Odd Couple vs. Couple of Odd Ones

WWE

Women’s Tag Team Championship Match
Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler (c) vs. The Riott Squad

“Alexa, define the term teamwork.”

The Road to Clash of Champions

Like with many matches featured on Clash of Champions, this match-up doesn’t have a long and storied history. The current WWE women’s tag team champions have only held the titles for a little under a month and weren’t even friends before that. This feud can be boiled down to one phrase, “Anything you can do, I can do better.”

It all started when the newly reformed Riott Squad defeated The IIconics on RAW. The winning team earned a title shot at Clash of Champions while the losing team had to disband. Fortunately, for the Riott Squad, they won.

Ruby & Liv faced off with an overconfident Shayna Baszler in a 2-on-1 handicap match the following week. Shayna may be a champion and a badass, but The Riott Squad proved to be too much for her, and she lost. Much to the amusement of Nia Jax…Shaya may have lost, but Nia knew she could do better! Sadly, we’ll never know if the squad would’ve similarly beaten Jax because Retribution showed up and spoiled all the fun.

The following two weeks on RAW saw both teams squaring off with – and sounding defeating – Lana and Nattie, while the others watched.

It was very much, “Look at us! See what we’re doing to these two? We’re gonna do that to you!!” (Poor Lana, always the jobber never the champion.)

Both teams are currently on similar footings, having both beaten Lana & Nattie, with the Riott Squad slightly ahead, having defeated Shayna.

The Riott Squad works well together; they have for years. Now that they are reunited and on the same page, they are a formidable opponent. On the other hand, while being a complete mess of a team, Nia & Shayna always seem to be able to focus their hatred of each other on to their opponents when it counts. It’s anyone’s game.

What’s at stake

The future of the women’s tag title. Okay, so that’s a bit dramatic, but I’m serious. In the past, the women’s tag titles have been held for long periods of time. And unfortunately, in many instances, that meant that WWE creative found a way to keep them off TV. Don’t get me wrong, I love The IIconics, but we hardly ever got to see them wrestle with the belts. That whole “we don’t defend our titles because we’re heels” schtick gets old pretty fast.

Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler have held the championships for just around a month. If the titles change hands at Clash of Champions, it could signal a new era for the titles—one where they are actually used to bolster the women’s tag division. Imagine! Consider, we now have the team of Lana & Nattie, Nia & Shayna, and The Riott Squad. Not to mention the various teams that are still down in NXT. Sure, Bayley and Sasha are feuding, and The IIconics are doing…whatever it is they are doing, but there are enough “young” tag teams that they could do some exciting stuff with a hot potato belt. Naomi isn’t doing anything right now! Put her in a tag team!

Having The Riott Squad win here too will help to cement their reunion has viable. They had a messy falling out, and the road back to teammates was a fraught one. A win, complete with gold, could be the final thing to complete them. Plus, Nia & Shayna may hate each other, but losing to the Riott Squad could inspire them to focus that hatred and get their belts back. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, after all. It worked when they faced Sasha & Bayley; it could work again.

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Find out if they’ve got any surprises in store for us Sunday night in the ThunderDome, on WWE Network, and right here at Cageside Seats.

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