Women's World Championship (WWE)
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:WWE SmackDown Women's Championship belt.png The SmackDown Women's Championship belt with default side plates | |||||||||||||||||||
| Details | |||||||||||||||||||
| Promotion | WWE | ||||||||||||||||||
| Brand | SmackDown | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date established | August 23, 2016 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Current champion(s) | Sasha Banks | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date won | October 25, 2020 | ||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
The WWE SmackDown Women's Championship is a women's professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on their SmackDown brand division. It is one of the top singles championships for women among WWE's three main brands, along with the WWE Raw Women's Championship on Raw and the NXT Women's Championship on NXT. The current champion is Sasha Banks, who is in her first reign.
The title was unveiled on the August 23, 2016, episode of SmackDown Live as the counterpart title to the then-WWE Women's Championship, which became exclusive to Raw as a result of the 2016 WWE Draft. That title was subsequently renamed after the crowning of the inaugural SmackDown Women's Champion Becky Lynch. In 2019, the NXT Women's Championship became the third main title for WWE's women's division. The SmackDown Women's Championship has been contested in the headlining match of two WWE pay-per-view events: TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in 2018 and, along with the Raw Women's Championship, WWE's flagship event WrestleMania in 2019. It was also the first women's championship to be defended in Saudi Arabia at Super ShowDown in 2020.
History
Following the reintroduction of the WWE brand split and subsequent draft on July 19, 2016, then-WWE Women's Champion Charlotte was drafted to Raw, leaving SmackDown without a women's championship. Immediately following SummerSlam on the August 23, 2016, episode of SmackDown, SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon and general manager Daniel Bryan unveiled the SmackDown Women's Championship (Raw's title was subsequently renamed).[1] A six-pack elimination challenge was then scheduled for Backlash on September 11, 2016, to determine the inaugural champion. The six women who competed at SummerSlam in the six-woman tag team match were chosen for the six-pack challenge: Alexa Bliss, Becky Lynch, Carmella, Naomi, Natalya, and Nikki Bella.[2] Lynch became the inaugural champion when she last eliminated Carmella.[3] The NXT Women's Championship would become WWE's third main women's title when the NXT brand, formerly the promotion's developmental territory, became WWE's third major brand in September 2019 when it was moved to the USA Network.[4]
The championship belt design is physically identical to the Raw Women's Championship with the only difference being that the background of the center plate and the default side plates' globes are blue (as opposed to red) to symbolize its exclusivity to SmackDown. In what has become a prominent feature of the majority of WWE's championship belts, the side plates can be customized with the champion's logo. During Naomi's second reign, strips of multi interchanging colored LED lights were placed around the outline of the WWE logo and the outline of the belt to go with her "glow" gimmick.[5]
The title headlined a pay-per-view event for the first time at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in December 2018, where Becky Lynch defended it in a triple threat Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match against Charlotte Flair and Asuka, which Asuka won; this was also the first women's TLC triple threat match.[6] The title was then on the line in a winner takes all triple threat match in the main event of WrestleMania 35 in April 2019, where Flair defended the title against Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey and Lynch, who won the match. This was the first women's match to main event a WrestleMania – WWE's flagship event.[7] At Super ShowDown in February 2020, the title became the first women's championship to be defended in Saudi Arabia, where Bayley retained the title over Naomi; this was only the second women's match contested in the country.[8]
Inaugural championship match
| Eliminated | Wrestler | Eliminated by | Method of elimination | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alexa Bliss | Naomi | Pinfall | 9:38 |
| 2 | Naomi | Natalya | Submission | 10:52 |
| 3 | Natalya | Nikki Bella | Pinfall | 12:50 |
| 4 | Nikki Bella | Carmella | Pinfall | 12:58 |
| 5 | Carmella | Becky Lynch | Submission | 14:40 |
| Winner | Becky Lynch | |||
Reigns
As of November 13, 2024, there have been 18 reigns between 9 champions and 1 vacancy. Charlotte Flair has the most reigns at five. Bayley's second reign is the longest singular reign at 380 days, while Flair's fourth reign is the shortest at 4 minutes and 55 seconds due to Bayley cashing in her Money in the Bank contract on Flair, who had just won the title from Becky Lynch. Bayley also has the longest combined reign at 520 days. Asuka is the oldest champion, having won the title at 37, while Alexa Bliss is the youngest when she first won it at 25.
Sasha Banks is the current champion in her first reign. She won the title by defeating previous champion Bayley in a Hell in a Cell match at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view on October 25, 2020 in Orlando, Florida.
See also
References
- ^ Martin, Adam. "Daniel Bryan to reveal two new championships exclusive to Smackdown Live tonight from Connecticut". wrestleview.com. Retrieved August 23, 2016.
- ^ Parks, Greg. "8/23 WWE Smackdown LIVE – Parks's Complete, Real-Time Report". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved August 23, 2016.
- ^ Caldwell, James. "9/11 WWE Backlash Results – CALDWELL'S Complete PPV Report". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
- ^ "Triple H Discusses NXT as a Third Brand, Putting Talent in a Position to Succeed, More – 411MANIA". 411mania.com.
- ^ "How Naomi made the SmackDown Women's Title glow: WWE Talking Smack, July 4, 2017 (WWE Network)". WWE (YouTube). July 4, 2017. Retrieved January 13, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|people=ignored (help) - ^ Powell, Jason. "Powell's WWE TLC live review: Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair vs Asuka in a TLC match for the Smackdown Women's Championship, Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles for the WWE Championship, Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose for the IC Title". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
- ^ "WrestleMania to feature first-ever women's main event". WWE. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
- ^ Powell, Jason (February 27, 2020). "WWE Super ShowDown results: Powell's live review of "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt vs. Goldberg for the WWE Universal Championship, Brock Lesnar vs. Ricochet for the WWE Championship, Big E and Kofi Kingston vs. The Miz and John Morrison for the Smackdown Tag Titles". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved February 27, 2020.