Corey Graves Says WWE Women’s Tag Team Division Has “Never Really Caught Fire”
There were new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions crowned on Raw and Corey Graves has reflected on what it means for the division.
In February 2019, Sasha Banks & Bayley became the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions after the company brought the titles back after ignoring them for three decades. Since then, there have been 19 title changes over the last four years. That includes Banks & Naomi quitting WWE over their frustration with how the division was being booked.
The most recent title change occurred this past Monday on the April 10th edition of Raw when Raquel Rodriguez & Liv Morgan beat Becky Lynch & Trish Stratus to become the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. Trish replaced Lita, who was mysteriously attacked backstage before the match, and Liv pinned Trish with a sunset flip. After the match, Trish turned on Lynch.
During this week’s edition of WWE’s After The Bell podcast with Corey Graves & Kevin Patrick, Graves talked about Raquel & Liv winning the titles as well as the state of the division.
“The champions are going to drive the ship in the women’s tag division. It was really important for Liv and Raquel to emerge victorious and, as far as the women’s tag team championships go, I’m probably going to catch hell for this, it’s never really caught fire. It’s never been a strong division.”
“It’s sort of been an amalgam of thrown together tag teams. ‘I’m going to team with this person tonight, we have a tag title match we didn’t win, okay, time to get a new partner.’ It’s always been very transient and constantly in flux. I’m talking the entire existence of the titles, since the very beginning.”
As he continued, Graves spoke with optimism about Raquel & Liv being an actual team that could carry the division while also praising a former championship duo, The IIconics.
“Liv and Raquel could be a duo who have what it takes to solidify the division and maybe sit on top for a while and maybe inspire some other superstars who aren’t getting the opportunities they so desire right now, who want more TV time, who want promo time, but they’re not getting it for whatever reason.”
“Maybe somebody sitting backstage or in catering or a couple people sitting in NXT are going, ‘You know what, let me make a run for this.’ We haven’t had a serious, full-time tag team in my recollection. The IIconics (Peyton Royce & Billie Kay) are the closest we had to hold the titles because they were a full-time act together. The rest have sort of been, ‘Hey, be my partner. Okay, we’ll have a little run, okay, onto the next.’ Everything feels temporary. Raquel and Liv could be very good for the division.”
On the April 14th edition of WWE Smackdown, Raquel & Liv will defend the WWE Tag Team Titles against Chelsea Green & Sonya Deville. It would be a surprise if there’s a title change there.