Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: chyna, Intercontinental Champion, intergender wrestling, Mia Yim, Rhea Ripley, tessa blanchard, United States Champion, wwe

Why WWE Should Offer Additional Women's Titles & Intergender Matches

When you think of pioneering moves in women's wrestling, a few moments come to mind in recent memory. WWE's women's revolution that opened up a slew of female talent to actively compete on weekly basis elevated the industry as a whole from separate belts on each brand, dedicated tag titles, and even separate event-centric matches like Money in the Bank, Wargames, and Royal Rumble. You can also look at the company's previous serious leap with Joanie "Chyna" Laurer regularly wrestling intergender matches in "The Attitude Era," including an Intercontinental Title run before its later regression to novelty misogyny. Lately, the company has softened its stance with intergender conflicts between the 24/7 Title, Dana Brooke, Rhea Ripley, and Mia Yim to get into the mix with the men.

Why It's Time for WWE to Expand Championships for Women

Ripley has been the primary X-factor when it comes to her faction Judgment Day's success since those like AJ Styles and Rey Mysterio "refuse" to cross that line to hit her. Honestly, why not open it up even further with the current female roster and at least give them access to a secondary belt, especially since Nikki Cross retired the 24/7 Title into the "trash." It would be something more than having female talent as singles competitors to always go after Raw and SmackDown Women's Champions, Bianca Belair and Charlotte Flair.

As WWE's Intercontinental Title is currently exclusive to SmackDown, why not create a dedicated Women's IC Belt? The same goes for Raw's US Title. If you don't want to create that female belts for them, allow the women to compete for those secondary titles as well. The fact is this may come as a "culture shock," but men and women regularly train together in the wrestling ring, and it's on TV separately. Why? Is a move any more or less devastating if the impact is on one or another? I'm assuming most have seen what Chyna, Ripley, and Tessa Blanchard have done in the ring. Blanchard was Impact Wrestling's first female wrestler to hold their World Championship Title, not to be confused with "Women's Champion," before her fall from grace.

I mean, I would watch Austin Theory have a match with Ripley for the US Title on Raw or Peacock. It just seems rather silly as much as she mixes it with the men as the "X-Factor" of Judgment Day but only has the option to go after Belair if she wants gold. It's 2022, and we have an entire faction in the Bloodline with an Undisputed World Champion in Roman Reigns and Undisputed Tag Champions in The Usos, but only one Women's Tag Team Champion in Damage Control. I get WWE's playing catch-up right now, but for the sake of equality, they need to introduce more belts or allow them to go after the secondary titles currently exclusive to men.

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