Ronda Rousey won her first WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship at Wrestlemania Backlash 2022 Premium Live Event. With that win over the top-most superstar of the female roster, the new champion was expected to kick off a strong babyface run. But it’s safe to say that there’s been a hindrance in building her strong run due to a lack of credible opponents.
With the final episode of WWE Smackdown before Hell in a Cell being up, the company is yet to announce a blue brand match lineup for the event. With all the recent drama within the WWE, there had to be some last last-minute changes to the previous plans and the Women’s Championship from the blue brand is perhaps the center of all the attention.
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Sasha Banks and Naomi walked out after they didn’t come to terms with how they were booked for the June 5 PPV event. The pair preferred a Women’s Tag Team Championship match with Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H. at Hell in a Cell but instead, they were scheduled to lose to Ronda Rousey and Bianca Belair, respectively over WWE Smackdown and WWE Raw women’s titles.
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The search continues for WWE Smackdown Women’s title contenders
Since both the challengers opted to depart the WWE and never came back, the WWE Officials had to go in search of new women’s championship opponents. On Raw, Becky Lynch and Asuka will challenge Bianca Belair for Raw Women’s Championship in a Triple Threat while the fate of the WWE SmackDown championship is still in limbo, according to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
With this week’s WWE Smackdown approaching forward, Meltzer also hinted at a possible challenger for The Baddest Woman on the Planet for Hell in a Cell,
“Unless Naomi or Sasha Banks returns, or they send Rhea Ripley over, the pickings are slim with Natalya and Shayna Baszler as the top contenders. Natalya is friends with Rousey and possibly could have a great PPV match with her since they did a TV match on Rousey’s first run that was very good, and Baszler and Rousey are best friends and it would likely be a dream match for both of them.”
The shortage of top contenders for the blue brand was already realized during Charlotte Flair’s title reign. Now that Flair is out of the scene along with Sasha Banks, WWE is indeed in trouble for scouting challenges for her. For the time being, Raquel Rodriguez is being pushed and we will see whether she gets another shot at the WWE Smackdown Women’s Title, this Sunday.