WWE: How The Women’s SmackDown Six Successfully Built a Division

Let’s take a retrospective look at the SmackDown women’s division of the 2016 post-draft brand split. They can be viewed as our first taste of a SmackDown Six since 2002.

As of this writing, we are a week removed from the 2019 edition of WWE Superstar Shake-Up. Much praise has gone to the post-draft look of the SmackDown women’s roster and with good reason. Helmed by a Champ Champ in Becky Lynch, the blue brand’s women’s division now features eye-popping names like Bayley, Kairi Sane, and Ember Moon among other new faces, as well as those left over from the previous era of SmackDown.

Just a month ago, it seemed as though the whole SmackDown women’s roster was in disarray; mishandled and poorly booked with a lack of star power. Now, star power is bursting from the seams of a division filled with potential.

Before we can appreciate  the present state of the SmackDown women’s division, let’s wind the clocks back to the past when the SmackDown’s women’s roster didn’t start off as strongly as it looks today. However, in due time, it grew into a thing of beauty.

Let’s start at the beginning.

In the summer of 2016, WWE re-introduced the brand split. In doing so, the Raw women’s roster was stacked with Superstars. Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks were immediately positioned at the top of that division, while both Bayley and Nia Jax were called up from two strong NXT runs. In between them were various, diverse names such as the veteran Alicia Fox and the then-rising star Dana Brooke. The general opinion was that Raw’s women’s roster looked impeccable and full of potential.

The SmackDown roster? Not so much. The red and blue shows had more or less the same number of women, but Team Blue was severely lacking in women.

Becky Lynch was at this time viewed as the weak link of the Four Horsewomen as the only one of them to never win the NXT Women’s Championship. It didn’t help that her main roster run at this point was less than stellar to put it lightly. Natalya, while well respected, had mostly spent the past couple years as enhancement talent of sorts. Naomi, on the other hand, was never given the ball to run with as a singles star; she was previously and most significantly a member of Team B.A.D.

Then, there were NXT call-ups in Alexa Bliss, Carmella and Eva Marie. The former two’s runs in NXT were admittedly less than memorable, with both spending more time as managers opposed to wrestlers. The latter’s placement on NXT was even less unimpressive, but she was immediately booked at the top of the SmackDown with the most notable segments, though they were degrading.

Weeks after the Draft, Eva Marie got suspended, meaning that the already short-handed SmackDown women’s roster had already lost its key figurehead before the first post-Draft PPV, SummerSlam. Not long after, she was released.

Speaking of, SummerSlam saw Nikki Bella join the division. Nikki was unquestionably the biggest star the division had to offer, but even then, The Fearless One seemed had taken a step back since injuring her neck and passing the torch to Charlotte Flair the year before.

So, just to recap, the SmackDown women’s division was filled with women who were either unproven as Superstars, lacked star power or near the end of their careers. The six women which comprised the division were expected to step up and that they did. These six women would all flourish spectacularly and benefit from the new spotlight shined onto them on SmackDown. Every woman was tasked with In the coming months,

Becky Lynch would prove her critics wrong by winning her first WWE title and helming an entire division on her back. Alexa Bliss would slowly mold herself into one of the best heels and best talkers on any roster. Carmella continued to improve as both a character and a wrestler with each passing match. Nikki Bella created compelling storylines to elevate each talent she stepped into the ring with, including Natalya.

Speaking of, Nattie managed to prove she was far more than just enhancement talent by stepping to the forefront of the division as SmackDown Women’s Champion; her first title in seven years. Meanwhile, Naomi proved her worth as a singles competitor by showing the world she was one of the most athletic and charismatic wrestlers on the show.

Beyond just their accomplishments, these six women would establish a strong sense of camaraderie with each other. Unity, if you will. A unique unity that completely contrasted the division on Raw. Frankly, there are a lot of reasons why SmackDown’s 2016 women’s roster contrasted that of Raw’s. Mostly because the Raw Women’s Title picture solely at one point centered around Sasha and Charlotte while the SmackDown Women’s Title picture was an ever changing revolving door between these six women all battling for the title at different times.

However, in the case of unity, it seemed that both on and offscreen, there was a close knit bond between all six of those women who SmackDown introduced post-Draft. Almost as if in knowing the disadvantage that the division was placed in compared to the red show, SmackDown’s women grew closer and worked hard to elevate everyone involved. Whatever chemistry may have grown between them shined through onto the screen and even continued to shine in the coming years after the Draft.

Whether it shined from competing against each other or joining forces to drop a sexist James Ellsworth, they worked well together. Due to that chemistry, the SmackDown women’s matches were often hailed as a consistent highlight of not only the blue brand, but an average week of WWE television. That chemistry is what created memorable milestones like the crowning of a first SmackDown Women’s Champion, the first SmackDown women’s main events and the first women’s cage match in the show’s history.

Even as the SmackDown women’s roster slowly began to grow in numbers – most notably with names like Charlotte Flair, Mickie James, Lana and Asuka – one thing was consistent among the roster: a sense of unity.

It’s funny when you think of it. Many fans and even critics long for the SmackDown Six we received in 2002. Some have hoped that WWE would revive the concept for SmackDown today. Little do some of us remember or realize, the concept of a SmackDown Six was alive and well in 2016’s women’s division. Not only did the women in that SmackDown Six thrive, their impact would be felt long after they moved on to other shows and bigger prospects.