Alexa Bliss Can Prove Her Value At Elimination Chamber

Everybody was so happy and proud to be involved in the first Women’s Royal Rumble. It was another instance of the Women’s Evolution breaking barriers and doing things that previously had been reserved for the men. Many of WWE’s former female Superstars came back for the occasion. Asuka may have won the match, but everyone involved will consider it one of their career highlights. It was fun.

Making history isn’t always fun.

Alexa Bliss, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Sonya Deville, Mickie James & Mandy Rose will find that out at Elimination Chamber, where the Raw Women’s Championship will be on the line in the type of match the show is named after.

The competitors are all over social media talking about how ready they are. It’s more of a muted celebration than the gala held for the Royal Rumble announcement. Wrestlers will enter the Chamber in order to accomplish a goal, but they aren’t thrilled about it like they are for the Royal Rumble Match.

Changes made to the Chamber last year make it safer. There’s padding outside the ring instead of steel. The increased height makes it less likely that people not named Shane McMahon will climb up to the roof. It’s still not a great way to spend an evening.

An interesting cast of characters has been chosen for these proceedings. It’s the biggest match yet for the Absolution pairing of Mandy & Sonya. They haven’t been on the main roster long enough to appear in a video game, yet here they are in the Elimination Chamber. Sonya has gotten some good ring time on Raw lately with Sasha & Mickie. She could be a candidate to start in the first two & last awhile. Mandy has a ton of upside & her best days are ahead, but I can’t see her lasting much longer than a couple of minutes.

Bayley is not exactly known for her gimmick match skills. She found it difficult to use a kendo stick against Alexa & it cost her the Raw Women’s Championship. The best hope Bayley fans have is that enough bitterness has built up inside her that she has less qualms about throwing people into cages & things like that.

Sasha Banks isn’t much for holding back. She was in the first women’s Hell in a Cell match & lasted the longest in the Women’s Royal Rumble. One would assume that she’ll be in this match for the long haul, and if they were to change the Championship here I could see her being the top choice. Of course, she would lose it in her first defense because that’s what she does.

Then there’s Mickie James. She’s the most experienced person in the match, yet she always seems to be the person Alexa tries to get on her side. You would think after all the insults she’s lobbed Mickie’s way that Alexa would give up on that strategy, but she saved Mickie from an Absolution beatdown on Monday night & appears to be trying again.

Alexa’s also trying a new strategy where she makes accusations against Kurt Angle.

Alexa Bliss hasn’t been the most active Raw Women’s Champion. She hasn’t defended the championship on television since the October 30, 2017 episode of Raw. Considering that WWE’s flagship show has three hours to fill every week & Bliss appears on a regular basis, it’s perplexing that she doesn’t have more championship matches.

The main point of Alexa’s complaint, other than the fact she doesn’t really want to be in the Chamber, comes to the fact that WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar isn’t defending his title at Elimination Chamber. Then-WWE Champion John Cena defended his title at last year’s Chamber event, so Alexa is right to wonder why Brock isn’t made to do the same. Kurt Angle’s excuse that Brock already defended his title at the Rumble doesn’t hold much water unless you agree that championships should only be defended once every couple of months.

The actual reason is that Shinsuke Nakamura won the Royal Rumble & chose to face AJ Styles for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania. Raw needs to do something in order to make a Universal Championship match. Kurt didn’t think to mention this. He doesn’t think to mention much these days, which makes it easy for people like Alexa to twist his words & make accusations about his motives. Alexa believes this all proves that WWE & Kurt Angle value Brock Lesnar more than her. She didn’t mention their paychecks, but I’m guessing those would also back up her argument.

Does WWE value Brock Lesnar more than Alexa Bliss?

Yes.

Let’s be clear: WWE values Brock Lesnar more than almost anybody else on WWE’s active roster. Roman Reigns is the only non-McMahon I have to pause & wonder about. It’s no knock on Alexa Bliss that WWE doesn’t value her as much as Brock.

Does sexism play a role? We would need a woman comparable to Brock Lesnar in order to find out. Somebody that’s been a big star outside of pro wrestling, in a field that’s comparable to it. A star that’s proven to draw money for their previous employers. Someone that moves the needle & gets attention of the non-traditional wrestling media.

Oh, wait. WWE just signed somebody like that.

It’s always a good idea to take the news we report with a grain of salt. However, if the reports concerning Ronda Rousey & WWE’s plans for her are accurate, all of these women need to bring their A game to the Chamber. As it stands, it looks like Rousey is being groomed to cut through WWE’s women like a hot knife through butter before ending Asuka’s winning streak.

As they say, plans change. The best way for the ladies in this match to avoid the fate forecasted for them by the dirtsheets is to showcase their value. If Alexa Bliss wants to be viewed on Brock Lesnar’s level, she needs to have a performance that brings the same level of enjoyment that wrestling fans get out of Brock’s matches. She needs to get on Brock Lesnar’s level.

If Alexa & the rest of the women deliver, it’ll make it much harder for WWE to justify sacrificing everybody at the altar of Rowdy Ronda. It’ll also make it harder for Kurt Angle to give the Raw Women’s Champion worse treatment than the Universal Champion.

I would be stunned if Bliss isn’t the Raw Women’s Champion heading into WrestleMania. I would also be stunned if the Raw Women’s Championship Match went on after the Universal Championship Match at WrestleMania. After the Royal Rumble we can’t say it’s because of gender. We can say it’s because of Brock Lesnar though.