After a short reign, Raquel Rodriguez and Aliyah have been dethroned as the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions!
The WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships have been vacant since Sasha Banks and Naomi were stripped of the titles after they walked out of the May 16th episode of Monday Night Raw. When it was announced that the two women had been suspended and stripped of their belts, it was said that a tournament would be held to crown new champions – but it would be months before the tournament came to pass.
Finally, a tournament was announced in early August, and the main event of the August 29th episode of Raw saw Dakota Kai and IYO SKY face off against Raquel Rodriguez and Aliyah in the finals. In a somewhat shocking result, Raquel and Aliyah were able to defeat Dakota and IYO to be crowned the new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. Raquel Rodriguez is a former NXT Women’s Champion and NXT Women’s Tag Team Champion, and this marked Aliyah’s first time holding gold in WWE.
However, the finish to the match wasn’t without controversy as Dakota Kai was not the legal competitor when Aliyah pinned her shoulders to the mat. The members of Damage CTRL made mention of this last week on Raw, and on the September 12th episode, Kai and SKY got another chance at tag team gold, and this time they were able to unseat Aliyah and Raquel Rodriguez after just a two week reign.
Who runs #WWERaw?#DAMAGECTRLpic.twitter.com/gIpMsVjoyl
— WWE (@WWE) September 13, 2022
Both Dakota Kai and IYO SKY have held tag team gold before, both serving as NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions. IYO reigned alongside Zoey Stark prior to Stark’s injury, and Dakota is a two-time champion alongside Raquel Rodriguez (who was then known as Raquel Gonzalez).
Elsewhere on Monday Night Raw, The Judgment Day confronted Matt Riddle and attempted to get him to join their ranks. Full results from the September 12th episode can be found here.