SK Exclusive: Major news on future plans for SmackDown's women's division

What's the story?

Our sources have revealed a plethora of information about the future plans for the WWE women's divisions.

In case you didn't know...

DirtySheets.Net were the FIRST to break the news that Asuka would be going to Raw. We also released further information regarding how Asuka was going to be used by the company - where we revealed that Asuka will dominate the division and capture the Raw Women's Championship whilst still undefeated.

You can read the story here: Asuka’s Future Plans Revealed

In addition to that, yesterday we broke the blockbuster news, via Sportskeeda, that the WWE is planning to book the first ever women's Royal Rumble next year at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

You can read the story here: SK Exclusive: Historic first-time match planned for next year's Royal Rumble

The heart of the matter

Fans are highly likely to be pleased with the plans for Raw and the pending announcement of the women's Royal Rumble, however, the SmackDown plans could potentially trump everything reported so far.

The current plan for SmackDown is to put the SmackDown's Women Championship on Charlotte Flair and build towards a SmackDown's Women's Championship defence against former UFC Champion, "Rowdy" Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania.

The original plan for the division was for Naomi to retain the belt up to January's Royal Rumble so that WWE could produce and sell Glow Championship belts for children during the fall. However, as we correctly reported, the WWE were told by their toy manufacturers, Mattel, that producing the titles would take around 10 months, resulting in WWE temporarily scrapping the Glow Championship project, and Naomi dropping the title sooner than anticipated.

What's next?

Charlotte will shortly capture the SmackDown Women's Championship from Natalya, who will be somewhat of a transitional Champion.

Author's Take

Charlotte Flair has always been touted as the only viable opponent for Ronda Rousey. The WWE had plans to do this match last year, which is why Bayley vs Charlotte was booked as early as January, when it made more sense to crown Bayley as Champion at WrestleMania 33, winning her first championship and ending Charlotte's streak at the biggest stage possible. However, the streak was never built for Bayley, it was built for Ronda Rousey to end at WrestleMania 33.

Unfortunately for Rousey and the WWE, plans were shelved when Ronda suffered a credibility-killing first-round loss to Amanda Nunes on December 30th, 2016. Rousey opted to take a hiatus and WWE were forced to change course. The Raw women's division became a mess from that point, ending Charlotte's streak unceremoniously at Fastlane, and relying on meaningless title changes throughout the year in order to spike interest. Hopefully, Asuka can breathe some life back into the Raw division.

Meanwhile over on SmackDown, Charlotte hasn't really got anywhere near the championship since last April's draft, whilst the WWE pursued their Naomi project. With the Naomi project now on the shelf, due to the inability to produce Glow Championships by Christmas, the company now plan to finally shine the spotlight on Charlotte Flair, who is clearly their top female superstar.

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