things. It was either going to be these two as the final team or some combination between Asuka, Zelina Vega and Lana since those are the only remaining women on the SmackDown brand.
Given how random and thrown together Naomi and Carmella are, that just makes their chances at winning all the more unlikely.
Granted, Naomi and Carmella could still surprise us in the Elimination Chamber. They could come off as dark horse winners and make for some solid chemistry. After all, both women are former SmackDown Women’s Champions, so surely they will pull off some great performances in the Chamber; perhaps even show stealing performances.
However, no matter how well they do in the Elimination Chamber, we cannot imagine it actually amounting to a win over the five legitimate teams they are competing against.
via wwe.com
5. Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville
We first caught a glimpse of Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville when they competed for WWE contracts during the fifth season of Tough Enough.
Although both women would lose the competition, both would wind up getting signed to NXT and eventually would debut on Monday Night Raw as part of Paige’s short lived Absolution stable. Even with Paige no longer being in their corner, the pairing continue to impress on SmackDown Live.
As much as we have enjoyed seeing ‘The Golden Goddess’ and ‘The Jersey Devil’ as a unit, we feel like WWE is more interested in pushing both women as singles competitors.
Sonya Deville had her time in the sun a couple months back, most notably as the runner-up in a #1 Contender’s Battle Royal where she squared off against Asuka. More recently, Mandy Rose has picked up a few singles wins, mostly against Naomi.
It seems more likely that WWE are currently preparing Rose and Deville for individual singles pushes that they could receive in the near future rather than a run with the Women’s Tag Team Championship.
Even though we do not know exactly how soon their push could come to fruition, we believe it to be sooner rather than later.
via wwe.com
4. The IIconics
Ever since getting the big call-up from NXT in 2018, The IIconics have been making some big strides in the women’s tag team division.
Peyton Royce represented the duo proudly on the WrestleMania Kickoff Show in the Women’s Battle Royal. The next day, her and Billie Kay made an immediate impact in their debut by laying out the SmackDown Women’s Champion who, at the time, was Charlotte Flair.
Their 2018 was especially highlighted by a huge win over Asuka and Naomi in their home country of Australia at the Super Show Down.
Many of us – including myself – would love to see the Australian natives pull off a huge upset by bringing their journey full circle and winning the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship, but compared to their competition, those chances are unlikely.
More often than not, because both women are just so great at selling, The IIconics usually get used as enhancement talent more often than not.
To see them go from enhancement talent to the first ever Women’s Tag Team Champions would be a big leap for them to make, but also an unlikely one to see so soon after being enhancement talent for so long.
With that said, we definitely still see a Women’s Tag Team Title run in The IIconics’s future. We just do not see it happening on Feb. 17.
Credit: WWE.com
3. The Riott Squad
Ever since the group formed upon joining the main roster during the later half of 2017, The Riott Squad have been an absolute force to be reckoned with. As a unit, Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan have been a dominant force in WWE.
When they debuted as a team for SmackDown, their dominance led to Riott getting a SmackDown Women’s Title match against Charlotte Flair at Fastlane. While The Riott Squad leader would lose the match, her performance in the match – as well as what the whole team had been doing in the past few months – was noticed enough to get them drafted to the A-Show of Monday Night Raw.
Since then, the trio have been spreading chaos in some of the year’s top women’s storylines. Their storyline with Natalya being the most notable due to it being focused on Nattie’s late father.
It would be wholly fitting to see The Riott Squad continue their dominance of the women’s tag team division by becoming the inaugural champions.
Increasing their chances are rumors that speculate Ruby Riott will face Ronda Rousey for the Raw Women’s Championship earlier in the night. If this is the case and Riott loses, two loses from The Riott Squad are not going to do the stable any good.
Therefore, maybe Riott loses her title match, but Logan and Morgan could win the Tag Titles later in the main event.
The only thing hurting their chances is that Logan and Morgan are typically the fall gals whenever The Riott Squad compete in Six-Woman-Tag matches.
Ruby usually gets a pinfall victory for her team, but since she’s not in the Elimination Chamber, Logan and Morgan might have a tough time.
via wwe.com
2. The Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection
Ever since the Tag Titles were merely speculated to be coming to WWE, Sasha Banks and Bayley have always been the favorites to win the match.
When the titles were officially announced, The Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection’s chances at winning the Women’s Tag Team Championships only skyrocketed.
After all, ever since the latter half of 2018, these two have dominated the Raw women’s tag team division. Whenever people think about that said division, Banks and Bayley’s names are usually the first to spring to their mind.
For some fans, the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles were primed and ready made for The Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection. It would be an easy, safe bet to say that ‘The Boss’ and ‘The Hugger’ are walking out of the Elimination Chamber as Women’s Tag Team Champions.
Unfortunately, as we near closer and closer to the big show, the besties odds at winning are slowly dwindling down.
Recent reports suggest that Sasha Banks has suffered an undisclosed injury. Although she wrestled in tag competition this past Monday on Raw, she noticeably didn’t do much in-ring action. It was Bayley dishing out most of the physical work. Those same reports suggest that their pre-match attack from Nikki Cross and Alicia Fox was booked to hide Banks’s injury.
It is being said that Sasha Banks – while she technically has not been cleared to compete – is still expected to wrestle at Elimination Chamber.
However, whether she goes into the Elimination Chamber at 100% or not, this is yet another injury piled onto her ever growing list of them. She was just injured last September and forced to drop out of the Mixed Match Challenge. WWE may not want to take a risk by putting a title on her when her body needs time to recover.
Credit: WWE.com
1. Nia Jax & Tamina
If Sasha Banks and Bayley fail to win the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship, we already know the next best team to put to the straps on: Nia Jax and Tamina.
After the duo formed an alliance last fall, they have been on an absolute war path ever since. The team have steam rolled past nearly every team put in front of them while rarely taking losses along the way.
If they were to become the first ever Women’s Tag Team Champions, not only would it be a huge win for them, but it could be done to capitalize on the latest hype surrounding Nia Jax.
Love her or hate her, ‘The Irresistible Force’ has been one of the most talked about WWE Superstars in recent memory. Sometimes, it is bad press due to rumors surrounding people she may or may not have injured – more recently, questionable rumors have suggested she injured R-Truth – but in other cases, she’s created buzz by making history.
Case in point, one of the biggest talking points coming out of Royal Rumble this year has been Jax’s foray into intergender wrestling after walking into the Men’s Rumble match at entrant #30. Not only did she eliminate Mustafa Ali, but she withstood quite a bit of punishment from future WWE Hall of Famers Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio and Dolph Ziggler.
Even though she only spent just under five minutes in the match, Jax became a talking point in wrestling circles and a top trending topic. WWE may want to capitalize on that buzz by giving her a title.