Welcome to another eWrestlingNews Question of the Day!
Last night on SmackDown, Tiffany Stratton successfully cashed in her Money in the Bank contract and traded that briefcase for Nia Jax’s WWE Women’s Championship.
Since this is so fresh that nothing at all has happened yet, let’s see what our different ideas are for what should happen next. Who should she defend against first? Should she make it to WrestleMania as champion? Who should she face there? When and to whom should she drop the title?
My question for you today is “How would you fantasy book Tiffany Stratton’s title reign?”
Remember to answer with your response in the comments below.
As far as my answer…
I don’t think Stratton has it in her to have a super long title reign. Plus, plenty other champions have been holding their titles a long time, and it’s nice to break things up once in a while. Therefore, I’m already going into this expecting and hoping (until proven wrong) that she drops the title at WrestleMania 41. That’ll be long enough and she can always win it again some other time.
All things considered, assuming she doesn’t defend the title on SmackDown over the next 4 months, we’ve got some time to kill, but not many matches for her. Realistically, even if she does defend her title on television, it will only happen twice max. Those, accompanied by possible appearances at Saturday Night’s Main Event 38, Royal Rumble, and Elimination Chamber, mean we’re looking at a maximum of 5 people she can feud with.
Frankly, I don’t think there are 5 people worth investing in title opportunities against her, though, so I’m not going to feel beholden to that idea. Keep in mind, too, that WWE frequently doesn’t have all the champions on these cards, so I’m wholly expecting Stratton to not compete at either SNME or either Royal Rumble / Elimination Chamber.
Naturally, a lot of what even can happen revolves around some other plans WWE has. For instance, with the transfer window concept allowing people to move around between rosters, WWE could have all the intention in the world to move someone like Bianca Belair away from SmackDown almost immediately and take her out of the equation, as well as bring people onto the blue brand from NXT or Raw. Hell, we don’t even know if Elimination Chamber is going to be to determine the opposite title’s challenger or if a champion will be defending inside. They like to do one of each at times.
All that preface aside, here’s what I would likely pitch if I were to join the WWE Creative team today, and I wasn’t given the plans for the future, so I’m pitching blindly.
I’m not a fan of rematches being beaten into the ground, but I think Stratton’s got Nia Jax on her schedule for sure, and it’s almost impossible for her to avoid having at least one match against Naomi, if not also Belair. I’d throw Candice LeRae in there, though, too.
SNME should be her first title defense, and it should be against Jax. In the meantime, Stratton should have a match against LeRae on SmackDown, but it shouldn’t be for the title, as LeRae should just be there for Stratton to beat while LeRae is tasked to take out Stratton and soften her up for Jax. That is, of course, unless LeRae ditches Jax now that she’s not champion anymore and tries to hitch her wagon to Tiff.
Royal Rumble is tricky in my mind. WWE only books 5 matches per event these days, and we know the two Royal Rumble matches will take up 60+ minutes. Realistically, we’re not looking at more than 5 matches, and we already have the ladder match between Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens. I think having Stratton defend at SNME right beforehand on top of that makes it valid she wouldn’t have a match at Royal Rumble and can skip that.
That means she should definitely participate at Elimination Chamber, if at all possible. There, I would put her as the defending champion to go up against Nia Jax, Naomi, Bianca Belair, Candice LeRae and Bayley. Maybe LeRae can be swapped out for someone new who moves over from NXT or Raw.
Stratton retains there, and in the meantime, Charlotte Flair returns to SmackDown and has to earn a No. 1 contender’s spot. That’s also an alternate ideas for Elimination Chamber if WWE would rather go in that direction and force Flair to have to earn it more; in particular, I don’t know who I would pick to fight Flair in a separate No. 1 contender’s match that would in any way seem like they had a chance to win other than Flair.
Of course, WWE could very well think Flair is past the point of needing to earn her title shot. She’s the most accomplished woman in WWE history, after all. They could look at this as a situation where all she needs to do is show up, declare herself the next in line, and fans should go gaga over it. I’m not particularly of that opinion, but I do think Flair should be Stratton’s opponent at WrestleMania, as it’s the biggest match that can be done with her save for fighting Rhea Ripley, who should, by all accounts, be busy defending the Women’s World Championship instead, as she obviously should beat Liv Morgan.
That puts Stratton vs Flair at WrestleMania, and the temptation is there to have Stratton retain. I would pitch for it with the idea in mind that someone else should beat Stratton, as Flair doesn’t need it, and can get her next few titles by beating other people in other times. Whether I’d win that argument is up in the air, but losing to Flair isn’t the worst thing, at least. If it has to be Flair, then I’d have her either drop it back to Stratton or at least lose to someone up and coming to compensate. But if I could win the argument and keep it on Stratton, I’d be looking at having her drop the title sometime in May or June at most.
Alternatives to Flair to dethrone her would be maybe Jordynne Grace (assuming she gets signed by WWE and is on the main roster instead of NXT) or Jade Cargill, if she either stays babyface or if she and Stratton switch alignments, but I wouldn’t be opposed to Flair winning after Mania with Stratton retaining on The Grandest Stage of Them All by cheating.
What do you think? Drop your thoughts below!
