A new SmackDown Women’s Championship made its debut tonight on SmackDown with the information that a six-pack challenge will take place at Backlash to determine who is crowned the inaugural champion.
Before this announcement, I had decided to rank all of the available women on the roster in order of the best possible choices to take on the responsibility as the first champion. After this match was determined, that surprisingly didn’t change the list at all, outside of a few details, so without further ado, this is how I see things:
8. Maryse
She’s still technically part of the SmackDown roster, as she was drafted along with The Miz. A former 2-time Divas Championship winner, Maryse has more accolades to her name than most other women on this list. However, just like Lana on Monday Night Raw, she is purely being used in a managerial role and simply doesn’t wrestle. There’s been no indication that this will be changing, so when it comes to ranking the women that are on the brand at the moment, she definitely is the least likely to win, if not just for the fact that she’s not involved in this match whatsoever.
7. Natalya
I’m sure I’ll catch hell for this, but my absolute least favorite option (even factoring in Maryse) would be Natalya. There’s no arguing that she is one of the best wrestlers the women’s division has had over many years, but her character work is just the worst.
When she’s a babyface, she’s incredibly bland and hard to get behind as her track record has killed her credibility. Then again, when she’s a heel like she is right now, I don’t buy into the act whatsoever. Having seen her outside of the kayfabe shows, she just doesn’t have it in her to be the ruthless mean girl that she always tries to portray. Granted, she has some negative qualities that could definitely be heelish—particularly on Total Divas where it seems like all she ever does is lie to avoid confrontation—but overall, she’s too likable and too much of a pushover at other times to be the flagbearer of the brand.
Natalya is better off working with everybody else and putting them over instead of being the focal point, which I’m sure is going to upset all of her fans. I look forward to the comments. Go easy on me.
6. Carmella
I don’t ever really seem to hear much chatter about Carmella, which is a shame. She’s not only incredibly underrated in the looks department (which of course is just a bonus and not the main factor behind this, don’t jump to that conclusion) she’s also steadily progressing very well as an in-ring performer and on the mic.
Originally, I was going to consider her the second-biggest babyface on the roster despite her rookie status, but that appears to have changed with this week’s episode and her heel turn on Nikki Bella—who I also thought was going to be a heel, so they’ve flipped moods. As far as Carmella being the second-biggest heel, that’s just not the case right now, either.
There’s still room for improvement in all regards, including just allowing the audience some time to get to know her as anything other than “the girl that was hanging out with Enzo and Cass.” Still, I’d be much more interested in seeing what she has to offer than Natalya, who we’ve seen the limits of before and I doubt we’ll get anything new from in the future. Right now isn’t the time for Carmella, but her time will come, and when it does, it will be much better than if she were to win the belt now.
5. Alexa Bliss
Compared to Carmella—the other new recruit from NXT—Alexa is simply the more seasoned competitor of the two. That gives her an advantage in this list, as they’re very much on par with each other in almost every other way, with that being the difference maker.
Alexa is gorgeous, still getting to know her character but very much progressing in great strides, and she is fresh, which is a big bonus. She was never given a chance to have a title reign with the NXT Women’s Championship, but that wasn’t out of anything negative against her. Charlotte, Sasha Banks and Bayley were on a different level than her (and still are, at least at the moment) and they took priority. Had Alexa stayed down in developmental longer instead of being called up, it’s arguable she would be next in line to defeat Asuka, so that must be taken into consideration here.
Sadly, Bliss is in the same position on SmackDown as she was in NXT. There are bigger fish to fry (both metaphorically and literally, as she’s the smallest woman on the roster) and she’s still too new to trust with the responsibility when there are other options that hit the same marks and more.
4. Naomi
Naomi first came to the roster in the old competition era of NXT as Kelly Kelly’s rookie in season three. Very early on, she proved to be the most athletic of the crop and has so far had the longest tenure of any of them including AJ Lee and that season’s winner, Kaitlyn.
