AEW Dynamite 2/3/2021: Beach Break

More Cross-Promotional Storyline Development, this time between NJPW and AEW; incredible Athleticism on Display

Perhaps what stood out more than the story depicted in this match was the unbelievable athleticism displayed by Rey Fenix – he might move quicker than anyone in wrestling today, although Kenny Omega is a much better all-around performer. The primary storyline this match was orchestrated to advance was the Kenny Omega / Jon Moxley feud for the AEW World Championship. The two top stars in AEW need to have at least one meeting on Pay-Per-View at Revolution to draw the most money for the company.

AEW is also continuing its partnership with other wrestling companies throughout the world. The Jacksonville-based promotion already has a partnership with Impact, given the close bond Don Callis has with Kenny Omega, serving as a mentor to him since Kenny was 10 years old. This continued at Beach Break when Kenta appeared to get an NJPW rivalry going with Jon Moxley over Moxley’s IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, which he has held consecutively for well over a year.

It is fantastic for AEW from a business standpoint that the company is so willing to collaborate with other promotions, not just in the United States but in Japan as well. It shows the company’s adaptability, which is more necessary than ever for any business in a changing world which appears to be changing at a faster rate than ever – AEW is showing it can keep up with the changes in the world. Kenny Omega also descended the AAA Mega Championship from Mexico in early 2020 against Sammy Guevara.

Jericho and MJF taking the AEW World Tag Team Championship off The Young Bucks is the priority for right now as it has been planned for months, but Tony Khan and the rest of the company executives recognize that Top Flight is the future of tag team wrestling

The match the company has been building toward in the last several months, since November when Maxwell Jacob Friedman defeated Chris Jericho to earn a spot in The Inner Circle at Full Gear, is Jericho and MJF vs. The Young Bucks. Maxwell and Christopher will most likely take the titles off The Bucks at Revolution. If all goes according to plan, MJF will be launched into superstardom as being tag team champions with Jericho which may be the final big accomplishment to make him the face of AEW for the next 10 – 15 years.

In the meantime, MJF seems to be seeking to dismantle The Inner circle from the inside, and it’s working. Sammy Guevara is beginning to distrust Jericho and feel Jericho and MJF are completely out for themselves and to further their own careers. Sammy is like the son who does not agree with the new friend his father has chosen, but he is stuck in the middle of the situation. Jericho – the father – is being manipulated by his new friend and he doesn’t realize it.

On a lighter note, Top Flight are like the next generation’s version of The Young Bucks. Darius and Dante Martin are only 21 and 19 years old respectively, and the two young men from Minneapolis were trained by Ken Anderson and Molly Holly Anderson’s Academy School of Professional Wrestling. They were signed by AEW in November 2020 and have wrestled for numerous independent companies such as Game Changer Wrestling, Black Label Pro and AAW.

These two kids publicly talked about potentially wrestling The Bucks since September, so it was evident that this encounter was on their minds. They would have been the top choice by AEW to challenge for the tag team titles if Jericho and MJF were not already in the plans.

Now Miro has developed some history with several different wrestlers in AEW in his first five months with the company, including Penelope Ford, Kip Sabian, Chuck Taylor (unexpectedly) and Orange Cassidy – this opening storyline for Miro has effectively done its job from that perspective

Miro’s first storyline in AEW was a long-term storyline, which did not elicit much excitement from fans in his first five months with the company. It took a while to get off the ground, but the angle did its job of creating another high-profile story between Miro and Orange Cassidy.

Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford were the primary (but not the only) characters to benefit from this “Best Man” storyline. Tony Khan was able to slide Chuck Taylor in as the Butler for Miro when Trent (Chuckie T’s tag partner in the Best Friends) unexpectedly went down with an injury.

Lance Archer defeats Eddie Kingston and the two men displayed great chemistry in the ring together even if the lumberjack stipulation made the match a little tough to follow

There are several layers to the storyline between Lance Archer and Eddie Kingston. The stable known as Death Triangle comprised of Pac and the Lucha Brothers was formed in March 2020 but was put on hold during the pandemic because of Pac being in the UK and there were travel restrictions all over the world.

The Lucha Bros had to find something else to do in AEW, so they joined Eddie Kingston’s family along with The Butcher and The Blade – but reformed Death Triangle when Pac returned to the company in November. Lance Archer has now formed a cautious alliance with Pac and his stable. Not confusing at all, right?

