Credit where it’s due, Alexa Bliss has a real knack for worming herself right back into being champion.
Since winning her first SmackDown Women’s Championship in December of 2016, she’s held a title for 473 out of 588 days according to statistics from the ever-convenient Cagematch and a little bit of mental elbow grease. That’s not even four championship-free months in a year and a half!
And here we are with the Five Feet of Fury as Raw Women’s Champion being challenged by Nia Jax, a woman who’s equal parts unstoppable force and immovable object.
Are we back at WrestleMania again?
If so, it sure seems like bad news for Bliss. Not only is her Money in the Bank cash-in the only time she’s successfully pinned Nia, each of the three other times they’ve had a match that went to a straight-up finish of the kind that could change a title, it’s been Jax collecting the W.
Now, those were vanilla matches with no stipulation, and this is an Extreme Rules match. Hypothetically as close to the spirit of ECW as you can get in a PG WWE ring in 2018. Surely that benefits a woman as willing to resort to dirty tricks and shortcuts as Alexa Bliss is, and the three times Alexa’s been in relaxed rules situations before, she’s won every time.
The point here is it’s a bit more even than it seems at first glance, and it really seems like it’s anybody’s match.
...but there’s one more complicating factor
Hanging over all of this is the shadow of Ronda Rousey. Though suspended from competition for thirty days after assaulting both the champion and Raw general manager Kurt Angle, she’s made her intention to sit at ringside for the match very clear.
Surely she’ll make it the whole match just watching poli— hahaha, yeah, no, folks, we all know this is wrestling and that ain’t happening. But the question is, what effect will Ronda’s inevitable interference have on the match? She has no particular love for either woman in the match, albeit Nia at least has to have her respect as a competitor after their grueling encounter at Money in the Bank.
So Bliss seems a likely target as Rousey looks to take her frustration out on the woman who cost her a title reign and immediately pivoted to become champion again herself, but this is an Extreme Rules match. There are no disqualifications, and no countouts. Ronda can play kingmaker if she so chooses, but does she really want Jax, a woman who took her to her limit, as her opponent when she gets another title shot?
Or would she rather hold her nose, beat both of them down, and drag Alexa’s unconscious body onto Nia’s and let the referee count three to let the physically smaller and less unstoppable woman keep her title? Or, a third option— does Ronda, to borrow a phrase from “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, simply arrive, raise hell, and leave with no concern for what happens after, whether one competitor recovers and sneaks the win or the referee is forced to declare a no contest?
With Ronda Rousey watching at ringside, can Nia Jax reclaim her crown from the Five Feet of Fury or will WWE’s Goddess reign in her heaven longer still?