WWE Women’s Tag Team titles to remain vacant as tournament is scrapped
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles are going to remain vacant as the company has decided to stop using them for the time being.
Sasha Banks and Naomi handed back their titles to John Laurinaitis a couple of weeks ago before walking out of a live Monday Night Raw after disagreements over creative. Both Sasha and Naomi were supposed to be wrestling for the Raw and Smackdown Women’s titles but the script called for both of them to lose. The two felt that as champions, they shouldn’t be used in that way and after a meeting with Vince McMahon went nowhere, both Superstars decided to quit.
WWE then announced that they would be holding a tournament to crown new champions but that tournament will be on hold for now.
Sasha and Naomi remain suspended indefinitely from WWE and there are no new updates regarding their status. Both of them have their contracts coming up in a few months but it’s likely that WWE will freeze them until they return.
The WWE Women’s Tag Team titles were established in late 2018 and they were defended across Raw, Smackdown, and NXT. The first winners – Bayley and Sasha Banks – were crowned champs at the Elimination Chamber in February 2019.
There have been a total of 10 different tag team champions across 13 reigns, with Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler having the most combined days as champions – 215.
I’m guessing if Sasha and Naomi comes back, they’ll be given the titles back. Pathetic. Book the tournament for new champions.
@James: I doubt that would happen (putting the straps back on Banks/Naomi), not after WWE made this issue so public. The idea of rushing through a tournament was never right. WWE knows better than anybody that you have to let the stink of a bad thing pass before you start anew. They’ve done this numerous times. Once the whole Banks/Naomi thing blows over, at least six months in the old days, then we’ll see some kind of tournament. My guess is that the title will be vacant until either Clash at the Castle, Crown Jewel, or Elimination Chamber. If I was a betting man I’d say Crown Jewel at the earliest, that way WWE can both move on from the Banks/Naomi disaster while thumping their chests about women’s wrestling breaking another glass ceiling in the Middle East. It’s not so much when they do the title “tournament”, or whatever it will be, but HOW and WHERE. Doing it in a way that makes WWE look great while minimizing the reasons behind it (the walk out) makes the most sense and is the most Vince thing they could do. That’s my two cents on it. To you original point about them returning, I can see Naomi coming back but not Sasha. Sasha is the female Ultimate Warrior at this point. She’ll come back, but not for long and only on top. Sasha would get BORED in AEW, none of the ladies there can lace her boots. Naomi will come to her senses, I think, and have a longer career in WWE. But, anything is possible. The titles don’t actually matter. They’re props designed to get developing talent over and draw attention to the brand. That’s why Piper, Perfect, Rude, etc. never needed the World title and why it’s a mistake for AEW to put the strap on Punk. Page, built properly (which a win over Punk could have certainly helped), is the best move for the company. It’s not Page who isn’t living up to “the standard”, it’s AEW’s booking that let him down. The greatest actor can’t save a lousy script.
That makes sense, Motorhead. Once this whole thing blows over, then it’ll be the right time.
@Motorhead–It’s possible they have Punk drop the belt back to a refocused, better booked Page which would help elevate him.