WWE’s booking of Women’s Tag Titles creates major questions

Aliyah and Raquel Gonzalez walked out of Monday Night Raw with the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship in tow. It was a booking decision that caught the majority of the vocal online wrestling community off guard, followed by a large amount of criticism. The questions surround the direction of the tag titles, both in the immediate and long term. Questions that WWE must find a way to answer in a fashion that continues to build the trust and interest of viewers.

The question that sticks out in the forefront is whether this is the true end to the angle. Aliyah pinned the wrong woman in the match as Dakota Kai wasn’t the legal competitor. Social media platforms linked to WWE have noted the issue, which hints toward the potential of this all being in the storyline.

If this mistake by the referee leads to an immediate rematch, that negates the purpose of the match on Raw altogether. Even worse, it immediately devalues Aliyah and Rodriguez as competitors on the main roster. It seems like WWE is leaning into a narrative of Aliyah being incapable of wrestling at this level. If that’s the case, are we heading for a quick split of her partnership with Rodriguez? Then why even put them together as a team, to begin with?

From the jump, the announcement of the women’s tag team championship tournament was hit with bad luck. The looming shadow of Sasha Banks and Naomi’s potential return casts immediate doubt over whoever came out as champion. Therefore, it made more sense for Kai and Iyo Sky to walk out as champions because having them have to deal with Banks and Naomi is a major feud that would continue to put the women’s division front and center. Even though some media outlets are reporting an “imminent” return for the two women, what is seen on television doesn’t seem to give much hope to that development.

And what happens if they do come back? Is the idea to present Banks and Naomi as heels to take on the future champs? Think back to the mistake that WWE leadership made when trying to push Becky Lynch as a heel when she first developed The Man character, fans rebuffed that idea and would quickly rebuff any indication that Banks and Naomi are heels.

There are things that WWE is doing right when it comes to the women’s division, such as consistently featuring them front and center during weekly shows. But the booking around the tag team titles seemed cursed from the very start. It can be fixed, but that would require the revamping of the group from the ground up and booking their way out of the situation that is in front of the division.