2 Ways to Go With WWE Women’s Tag Titles After Sonya Deville’s Injury

The WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship has been snake bit before it was even created. After years of fans and the women’s division Superstars themselves asking for the titles, Vince McMahon essentially said “Fine. Whatever.” in his promo announcing the creation of those belts.

Since they were created in 2019, the overall theme of the treatment of that division has been that it is the least cared about division on the roster. Only the 24/7 Championship was lower than it, and that went away with a literal toss into the garbage. But even when WWE did put an ounce of care into the division, issues continued to plague the championships.

This year alone, Becky Lynch and Lita beat Damage CTRL basically just to set up the Trish Stratus turn. Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan won the belts purely because Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler were too injured to capture them at WrestleMania. A month later, Morgan was injured and a month after Ronda and Shayna won them, they split, only to drop them back to Raquel and Liv, just for Liv to get injured again, drop them to Sonya Deville and Chelsea Green, and here we are: Sonya Deville has a torn ACL and will be out indefinitely.

There’s something of a one-month curse on these belts, it seems. Now, WWE has to figure out yet another alternative plan of what to do with these championships, as Green cannot defend them solely on her own.

There’s a fork in the road as far as the path to take. Do they vacate the titles, or does Green get a new partner?

Let’s explore both avenues and talk about the pros and cons.

Route A) Vacated Titles & New Champions

The most likely direction WWE will take, as it is both simple and something they’ve done many times in the past, is for Green and Deville to relinquish the titles. Then, because there aren’t many actual teams on the roster (as WWE doesn’t prioritize keeping people together, since they do not care about the tag team division as it is, let alone the women’s subdivision), they’ll likely slap a bunch of random teams together, put them in a Fatal 4-Way or a mini tournament, crown new champions and call it a day.

It’s bland, uninspired, and won’t lead to any major success. Everyone will basically just roll their eyes at most of the “teams” put together and the new champions will feel like the D-squad, since none of this comes off as the intended situation these belts should be in right now.

Assuming WWE does this, and keeping in mind just how many women are currently injured and unavailable to use, I would pitch that there should be either an eight-team tournament (4 main roster teams, 4 NXT teams) or even a 16-team tournament (8 teams on both rosters) if you really want to stretch it out.

In my mind, these would be the best teams for those scenarios, with the ones in bold being the top ones if you kept it 4 and 4.

1. Main Roster — The Way (Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell)
2. Main Roster — Katana Chance and Kayden Carter
3. Main Roster — Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn
4. Main Roster — Chelsea Green and a new partner (explained in Route B)
5. Main Roster — Trish Stratus and Zoey Stark
6. Main Roster — Temporary team of Michin and Shotzi
7. Main Roster — Temporary team of Natalya and Maxxine Dupri (go with the idea of Nattie being brought in as a temporary extra “coach” for Maxxine)
8. Main Roster — Temporary team of Nikki Cross and Tegan Nox
9. NXT — Meta-Four’s Jakara Jackson and Lash Legend
10. NXT — Elektra Lopez and Lola Vice
11. NXT — Valentina Feroz and Yulisa Leon
12. NXT — Dana Brooke and Kelani Jordan
13. NXT — Kiana James and Giovanna Eburneo
14. NXT — Temporary team of Thea Hail and Dani Palmer
15. NXT — Temporary team of Blair Davenport and Tatum Paxley or Cora Jade
16. NXT — Temporary team of Gigi Dolin and Lyra Valkyria

With 16 teams, you can milk this for a long time and not have to worry about booking the tag titles on any upcoming cards. That also allows for main roster talent to go down to NXT to wrestle some of those matches, which WWE is doing a lot as of late, and even bring up some NXT people for a guest spot on Raw or SmackDown to do the same.

A team like Trish and Zoey can get screwed by Becky Lynch to further that feud. Temporary teams like Cross and Nox can just be first-round losses. It’s fairly simple stuff, and ultimately, you can go with a team like The Way or KC and KC as the new champions, or you can just have Chelsea Green win the belts with her new partner, having them earn the right to be the new champions and effectively start this all over again.