Eddie Kingston had his greatest AEW match to date at Beach Break vs. Lance Archer. Archer got the victory, but Kingston showed a higher level of chemistry with Archer than he has with anyone else on the AEW roster so far. Since signing with AEW in June 2020, Kingston’s debut match with Cody Rhodes was the best until his match with Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship in November at Full Gear, but this lumberjack match with Lance Archer may have been Eddie’s best performance thus far with his new employer. He appears happy as well, which is a big deal.

Lance Archer delivered impressive performances back in early 2020 in QT Marshall’s gym, when the company was relying on only about 1/3 of its roster.

Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. is virtually guaranteed to be a superstar if she keeps up this pace with her character development; Tony Schiavone is fantastic in his role as well

Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. is currently on pace to be a megastar in AEW within a couple years – maybe even quicker than that. One who closely observed the business could have potentially seen this coming immediately when she became the first woman to be signed by AEW. It has now been 2 years since she signed and she is still not even 30 yet.

Britt just got a massive victory over perhaps the top woman in the company other than herself. Thunder Rosa is relatively new to AEW, but she has plenty of experience in the NWA among other promotions as well. She was the NWA Women’s World Champion until dropping the title to Serena Deeb a few months ago.

Britt Baker started to gain the most prominence she has had in AEW in April 2020 when she had her nose broken in a match with AEW Women’s World Champion Hikaru Shida (total accident). She received a significant amount of respect for her softness and professionalism/wherewithal to finish the task at hand.

Sting’s first AEW match is quickly approaching

It’s fantastic that Sting has come to AEW, nearly 20 years after appearing in WCW also on TNT and is unselfishly putting over Darby Allin as the next generation of himself. That shows he has the self-awareness to recognize his own star power, whether Steve Borden likes the attention or not, and use it to preserve the wrestling business multiple generations into the future.

The upcoming Street Fight at Revolution may or may not be a cinematic match like WWE did with The Undertaker’s final Boneyard match against AJ Styles. This would be a brand-new undertaking for Tony Khan as AEW has never attempted to orchestrate a match like this, but it is an interesting idea as this company has shown in the past how willing everyone is to innovate – they are all looking to do just that.

Sting’s entrance in AEW is similar to one scene of the 1992 movie “Batman Returns” with Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito as The Penguin. The snow reminds me of the scene at the end of the movie where Batman and The Penguin are fighting in the snow and ice. Just a cool reference point.

Hangman Adam Page is struggling to form a lasting alliance with mutual trust

Matt Hardy is trying to get a tag team going with Hangman Adam Page, who is reluctant to get involved with any sort of stable or tag partner. Page was deeply hurt by Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks when they kicked him out of The Elite, and he is not looking to be hurt like that again – he already turned down The Dark Order. Page is searching for validation and highs in wrestling rather than titles.

He is constantly seeking affirmation and approval from others – the only reason is avoiding another partnership right now is because he feels hurt by The Elite. This is the mentality of a somewhat entitled person, and the validation he is seeking will not come until Hangman realizes that he has always had the ability to give it to himself. Once he realizes that he will then be able to see that reflection in someone else. For now though, he has been getting victories over people like Ryan Nemeth to give these people a huge spotlight in their early AEW careers.

The fact that Kenny Omega is now AEW World Champion is no doubt in the back of Adam Page’s mind, and that Page could potentially challenge Omega for the title this summer (or sometime in the future). This is the most subtle storyline in all of wrestling in the US right now, because the AEW World Tag Team Championship reign for Omega and Page took place before Omega became the face of the company – adding yet another layer to the story. Hangman also formed a bit of a cautious alliance with FTR as drinking buddies, but it turns out they were manipulating him the whole time. Mixing any activity with alcohol almost never goes over well.

Sami Zayn’s (The Great Liberator, The Critic of Critics, Mr. Conspiracy) Journey in Wrestling, with Kevin Steen/Owens by his Side

Rami Sebel has been a professional wrestler since 2002, signed with WWE in 2013, and was trained by the late Jerry Tuite (known for his time in WCW) as well as Savio Vega. Zayn (El Generico on the indies) wrestled Kevin Steen (Kevin Owens) for the first time in 2003 and the real-life best friends’ careers have been linked ever since, following them even to WWE currently.

