5 Potential Challengers For The NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships

A few weeks ago on NXT, William Regal delivered on his promise of a big announcement by unveiling the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships. This comes as a result of the controversial finish of the Nia Jax & Shayna Bazler vs Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez match from the week prior where the non-legal competitor was submitted. The design of the belts is a combination of the NXT Tag plates & the white strap WWE insists for their Women’s titles.

The surprises didn’t stop there as, less than an hour after being awarded the titles, Kai and Gonzalez lost them to Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart. It makes sense that NXT would get their own Women’s Tag Team titles as this brand has been credited for helping change the standard of women’s wrestling in WWE. Plus, despite what WWE promised, the other Women’s Tag titles rarely appear on NXT, so why not give them their version of the belts if the roster is deep enough? WWE just recently acknowledged the largest class of female recruits to the Performance Center, so the women’s division has more depth to support tag titles than the main roster.

Gonzalez has quickly moved onto the NXT Women’s title scene, so she and Kai don’t look to be going back after the tag titles anytime soon, meaning that Ember & Shotzi are going to need some new competition. As NXT hope to establish these new titles, we’ll look at 5 potential challengers for the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships.

 

5. Candice LeRae & Indy Hartwell

Let’s start off with challengers that have already been teased after they were shown watching on as Moon & Blackheart celebrated their victory. We could get this match as soon as the recently announced Takeover: Stand & Deliver with the two nights they have to fill.

These two teams have crossed paths recently with Hartwell & LeRae losing to the champs in the Women’s Dusty Classic semi-finals. Despite this past loss, they’re still a credible threat to the new champs, looking to add some more gold to The Way who could also get involved.

This match could continue the dissension within the group, with Dexter Lumis chasing off The Way and causing Heartwell to take her eyes off the match. Candice gets pinned after Well’s distraction, which will give them an excuse for a rematch.

 

4. Kacey Catanzaro & Kayden Carter

This team won’t be able to challenge for a while as Kacey is still dealing with an injury. During the women’s Dusty Classic, fans were calling this team the dark horse to win before they lost to eventual winners Kai & Gonzalez.

Every time this team competes, expect a GIF fest. Blackheart & Moon aren’t afraid of taking risks either so this would be a fast paced match that could easily steal a show.

 

3. Aliyah & Jessi Kamea

Who knows what they’re doing with The Robert Stone brand? If they want to make the women’s tag division strong, they need to give new teams such as  Aliyah and Jessi Kamea an opportunity.

While not the strongest in terms of in-ring work, they have the character work down with Robert Stone there to talk them up until they get their shot. Remember when Robert Stone kept getting run over by Blackheart’s tank almost every other week? Maybe we could get some actual payoff to that.

Stone’s interference in the match is what could help Aliyah & Kamea get the advantage, the turning point being when the heel manager is inevitably caught and sent to the back by the ref. While it would be an unsuccessful challenge, it allows a team to have a spotlight that without these titles they might not have gotten.

 

2. Kay Lee Ray & Meiko Satomura

NXT UK has been on the outside looking in since the introduction of the WWE’s Women’s Tag Team titles. Once people are able to freely travel again, these new tag titles would be a great way to have more crossover between NXT and NXT UK.

Kay Lee Ray has dominated the brand since winning the NXT UK Women’s title, recently defending it against Meiko Satomura. If they’re not taking the title off her any time soon then maybe she’ll look to add some more gold to her credentials? And perhaps there’s no better partner than her former rival?

These are two respected and world travelled wrestlers that no one could argue with if they decided to challenge for the tag team titles. Given WWE’s history with putting together random singles wrestlers – Team Hell No and The Bar, for example – it wouldn’t be impossible to see them win, especially given that the current champs weren’t a team a few months ago.

With these four names involved, this match could main event any show and help further legitimize these new titles. NXT UK has seemingly lost a lot of momentum after the pandemic, bringing across the new Women’s Tag championships would be a great way to bring back eyes to the product.

 

1. Tian Sha & Xia Li

This final team is a good candidate to take the tag titles from Blackheart & Moon. Since Tian’s first appearance, it has finally given Li a story that people can follow with the mystery of this relationship and who Sha really is.

Of course in kayfabe, we know she is 200 hundred years old and was trained by a dragon but we don’t know who out of the many women they’ve recently signed is under the mask. Despite how she’s looked recently, Xia is still one of the more inexperienced women on the roster so being part of a team gives her more people to work with on a regular basis.

Also, Keeping Sha out of the ring until the match itself creates a sense of unknown that the champs have to try and overcome. Plus the X factor of Boa being in the challenger’s corner helps stack the odds in their favour.

With the breakup of the Undisputed Era, there is an opening for a new, dominant faction on NXT and who’s to say this couldn’t be it? A hallmark of all good factions is at one stage all the members have a title, so giving Xia & Tian the tag titles before Boa pursues gold is a step in the right direction.

If Kacey & Kayden haven’t had their shot before Tian & Xia have become champs then you’ve automatically got a match with a story. It was against Xia that Kacey got injured so she and Kayden wanting revenge while challenging for the titles makes total sense.

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