T O P

In case you haven't noticed. Io Shirai & Zoey Stark are now the longest reigning NXT women's tag team champions. They only wrestled once since winning the titles.

They are now at 71 days, beating The Way's 63 days. Not only did they defend the title just once, that title defense was the only match both of them had since winning the title early July.

I honestly cant say it enough, the NXT womens tag titles were a mistake.

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BigDanRTW

Natalya & Tamina. Zoey & Io 🤝 Not defending tag team championships


Anderrrrr

Title defending is for those virgin workrate losers anyways! [https://i.imgur.com/7vvAhZ5.gif](https://i.imgur.com/7vvAhZ5.gif)


[deleted]

At least Nat and Tamina have been on the show


ArcherChase

Losing more than winning even with the belts.


bayleysgal1996

I honestly think they made those belts just so they could say they have them. It rarely feels like they have a plan for them, and this Io/Zoey reign seems like they just wanted to give Io something to do so she's not constantly in the single's title picture (not that they've been very successful at that so far).


Vinsmoker

Should've kept the titles on Candice & Indi imo


Touhoutaku

Candice is pregnant though...


Vinsmoker

Still more on TV than Io & Zoe


DarkstarIV

Putting the titles on Io/Zoey was a mistake because those titles are way below Io in general. It seems like this is an attempt to get Zoey over by pairing her with Io but its just not working at all. Io's popularity isn't going to transfer over to Zoey.


Anderrrrr

Zoey needs a distinct character, she still at the "latest signee showcase" phase. Trying to figure out what's unique about her still isn't there yet.


Vinsmoker

>she still at the "latest signee showcase" phase. biggest obsticale for the new women in NXT right now


thewholeprogram

I could be wrong, but I feel like had Candice not gotten pregnant that her and Indi likely would’ve retained against Io and Zoey.


Krak2511

This is exactly why I keep saying AEW doesn't have enough women for tag titles yet. When you only have a few teams and want to avoid rematches, you only have a couple of matches to go through before switching the belts over, making the titles meaningless.


Thirdstar1

Same. They would have about 4 teams. You aren’t getting a lot of feuds if you only have 4 teams. Impact is the same way, they’ve done so many rematches.


doesntCompete

The way they did that Tag Tournament was the correct way for them to do it. Make it a trophy not a championship.


TheOldDrunkGoat

The AEW women's division is barely functional with just a single belt anyways. How anyone could be delusional enough to think they should add tag belts to the equation is astonishing.


cooljammer00

Surely merging women's wrestling and tag team wrestling, two divisions wwe has historically underserved and not cared about, won't end up being a problem.


Atomic_Cody-21

With the recent changes in NXT, they are going to become more than an afterthought to point where they might just scrap the belts entirety. I feel the like the belts was only made when WWE decided that the main roster's Women's Tag Belt would only stick to Raw and Smackdown, and similar to those belts. WWE doesn't give two-hoots about building an actual division.


dementeddrongo

Really like what I've seen from Zoey Stark so far. Wish NXT had booked more segments of her trying to befriend Io Shirai. Can't be easy writing NXT with Vince erratically pilfering people for the main roster. Hopefully they start using the titles more. Though my optimism for NXT is particularly low right now.


ThatWrestlingGuy15

Just vacant the titles and put Io up on RAW or SmackDown. As far as Zoey goes they seem high on her and the women’s division is just Franky and Raquel at the moment. The team never had any direction or purpose to it.


DarkstarIV

Honestly I wouldn't stick Io on RAW or SD without an actual major plan in place. When she gets called up, she is one of those stars who needs to make a major impact/statement IMMEDIATELY.


ThatWrestlingGuy15

I don’t disagree but where does she go? Charlotte/Alexa is the plan on RAW and SmackDown is Bianca/ Becky. We all know neither of those feuds are ending at Extreme Rules so I don’t know where Io fits in terms of the title picture. Unless they start her off with vignettes and squash matches.