But if that’s the case, who do you team her up with? Well, that is where I think you can get into the second route and either do both Route B leading into Route A, or just skip the tournament altogether, do Route B and be done with it.

Route B) Chelsea Green Gets a Replacement Partner

Chelsea pitched an idea on After the Bell that she could hold a talent show of sorts to determine a new tag team partner:

🚨 Chelsea’s Got Talent auditions 🚨
THE WWE Woman’s Tag Team Champion invites YOU to audition. Please submit your full name, entry video & include any hidden talents I may be able to use to my advantage, as your tag team partner.

POSTING THIS BEFORE @wwe MANAGEMENT & ADAM… pic.twitter.com/3OgyFRcMyj

— CHELSEA GREEN (@ImChelseaGreen) August 10, 2023

Frankly, I think that’s already a good enough idea to bypass a tournament and just do this. The focal point of the Green/Deville team was Green anyway. Not that it doesn’t suck that Deville is injured, but if the plan would have been to largely focus on Green as the standout, that can still be done, just with a different sidekick.

Hell, they could find a better sidekick that has more synergy than to go with the dynamic of Deville being the tough one of the two.

Either/or. You can recast a tough one to be by Green’s side and fight the battles, or you can go with another stuck up bitchy character. Both can work.

Needless to say, these segments would require some variety. Green would have to approach people who weren’t interested (like a Charlotte Flair or Shayna Baszler), be approached by people she wasn’t interested in (maybe Valhalla?) and also run down a list of candidates, ruling people out.

Everyone who is a heel or tweener would have potential to take part in the storyline. Green could disregard someone like Nikki Cross for being too chaotic, Lacey Evans could team with Green and lose, rendering Green to eliminate her from the running, and so on.

Ultimately, I think the chosen one that would make the most sense to fill in Deville’s spot would be down to two options: Emma and Jacy Jayne.

Emma isn’t doing anything at all. She’s going nowhere fast. This could be what saves her career, and even though she’s not pulling an Emmalina, she could stand to shift her character beyond “Remember Emma from years ago?”

Jayne is my more favorite option, though. She’s not likely to win the NXT Women’s Championship any time soon, so hanging around in NXT is leaving her with less and less to contribute. Most of the noteworthy names have already feuded with her, and she’s been around long enough that she can learn the rest of what she needs to learn while on the main roster, rather than working with even less experienced talent on the rookie show.

Chelsea Green and Jacy Jayne would be obnoxious together. Jayne can keep the edge of being the darker of the two while Green continues to wear brighter colors, similar to what the Deville/Green vibe was doing. While Jayne isn’t as “tough” of a persona, she’s more of a wildcat, so she could be the one that has a more aggressive side as a slight variant of the same concept.

Bringing Jayne up to Raw or SmackDown also gives the main roster another fresh name to work with. Jayne against nearly everyone on both shows would be something that hasn’t been done a million times, save for a few matches like Fyre and Dawn, Chance and Carter, and Hartwell. It also separates her from Gigi Dolin, which allows Dolin to find more of herself stepping out of the shadows of Toxic Attraction.

Like I said, WWE could even do both of these directions, having Green pick Emma or Jayne to team with her in a tournament. They could even get a bye round if WWE doesn’t want to pair up one of those other options like Michin/Shotzi and excuse it as Green being the former champion that had to relinquish it.

The worst thing WWE can do right now is to just have Green drop the belts, wait a few weeks, and then do one single Fatal 4-Way and get it over with—which is what I fear might happen on a Raw or SmackDown in the coming month.

We’ll have to see, but if anyone up in Stamford is checking out this post, this was at least one pitch that could give you lots more screen time with minimal effort and ultimately, a better conclusion that means more for lots of women who don’t normally get much of a chance to shine.

What do you think WWE should do with the women’s tag titles? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!

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