The Women's Intercontinental Championship Tournament Begins

On November 8, 2024, the Women's United States Championship finally debuted on SmackDown. Just a few weeks later, we would receive the addition of the Women's Intercontinental Championship on the Raw brand. The announcement was made on November 25, 2024, seventeen days after the Women's U.S. Championship was added, and similar to that title, the first Women's IC Champion would be crowned via a tournament--the same exact fashion as the other title.

A lot of fans expected both belts to be announced at the same time, and when only the Women's U.S. Championship was announced on its own, certain wording had fans nervous that we wouldn't se a Women's IC Title. It's clear that WWE wanted a spotlight for each one, and it looks like we are getting just that. And I have to call this out; so-called "fans" overly criticizing the addition of midcard titles for the women. The main thing that gets mentioned is that WWE has "too many titles," and yeah, while WWE has a hell of a lot of titles, these two are immensely necessary. I read one comment calling any matches for said titles being "bathroom breaks" for viewers. Seriously, why do people hate women's wrestling so much?

So here is the bracket for the Women's Intercontinental Championship tournament, and I had a feeling that this would be the format when the first match was announced. The first Quarterfinal match announced was a Triple Threat match: Dakota Kai vs Katana Chance vs Shayna Baszler. The match was announced on WWE's website, and the full bracket was revealed during the latest edition of Raw on December 2. As expcted, it's exactly the same format as the Women's U.S. Championship tournament: four Triple Threat Quarterfinals, totalling 12 women vying for that honor of becoming the first Women's IC Champion.

The bout took place during the first hour, and regarding the women involved, each one had been tag champion at least once. Out of the three, Shayna Baszler's the only one to have held singles gold, but that was in NXT. Speaking of Shayna, I found it a little bit odd that she and Zoey Stark were in this tournament, but the leader of Pure Fusion Collective, Sonya Deville, isn't. Anyway, this bout went as expected, though we did receive a bit of a scare when Shayna delivered a devastating finisher on Dakota. Katana broke it up, and all of it allowed Dakota to (expectedly) pick up the victory.

So Dakota Kai became the first to advance to the Semifinals, which (again) is no surprise. Even though it's been close to ten years, I'm still amazed and in awe that Dakota Kai is in WWE. I watched her SHIMMER matches and other indie matches a long time ago, and Dakota's signing was part of WWE finally realizing that they had to comb the independent scene to boost up their Women's Division. Dakota Kai has been in WWE in some form since 2015. She was Nia Jax's first opponent on the NXT program; I still remember that. I'm very glad she's a babyface again, because while she had good moments as a heel, she needed to be back on the heroic side again.

Many fans are hoping that Dakota wins the tournament and becomes the first-ever Women's Intercontinental Champion. While she is deserving of that honor, I have my own pick:

Next week's Raw revealed that the second Quarterfinal to take place will feature Lyra Valkyria, Zelina Vega, and Ivy Nile. And the woman in the middle, Zelina Vega, is my pick to win this whole thing. I do love that this match will continue this tit-for-tat between Zelina and Ivy, and I always love seeing Lyra Valkyria. All three women deserve to advance, though I can't see Ivy winning because she's still doing the big, bad, and evil schtick with Gable and the Creeds. It really is between Lyra and Zelina, and while I would be good with Lyra winning, I really want Zelina to advance and take this whole thing.

Now, while the Women's U.S. Championship Tournament has a set schedule, the Women's IC Championship Tournament doesn't. Three of the four Quarterfinals in the former of the two tournaments have already taken place, with the fourth one set for this Friday, both Semifinals will take place next Friday, and Saturday Night's Main Event will crown the first-ever Women's United States Champion. If I had to guess, with five Monday in the month of December, it's clear that the other two Quarterfinal matches (following the upcoming one next week) will take place on December 16 and 23. Both Semifinal matches should occur on December 30, which is not only the final Raw of 2024, but also the final Raw on an actual TV network. That means that the Final, the match that will crown WWE's first-ever Women's Intercontinental Champion, should take place on the highly anticipated first Raw of 2025--the debut of Raw on Netflix.

The next few weeks will be very historic for WWE's Women's Division. We are just under two weeks away from the crowning of the first-ever Women's United States Champion, and if my guess is correct, we should see the first-ever Women's Intercontinental Champion crown on that first Raw of 2025. This will lead to a lot of good things for WWE's Women's Division for sure.