WWE SmackDown Smacks/Downs: We love Daniel Bryan’s new partner

Smack: the Women’s Tag Team Championship picture

Down: the Women’s Championship picture

It may be surprising that the company known for generally being apathetic towards tag team wrestling actually has a better story in the Women’s Tag Team Champion picture than for one of the Women’s Championships.

For several weeks now, even while Tag Team Champion Kabuki Warriors were tied up with Shayna Baszler, Becky Lynch, and Natalya, there were women intimating they wanted to fight for the titles. On the Mar. 9 episode of RAW, Kabuki Warriors defeated Natalya and Liv Morgan.

Fire and Desire (Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose) defeated Carmella and Dana Brooke on the Mar. 6 episode of WWE SmackDown, setting them up for a potential title match.

Women’s Champion Bayley and Sasha Banks defeated Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross last week (I think, by their shirts from last night, they’re to be known as “Bliss Cross Applesauce” now?). Both teams are former Tag Team Champions. However, this victory for Bayley and Banks was only due to interference from Asuka.

This laid the context for Cross being so angry and Bliss channeling that anger to directly challenge Asuka to a match on next week’s show. I would expect Bliss to win (possible through a “turnabout is fair play” ending) to set up a title match at WrestleMania between Kabuki Warriors and Bliss Cross Applesauce.

We’ve had little seeds for weeks now about the Women’s Tag Team Championship picture.

Then we have the Women’s Championship picture.

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1241164793534447616

Outside of Tamina (who’s been recovering from injury for a long time) and Banks (who had been recovering from her own injuries), Bayley has defeated the other four opponents as champion.

That’s one of the problems with having a champion who’s received somewhat apathetically by the fans just run through the division: it’s hard to create realistic and viable challengers without some hot-shotting.

I can see the arguments for Evans, Naomi, and Banks to be involved in a fatal 4-way match with Bayley, but what exactly have Brooke and Tamina done to deserve their placement in the match?

Is this announcement what they had planned for Paige’s appearance that went awry because of the pandemic last week? It just feels so rushed.

I’m not sure what’s more questionable: when a wrestler or parade of wrestlers interrupts a champion to say “I want the next shot” with no rhyme or reason, or having a non-wrestler like Paige (and Gronkowski’s attempt earlier in the night) making matches like this with little justification.

If I had booking power, I would have a 1-on-1 match at WrestleMania with a #1 contender 4-way between Evans, Naomi, Brooke, and either Carmella or Tamina (since they seem intent on having Tamina back in the title scene). At least that way, we have a legitimate reason for Bayley to defend her title against a bonafide contender rather than this random mishmash that makes little sense.

I also hoped they would hold off on the eventual Bayley-Banks implosion until closer to SummerSlam. However, it appears more likely we see one of them turn/pin the other at WrestleMania with a payoff match at Money in the Bank.

The juxtaposition of these two championship stories is just so stark. Here’s hoping in the few weeks we have left, WWE is able to salvage the Women’s Championship storyline and actually garner fan interest in the match.

On a positive note, it did leave us with Banks flashing that ambition in her eyes as she was announced as the final participant.