Before WWE, El Generico was known for working in all sorts of promotions all across the world, including the International Wrestling Syndicate (IWS), Ring of Honor (ROH), Japan’s Dragon Gate USA, DDT Pro-Wrestling, Philadelphia’s Chikara promotion, Evolve, Germany’s wXw, and even Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) which is essentially recognized as the place one goes on the indies (if one chooses to go that route) before a man/woman makes it in a large promotion like WWE or AEW.

In Ring of Honor El Generico held the ROH World Television Championship as well as the ROH World Tag Team Championship with who else but his best friend Kevin Steen. The two men feuded throughout the entirety of 2010, winning the Feud of the Year award from Wrestling Observer Newsletter. He is also a two-time IWS World Heavyweight Champion for the Montréal- based International Wrestling Syndicate. This is the promotion where El Generico got his start in professional wrestling in 2002 as he is from Montréal. He stayed with IWS until 2009, while making appearances in many other promotions.

In Germany, while with wXw (following in the footsteps of many other legends like Daniel Bryan), he won the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship and DDT Pro-Wrestling (a sister promotion of New Japan Pro-Wrestling; the hyphen) KO-D Openweight Championship.

El Generico wore a mask throughout his entire tenure on the independent scene. He achieved his greatest success (before WWE) in PWG, when in the PWG World Championship twice and the PWG World Tag Team Championship five times. He is the only wrestler to have won both annual tournaments for PWG in the Battle of Los Angeles in 2011 and the Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title tournament in 2010. As a side note, this is most likely where AEW got the inspiration to call their weekly television program Dynamite – because one of their commentators, Excalibur, is one of the founders of PWG and the company already had the word Dynamite attached to one of their annual tournaments. Kevin Steen was with El Generico every step of the way both personally and professionally.

In WWE Zayn is a former NXT Champion (2014 – 15) and a former two-time Intercontinental Champion, winning his first title on the WWE main roster in March 2020. Zayn has performed on the main roster since 2015 – even though he suffered a shoulder injury before his first televised match on Monday Night Raw began. He began to show significant character development in 2019 after returning from a separate shoulder injury, cutting a promo in which he labeled himself the Critic of Critics and finished by telling the WWE universe “see you in Hell.”

Mr. Conspiracy is currently playing the role of an entitled and narcissistic character who believes his own problems are so unique to the rest of the world that everyone else is out to get him. He is essentially saying that, “I am so special that everyone envies the qualities I possess.” He would ideally adopt the mentality that, “I am more special than anyone else.” Unfortunately, this mentality is a real thing and some people legitimately feel entitled like this (quite a few). It would benefit people with this mentality to give up ideas that they are uniquely special, talented, or attractive, or even victimized.

No one is inherently owed anything by the world. It would benefit people with this mentality to give up the emotional highs that have been sustaining them. This mentality is much more rampant in our society than anyone would care to admit. I can speak from experience because I personally feel I developed this mentality to a certain degree in spiritual form – like a little bit of a Woo-woo mentality. Nothing crazy, but a little bit of entitlement/narcissism. I’m not too proud to admit it – my own journey. That level of consciousness worked for me a year or two ago.

Stability throughout Shinsuke Nakamura’s career

Shinsuke Nakamura has worked in Japan for nearly his entire professional wrestling career from 2002 – 2015. He also had five MMA fights, the first being on New Year’s Eve in 2002 and his last fights coming in 2004. He is a three-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, including being the youngest champion ever for the company at 23 years old in November 2003. He has also won the 2011 G1 Climax and the 2014 New Japan Cup as well as being a five-time IWGP Intercontinental Champion (which was a record at the time but has since been broken by many Tetsuya Naito in 2020). Nakamura was the final IWGP Third Belt Champion and NWF Heavyweight Champion as well as a founding member and the original leader of the iconic Stable Chaos.

Nakamura left NJPW in 2016 as he had signed with WWE. He debuted in WWE’s developmental territory NXT at NXT Takeover: Dallas on April 1 in a match – defeating Sami Zayn. He won the NXT Championship twice, although Shinsuke never held the title for more than three months. Nakamura became one of only three men in history to hold the NXT title more than once (Samoa Joe and Finn Balor are the other two) and he debuted on the main roster for WWE right after WrestleMania 33 in 2017, defeating Dolph Ziggler in his debut match at Backlash.

