The first championship feud for the Raw Women’s Championship on WWE Smackdown has seemingly been revealed. During the latest episode of the blue brand show, the first night after the post-Draft roster went into effect, Asuka made her return to WWE programming and had a dramatic face-off with reigning champion Bianca Belair to resume the feud from Wrestlemania 39 season.
This week’s WWE Smackdown took place in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair got a big pyro celebration for becoming the longest-reigning Women’s Champion of the modern era in her hometown. Currently, she’s been holding the belt of the red brand for over 400 days.
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Her celebration was interrupted by Asuka who was picked by the WWE Smackdown brand during the Draft. This marked Asuka’s first appearance on WWE TV since losing to Bianca at WrestleMania 39 over the red brand title. Asuka initially offered a handshake to Bianca but then she spit the mist in Bianca’s face to solidify the heel-turn that’s been completed, last night via her gesture.
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The pair of Bianca and Asuka have competed in several matches against one another inside the squared circle. As noted above, their most recent televised bout went down at the Show of Show where Belair successfully defended the Raw Women’s title via a clean pinfall win over “The Empress of Tomorrow.”
Now that Asuka is back on WWE Smackdown targeting the champion, it seems like these two will again collide over the Raw Women’s Title at Night of Champions 2023 but the match is yet to be officially announced. Bianca is still holding the Raw Women’s Title following the Draft despite getting drafted to the blue brand during the Draft.
Earlier this month at Backlash 2023, IYO SKY put up a valiant effort against Bianca Belair at WWE Backlash, but The EST of WWE still pinned her to retain. Despite interference from Damage CTRL, Bianca delivered a KOD to secure the pinfall win and enter the WWE Smackdown fold as still the reigning champion. It was on that same night when Bianca also overtook Becky Lynch to become the longest-reigning Raw Women’s Champion in WWE history.
