WWE is running in circles with its women’s tag team championship

The Post’s Joseph Staszewski brings you around the world of professional wrestling every Tuesday in his weekly column, the Post Match Angle.

It’s been over a year since Mercedes Varnado and Trinity Fatu walked out on “Monday Night Raw” as WWE was reportedly taking their reign as women’s tag team champions on a singles storyline detour. 

And you can make the case — despite Triple H holding the title of head of creative and Vince McMahon holding the power of final say — WWE isn’t treating the division any differently now.

Some of it is injury-driven bad luck, some of it limited roster depth, some of it hot-potato booking — mostly things WWE has control of. But the division continues to be riddled by a revolving door of teams, short reigns and its use as a story device to set up singles feuds.

Since August 2022, when new champs were crowned after Fatu and Varnado left, seven different teams have held the championships. Only the teams of Raquel Rodriguez and Liz Morgan and Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai have had two reigns. The former pair’s first run ended because of an injury to Morgan.

Other than Damage CTRL’s second reign of 114 days, no team has held the titles more than 49 days with the average reign lasting 39 days — not counting Sonya Deville and Chelsea Green’s week as champion after topping Morgan and Rodriguez.

The problem seems to have reared its ugly head even more so recently. 

In February, Becky Lynch and Lita ended Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai’s long reign. Lynch and Lita’s stint ended after 42 days with Trish Stratus subbing for Lita — who Stratus injured in storyline — to set up her feud with The Man. 

Injury led Morgan and Rodriguez to vacate and Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler won a fatal four-way in May to claim the title for the first time. They even defeated Abla Frye and Isa Dawn to unify them with the NXT women’s tag titles — something that still lacks clarity. 

It seemed like Rousey and Baszler finally gave the division a pair of potentially unbeatable champions for everyone to shoot for and hell bent on improving how the division is treated. Welp, just 33 days later, they lost to Rodriguez and Morgan. Baszler turned on Rousey, giving the former champs a cheap win and settling up the real-life friends’ SummerSlam match with Rousey potentially leaving WWE soon. 

Well, at least the titles were back on Rodriguez and Morgan and they will get the long reign they deserved the first time around, right? Nope. 

Just 16 days later, WWE women’s champion Rhea Ripley targeted Rodriguez’s knee in a backstage brawl that compromised her in storyline for the match. All to likely set up a SummerSlam title match between Rodriguez and Riley. 

Do we not see the pattern here?  

Maybe first-time winners Deville and Green, who have done some fun work together, can change things as neither one seems primed for a singles run or a breakout angle. But until WWE expands its women’s roster or includes NXT in the division, it feels like the women’s tag team champions are doomed to a revolving door existence and as a story device to feed WWE’s singles rivalries.

Whether you agree with how they did it or not, Varnado and Fatu tried to take a stand, tried to shine a brighter light on WWE’s flawed use of the women’s tag team division. 

Sadly, it feels like it was in vain, and we are right back where we started. 

Quick to Judge

After teasing some tension, it feels like WWE is going to make The Judgement Day stronger than ever before the Damian Priest-Finn Balor story fully takes hold. The faction is too hot right now to just throw all their potential away too quickly. Seeing them all help Dominik Mysterio become NXT North American champion last week feels like such an important moment of cohesion as was them all pummeling Seth Rollins to end Raw before things get dicey after Balor’s world heavyweight championship match against The Visionary at SummerSlam. The group owned Raw on Monday.

How long Mysterio’s reign last remains to be seen. He beat Butch in his first defense to complete the main event trifecta last week and Sami Zayn this week. Maybe Wes Lee wins it back at Great American Bash. But WWE not leaning hard into the Judgment Day tension angle – which they already have the foundation for – will be a positive step toward it meaning that much more whenever it does happen. They have to be the favorites to be in WarGames in some form.

Stark Contrast 

Yes, Ricky Starks’ babyface run was short-lived, but he may be in the best spot of his career right now. He is actually carrying the Owen Hart championship belt with him as AEW is making the win mean more for him than Adam Cole last year. Starks grabbing the rope a second straight week to secure a victory gives him a clear story with CM Punk — the Collision headliner. 

He isn’t a true heel but a tweener by not cheating in his mind, instead framing it as doing what it takes to win. It could split the audience between him and Punk in a good way. If it leads to a pay-per-view match, it is immediately a step up from his world title program with MJF.

The 10 Count

WWE better have something up its sleeve in this United States championship storyline because having Santos Escobar beat Austin Theory clean in a non-title match will feel very dumb otherwise.

What a powerfully symbolic moment to close SmackDown. Roman Reigns stopping Solo Sikoa from spiking Jey Uso shows the reverence he has for “Tribal Combat” (with his Tribal Chief status on the line at SummerSlam) compared to a regular match, as does Jey in super kicking Sikoa and not Reigns. Both men want there to be no excuses if they win.

Becky Lynch has become an absolute master at eeking out a victory at the most opportune moment — both as a heel and babyface — when in peril during a match, doing so against Zoey Stark this week. It’s allowed her to continue to help other talents get over in the process.

Jack Perry (Jungle Boy no more with new Beethoven entrance music) and Hook did some very effective business for two young stars. Perry made good on his promise – and could get some decent heat – after handing Hook his first loss and winning the FTW championship, which he smashed over his former partner’s head to do so. Hook got to kick out of Perry’s finisher for some protection and will likely set things right eventually. If all goes well, AEW elevates both of them. 

Quick NXT thoughts: Thea Hail becoming The Women of One Hold has been pretty brilliant. Gable Steveson has to be announcing he’s joining NXT, doesn’t he? Noam Dar being sent into wheelchaired-depression after losing the Heritage Cup feels so different that it’s starting to catch my interest in where it goes. 

The MJF-Adam Cole vs. Sammy Guevara-Daniel Garcia dance battle was thoroughly sports-entertaining and almost felt like a spoof of so many WWE segments we have seen. And as FTR pointed out on Collision, it’s everything they dislike about that brand of tag team wrestling. The crowd is digging this partnership, but it was MJF who seemed to get the reality check of “get Cole before he gets me.”

The idea of a Sky Blue push may have been premature after AEW had her lose to Taya Valkyrie to set up a match with Britt Baker on Dynamite.  

Something felt missing from Blood and Guts. Not sure if it was Ibushi looking a little rusty, being a little burnt out from the feud and excessive violence, or the lackluster finish on an undermanned BCC where it was Wheeler Yuta and not Jon Moxley or Claudio Castagnoli giving up. We got a story brushstroke instead of a big angle from the finale to the feud. It wasn’t bad at all, just a stuck a bit of a flat landing.

Corey Graves doing commentary with a spot on Ludwig Kaiser impression during the Imperium member’s match against Drew McIntyre was a pretty out-of-left-field change-up. It worked and I’m not sure how Gunther and Giovanni Vinci kept a straight face standing there listening.

Billy Gunn left his boots in the ring after he could not hold up his end in The Acclaimed’s trios championship loss to House of Black. It feels like the start of an angle and not retirement because Gunn deserves a better moment than that. 

Wrestler of the Week

Athena, Ring of Honor

Everything about Athena said star at Death Before Dishonor, from being in the man event, her winged entrance and continuing being the longest reigning Ring of Honor women’s world champion ever at 224-plus days. She and Willow Nightingale went out and delivered the type of hard-hitting and compelling match befitting of main event. Athena has found herself it’s elevating everything she is doing right now.