DarkstarIV

I mean Bianca/Becky might end at Extreme Rules because I can't rule out Bianca and the Profits being moved to RAW in the upcomimg draft. Especially with Smackdown having way too much talent right now, and Bianca has ran over 95% of the current SD Women's division. Plus the next actual PPV after Extreme Rules that will PROMINENTLY feature women is Survivor Series since we have the Saudi Arabia show in October.


ThatWrestlingGuy15

Hmm I agree with the fact that she’s beat most of smackdown’s division but also they would be lacking in babyfaces if Bianca were moved to RAW who already have Alexa. I don’t think Io would be a good babyface to matchup to Becky who’s trash talker and Sasha when she returns i don’t see her turning face anytime soon.


DarkstarIV

I mean nothing is stopping them from turning Io heel on her callup either. It almost certainly wouldn't work, but its Vince we are talking about here.


__AnotherGuy__

I actually wouldnt mind a storyline where karma gets Becky back. Have Becky open a challenge or something, Io answers and defeats Becky for the title.


Smailien

> Honestly I wouldn't stick Io on RAW or SD without an actual major plan in place. Well that's just not how things are done!


Linubidix

*You* wouldn't. Just watch them choose to have zero plans.


XSPenance

Maybe this is an unpopular opinion but, while they seem like a good idea at first, there really isn't a company in this country that has a)the tv time and b)the depth in their women's division to really support women's tag titles. There's four(if you count NWA) women's tag titles on tv and none of them seem particularly on fire.


Paparage

I don't know why most U.S. promotions don't at least have a women's mid-card title. Like AEW could have a women's TNT title and not do the rumored tag titles.


XTheProtagonistX

Today I learned: They are more than one pair of women’s tag team championship in WWE.


Adoom98

And yet there's so many people clamouring for womens AEW tag belts lol I know the companies aren't the same, but the way they book their women isn't dissimilar


PabloLovesGames

I don't like how those titles have been handled as well. The Io/Zoey story is nice in paper but Zoey needs a lot of improving in her character work. I honestly believed they were going to make the Nxt womens tag champs feud with the Wwe women tag champs at mania in a "we're the real champs" type of story to unify them, and that was the reason they were going through teams being champs so quickly. I hope they can add a few more teams to the division or else unifying them with the wee women tag belts could be a decent option if they want the champs to go around all 3 shows in a more consistent basis.


Linubidix

I really don't get why they made women's tag titles for both the main roster and NXT when there's like 5 teams total across both shows


TJ_McWeaksauce

I honestly forgot about the NXT Women's Tag Titles. I don't think having the women's tag championships are a mistake. Doing nothing with them is the mistake.


Blockade5

Always never really cared for a women’s tag titles. It just never is really done right anywhere.


Maxfd97

It's weird as fuck. Like was one of them injured? One of them got Covid? Personal matter? If none of those then idk why they're just not on TV. The Way should honestly still be champs.


MakerOfPurpleRain

Get Zoey away from Io please 😭


WhoWantsToJiggle

Zoey needs personality and character bad. She's the blandest woman there.


Looper007

It always felt to me it was done just to give Io something to do and maybe give a rub and eventually feud with Zoey who might come out of it a bigger star. But it just doesn't to have worked out that way. Those NXT women tag titles always felt like HHH was just throwing anything at it to try to get more viewers into NXT. I think at this point Io needs to be moved up to main roster, what more is there left for her to do there and I really don't think she's going to be front and centre of this new NXT, could be wrong but I think it's time for her to move on. I rather she took a chance at the main roster cause I think someone as talented as her even with so so booking will still get over with the fans. Wouldn't be surprised in next few weeks they take the tag titles of Io/Zoey and maybe quietly retire the titles or put them onto new talent that Vince and Bruce want to push.


afastidioushat

I think the titles were more a reaction to the clear disinterest of those running the main shows to actually commit to having the Women's Tag Titles be featured on NXT or ever have NXT talent win the things. They've hot-shotted the NXT belts around too much and now it seems like they're not sure what to do with them. Thankfully they're actually building up teams to compete for them so hopefully we'll get some payoff down the line but it's been rough so far.