Curse of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles?

Ever since the inception of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles, people have had strong opinions about them. Whether you were for WWE introducing the titles or you were hoping WWE would introduce a “Mid-Card” singles title for the women’s division, the fans were split on if the Tag Titles were a good idea or not. There have been many notable names to hold the titles over the years. Since 2019, some of those names have had their title reigns cut short.

In 2019 at The Elimination Chamber event, an Elimination Chamber match occurred to determine the inaugural WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. The Boss ‘N’ Hug Connection (Sasha Banks and Bayley) would with the match and hold the tag titles for 49 days. This match was a great start to the tag team titles. Many people were excited. For a while, the tag titles bounced around from team to team to establish a lineage. The issue would be when NXT introduced its own set of Women’s Tag Team titles.

Until March 2021, the tag titles floated across Raw, Smackdown, and NXT. On the March 10th episode of NXT, William Regal rewarded the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic winners Raquel González and Dakota Kai with the new NXT Women’s Tag Team titles. This moment is where it started to go downhill. Fans were upset that WWE decided to stop having the tag titles cross all three brands and felt as if WWE “gave up.” At the time, there were enough tag teams in the women’s division on the WWE main roster and NXT to warrant the two sets of belts. The introduction of the NXT Women’s Tag Titles is where the curse begins.

A match was made moments after Raquel and Dakota were given the titles. Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart came to the ring to challenge the champions and finished the match by becoming the new tag team champions. Once Moon and Blackheart won the titles, the title reigns became that of a normal championship. There were many reigns from 50-75 days for different teams. The curse struck again once Dakota and Raquel won the titles for a second time. After defeating Toxic Attraction (Jacy Jane and Gigi Dolan) for the tag titles at Stand and Deliver, Dakota and Raquel would lose them at the following NXT taping. The reason for this was due to Raquel being called up to the main roster.

The last bit of the NXT tag team title curse was a “one-two punch.” The first punch came when Roxanne Perez and Cora Jade beat Toxic Attraction for the titles. This was a brilliant idea because both Perez and Jade were the young talents NXT was looking to bring to the top of the card. The problem was, Jade turned heel against Perez within a week of winning the titles. Then the following week, Jade threw her championship in the trash, reminiscent of Madusa showing up with the WWE Women’s Championship on WCW Nitro. This caused Perez to vacate the titles for a new team to be crowned champions. The second, and final blow, would come on June 23, 2023.

Things picked up for the tag titles when Katana Chance and Kayden Carter claimed the championships in a Fatal 4 match for the vacated titles. Chance and Carter held on to the titles for a record-breaking 186 days. They defended against and defeated multiple competitors and were viewed as the greatest women’s tag team in NXT. Some storylines and matches led to Kiana James and Fallon Henley becoming the new champions. After a 56-day reign, James and Henley would drop the titles to the team of Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn. The curse of the tag title would soon strike again.

Officially, Dawn and Fyre held the tag team titles for 83 days. What is not mentioned is Dawn and Fyre were drafted to Smackdown on April 28, 2023. This means that for 56 days of their 83-day reign, Dawn and Fyre were main roster wrestlers still holding the NXT Women’s Tag Titles. On July 23, 2023, Dawn and Fyre would battle with Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler to unify the WWE and NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships. Rousey and Baszler would win that match and Dawn and Fyre would fall back down the card to be rarely seen on television. This ended the run of the NXT Women’s Tag titles but the curses with the WWE Women’s Tag titles were a different story.

The first three title reigns of the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles after the creation of the NXT Tag Team championship were typical. Natalya and Tamina defeated Rousey and Baszler, then the titles went to Nikki A.S.H. and Rhea Ripley, followed by Carmella and Zelina, who lost the titles to Sasha Banks and Naomi. Banks and Naomi marked the beginning of a string of “curses” that have been speculated by many fans. Banks and Naomi won the titles at Wrestlemania 38, an exciting prospect because both women are viewed as two of the best wrestlers on the roster. It was 47 days later that Banks and Naomi would make a huge statement regarding the women’s tag team division.

