Welcome to another eWrestlingNews Question of the Day!
We now know the women who will be competing to become the inaugural WWE women’s intercontinental champion, as well as the bracket layout and the first Superstar to advance to round 2 after Dakota Kai defeated Shayna Baszler and Katana Chance on last night’s edition of Monday Night Raw.
My question for you today is “How would you fill out the rest of the bracket leading to the finals and crowning the first-ever women’s IC champion?”
Remember to answer with your response in the comments below.
As far as my answer…
I’ll give you both my personal preference as well as my prediction of what WWE will do, as they don’t align.
If I were given a spot on WWE Creative today, with this bracket set the way it is and with Dakota Kai moving on, I would look at the left side and say Raquel Rodriguez needs to beat out Zoey Stark and Kayden Carter, setting up a semifinals against her former teammate, that she would then win.
Then, on the right side, I’d look at who I’d want to put against Rodriguez in the finals and work backward. It pretty much would have to be a babyface, which rules out Ivy Nile and Alba Fyre. I don’t think anyone would really think Kairi Sane or Natalya would beat Raquel, though I think Nattie would stand to get some more support for two reasons: she’s a legacy act who should cross this off her list at some point, and she’s not in a faction where it would be odd for her to have a title and the leader of the group to not have a title. I like Kairi a lot, and I hope she wins one of these midcard titles, if not more, but now is not the time. I also think Zelina Vega, who I’m also a fan of and think is underrated, wouldn’t get a lot of fan support in people really thinking she’d beat Raquel. Lyra Valkyria would probably be the best bet to keep people on their toes.
So here’s where this all deviates. I do think we’re getting Raquel beating Dakota in the semifinals. But what I think WWE will do is have Raquel against Lyra, with Raquel winning. What I would do, instead, is have Raquel in the finals against Natalya, and I’d have Rhea Ripley come out, interfere, cost Rodriguez the match, and Nattie would end up being the first to hold this belt.
Raquel would be one of the many people who could win this at any point in the future. Frankly, nearly everyone in this bracket should hold a midcard women’s title eventually—except for maybe KC, KC, and Fyre. Curiously, why is Isla Dawn not included in this? Strange.
I would put the belt on Natalya, have her drop it eventually to Sonya Deville, and pass this around along with the Women’s United States Championship on a semi-regular basis in 2025. I don’t think WWE should go overboard, but I do think there’s something to be said about title changes happening a little more frequently, given how many belts there are. In the grand scheme of things, many Superstars are better off having a 30-day reign and being able to check off this title from their records, rather than having a 5-month run and only two to three people can hold the belt per year…for some titles. This is one of those I’d play hot potato with.
Summing up, I’d give it to Natalya as a reward for her continued efforts and to put her in the record books as the first-ever champion, but I think WWE is going to give this to either Lyra Valkyria or, more likely, Raquel Rodriguez. The only way I can imagine it isn’t Rodriguez is if WWE plans to split her up from Liv Morgan, but I’m holding out hope the plan is to put the Women’s World Championship on Rhea Ripley soon, rather than going in that direction.
What do you think? Drop your thoughts below!
