8 Next Steps For WWE Raw Women’s Championship
It's time to move past Sasha/Charlotte, but what should be next for the title?
In case you’ve been sleeping under a rock for the past year-plus, women’s wrestling in WWE is not what it once was.
Gone are the 30-second throwaway matches and bathroom break bouts that get the “death slot” on Raw and PPV before the main event. Today, women’s matches are the main event on Raw. Whereas previously it was such a huge deal that women only closed out Raw twice between 1993 and September 2016 (in 2000 and 2004), women have main-evented Raw twice since October 3 this year.
If you discount SmackDown as a separate entity with a newly created women’s championship, women’s wrestling has been dominated by two competitors since September 2015: Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks. Counting the now-defunct Divas Championship, these two women have had a stranglehold on the gold for the past 445+ days. (Charlotte held the Divas title, which became the WWE Women’s Championship at WrestleMania XXXII, which morphed into the Raw Women’s Championship after the brand split.)
Lately, the Raw women’s title has ping-ponged between Charlotte and Sasha, changing hands five times in just over four months. That rapid-fire switching has led to some backlash from fans, and as Raw moves toward its final PPV of 2016, Roadblock, now is a great time to take a look at how WWE should book this showcase title on the flagship show.
Let’s check out some of the next steps WWE could (and possibly should) take with the Raw Women’s Championship…
8. Sasha Retains At Roadblock
First and foremost, Sasha Banks absolutely needs to defend
the title at Roadblock.
Banks is in her third reign as Raw Women’s Champion, and she has yet to successfully defend it. Her three reigns add up to less than 70 days (as of this writing) in an era where length of reign is mentioned ad nauseum. Sasha has now won the title on Raw three times, only to lose it to Charlotte at the following PPV.
That cycle needs to be broken next week when Banks and Flair face off in an Iron Woman match at Roadblock. A loss could label Sasha as a choke artist who can’t win the spotlights are brightest. And while winning the title three times kind of dispels that a little, it could tick off fans who are invested in Banks and just watch her lose right after she wins a big match.