On May 20, 2022, Sasha Banks and Naomi would walk out of WWE due to the frustration that had grown in the women’s division. Banks and Naomi wanted the tag titles to be more respected and more relevant than the way WWE was portraying them. The titles were then vacated and a tournament would determine the newly crowned champions. Raquel, now back in the hunt for a new set of tag titles, finds a new partner in Aliyah to win the vacated titles. This title reign would last two weeks when Damage CTRL (Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai) would defeat Raquel and Aliyah for the titles. Even with Damage CTRL being champions, it appeared the titles were still being used as a token. This tokenism would become more evident on the episode of Raw before the Crown Jewel event.

 During a feud with Alexa Bliss and Asuka, Damage CTRL would lose their titles five days before Crown Jewel. A rematch between Bliss and Asuka versus Damage CTRL would take place at Crown Jewel where Damage CTRL would win the titles back. This win is seen as a token because this was the first time a women’s title changed hands in Saudi Arabia. Damage CTRL lost the titles before Crown Jewel just to win them back five days later to “make history.” After their title win, Damage CTRL would then feud with Becky Lynch and Lita which culminated in a title win for Becky and Lita on the February 27, 2023 episode of Raw. Becky and Lita would hold the titles for 39 days and on the day of their title defense, Lita would become “injured” and Trish Stratus would take her place in the match against Raquel and Liv Morgan.

The tag titles would be vacated again following a shoulder injury sustained by Liv Morgan. This injury resorted in yet another Fatal 4-way match to determine new champions. The match was won by Rousey and Baszler, starting their reign that was mentioned earlier. A week after the title unification match between Dawn and Fyre against Rousey and Baszler, Rousey and Baszler would lose the titles to a returning Liv Morgan and Raquel. Once again, the second reign of Liv and Raquel would be shortened but this time it would be after the title loss that Liv would sustain an injury.

On the July 17th episode of Raw, Sonya Deville and Chelsea Green (affectionally named The Complaint Department by some fans) beat Liv and Raquel to win the WWE Women’s Tag Team championships. This title win would be the first for both Green and Deville and fans were elated. One of the things to come out of Rousey and Baszler’s title run earlier in the year was Rousey wanted to help the tag division flourish. Everything leading from the point of Rousey and Baszler winning to Green and Deville winning, seemed like the turnaround many fans were hoping for. Perhaps the “so-called curse” has finally been broken. The titles were now on two very popular stars and there were rumblings of more tag teams being formed to establish their reign. But then, something happened.

A report from TMZ, later verified by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, Sonya Deville had sustained an ACL tear and would need surgery to repair her injury. This news hit many fans hard and it appeared as though the “curse” had struck again. I would like to take this time and extend my well-wishes to Sonya Deville for a speedy recovery and I can not wait to see her back in the rind. That being said, where does the tag title picture go from here? Some fans have suggested that the tag titles be scrapped but that is not the solution. Others have suggested Chelsea Green try to defend the titles by herself or have a rotating cast of wrestlers “audition” in matches but never defend the titles. Here is what I would do.

Now that Chelsea Green is seemingly on her own, there is a chance that they will once again vacate the titles. If that were to happen, Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn should be the ones to claim the championships. Once Fyre and Dawn are champions, have them defend the titles on an almost weekly basis to solidify that division. The team can go from Smackdown to Raw to NXT each week and confront challengers and set up matches for the future. While this is going on, a new Women’s Television Title could be introduced as well to help bolster the rest of the women’s division. Between the WWE Women’s Championship, the Women’s World Championship, Tag Team titles, and a newly introduced Television Title, there could be a boom in the women’s division that fans have been asking for for a long time. 

Is there a curse? If there is a curse, how can it be lifted? Are fans just overreacting? From my point of view, there seems to be a lot of coincidences around injuries and the Women’s tag titles. The other issue that is not part of the “curse” is the booking of the title picture. Once the higher-ups in WWE figure out the best way to book the titles and division as a whole, then maybe the conversation would change, as long as the injuries lessened. Let me know what you think, are they cursed?