Until this week, Charlotte was holding the new Women's Championship. She appears to be the centerpiece of this new era in the women's division. Before her, Nikki Bella had a lengthy run with the Diva's Championship and will likely be the final centerpiece of the diva era. She won the title off of AJ Lee, the top periphery diva of the final years of the diva era. She traded the title a few times with Paige. Paige would be the last credible jobber to hold the title. Her first title reign lasted a few months, but was filled with mediocre feuds that did not put proper focus on her. She won the title again as a birthday gift, but the reign was short and she was overshadowed by AJ Lee and The Bellas. She has been pushed inconsistently since and is pretty much irrelevant these days. Classic credible jobber treatment.
That brings me to Sasha Banks. She won the title on Raw this week to help usher in the new era. How many "new eras" has the WWE come up with in the last year? You have had a couple for the women's division and a couple for the overall company. The match had some bright spots, but I will get more to that in a while.
If I had woken up on Tuesday and read that Charlotte had been suspended for a wellness policy violation, or something else, I would not have been surprised. Yes, having a title change on Raw is a good thing and good way to sell change, but why not have the title change at Summerslam? That would be a bigger stage. Moreover, I have seen many fans that love NXT so much say that one of the reasons feuds feel better there is because they spend so much time developing them and make it into a real chase so the moment someone wins the title, it feels more special. I have even seen some fans suggest that the WWE needed to invest more in the jobbers, like Summer Rae and Dana Brooke, to make Sasha's chase for the title mean more as she beats them to get to Charlotte. Throw all that stuff out the window, the WWE just gave her the title one night after she already beat Charlotte in a tag match at Battleground. And the overall reaction I see from fans isn't groaning about the title change. If anyone was involved in a chase for the title and arguably deserved to be the one to beat Charlotte for the title, in terms of storylines, it would be Becky Lynch. The WWE sent her to Smackdown. Okay, that leaves Sasha Banks as the obvious choice. But the chase really was not sold very well by the WWE.
Onto the match. As I said, some nice spots. Also some sloppiness. One spot caught my attention. That spot where Sasha paid tribute to Lita by almost injuring herself with a dive outside the ring. I haven't cringed while watching a spot since last year watching Daniel Bryan on an episode of Raw. I just felt the guy needed to ease it up a little or he would get hurt again. And he did get hurt again. And his career is over. I don't hate Sasha Banks. I certainly don't want to see her get injured. But she does need to ease it up a little. No one needs to injure themselves do get fans to respect them. A common theme in a lot of Sasha's big matches since coming to the WWE is at least one spot where it looks like she could have been seriously injured. She suffered a concussion a few weeks ago, although that was not on her. Regardless, you don't want to develop a history of head injuries or your career is over. I brought up Lita and that scary dive on an episode of Raw where she won the title from Trish Stratus in the main event. She ended up getting injured for real just a few weeks later. It was back to the periphery for her. If Sasha keeps testing her luck, she might eventually pay for it.
Back to the point I started with. No credible jobber has held the title since 2014. What is Sasha Banks? Is she someone they want to be a star? Or will Charlotte be getting the title back in a few weeks or months, then move on to feuding against someone else? Is the WWE changing their system to where they will just juggle around who gets the spotlight? That would be bad. That is not how you create a star and all these women they will juggle around will not be equally over. Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Asuka are popular with wrestling fans. But there are other women that should be getting pushed too. Save them from Smackdown? There is a chance Sasha Banks won't end up like Paige. Is this really a new era? And the WWE's treatment of guys like AJ Styles and Finn Balor this year might indicate a willingness to push someone as star that has not yet truly broken out beyond just being over with wrestling fans. But the WWE will still have some tough decisions to make. You can only push so many women in the women's division. If Sasha Banks does suffer a serious injury or is involved in more scary spots, that will just make the decision even easier for the WWE.
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