WWE News: Backstage Details On Recent Changes In The WWE Women’s Division
By now, fans are aware of the renewed focus the WWE has put on its Women’s Division. They swapped out Divas for Women, equally re-branded them as superstars like their male counterparts, redesigned the championship, and the division hardly resembles what it looked like a year ago. The Divas Revolution was meant to ride the coattails of the successes of the United States Women’s World Cup team and Ronda Rousey, as well as a way to introduce the newest members to the WWE Universe. But nearly a year later, there are still battles to be fought.
Charlotte and Natalya recently did battle in their second straight title match at a pay-per-view, with Charlotte retaining the WWE Women’s Championship both at Payback and Extreme Rules. But according to the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, both lost out at the latter. Their first encounter at Payback featured both Ric Flair and Bret Hart in the corners of Charlotte and Nattie, respectively. The rematch had neither but was booked as a submission match. Perhaps now more than ever, the women of the division have more moves in their arsenal, as submission matches are a rarity among the females.
Did @MsCharlotteWWE make her presence felt during @NatbyNature's big one-on-one bout against @DanaBrookeWWE? https://t.co/pngkNGRLdv #RAW
— WWE (@WWE) June 1, 2016
Be that as it may, Natalya has the sharpshooter, while Charlotte boasts the figure eight, both derived from their hall-of-fame relatives. According to the WON, original plans called for the match to be slotted with a longer amount of time than what was eventually given to them on the show. Classic submission matches need to tell a story with plenty of tap-out teases throughout to sufficiently make it work. However, the two were told before their match that their time had been cut, and they were only given eight minutes.
Now the match ended up going nine and a half minutes, but original plans likely allotted for 12 to 15. There’s a chance that was the final singles match between the two, as it appears WWE is setting up a tag match between Charlotte and Dana Brooke vs. Natalya and Becky Lynch for Money in the Bank. So it would have only been right for them to get extended minutes at Extreme Rules, but it didn’t end up working out that way.
The WWE Women’s Championship match still ran longer than the Dolph Ziggler-Baron Corbin kickoff match, The Club’s contest with The Usos, the United States Championship match between Rusev and Kalisto, and the WWE Tag Team Championship match between The New Day and The Vaudevillains. But overall, they all seemed to be rushed, with the Asylum match probably going far too long.
The other less-than-fluid situation among the women is the ever-changing status of Sasha Banks. The latest news seems to support the Inquisitr’s report from Wednesday that Vince McMahon is hesitant to push Sasha because he thinks she’s injury-prone. All along, we’ve been led to believe that Sasha is being groomed to take the WWE Women’s Championship off Charlotte at SummerSlam, but she’s had to endure some bumps along the way.
Happy Sasha Banks Holiday Monday! ??????#BankHolidayMonday #BanksHolidayMonday pic.twitter.com/yAFE9Sdirv
— WWE UK (@WWEUK) May 30, 2016
In addition to her recent concussion, Sasha was scheduled to feud with Summer Rae in June as a setup for that eventual program with Charlotte. The Boss has been wrestling Summer on house shows, both in singles matches and tag team bouts. Finding a spot on the Money in the Bank card for the two might be difficult, simply because there are already as many as nine rumored matches scheduled for the pay-per-view.
And a lot of what they plan to do goes back to the previous issue of timing. Reigns/Rollins will get plenty of it in their WWE World Heavyweight Championship main event. John Cena and AJ Styles certainly won’t get cut short, and the ladder matches consistently get 20 minutes.
So interesting things to keep an eye on at Money in the Bank include whether or not they can find the time for Sasha Banks and how much time Charlotte and Natalya get this time. A tag match carries less significance, so that point may end up being moot altogether.
[Image via WWE]
