Welcome to yet another exciting episode of the eWrestlingNews Thought-provoker of the Day!
Firstly, I want to apologize for my brief absence. I had to attend to a family crisis that necessitated travel from NYC to Florida, which was time-consuming and distressing. In the midst of this, I didn’t get to catch this week’s Monday Night Raw.
But this gap led to some puzzlement on my end, and this forms the crux of today’s discussion query.
Last Friday, the WWE announced the Women’s United States Championship, which made me anticipate a similar announcement for the Raw equivalent, a Women’s Intercontinental Championship on Monday Night Raw. But to my surprise, upon checking the Raw results as well as the spoilers for the next week, I found no such proclamation.
My puzzle for you today is this. “Why do you reckon WWE postponed the declaration of a women’s intercontinental title? Is there a benefit to this delay? Do you foresee it being announced later on, or will the Women’s US title be the only one without a Raw counterpart?” I invite you to answer in the comment section below.
Regarding my perspective…
Unless I’m mistaken—if so, most of this discussion will be irrelevant—I don’t recall Nick Aldis stating that the women’s United States title would span brands. If my memory serves me correctly, he seemed to imply that this would only be applicable to the blue brand. Given this, I find it utterly baffling that Raw, the mainstay show, will not have a women’s intercontinental title.
This lacks sense to me. If this is indeed the case and WWE is simply making a poor decision, then we have our unfavourable answer. Let’s face it, people do make flawed decisions that impact more than just themselves, and WWE could be doing just that. They’ve made such missteps before, including the mishandling of women’s tag titles.
But here’s my belief: WWE has a plan up its sleeve, even though it’s yet to be unveiled.
It’s plausible that the belt might not be ready, hence the delayed announcement. Or maybe, WWE doesn’t want these title announcements to coexist and dilute each other’s significance. For instance, they did not launch the men’s and women’s NXT Breakout Tournament or the men’s and women’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic simultaneously. Perhaps WWE is plotting a timeline for the women’s US title and they don’t want a parallel announcement for a women’s intercontinental title to diminish its hype.
Given all this, we could see a women’s IC champion being crowned at the Royal Rumble in February. I find it hard to believe that we won’t have a women’s intercontinental champion by the time we embark on The Road to WrestleMania.
But, what if WWE wants this title to be the bone of contention between Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill? And as we’re already expecting four women’s matches at WrestleMania, would adding a women’s IC title lead to a justified match on the Mania 41 card? Otherwise, it would seem insignificant compared to the US title.
If the 2025 WWE Draft passes and there’s still no women’s intercontinental title, while the women’s US title isn’t cross-branded, I’ll frankly be dumbfounded.
I’d love to know your take on this. Please share your thoughts below!