That was in 2010. For six years, Naomi has been a consistent performer, yet has never had a run with the Divas Championship or Women’s Championship. In such a small pool of challengers like the SmackDown options, it would be absolutely criminal for her not to get a title reign at some point, and with the renewed vigor of her seizure-inducing entrance, this might be the best time to pull the trigger.
The downside I could see to her being the inaugural champion is that there are others with more momentum behind them, but the plus side is that it would be a bit of a swerve, allowing the three other names on this list to take the belt from her down the line just the same.
3. Eva Marie
I know, I know. Why is she ranked so high? She can’t even wrestle and hasn’t even tried for the past few weeks. She’s currently suspended. Everybody hates her. She isn’t even involved in the six-pack challenge!
Exactly.
Ignoring that last aspect, which of course rules her out of the running unless there are some shenanigans afoot, I would still strongly advise against this move for many different reasons like those above, but more so because of how risky it is in terms of a stigma. Right now, the Universal Championship is going to have its work cut out for it to escape the negativity of being ugly as sin and its first champion having to vacate it the very next night. Forever in the history of that belt’s legacy, it will have that black mark on it. Do you really want the same thing to happen with this belt, too?
WWE harps on the idea that there’s a women’s revolution one year old, but there have been way too many cracks in the pavement along the way for that road. Every time there’s something great that happens like Sasha Banks vs Bayley, we get a string of terribly booked feuds, horrible matches, short segments and awful characters which bring it back to square one.
Likewise, if you’re trying to build up a reputation of taking not only the women’s division in WWE but the SmackDown brand itself seriously, it’s very risky to make its first women’s champion someone who has such negative connotations surrounding her. It will make it seem like it’s the new Divas Championship fit only for the models who get where they are because of their looks.
That being said, I have to rank Eva Marie so high here because the reaction it would get is just phenomenal and might be too good to pass up, especially if she were to be inserted in some capacity at the last minute to challenge for it.
2. Nikki Bella
Nikki Bella is by far the biggest name on the roster when it comes to the women’s division, and there’s no denying that. She has popularity from her tenure in the company along with Total Divas and the upcoming Total Bellas. On top of this, she is also the record-holder for the Women’s Championship which is specific to the Raw brand, so it would make sense for her to be the first-ever to win the Women’s Championship on SmackDown.
Do people want to see her win over the other name on this list, though? I doubt it. Plus, inevitably, there are going to be haters that say she only won the belt because she’s dating John Cena. I doubt that would be the case if WWE decides to go that route, but that doesn’t mean that might not be a factor contributing to the choice, either.
The biggest benefit to having Nikki as the champion is that she carries herself as someone who can handle pretty much every aspect of being the figurehead of the division on a brand, but the biggest negative is that her health may be a factor. The last thing WWE needs is to have another champion vacate the belt like what happened with Finn Balor.
1. Becky Lynch
Without a doubt, my #1 choice for the winner of this match is going to be The Lass Kicker. While Bayley was considered the one that was overlooked out of the Four Horsewomen because she didn’t get called up to the main roster, I think Becky actually got the worst deal of the bunch. Bayley was the champion in NXT—something Becky didn’t get a chance to do, while Sasha and Charlotte did as well. The latter two were also always the bigger focal points since moving up to the main roster and Becky was taking the fall, coming up short and being pushed aside.
On SmackDown, she has all the tools necessary to give her the championship. Not only is she a babyface, which is a different vibe than the heel champion on Raw, but this would also be her first title win, keeping things fresh instead of retreading the same ground like with Nikki Bella or Natalya. Becky is perhaps the best wrestler of the bunch as well, or at least #2 or #3 behind Natalya and Naomi, though for my tastes, Becky is the one I’d prefer watching for sure.
Who do you think should be the first SmackDown women’s champion? Do you agree or disagree with this ranking list? One way or another, drop your comments below!
