Why is the RAW Women’s Title bouncing around so frequently?

Last week, I posited what I believe to be the proper remedy for last Monday night’s main event, which saw Bayley defeat Charlotte to become the new WWE Women’s Champion on the RAW brand. I received some tweets from a few angry Bayley fans, one of which incredulously wrote the sentence, “We have to let Pam be happy,” which I’m not even going to entertain. Whether the person who sent that comment is aware professional wrestling is a work, “Pam” certainly is.

Whether you agree with my argument that Charlotte needs to use her high-powered attorneys to get the match, the result, and certainly the title change rescinded and erased from the record books or not, at some point we have to start asking WHY WWE keeps its Monday Women’s Championship on rails. No one carries this thing for very long, and many believe it’s had a negative impact on its importance.

While I’m not a fan of all the switches, stops, and starts, I wouldn’t entirely agree with that assertion.

After spending some time thinking about the situation, I’ve come to one conclusion that would adequately explain WWE’s thought process as it relates to the Championship. At base level, it comes down to two created realities that come from the company’s recent booking paradigm.

1. EVERY RAW WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH BECOMES MUST-SEE TELEVISION

Ratings might not back up the plan, but the belief within WWE has to be that because we’ve seen Sasha win Charlotte’s title on multiple occasions, and now we’ve seen Bayley do the same, we as an audience are conditioned to anticipate newsworthy events when the Women’s Title is on the line during a RAW show, particularly if it’s in the main event.

When we expect a title change, or believe one is likely, our ears perk up as wrestling fans. Even if it lessens the impact of those victories, it’s still one of those experiences that never gets old for us. We watch for Howard Finkel’s “Andddddd newwwwwww” as much as we do every chair shot or powerbomb. In the case of Bayley, it was a first-time moment of ultimate goodness and positivity, so it was an even bigger draw to the hardcores.

So many WWE television title matches have resulted in no-finishes, disqualifications, and countouts throughout the history of RAW and SmackDown. We might see one minor switch a year, but the evenings of Austin defeating Undertaker and Roman Reigns defeating Sheamus remain pretty rare. Except now, the Women’s Championship always appears negotiable from WWE. We don’t always know what’s going to happen, and in a business where so much is known, spoiled, or revealed, the idea that a title MIGHT change hands is enticing.

2. EVERY PAY-PER-VIEW TITLE DEFENSE ALSO BECOMES MUST-SEE

Just as the television matches have provided fireworks, Charlotte’s undefeated streak means we watch her in much the same fashion we watched Goldberg. Every time she loses, we now assume she’s getting the title back on the next supershow, however we’re watching intently to make sure we don’t miss that initial PPV loss. Eventually she’s going to lose, and maybe it’s going to be tonight.

So far, it hasn’t been “tonight.” It’s created a world in which the RAW Women’s Championship bout becomes the white whale. When will it happen? We have to see it live, so that we see when the record finally comes to an end. Sometime in the near future, we believe someone will overcome her on television and on Pay-Per-View. That day will come.

We’re watching so we can see her lose, even if we aren’t interested in her losing. We’ve become invested in seeing what we haven’t seen, bringing back the novelty argument I make on Cageside at least once a month after another huge thing is given away for free on television.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

In no way is this strategy something WWE should look to do in the future, once this comes to a close. But allow me to say that if WWE takes my advice, or does something similar, the endgame becomes the opposite of expectations. Charlotte holds the title, defends successfully on television, as Bayley goes through utter hell and appears to be fading under the pressure of Nia, Sasha, or even Stephanie McMahon. She’s never pushed as a loser, but she’s dealing with a miserable time in WWE on camera. She becomes THE victim.

Then, after Charlotte holds the title up until Orlando, racking up a few important underhanded TV wins to break the television expectation, she walks into WrestleMania and loses, clean as a sheet, concluding the streak and hitting the reset button on the entire division.

Again, this isn’t how I would have done any of these title changes, but if this is WWE’s line of thinking, at least it makes some sense. It’s turned one part of the show into its most predictably unpredictable, and allowed the women to take center stage. Now, if it’s all just to make Charlotte at 40 time Champion before she turns 30, that’s just dumb as hell. Wait, she’s actually 30 now. So maybe I should have said 31.

That will devalue the title before anyone reaches the finish line.

But I refuse to believe there’s not a larger point to all of this.

Now, my fingers remain crossed that what I wrote last week is what we get tonight, because at the risk of bragging, that’s one hell of a television angle. Charlotte did tweet about it, and because of the past, if she doesn’t pull out the lawyers, we’re again supposed to blindly believe all WWE employees are the stupidest people in the world.