Shinsuke won the Royal Rumble in 2018 and is elected to challenge AJ Styles for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans – he was unsuccessful and turned heel in the process. He ultimately became United States Champion, Intercontinental Champion, and a tag team champion in WWE in the years that followed and is the second wrestler behind Chris Jericho to hold the Intercontinental title in WWE and NJPW.

Shinsuke Nakamura has been very blessed in his wrestling career to spend his entire 18-year career working for only two different companies – New Japan Pro-Wrestling and WWE. Most people bounce around between many different companies during their careers. It says something about his character as a human being that the two companies he has worked for are that loyal to him. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that Nakamura enjoys surfing so much – because it is a little bit like meditating if one reflects.

Daniel Bryan believes WWE needs a new Developmental Territory; Rare in the World of Wrestling

Daniel Bryan has suggested in a roundabout way that WWE may want to begin cultivating another developmental territory. Bryan’s reasoning was that WWE has done such an incredible job with turning NXT into a third global brand under the WWE umbrella, and now it has evolved to a point where it is no longer considered a developmental territory. So, in essence, that brings up the question of whether WWE has a developmental territory at this point in time (which the company needs in order to be able to cultivate new stars and give them a taste of what life would be like on the main roster).

Bryan believes it may be time for the company to start planting the seeds for the inception of a new developmental territory since NXT is already promoted globally and has a TV show every week on the USA Network (same as the main roster). The brand also delivers quarterly Pay-Per-View events on the WWE Network.

Daniel told Michael Morales Torres of Lucha Libre Online that the company needs to address the situation by creating a new developmental territory to fill the void left by NXT as a result of its growth:

“I definitely don’t think NXT is considered as a developmental territory anymore, which leaves a question: do we have a developmental territory? Those guys are awesome and I do consider NXT a third brand for our company.” Bryan believes young talent in WWE might work better at first performing “under the radar” without quite as much pressure as a global brand like NXT now brings.

One can see evidence of this in the fact that NXT was heavily featured as WWE’s third brand on par with RAW and SmackDown at Survivor Series 2019. Superstars such as Roderick Strong, Keith Lee, and Rhea Ripley all received a major career-defining moments at the event – Ripley even received an opportunity to defend her NXT Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 36.

Daniel might have more leverage than just about any other performer because he has not only accomplished so much and was one of the favorites to win the 2021 men’s Royal Rumble, but he is also a current member of the writing team for SmackDown on FOX. Because of this, Bryan has a significant amount of pull backstage over the company’s direction.

This is not to say necessarily that a new developmental territory in WWE will be established, but it bodes well for the inception of this that Daniel Bryan voiced his advocacy for it to be established. It would not be the most surprising thing in the world if a new WWE developmental territory was at least explored.

WWE Royal Rumble 1/31/2021

Edge wins the men’s Royal Rumble 11 years after winning it in 2010 and 10 years after a career-threatening injury; Adam Copeland can finally end his career on his terms

Edge main-eventing WrestleMania at 47 years old does essentially nothing to make him into a bigger star; Adam Copeland the human being is finding meaning in this journey through finding vindication in the idea of writing his own ending to his wrestling career, and that level of consciousness is working for him at this stage of life.

This year it was only a seven-month absence for The Rated-R Superstar due to a torn triceps as opposed to a 9-year hiatus as it was last year chronic neck issues (which required two separate surgeries). Another core moment in the men’s Royal Rumble was the return of Christian after being punted by Orton several months ago. Edge and Christian are real-life the best friends and former tag team partners, so it brings continuity to the story that Christian returned in the Rumble to help his friend achieve vindication.

Daniel Bryan announced he was entering the 2021 men’s Royal Rumble match on Christmas Day 2020. This marked Daniel’s first Royal Rumble appearance since 2015. The WWE universe was firmly behind Daniel Bryan to win the entire thing that year, but that was the year Roman Reigns got the nod from WWE. Reigns and Bryan had a match the following month by main-eventing the Fastlane Pay-Per-View to see which one of them would go on to main event WrestleMania 31 against Brock Lesnar.

The leader of the YES! Movement missed the Rumble the following three years because he was forced into retirement due to medical issues with his head and suffering many concussions over the years. He was active for Royal Rumble in 2019 and 2020 but was featured in a major title match both years, so Bryan was not featured in the men’s Royal Rumble match.

