WWE WrestleMania 33 preview: SmackDown Women’s Championship match

The WWE SmackDown’s Women Championship at WrestleMania 33 will feature Alexa Bliss defending her title against every woman on the roster.

With WWE WrestleMania 33 set to go down on Sunday, the excitement is growing as the event draws near. The card for the event features several matches and the two women’s championship matches on each brand have been drawing plenty of attention. On the SmackDown Live side of things, Alexa Bliss has been put in an interesting spot.

It was announced that at WrestleMania 33, she will defend her title against every woman on the SmackDown Live roster. That certainly leads to speculation about surprise returns, how many wrestlers she will face and who will come out on top as champion.

It was only a matter of time before alliances fell and each of the women on the roster went at each other for the top prize in their division. With a interesting set of stipulations in place for this match, just about anything could happen.

It’s a bit of a different take on what the RAW Women’s Championship match is. That match is the standard Fatal 4-Way but this match will feature at least four competitors but in a different way. It also has the potential to be much larger than the RAW match. With WrestleMania being a time to get as many talent on the show as possible in some variety, this is the perfect match to do so.

The way the stipulation has been left open allows for the flexibility to throw as many performers in there as possible and leave the door open for someone to return or make their debut. This match has taken a different than what was originally planned however.

How did we get here?

At the Elimination Chamber, Naomi finally completed her dream and won the SmackDown Live Women’s Championship. However, her dream was ultimately cut short and she was forced to relinquish the championship due to injury. That led to Bliss retaking the title and now she will have a chance to have a defining moment at WrestleMania.

This certainly felt like a build toward Naomi getting her chance to shine on the biggest stage of them all, but circumstances certainly changed. On the March 7th edition of SmackDown, it was announced then that Bliss would be facing her biggest test yet. That has led to this intriguing circumstance where every woman on the SmackDown Live roster will compete for the title.

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As aforementioned above, there are no longer any alliances on the roster. We saw Bliss and Mickie James finally have a falling apart which has certainly created a rivalry between the two. Along with James, Natalya and Becky Lynch will be in the match.

It’s unlikely we will see Naomi in the match with her injury but it would be a nice surprise if she was able to return and have a shot at competing for the championship she was forced to relinquish. Although that’s not likely to happen there are certainly some things that should be expected in this match.

What to expect

Of all the matches on the card, this might be the most difficult one to predict overall. We know the match and what the stipulations are, but the fact that it’s every woman on the roster tends to make it obvious there’s going to be some surprises.

No one should expect it to just be the three aforementioned women taking on Bliss. This is WrestleMania after all. The likely scenario here is either a returning superstar of perhaps someone being called up from the talented women’s division in NXT.

The likely scenario here is that Bliss is able to get through the three women we know she will be facing. It’s then when everyone should expect a surprise competitor to come out and make things interesting. Whether or not they are able to take the title will be the interesting part.

And that’s ultimately where this match is going to end. If it is just the women mentioned competing, then the smart money should be on Bliss to retain. If there indeed surprises, then that is going to change some things.

The hope here should be that if they are going to throw a ton of people into the match, that the quality doesn’t suffer. Considering the time that some of the other matches on the card will get, this just doesn’t seem like a match that is designed to be rushed.

A quick match could be the option that they ultimately go with but is it going to make a statement if it’s rushed? Certainly they have a plan here and it’s going to have a tall task going up against the RAW Women’s Championship.

The SmackDown Live women’s roster has vastly improved and the story has been a little more fresh than the one on RAW. Still, the wrestling talent on both shows should create for a competitive atmosphere.

Expected winner

The smart money here is to pick a potential surprise entrant. If it’s Asuka coming up from NXT or a returning talent, that’s likely the direction they will go here. The names we know that will be competing obviously have been announced for a reason.

Those are the names that won’t be walking out with the championship. Lynch could come close and win the title but it’s likely that Bliss will pull out all the stops to survive and win. It’s then that the a potential surprise entry could end up going down.

Then again it wouldn’t be surprising to see Bliss win either. What better way to put her over as champion than for her to survive and outlast the entire SmackDown Live roster? That’s always an option on the table.