WWE: Keeping the Women’s singles titles off of Elimination Chamber was a mistake

Elimination Chamber resulted in two solid Chamber matches and two major title changes. Despite the event being a platform to set the pace heading into WrestleMania, there was a glaring absence from the show: both of the singles women’s titles.

Yes, WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion, Sasha Banks was on the card. Rather than defending the title, she competed alongside 2021 Women’s Royal Rumble Winner, Bianca Belair in contention for the Women’s Tag Team Championship. Banks and Belair—talented as they are—are not an established tag team. In a division that desperately needs teams who don’t adhere to the can-they-coexist narrative, it would have been better to have Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler defend against a staple duo rather than a makeshift one.

Given Jax and Baszler vs. Dusty Cup winners, Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai was being advertised before Elimination Chamber while the upcoming challengers were nowhere to be seen on that week’s NXT, the result was a foregone conclusion.

For Sasha Banks, she could’ve defended against someone that would cast at least some doubt as to whether or not she would walk into WrestleMania as SmackDown Women’s Champion.

And then there’s Asuka.

Asuka reigning as Raw Women’s Champion for the majority of 2020 into 2021 may seem like at surface value, she has been dominant and a constant staple of Raw’s weekly programming. Make no mistake, that could not be further from the truth which is unfortunate given Asuka should unquestionably be presented as a wrestling cornerstone.

Lacey Evans was set to be Asuka’s challenger before a real-life pregnancy pulled the match off of the card entirely. With that said, the United States Championship Triple Threat match also had some last-minute adjustments and instead of nixing that match as well, WWE called an audible and had a Fatal-Four Way match to compete on the Elimination Chamber Kickoff Show and name a new challenger for that night. Would it have been that far-fetched to replicate that cadence for the Raw Women’s Championship?

For anyone tempted to argue that no one was built up to be a reasonable challenger for Asuka’s title, it’s worth mentioning the winner of the aforementioned Fatal-Four Way match was John Morrison, who up until that point had not won a televised non-tag match since WrestleMania 36.

Since winning back the Raw Women’s Championship in August, Asuka has competed on only three out of a possible seven pay-per-view events. On the two occasions, a championship was on the line, it was the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles—which highlights the issue of makeshift team over-frequency—rather than the Raw Women’s Championship.

To date, Bianca Belair has not declared her champion of choice for WrestleMania whether it be Sasha Banks, Asuka, or Io Shirai who is technically an option but circumstantially unlikely. However, if Bianca’s WrestleMania decision is not made before Fastlane, there should be challengers built up in the meantime so that the women’s storylines don’t revolve entirely around Bianca’s decision.

Going forward, the women’s titles need to be a pivotal part of WWE pay-per-view events as having one of the women’s singles title off of the card is odd, but having two off is criminal.