Now that the field for the new Women’s Tag Team Championship belts is set, the WWE Universe can begin to evaluate the competitors and choose rooting interests for what will surely be one of the marquee matches of the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view at Toyota Center in Houston on February 17.
The contenders feature a broad range of talent on the Superstar spectrum. Former champions Sasha Banks, Bayley, Naomi, Carmella and Nia Jax will vie for the belts against younger competitors still trying to break out into superstardom such as Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Liv Morgan, Sarah Logan, Billie Kay and Peyton Royce. Considering there’s some level of doubt as to whether either the RAW or SmackDown Women’s Championships are defended at Elimination Chamber, it will be up to the featured women in this match to deliver for fans to feel satisfied they got their money’s worth with this show.
Undoubtedly, there’s a lot of ways WWE could go with booking this match. Most have considered it’s a foregone conclusion that Sasha Banks and Bayley will win as they would honestly be the most deserving of the honor of being the first women’s tag champs, especially since both of their storylines have been held hostage for this payoff since last summer as timelines for this match have changed. Yet, the WWE could certainly pull a swerve and help push some of its younger stars or someone like Nia Jax, who is getting some renewed interest after appearing in both the Men’s and Women’s Royal Rumble matches last week.
In that spirit, AllWrestling will handicap the field in reverse order. This isn’t necessarily assessing the strength and likelihood of each team’s chances of winning, but more a look at which Superstars would receive the biggest boost by getting a victory at Elimination Chamber. Here’s my take on it:
Elimination Chamber Women’s Tag Team Contenders (Reverse Order)
6. Carmella & Naomi – The former SmackDown Women’s Champions seem like an afterthought from the way they’ve been thrown together last minute. I don’t think anyone is buying their inclusion in this match as anything more than a way to keep heat going between Naomi and Mandy Rose. Honestly, I was hoping Carmella might get a crack at SmackDown Women’s Champion Asuka since both of them are top talents who have not been shown much love on TV lately. As established stars, Mella and The Glow Queen don’t need this victory as much as the other teams involved. As stated above, I’m not saying they are the worst team in the match. I just think they wouldn’t be helped as much as the other teams by winning the belts. Quite frankly, a lot of people would be left scratching their heads by the way they’ve been booked if Fabulous Glow emerged victorious.
5. Nia Jax & Tamina – This team is obviously the most polarizing one in the field. Fans either love or hate Nia Jax. There’s no middle ground. However, the WWE and Jax obviously want to capitalize on the controversy and buzz she creates by doing anything these days. Since she made some waves by taking big bumps in the Men’s Royal Rumble match, delivering a kayfabe injury to Becky Lynch in the Women’s Royal Rumble and having rumors (which were untrue) circulating that she angered and injured United States Champion R-Truth in ambushing him to take his rumble spot, Jax can use some of the spotlight to win over some of the WWE Universe that turned on her after injuring Lynch for real in November. However, Tamina seems like too big of anchor. She can neither do much in the ring or deliver on promos anymore. Jax can accomplish more by herself than working a lot of tag team matches.
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4. Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville – We’ve entered the portion of the contenders where it’s really close how you view how much of a push the tag team belts could give them. We’re talking fractions of a hair close. I have Team Fire & Desire lower on this list because, out of the developmental group of teams, Rose is the Superstar that has already generated the most buzz and sold the most merchandise. Whether you liked or hated her homewrecker angle with real-life married couple Naomi and Jimmy Uso, Rose used it to create heat for her character. The WWE Universe seems split in that most men find her extremely attractive and want to watch her, while most women like to hate on her. Either way, creating a reaction is a good thing for a Superstar. At times, Deville has also distinguished herself, especially in the SmackDown Battle Royal match where she was the last challenger left before Asuka got the win to get the championship opportunity at TLC. Deville’s character isn’t all the way fleshed out on her own. In my opinion, these two will find more success once they eventually separate and become singles competitors who can occasionally reunite or turn on each other as the storyline dictates.
3. Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan – Ruby Riott’s henchwomen in The Riott Squad could certainly capitalize on creating more of an identity for themselves by becoming tag team champs. Morgan is one of the more active Superstars on social media, and she’s created quite a following online with a combination of her Harley Quinn-type look and sassy attitude that comes across in her tweets and Instagram posts. Meanwhile, Logan strikes an imposing figure, especially after deadlifting “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey from the mat and slamming her during their RAW Women’s Championship match this week. If any team other than The Boss N Hug Connection wins this match, the Riott Squad would be one of my top picks because I feel like the group isn’t consistently pushed and could emerge as one of the hottest things in the women’s division as a heel faction if given the right booking and opportunities.
2. Peyton Royce & Billie Kay – The IIconics are dangerously close to being pigeonholed as a comedy relief act only and an afterthought not to be taken seriously with the way they’ve been handled so far on SmackDown. All that could change if they somehow emerged as the winners of the chamber match in Houston. Just as a reminder, I’m not saying I think they’re better than the other groups listed. I think their careers would receive the biggest boost of any team in this match. The few times we’ve seen The IIconics recently they’ve been knocked around hard in the tag team triple-threat match on Tuesday’s show and throat-punched and bullied by The Man and Asuka. Don’t forget Kay and Royce are some of the most successful women to have ever come out of Australia and they’ve worked together for 14 years to reach this point. They may not get a chance to be champs this time around, but I think it would be a shame if they didn’t get more of an opportunity at some point.
1. Sasha Banks & Bayley – Sometimes boring booking is the right booking. In my opinion, no other winner makes sense for how The Boss and The Hugger have been treated by the company for most of the past year. Not long ago, rumors circulated that the Women’s Tag Team Championship match had been intended for a pay-per-view show, possibly even Evolution, in 2018 only to be tabled. It would make sense given how two of the top talents in all of the WWE – in either the men’s or women’s divisions – have consistently dealt with marginalized, head-scratching storylines, often being the butts of an Alexa Bliss joke. The bottom line here is Banks and Bayley deserve to be the first women’s champions if for no other reason than for validation on sacrificing some of their success as individual performers to help the WWE launch these belts again for the first time since they went away in 1989. In searching for answers on why RAW experienced some ratings decline at the tail end of 2018, I would suggest the WWE look at its inability to use two of its best and most popular Superstars in Banks and Bayley as a way to challenge Rousey like they have in the past few weeks and like Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch have in the past few months. Sure, Bayley and Banks are great enough to kickstart their success on their own again, but I put them at the top of this list because being the first women’s tag champs is an honor they can cite for the rest of their careers.