Don't Be Surprised if Bayley Wins The Inaugural WWE Women's United States Championship

Making the case for a more established WWE Superstar to be the first to win the Women's United States Championship

Should WWE turn to Bayley to establish the new United States Championship? / wwe.com

Disclaimer: This is an opinion column and in no way should be taken as a report that Bayley is likely to win the United States Championship.

SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis made a historic announcement this past Friday night. For the first time in WWE history the Women's Division will soon have a secondary championship for the locker room to fight over.

Details surrounding the new Women's United States Championship are few and far between at the moment. Michael Cole stated on commentary Friday that both Raw and SmackDown Superstars will be able to compete for the gold, but it's not currently known when or how the first ever champion will be crowned or whether the title will stay anchored to a specific brand once that happens.

MORE: WWE Introduces Women's United States Championship On SmackDown

Chief Content Officer Paul 'Triple H' Levesque commissioned the World Heavyweight Championship in May of last year and even though the new title would become exclusive to Raw, Superstars from both main roster brands were chosen to compete for it. It's certainly not out of the realm of possibility that the same scenario could play out here.

It's hard to imagine a world where the United States and NXT North American Championships have female counterparts and the Intercontinental Title does not, but slow playing it's introduction could prove to be a wise choice. Establishing one new belt is difficult enough, let alone two at the same time.

The women of WWE continue to show that they are the very best in the business. The Women’s United States Championship will showcase their continued effort.

So, who’s going to step up and take it? pic.twitter.com/Zyg5mzhWiC

— Triple H (@TripleH) November 9, 2024

Whether another secondary title is imminent or not, the Women's United States Championship is a welcomed and much needed addition to the company's robust collection of accolades.

Long before guys like Shawn Michaels, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H were fighting to be the WWE Champion, they were battling one another to capture the Intercontinental Title.
Hopefully this new U.S. Championship will similarly provide the necessary stepping stone to elevate the next crop of Women's World Champions.

There's currently a backlog of female stars on Raw and SmackDown that have been stuck in limbo without a vehicle to drive themselves to a more prominent position and a crop of talented and hungry young women in NXT that are ready to burst onto the scene.

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You can make a case for anyone of them to become the inaugural U.S. Champ. Women like Michin, who has continuously answered the bell anytime an opportunity has come her way. Her Dumpster Match with Chelsea Green was one of the most well regarded of Bad Blood weekend, but there's unfortunately been no follow up to her victory in the weeks that have followed.

Green is another talent that should garner heavy consideration for this honor. She has established herself as one of most well-rounded performers in all of WWE. Someone who knows how to maximize her minutes and has proven she can turn literal trash into comedy gold.

The *world* only wants one thing. https://t.co/6jAYQRPBLu

— CHELSEA GREEN (@ImChelseaGreen) November 9, 2024

There's no shortage of women who could desperately benefit from the opportunity to carry the gold. Whether it be Zoey Stark, Shayna Baszler, Sonya Deville, Zelina Vega, Lyra Valkyria, Piper Niven, Alba Fyra, Candice LeRae or a myriad of others.

Taking all of that into consideration, the inaugural Women's United States Champion really should be someone who can provide instant credibility and garner significant investment from the audience. Just to get the ball rolling.

Choosing someone like Bayley as the first ever Women's United States Champion may not go over well with some fans at first, but with the Role Model currently out of the WWE Women's Title picture on SmackDown, she's the perfect person to set up a strong foundation for other women to build upon.

Making the case for Bayley to get the first crack at the Women's United States Championship

Could Bayley make history once again? / wwe.com

I keep thinking about Triple H's comments on establishing a new Championship during the WrestleMania XL Night Two press conference. At that time he was addressing the recently commissioned World Heavyweight Championship. When trying to figure out to make the title mean something, to be as big as it possibly could be, he decided to give it to Seth Rollins and let him 'go to work.'

This may be a different caliber of championship we're talking about here, it's not a world title, but putting the gold around Bayley's waist could prove to be the same winning formula as Rollins and the WHC.

Bayley had a disappointing run as WWE Women's Champion after she knocked off IYO SKY at WrestleMania XL. The strict confines of a two hour SmackDown practically forced her to take a back seat over the summer while many potential challengers competed in both Queen of the Ring Tournament and Money in the Bank qualifying matches instead.

She had just three televised title defenses before losing to Nia Jax at SummerSlam, one of which ended in a no contest. An active run as the U.S. Champ would certainly be a nice bounce back for Bayley, assuming history doesn't repeat itself. It's also a title reign that wouldn't have to be lengthy to be impactful.

I'd personally look toward replicating the model set by Becky Lynch when The Man held the NXT Women's Championship late last year. An abbreviated run that will give multiple underutilized women a chance to prove themselves, help establish a future star - ala Tiffany Stratton - and ultimately put someone over in a major way like Lynch did with Lyra Valkyria.

Having the ability to bounce between both shows initially will give Bayley plenty of opportunities to make the new U.S. Championship the 'workhorse' title of the Women's Division, especially if either - or both - Raw and SmackDown are extended to three hours in January.

Roll your eyes if you must, but the success of this championship is going to hinge on there being ample TV time devoted to it and right now those minutes are at a premium.

There's only so much the talent themselves can control and having 5-6 hours of weekly main roster television makes it extraordinarily less likely that this belt falls to the wayside. Even more so if Bayley is the one carrying it, but again, not a guarantee if her WWE Women's Title run is any indication.

Despite the creative concerns that come with commissioning a new championship, Bayley has been in this situation before. When the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships were introduced in 2019, WWE turned to her and Sasha Banks (now wrestling as Mercedes Moné in AEW) to establish them.

The execution this time around will need to be much better than how WWE handled Bayley and Sasha's inaugural run with the tag team belts and I believe Triple H knows that. He's always spoken very highly of Bayley and he trusts her, which is why I believe she has a legitimate shot to become the first woman to hold the United States Championship.

Bayley's passion for advancing the Women's Division may be second to no one on the active roster. She will hold the title with pride. She will go out of her way to make her opponents look strong, even in defeat. And when the time comes, perhaps WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas, she'll pass the torch and the title to a worthy successor.

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