Daniel Bryan has a lot more influence backstage than perhaps any other superstar not named Roman Reigns because he is a member of the writing team on SmackDown. As a result, he can give his own creative input for storylines – not just his own but for every other superstar as well. Bryan’s ideas are not met with question marks but are legitimately considered.

A perfect example of this is the losing streak Daniel Bryan went on prior to the Royal Rumble. His intention behind this idea was to put over other underutilized superstars in need of major victories to establish themselves before getting a massive spotlight himself. Cesaro was chief among the men who benefited from this losing streak – getting by far the biggest victory of his WWE career to date over Daniel Bryan on the January 15 SmackDown (Claudio Castagnoli got a victory over Bryan Danielson in Ring of Honor over a decade ago but this was the first time in WWE).

Perhaps since Cesaro’s partner Shinsuke Nakamura recently underwent a face turn and seems to be beginning another singles run on the main roster, a victory over someone as established as Daniel Bryan will provide The Swiss Cyborg with the necessary momentum he needs to get over and sustain it with the WWE universe. Otis and Chad Gable are two other guys who have benefited from being associated with someone as established as Bryan, not in the form of matches but being DB’s trainers in the Alpha Academy.

Seth Rollins returned at Royal Rumble from paternity leave; he left right after Survivor Series, where he sacrificed himself “for the greater good” and he and Becky Lynch had their baby, Roux in December. The Messiah was scheduled to return on the New Year’s Day edition of SmackDown, but that idea was scrapped for whatever reason. Maybe Seth would make for an interesting challenger to Roman Reigns for the Universal title before Mania in Tampa.

2021 for WWE may likely be built heavily around Braun Strowman, who became a perennial main eventer in 2020 because Roman Reigns decided to prioritize his family first by skipping out on WrestleMania 36 and being present with his newborn twins during the first few months of the pandemic.

AJ Styles seems to be one of the standards in WWE’s booking strategy, as he should be as arguably the greatest in-ring for format of this generation. A slightly more novel idea is the thought that his bodyguard/bouncer Omos could begin his in-ring career in 2021. Evidence for this stems from the fact that he eliminated Rey Mysterio and Big E himself and engaged in a confrontation with Braun Strowman.

One last nice surprise was that Riddle had a fantastic performance. It was reminiscent of Cody Rhodes back in 2012 coming in at No. 4 and he one of the final men eliminated. Mr. McMahon is very high on Riddle in his Spiccoli-inspired character even if McMahon doesn’t fully understand it. Riddle did have a legitimate argument with Brock Lesnar last year that nearly resulted in a fight. Over what? Probably nothing important.

One other somewhat disappointing event in the men’s Royal Rumble was that Keith Lee, after defeating Randy Orton just five months ago, was not featured in the match after being in the Rumble with Brock Lesnar last year and getting a WWE Championship match with Drew McIntyre four weeks ago on Legends night.

Bianca Blair wins the Women’s Royal Rumble after entering at No. 3

The result of the Women’s Royal Rumble was exquisite from a booking standpoint – the WWE creative team nailed it. The top two young superstars were the final two women in the match in the form of Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley. Ripley defended the NXT Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 36 for the first time ever (or any NXT title), and Belair was easily the woman who would benefit most from winning the Royal Rumble on the women’s side.

WWE made the right choice in having the EST get the victory. After watching her documentary on WWE Chronicle, one cannot help but root for her in her effort to capture a title at Mania. Wrestling has allowed her to rediscover the inner child within her.

Alexa Bliss was not in the Rumble for very long this year after entering at number one last year and lasting for about half the match before being eliminated by Bianca. This was extremely smart on WWE’s part because, at this stage, she should be treated by WWE creative exactly the same as The Fiend. They are both supernatural characters that function better if they are kept away from any sort of title picture and fight for causes that “mean more” to them.

It was never a legitimate question of if Roman Reigns was going to retain the Universal Championship, but it was a question of how he would defeat Kevin Owens in this title defense; the match may have exceeded expectations which were set extremely high from their last match at TLC last month

Roman Reigns – from a character standpoint – has used the “mob boss” aura to surround himself with people like Paul Heyman and his cousin Jey who will tell him whatever he wants to hear, mainly that he is right in his thinking that he has transcended Kevin Owens’ “just to keep fighting” level of consciousness. The Head of The Table has essentially created the illusion that he is operating on a higher mental paradigm than everyone else, according to Kevin Owens. This is somewhat of a metaphor for the relationship between Jim Ross and Vince McMahon – at least one facet.

