Report: WWE's Plans for a WWE Women's Tag Team Championship Tournament Are Already 'Dead'

WWE's attempt at crowning the next WWE Women's Tag Team Champions has already run out of steam, according to Dave Meltzer via the Wrestling Observer. Back on May 16, both Sasha Banks and Naomi walked out of Raw over reported frustrations with the booking of the women's tag titles, which the pair won back at WrestleMania 38. The two had pitched the idea to face Doudrop and Nikki ASH at Hell in a Cell, but the company instead wanted the pair to split off and challenge Bianca Belair and Ronda Rousey for their respective championships in singles matches. 

Their walkout prompted WWE to release a statement chastising them for their actions, then suspended the two on that week's SmackDown while simultaneously stripping them of the tag titles. It was announced that the company would crown new champions via a tournament, but Meltzer described that idea as "dead" while noting four teams were pitched for the tournament last week but the idea was never signed off on. Reports dropped recently that WWE was considering calling up NXT stars in order to fill the bracket, as the main roster only has two teams at the moment — ASH/Doudrop and Shayna Baszler/Natalya. 

Jimmy Smith, Raw's play-by-play commentator, talked about the situation on his Unlocking the Cage podcast last week by noting Corey Graves (who took some flack online for calling the pair unprofessional during recent Raw broadcasts) had to tone down Vince McMahon's initial message he wanted to be sent out. 

"The superstars themselves are able to get their own story out and get their own narrative out in the public in ways they couldn't 20, 10, or 15 years ago. So what it feels like the WWE is doing, and I don't know, they haven't discussed it with me, is they're getting ahead of the ability of Sasha Banks and Naomi to put out their own narrative. If you don't say why, they'll say why. The WWE wants their perspective out there. They're going to go out and say something, so WWE wanted to get ahead of it and did it first. That's what it seems like to me," Smith said.

"What I don't get at all is the heat that my broadcast partner, Corey Graves, is getting," he added. "They gave him something to read and much like Michael Cole, he toned it down a little bit. But guys, Michael Cole and Corey Graves aren't making this stuff up. People are getting mad at them like they're freestyling this stuff. They're not. If Vince said, 'Here, read this', I would have done exactly what Michael Cole did. Corey Graves is getting all this s—. Corey Graves didn't make up that statement. He's a broadcaster and was told to read it and he read it. So I understand the ire of the fans, but the misdirection of that ire is weird."

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