Brie Bella and Paige haven’t defended their Women’s Tag Team Championships since Saturday Night’s Main Event on May 23. While that doesn’t sound like it’s been a long time, it certainly feels like it, especially knowing that they were on the European tour and didn’t wrestle a single match, not even a dark match in front of the fans. They didn’t even appear in any in-ring segments — televised ones, at least — and only had a brief backstage segment last week alongside Fatal Influence, where Lainey Reid and Fallon Henley took them out after they badmouthed Jacy Jayne following her Queen of the Ring tournament loss.
That’s why their match tonight against Henley and Reid being a non-title bout was pretty annoying, as they haven’t really done anything for awhile now, in a division where just a few weeks ago, plenty of teams were vying for a shot at those titles. WWE flew “Scream Mode” over for the tour, and then didn’t use them. Okay, whatever, I’m not the one paying for the flights, but you’d think they’d want the fan favorites, especially in Europe, on those shows. And now that they’re back in the states, their match not being a title defense felt like yet another waste.
Especially since it was Bella and Paige to score the victory. Usually, you’d assume in a non-title bout, it would be the potential challengers to get the win, to earn a shot at the gold. Not the case tonight. The match wasn’t bad, but the longer it went on, the better Fatal Influence looked. Paige looked worn out toward the end, and while I’m sure WWE is being very careful with her, given her injury history, the fact she and Bella haven’t been wrestling often can’t be helping that.
In the end, it was Paige to get the win off basically a distraction from the referee kicking Jayne out. While the match really needed to be over at that point, it was still a really lame finish that made Reid and Henley look silly.
Since winning the belts, Paige and Brie have had only three title defenses total, and it honestly feels like WWE is waiting for Nikki Bella to be cleared to travel, at least, so she can be ringside for her sister and Paige and get things moving on some kind of storyline there, where presumably the Bellas turn heel on Paige. For titles that felt so hot going into WrestleMania just last month, it’s crazy to see them cooled off on Paige and Bella.
Written by Daisy Ruth
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