After a long wait, it appears that WWE Smackdown Women’s Champion finally has someone to go after her in the near future. After the walkouts and suspensions of Sasha Banks and Naomi, WWE hosted a six-pack challenge to determine a number one contender for the Women’s Champion of the blue brand.
As announced on the WWE’s official website, Raquel Rodriguez, Aliyah, Shayna Bazler, Natalya, Xia Li, and Shotzi Blackheart were inserted into the six-pack challenge for the battle to challenge Ronda Rousey for the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship. It was never specified whether the winner would go on to challenge Rousey during WWE’s premium live event Hell in a Cell this Sunday.
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WWE Smackdown women’s roster seemingly lacked its depth following the suspensions of Banks and Naomi while Charlotte is staying on a hiatus. Hence, the contender’s match had to be filled with the likes of Xia Li, who has wrestled only once on WWE SmackDown, this year. Two other such names were Aliyah and Shotzi who have barely been featured on TV, prominently since the beginning of 2022. Hence, Natalya, Baszler (one of the best buddies of Ronda Rousey), and Raquel Rodriguez were seemingly the favorites to emerge as the winner.
In the end, Natalya emerged victorious in the match that also involved five other roster members. She pinned Shotzi to officially become the new number-one contender to Rousey’s title. Nattie’s tag team partner Shayna Baszler provided her with some help to move one step forward to the WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship.
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Natalya earns a shot at WWE Smackdown Women’s Title
Once the match was over on WWE Smackdown, Rousey and Natalya had a face-to-face confrontation but the match between them was never officially announced. The two women do share quite a history on WWE TV as they featured in tag team matches several times in 2018 and 2019. Plus, Nattie also unsuccessfully challenged Rousey for the Raw Women’s Championship on the December 24, 2018, episode of Raw.
Natalya was also Rousey’s training partner cum mentor when the latter transitioned from MMA to pro wrestling in their Dungeon in Florida. So that may just play as a factor as this feud between these two will continue to unfold on WWE Smackdown in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Ronda Rousey has been holding WWE SmackDown Women’s Title since defeating Charlotte Flair in an I Quit Match at WrestleMania Backlash premium live event, last month. Her only title defense took place on the May 13 episode of SmackDown where she defeated Raquel Rodriguez to retain.
