Mere weeks after becoming WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, Alexa Bliss & Tatum Paxley lost the titles on SmackDown.

The October 9 episode of SmackDown saw the team of Alexa Bliss & Tatum Paxley defeat Fatal Influence to become WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions.

On October 23, WWE SmackDown saw the titles change hands, with Michin & B-Fab becoming Women’s Tag Team Champions for the first time, and also the first time either has held a championship.

New champions lead to new opportunities for both stars, but who will step up?

‘Allies of Convenience’

It’s inevitable that Bliss and Paxley will want a rematch, given they just lost the championship.

With Charlotte Flair currently absent, a return for the record-setting star may alter the balance, particularly if she steps in for Bliss in a tag team combination with Paxley. Flair and Paxley have teamed together previously, with a victory over Fatal Influence back in August.

The Irresistible Forces

Former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, Nia Jax and Lash Legend, lost the titles back at WrestleMania 42 in a Fatal Four-Way tag team match that would be won by Brie Bella and Paige.

The returning Paige scored the victory for her team, although it would be Alexa Bliss who would be pinned, as opposed to either Jax or Legend.

An enraged Jax, spotting a new target and chasing the titles once again, would be a strong use for The Irresistible Forces.

Judgment Day

With this being the only Women’s Tag Team Championship in WWE, a trip to Raw could see Michin & B-Fab run into Judgment Day.

Roxanne Perez came up short in the Money in the Bank ladder match, robbing fans of the possibility of seeing her face Liv Morgan, who would become Women’s World Champion at the same PLE, and lost to Chelsea Green, who retained the Women’s Championship on SmackDown.

When it comes to tag team partners, there’s Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez, with the latter as the Women’s Intercontinental Champion. Seeing Morgan offer a “carrot” to Perez, as the only female member of Judgment Day to not hold a title, in the form of a challenge to B-Fab & Michin could be an interesting way to test their relationship and for Morgan to make a fresh point about why she is the “greatest” at what she does, win or lose.

Iron Built

Reports recently emerged that Jordynne Grace and Ivy Nile were planned for a tag team, with vignettes recorded that are yet to be seen. While nothing has come of that, introducing the pair as Iron Built and throwing them straight into the Women’s Tag Team Championship picture would be a reflection on the faith that creative has in their ability to deliver.

Neither star has held a championship in WWE, which places them in a similar position to B-Fab & Michin prior to this week’s SmackDown.

Grace and Nile as powerhouses of the women’s roster could set a new standard for the division going forward, assuming they’re given the opportunity to thrive. The idea of the pair being able to compete, as champions or as WWE free agents, would be a way of cementing their notoriety.

A tag team division that’s lacking in… tag teams?

Factions aside, the women’s division has very few actual tag teams.

Stars are occasionally thrown together to fill that gap, but perhaps it’s time for WWE to start looking at what they can do with the women’s tag team division to expand it in a meaningful and sustainable way.

While the men get the World Tag Team Championship on Raw, the WWE Tag Team Championship on SmackDown, and the NXT Tag Team Championship on that show, the women’s division gets just the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship.