Controversial Finish to Title Change on WWE Raw

By Liam Crowley

For the first time in over three months, WWE has Women's Tag Team Champions. August has been home to the WWE Women's Tag Title tournament, a bracket-style series of matches to determine a new pair of titleholders after Sasha Banks and Naomi were stripped of the championships in May. Many joked that the tournament was cursed from the get-go, as NXT representatives Nikkita Lyons and Zoey Stark were deemed "medically unavailable" to compete. They would be replaced by Gigi Dolan and Jacey Jayne, who defeated Natalya and Sonya Deville in the first round, but were also forced to exit the tournament due to injuries.

Regardless of the early round woes, the tournament culminated last night on Monday Night Raw, pitting Raw's team of IYO SKY and Dakota Kai against SmackDown's Raquel Rodriguez and Aliyah. The two teams were fairly evenly matched throughout the contest, but the scales tipped in Kai and SKY's favor due to help from Bayley. Bayley's outside interference got the attention of the women's locker room, as Raw Women's Champion Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss, and Asuka hit ringside to chase Bayley away from the squared circle. SKY and Kai were distracted during this outside brawl and failed to notice a blind tag from Rodriguez to Aliyah, which allowed Aliyah to sneakily roll up Kai for the 1-2-3.

Despite Kai's shoulders being flush to the mat for the full three count, this pinfall should not have been counted at all. As many have pointed out, SKY had never tagged in Kai before the end of the match, meaning that SKY was actually the legal woman. Kai was aware of this too, as broadcast footage caught her mouthing, "I wasn't legal."

Commentary seemed to be aware of this as well, as, "Wait but... Dakota..." can be heard before Corey Graves pivots to focus on giving praise to the new champions. It remains to be seen if this was an intentional screwy finish to further the storyline or if the title change did not go down the way it was planned.

WWE have recently utilized controversial finishes in multiple matches, such as the Usos defeating the Street Profits at WWE Money in the Bank despite Montez Ford's shoulder being up during the pin. This was immediately worked into the storyline as it gave the Profits a claim to another title shot, which went down weeks later at WWE SummerSlam. At that show, Liv Morgan pinned Ronda Rousey to retain her SmackDown Women's Title, but submitted to Rousey's armbar mid-count.

Accidental title changes have happened plenty of times before as well. AJ Styles infamously lost his United States Title to Kevin Owens at WWE Battleground 2017 after forgetting to kick out of a cradle pin.

For now, SKY and Kai have their sights on WWE Clash at the Castle as they team with Bayley to face Belair, Bliss, and Asuka in six-woman action.

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