So, congratulations to Lacey Evans and her husband on welcoming a second child into their household. This was confirmed after a women’s tag team match on RAW that ended with Lacey saying these three words:
“Charlotte….I’m pregnant”
In what was apparently another first in WWE, a match was just stopped on account of a pregnancy announcement. Usually the women would be telling the man, but in this case it was the multi-time champion and daughter of the legendary Ric Flair that it was addressed to.
Evans herself did not actually compete in the tag match she was part of, with her partner Peyton Royce doing all the heavy lifting for her team. Even Ric was somewhat taken aback, before “recovering” and celebrating alongside his charge.
Obviously, the Elimination Chamber card has been updated to remove the previously scheduled RAW Women’s Championship match between the title holder Asuka and Evans. But the RAW women’s title scene has been lacklustre lately since post Summerslam, as the Empress has barely had a credible challenger come her way. The obvious one, Charlotte, is now her tag partner.
I am very confident that Bianca Belair will be going after the Smackdown Women’s title vs. Sasha Banks come Wrestlemania, as Sasha’s character is starting to lean a bit more heelish lately. With that mind, here’s my suggestions on how to book the RAW Women’s title heading into Wrestlemania.
Rhea Ripley
The Nightmare entered the Royal Rumble last month and became one of the final two contestants, eventually being eliminated by Belair. Just last year, Rhea came to RAW and offered last year’s Rumble winner, Charlotte Flair, an NXT title shot at Wrestlemania, which Charlotte won. Therefore, there is ample material to work with when it comes to long term storytelling.
Since Asuka doesn’t have an opponent at Elimination Chamber, you can have her issue an Open Challenge which Ripley will emerge to answer. Either way, I would prefer Ripley win the title and maybe even do a heel turn by “cheating” to win, because there needs to be something to shake up the division. Ripley can then challenge Charlotte again at Wrestlemania because she wants to make up for the prior year’s loss.
You can even add Asuka in the mix because of Rhea’s ‘tainted’ victory and make it a Triple Threat between Ripley as champion, Asuka and Charlotte. There’s not going to be that many live fans at Wrestlemania like in 2019 when Ronda Rousey was in the main event, so you could get away with having a RAW Women’s title Triple Threat with those three…and it won’t be the main event this year anyway.
Charlotte Flair
There’s not much to say on this one, since it was brought on by unforeseen circumstances due to Lacey Evans’ pregnancy. Originally I envisioned Charlotte fighting Evans at Mania, with a stipulation such as if Evans lost Ric would have to go home to North Carolina. But now Charlotte is free to be booked back into the title picture.
I always felt Charlotte was a more natural heel; this buddy buddy thing with her former rival Asuka does seem a bit awkward. It was a good turn during last year when the two beat Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler for the tag titles, but now it’s getting kind of boring. Having Charlotte going after the RAW title she held so many times before is a safe booking bet for WWE.
And here’s a really outside one that requires some backstory, also ironically related to pregnancy….
Becky Lynch
The former longest reigning RAW Women’s Champion vacated her title last year when she became pregnant, and the title went to the Money in the Bank winner of 2020, which was Asuka.
As previously stated, Asuka’s current RAW title run has been rather lacklustre. In the event that Becky is cleared to return for competition, she could return and challenge Asuka saying that leaving the title in her hands was a mistake, signifying a heel turn. Becky could challenge for the title at Fastlane and either lose in a rollup or win the match outright. This would lead to a Wrestlemania rematch for the RAW Women’s title between the Empress and the Man.
Honestly, I would find it hard for anyone to argue that any of these three scenarios would NOT be ideal on how to move the RAW Women’s title picture leading up to Wrestlemania.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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