All week, we here at Sports Al Dente will be previewing all 14 matches on the WrestleMania 34 super card. This is shaping up to be one of the biggest WrestleMania’s in recent history, as every title will be defended on the card for the first time since 2001. Back then, though, there were only six active titles in WWE. This year, the ‘Mania card features nine title matches.
One of those title matches is Alexa Bliss vs. Nia Jax for the Raw Women’s Championship. This has been a match months in the making, as Jax and Bliss have gone through numerous changes in their friendship. Let’s try and map out how we got to this women’s championship match.
Nia Jax throws Dana Brooke into the corner during a match at a live event in 2017. Photo credit shared account – Under Creative Commons License.
The Match
Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Nia Jax for the Raw Women’s Championship
How We Got Here
Alexa Bliss won the Raw Women’s Championship on the August 28 edition of Raw, just eight days after losing it at Summerslam. She has had few title defenses since then, mostly due to the WWE pay-per-view schedule. After successfully defending her title at October’s TLC event, the Goddess of WWE did not defend her title again until the Elimination Chamber PPV in February. She successfully defended her title in the first-ever women’s elimination chamber match that night, allowing her to walk into WrestleMania as Raw women’s champion.
Jax has been a dominating force in her WWE run. One of the bigger women to ever wrestle in WWE, Jax has used her size, strength, and speed to become one of the top women’s wrestlers in the company. Despite all of this, she has never held a championship in WWE. After having great battles with the likes of Bayley, Sasha Banks, and Asuka, Jax seems poised to win her first title on the grandest stage of them all.
The History
Bliss and Jax have been best friends, for the most part, in their WWE run together. The only hiccup in the relationship came in September of 2017 when Jax dropped Bliss at the end of Raw one night ahead of the fatal five-way match for the Raw Women’s Championship at No Mercy.
It seemed as if Jax was going to break away from Bliss and challenge the champion in a one-on-one match at the next PPV, but Jax and Bliss quickly became friends again after the No Mercy match. Bliss and Jax had maintained their friendship until a few weeks ago on Raw.
The Feud
After the women’s royal rumble winner Asuka left Raw to challenge Smackdown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair Bliss was left without a WrestleMania opponent. After Jax defeated an enhancement talent on the March 12th edition of Raw, the camera cut to the locker room area, where Bliss was talking to Mickie James. Bliss was body shaming Jax, saying she just “used her” and made fun of her personality. Bliss didn’t know the cameras were rolling and Jax saw everything.
An emotional Jax rushed to the locker room area to try and attack Bliss, but her and James left just in time. The next week on Raw, general manager Kurt Angle made the Bliss vs. Jax match official.
Expectations
Both women are good in the ring, and this should be a fun match between the two. Unfortunately, they have to compete against the other women’s title match of Charlotte vs. Asuka. While the latter could main event a WrestleMania, the former doesn’t have that same star power. Bliss and Jax may fall victim to circumstance on Sunday in New Orleans and not get the same reaction as most title matches get at WrestleMania.
WrestleMania 34 takes place from The Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans on April 8 with a special start time of 7 pm eastern/6 pm central. The show is streaming live on the WWE Network.