Last night on Monday Night RAW, we watched a steel cage match between Omos and Bobby Lashley, had a Hell In a Cell match announced three weeks from now and Asuka battle Becky Lynch for the right to face Bianca Belair at a future date for the RAW Women’s Championship. However, all of the events of last night’s RAW gave way to a downward spiral of events involving the current WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, Sasha Banks and Naomi. Details about the alleged event are still being gathered, but from what we have been made to understand so far, Sasha and Naomi allegedly went to John Lauaranitis’ office and left their Women’s Tag Team belts on his desk. They then proceeded to leave the arena, forcing WWE to scramble for a new main event, per WWE’s official statement. Apparently, they were scheduled for that night’s main event which would have saw Naomi win the number 1 contender’s six pack challenge to face Bianca Belair for the RAW Women’s Championship at Hell In a Cell. Another interesting thing to note in WWE’s statement was that they stated Sasha and Naomi had safety concerns with two of the competitors in the six-pack challenge, which seems rather odd.
Sasha Banks was reportedly very unhappy and proceeded to take her frustrations to Vince, and Vince’s insistence on seeing the plans through would trigger Sasha and Naomi to stage their walk-out. While this is also speculation, apparently a close friend of Naomi seemed to suggest on Twitter that the long term plans were to have Sasha challenge Ronda for the SmackDown Women’s Championship while Naomi would challenge for the RAW Women’s Championship. In this potential scenario, Sasha and Naomi would not defend their tag titles until Money In The Bank in July. Meanwhile, the tag titles would essentially be held as props for credibility to the challengers.
Clearly a lot to unpack here, and there is undoubtedly more details that will come to light in the coming days of what led to this moment, the frustrations the champions feel, and what WWE’s response will be to this act for the sake of damage control. My initial reaction was a nonchalant one. Not because I did not care about what happened, because it is a big deal. Rather, the reaction came because this walk-out by the champions might as well have been inevitable. When you understand the history of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships, you may understand how the champions feel, especially the biggest advocate for those titles, Sasha Banks.
Before WrestleMania last month, the last time the Women’s Tag Team Championships were defended on PPV was WrestleMania last year. If you look at the list of Women’s Tag Team Champions of the past, you will see that they are not traditional tag teams, but rather a mishmash combination of established singles performers who are momentarily unoccupied and join forces for a few months. Look at the list of tag team champions:
- Sasha Banks and Bayley
- The IIconics
- Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross
- The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane)
- Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler
- Natalya and Tamina
- Asuka and Charlotte Flair
- Rhea Ripley and Nikki A.S.H
- Queen Zelina and Carmella
- Sasha Banks and Naomi
Look at this list objectively. How many tag teams on this list aren’t just two singles wrestlers who aren’t occupied in feuds? The only traditional tag team I see on this list are The IIconics. Sasha Banks and Bayley have natural chemistry with each other, from their rivalry in NXT to their friendship outside the ring, so perhaps you can consider them as well. Asuka and Kairi are from around the same region, so there is that. But overall, there is no credibility to these titles because there is not enough star power to have suitable challengers for both Women’s Championships and the tag team championships.
Sasha Banks and Naomi have held the tag team titles for 44 days, and have only defended the titles twice, becoming a quick afterthought.The problem with WWE Women’s division right now is there are no actual tag teams. There are just a variety of singles performers, and this makes finding suitable competition for the championships incredibly difficult. As difficult it is for Sasha Banks, the titles have more or less become obsolete, and in lieu of their walk-out, that may even be more so the case. This kind of emotional reaction is especially not unique to Sasha Banks. We all know about Sasha and Bayley protesting the decision made by WWE to have them lose their tag team titles on their first PPV title defense to The IIconics at WrestleMania 35. Sasha’s gripes then were the same as they are now. They felt they needed to hold the titles longer to establish credibility. Three years after the fact, it has been like a hamster running on a wheel as the Women’s Tag Team Championship has little to no credibility. When you combine the lack of depth of competitors for that specific division combined with the numerous storylines that take place on RAW and SmackDown, it’s quite easy to see why those titles can be easily lost in the shuffle.
There was high skepticism from the IWC on the practicality of tag team titles to begin with. When we look at the state of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Division right now, what is there to be encouraged about? Natalya and Shayna Baszler is yet another combination of two singles competitors who have no kind of natural chemistry. Nikki A.S.H was seemingly ready to team with Doudrop, another random pairing. Where’s everyone else? There is no plan, no direction, and at this point, no tangible hope for the belts.