Good ol’ J.R. painted the picture that Vince McMahon surrounded himself with people who would tell him nothing but what he wanted to hear, and it was not like that when he first bought WWE from his father. People learned the art of how and when to talk to Vince in order to have the best chance of getting their way. For example, if someone wanted to push a certain agenda, the best way to ensure it happened was to be the last person Mr. McMahon talked with so the boss had your voice ringing in his ear the loudest.

The Reigns-KO storyline is essentially a mirror for the McMahon-Ross relationship. But as I alluded to earlier, this was just one facet. McMahon loved Jim Ross (and still does) like a brother and it reminds me of the love I have for my own brother. Jim broke his back for WWE and put himself through a lot of unnecessary personal anguish, but he is now doing his thing with more freedom (subjective) and a much lighter work schedule with AEW.

In terms of tangibility, the match between Roman Reigns and KO quite possibly exceeded the quality of the last match between the two men, which was awfully hard to do because last month, Kevin Owens went through about five tables. This month at the Royal Rumble, it appeared as though Kevin went into the match by simply asking himself over the past month “what can I jump off of?” The answer was a forklift and the platform in the arena that he was thrown off of by Roman a few weeks ago.

Goldberg puts over The Scottish Warrior Drew McIntyre and unselfishly makes him an even bigger star

This was also undoubtedly the right call in the WWE Championship match for Bill Goldberg to put over Drew McIntyre – he checked one opponent off his list of men he wanted to work with before he retired. WWE has invested the last year in building McIntyre as a credible main eventer by winning the Royal Rumble in 2020 and winning the WWE Championship from Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania 36. McIntyre was also given the nod from WWE management to engage in an extremely compelling storyline with Randy Orton (which included by far McIntyre’s best promo work) from August – November, which included Orton taking the WWE title off McIntyre for a few weeks before McIntyre defeated Orton again to win the title for the second time.

Goldberg used his box office appeal to make McIntyre an even bigger star and cement the future of the business. WWE learned from last year that The Fiend taking a nod to Goldberg took a step backwards in terms of his character development. It worked well to have Goldberg take the Universal championship off Kevin Owens four years ago and drop the title a month later at WrestleMania 33 to Brock Lesnar (kickstarting a historic title reign of over a year), but last year was a different animal because Goldberg was dealing with a supernatural character in the form of The Fiend.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I flinched when Goldberg lifted McIntyre to do a jackhammer. I had flashbacks to Super Showdown 2019 and that horrible botch in which The Undertaker’s neck was nearly broken. In fairness, it was because Goldberg was concussed earlier in the match; he had to feel awful for putting another life in jeopardy. But anyway, the jackhammer on McIntyre was well-executed. I give Bill credit for having the strength to get that done because McIntyre is a big guy – and 19 years younger.

Carmella is steadily raising her stock within WWE as a potential credible champion as she has been once before; Sasha Banks is the face of the SmackDown women’s division right now

The Boss is still SmackDown Women’s Champion for now which is the right booking decision at this point in time. Not to say Carmella will never get there, but right now Sasha is most likely the top women’s star not named Charlotte Flair. She will probably hold the title until WrestleMania 37 and be challenged by someone like a returning Becky Lynch or Ronda Rousey.

WWE takes some of the spotlight off its top two female stars (which can certainly be afforded) to essentially elevate the Women’s Tag Team Championships by giving them more focus

It was absolutely the right call by WWE to put the Women’s Tag Team Titles on an actual women’s tag team rather than just lazily putting the championships on the company’s top two singles stars in the women’s division in the form of Charlotte Flair and Asuka – guess they are both embroiled in their own singles stories. Asuka is involved in a storyline with Alexa Bliss over the RAW Women’s Championship, and Charlotte Flair is involved in a storyline with Lacey Evans beginning a romance with her father Ric Flair (kind of disgusting given the fact that there is almost of 40-year age gap between he and Lacey).

Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler had a pretty decent amount of momentum on their side back in December when they lost the titles, so it might have been in ill-advised decision to take the titles off them in the first place. The Women’s Tag Team Championships would have received a bigger spotlight over the past month if they were on an actual women’s tag team as opposed to the entire WWE universe nearly forgetting who the champions were. It was absolutely the right call to put the titles back on Jax and Baszler.