Alexa Bliss made her return to WWE television on the Nov. 29 episode of SmackDown, and as she gets ready for her role at TLC, it’s time to take a look back at her top five career moments heading into 2020.
Because Alexa Bliss has accomplished so much in WWE, it’s easy to forget that she only signed with WWE in May 2013 and had no previous professional wrestling experience. She was, however, an accomplished athlete as a bodybuilder, cheerleader and competitor in a handful of other sports. So it’s no surprise that her athleticism, such as in her handsprings and in her “Twisted Bliss” finisher, often stands out in her matches.
Bliss has steadily become a more complete overall performer over the years and has become one of WWE’s most trusted talkers, even hosting WrestleMania 35. She is a five-time Women’s Champion and won the Women’s Tag Team Titles this year, meaning Bliss has held all three of Raw and SmackDown’s titles of their women’s divisions.
The number two ranked women’s wrestler on PWI’s 2018 list, Bliss is gearing up for a big 2020 and is one of the candidates to win the 2020 Royal Rumble. But she is also gunning for the Women’s Tag Titles, as she and tag team partner Nikki Cross are seeking revenge on Kairi Sane and Asuka.
After Bliss returned from an injury on the Nov. 29 episode of Friday Night SmackDown, it’s time to rank the top five moments of her career so far.
5. Tag team partnership (and title win) with Nikki Cross
I’m going to include the build to Nikki Cross’ and Alexa Bliss’ tag team title victory here, because it was special watching the two wrestlers interact with each other backstage before forming an inseparable bond. Bliss had lackeys in the past in veterans Alicia Fox and Mickie James, but she never actually had a close friend whom she saw as an equal.
Joining forces enable fans to see another side of both Bliss’ and Cross’ character, as the latter was mostly known for her work as a frenetic character on the faction Sanity in NXT.
Cross and Bliss won the Women’s Tag Team Titles in a Fatal Four-Way match on the Aug. 5 episode of Raw, and this victory served as a validating moment for this new tag team. They would lose the titles to Kairi Sane and Asuka just months later at Hell in a Cell, but now that Bliss is back from a minor injury, she and Cross could easily take those titles back.
The segments, such as “A Moment of Bliss”, involving Cross and Bliss were absolutely wonderful. We got great merch, inside jokes, and star-making moments from Cross during their run up to winning the title in August. Tag teams can bring out the best in both performers when done right, such as the Sheamus and Cesaro pairing in 2016, and this is an example of a tag team that has benefited both characters.
4. Spray painting Becky before first title win
Becky Lynch’s first run as SmackDown Women’s Champion only lasted a couple of months and was plagued by an arm injury, but at least her reign gave rise to another future star in Alexa Bliss. “Five Feet of Fury” took the SmackDown Women’s Title off Becky at TLC 2016 in their first Pay Per View match, even though Bliss lost to Naomi at No Mercy months earlier.
The build to the Tables match at TLC was brief due to Lynch’s injury, but it involved some excellent segments. We saw Becky give an impassioned speech to the heel Bliss about how much wrestling means to her, how hard she worked to become a champion, and how much she dreamed about being in WWE as a little girl.
Bliss countered with how she was born to be a star and didn’t have to deal with all of that. Before the match at TLC, she laid out Becky and spray-painted her in yellow, hearkening back to the warning sent by the NWO.
It was a great throwback nod from Bliss, and it foreshadowed her star-making victory in a gimmick match at TLC. Bliss would go on to win the SmackDown Women’s Championship once more, and now that she’s back on the Blue Brand, there’s a good chance she wins the title for a third time in 2020.
3. Champion vs. Champion against Charlotte
Alexa Bliss was in the form of her life in late 2017, and she had a series of great Pay Per View matches that put to rest any doubts about her wrestling ability. While she wasn’t on the level of the elite performers like Sasha Banks or Charlotte Flair, she certainly held her own with the best in-ring performers in the business during her first run as Raw Women’s Champion.
First, Bliss and Banks traded wins for the Raw Women’s Title and had a great SummerSlam match. Then, Bliss had an awesome battle with Mickie James at TLC. And finally at Survivor Series, Bliss went toe-to-toe with one of WWE’s biggest names in Charlotte Flair in a champion vs. champion match.
There are few matches as big as a “Big 5” PPV showdown with Charlotte when she’s holding a title, so the pressure was on both women to have a standout match on a loaded card. They more than delivered, producing one of the best bouts of the night.
While Bliss’ match with James may have been better, her match with Charlotte came in a bigger spot and proved to everyone that she had “arrived” in the ring. It solidified that Bliss would have a lengthy reign as a heel champion heading into WrestleMania 34, where she would finally drop the title to her close friend Nia Jax.
2. Alexa Bliss wins Money in the Bank and cashes in
On June 17, 2018, Alexa Bliss became the second woman in WWE history to win a Money in the Bank ladder match, sneakily winning the bout ahead of fan favorites like Becky Lynch, Naomi, Sasha Banks, and Ember Moon, who were all especially fantastic.
Bliss’ win gave her the heat that most heel MITB champions crave, but she wasn’t being set up for a lengthy run with the briefcase. Instead, she wasted no time in cashing in her briefcase on Nia Jax, heelishly “ruining” an awesome main event for the Raw Women’s Championship between Nia and Ronda Rousey (in her first singles match on Pay Per View).
Her second Raw Women’s Championship victory, via cash-in, set up a PPV rematch with Nia and a feud with Rousey that led to matches at SummerSlam and Hell in a Cell. Bliss’ Money in the Bank victory was yet another prestigious honor, and it also showed the trust WWE had in her.
WWE wanted Bliss to be Rousey’s first real feud in WWE, knowing that she had the mic skills as a heel to elevate Rousey as a babyface and help sell their matches at two big PPVs in SummerSlam and Hell in a Cell.
While Bliss never stood a chance in either match against Rousey, she sold excellently for the former UFC Champion and boosted her stock in the company even further.
Plus, Bliss’ cash-in itself was a special moment, and the crowd went crazy for it.
1. Winning the Elimination Chamber (Twisted Bliss off the pod)
Alexa Bliss’ best moment as Raw Women’s Champion came months after her loss to Charlotte Flair at Survivor Series. She became the first woman to win an Elimination Chamber match, taking full advantage of Sasha Banks’ ill-advised turn on Bayley when she could have easily went after her actual number one rival in Bliss.
“The Goddess” took advantage of the drama between the best friends – and Bliss is often the one who tries to instigate issues between Sasha and Bayley – and won the match to pick up another accolade in her young career.
After winning, Bliss started cutting a babyface promo, tearfully thanking the audience for their support and yada yada yada. The Nevada crowd started to cheer her and applaud her gutsy winning effort, but then she did her classic “swerve” and started insulting the fans.
We’ve seen Bliss do this time after time, but it really never gets old. She does a great job of putting the audience in the palm of her hand like WWE’s great talkers can, and she slapped the fans in the face in the best heel way possible.
Bliss did a Twisted Bliss off the top of the Elimination Chamber pod in this match, which Sasha Banks took like a champ. It was a fantastic moment from Bliss, who had previously been criticized for not doing enough high-risk moves.