Momentum In The SmackDown Women’s Title Scene

Alexa Bliss shocked the WWE Universe when she dethroned Becky Lynch at TLC to capture the Smackdown Women’s Championship. She is, by all accounts a very good wrestler even though her character has been plagued by plagiarism. She has pretty much mimicked the Harley Quinn look, but for all intents and purposes it is better than her original gimmick where she borrowed from Tinker Bell. The only real original angle they put her in was when she was a dastardly manager for Blake and Murphy.

Little Miss Bliss is a powerhouse, a bundle of angst and beauty combined wrapped up with a nice little bow of wrestling ability to complete her package. The one question that remains is whether or not the Smackdown Women’s Title will ever receive the same attention as its counterpart does on the red brand.

Tonight’s Smackdown live featured Bliss in a tag match with her ally Mickie James taking on Naomi and Becky Lynch.

Odds are if WWE has to choose a match to put on the kick-off show at Mania, it will probably be the Smackdown Women’s Title match (because they’re not going to make Big Show vs. Shaq free on social media). But first, the gears must start turning to find Bliss’ dance partner for the show of shows.

However, even before that, they need to figure out how they’re going to implement that Women’s Championship at Elimination Chamber, after all the chamber match can’t be two hours long (or could it?).

One quick note: it’s a shame that Carmella is being used in simple squash matches against people like Deliah Dawson. Not to mention that her talents are simply being wasted in the pairing against James Ellsworth. If WWE isn’t careful, they’re going to start to draw “X-Pac heat” on these two, and Carmella doesn’t need that (just like she didn’t need that hair extension that fell out during her finishing submission move tonight).

Naomi and Lynch cut a promo targeting only the Women’s Champion with no mention of James. If they decide to go with two fatal four-way blow off matches for each brand’s Women’s Title match it wouldn’t be a surprise. It would definitely be a low-point in creativity for WWE. After all, Dave Meltzer has reported that the Raw Women’s Title match at Mania is slated to be Charlotte, Bayley, Jax, and Banks all vying for the red belt.

Mickie James is also a wild card in this scenario. She was PWI’s Woman of the Year in both 2009 and 2011 as well as a five time, five time, five time, five time, five time WWE Women’s Champion (she also held the TNA Knockouts Title three times, but we won’t talk about that here). She has been known to be a spitfire and unpredictable to boot.

Nikki Bella and Natalya are strangely missing from this concoction as well, although Meltzer noted that Bella will probably find herself in this recipe closer the WrestleMania. Currently, Nattie and Nikki are keeping each other busy in a jealousy-filled feud, which is fine for now. Although, the blow-off match for these two will most likely take place on February 12th.

But before WrestleMania, Smackdown needs to figure out what they’re going to do in two weeks at the Elimination Chamber. Becky certainly seems to be the girl that fans want to face Bliss, but WWE has never been a fan of instant gratification.

WWE is also doing all they can to put Naomi over. They are turning her loose and letting her score clean wins over Alexa Bliss (once at the Rumble kick-off, and the second tonight). She has really opened up her move-set since her return from injury and has made big steps toward the blue brand’s Women’s Title.

At this point, there is no match set for Elimination Chamber where women are concerned, but it doesn’t make it any less interesting as to what direction they will go. The simple fact is that Mickie and Alexa probably won’t last as associates, but there is no clear direction so far, so only time will tell.

There is a loud ticking clock with Elimination Chamber being only two weeks away, therefore Daniel Bryan announced that Alexa Bliss will face Naomi for the Smackdown Women’s Championship at Elimination Chamber. If the plan is to eventually get the title back on Becky Lynch, then Naomi will most likely be a placeholder until the Lass Kicker can reach the upper echelon of the SD women’s division once more, but then again, nobody expected Bliss to put Becky through that table at TLC and capture the belt in the first place.