With Women’s Royal Rumble winner Asuka formally declaring her opponent for WrestleMania 34 to be Smackdown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair (the match most fans seemed to want anyway), many were left wondering what the fates (or at least WWE Creative) had in store for Raw‘s Women’s Champion, Alexa Bliss. Last night, the story that began last week continued to reveal her WrestleMania 34 opponent to be her longtime bodyguard and real life BFF Nia Jax. And while some applauded WWE Nia Jax getting her WrestleMania moment, many voiced their displeasure with the entire angle as hypocritical of the WWE to be pushing a body shaming storyline that was seemed more in line with the Mean Girls movie than a reason for a WrestleMania moment. But on a closer look, and with a bit of open mindedness beyond the initial start-up of this new direction in Jax and Bliss’ on-screen relationship, Nia Jax vs Alexa Bliss is actually an incredibly inspirational storyline.
Nia Jax vs Alexa Bliss: Team Rude
It’s no secret that Bliss and Jax are best friends in real life. Both got their starts in NXT around the same time and rose through the ranks together. Alexa Bliss was a collegiate cheerleader and competitive bodybuilder (under her real name Lexi Kaufman, she competed in the 2013 Arnold Classic), who signed with the WWE in 2013. She made her pro wrestling debut at NXT Live Events in September of 2013, before debuting on NXT television in May of 2014, when she entered the tournament to crown the inaugural NXT Women’s Champion. She defeated Alicia Fox in the opening round, before losing to Charlotte Flair in the second. As Alexa was making her NXT TV debut, Nia Jax was beginning her WWE career at the newly built Performance Center. She trained for nearly an entire year before making her NXT Live Events debut in May of 2015. Her NXT TV debut wouldn’t be until October of that year, when she won her debut match in a squash of indie star Evie (who has since joined NXT as Dakota Kai). But ever since those days at Full Sail, Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax have become joined at the hip, referring to themselves as “Team Rude” all over each other’s Social Media accounts, showing the world that they truly are an inseparable team off-screen. This friendship created fans of both worldwide and it became a necessary emotional investment for what was to transpire in the ring.
Nia Jax vs Alexa Bliss: My Bodyguard
On July 19, 2016, Alexa Bliss was finally called up to the main roster, when she was drafted to Smackdown Live as part of the Brand Draft. Bliss immediately made an impact and in six months became the Smackdown Women’s Champion. Nia Jax was drafted the same day as Alexa Bliss, but to the Raw brand. Jax was actually drafted 25th overall by Raw, the show’s 15th pick, during the televised draft itself, while Bliss was selected 47th overall by the Blue Brand (their 20th pick) during the WWE Network “Draft Center Live” special following the show. In April of 2017, Bliss was now a two time Women’s Champion, but was drafted by Raw in a Superstar Shake Up, finally re-joining her Team Rude bestie. For most of the time since then, Nia Jax has acted as Alexa Bliss’ bodyguard, reminiscent of Kevin Nash‘s stint as Diesel when he would accompany “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels as his own private enforcer. It helped Alexa develop into a stronger heel character now that she had the strongest woman on the roster backing her up.
Nia Jax vs Alexa Bliss: The End of the Affair
Nia Jax has teased departing Alexa Bliss before, but it always ended being a ruse to play with Bliss’ other opponents. The first real crack in the friendship seemed to be Nia Jax’s determination to get into the Women’s title match at WrestleMania by going through Asuka at last month’s Elimination Chamber event. Her defiance to challenge for her best friend’s title seemed to cause some irritation with Alexa, which ultimately led to the set up we saw last week. Last week, Alexa Bliss told her other confidante, Mickie James, that she was just using Nia Jax and never liked her, and the comments were conveniently aired so Nia Jax could see them. Which of course sent Nia Jax into monster mode.
Nia Jax vs. Alexa Bliss: WrestleMania 34
Which of course let to this week’s Raw where instead of apologizing, Alexa Bliss backed up her previous comments and continued to poke fun at how she had been using her for the last year. Nia Jax stormed the ring following Bliss’ match with Asuka and attacked James before they both fled. Shortly after, Kurt Angle made the match for WrestleMania 34, with Nia Jax finally getting her measure of revenge in a match for Alexa’s Women’s Championship.
.@NiaJaxWWE has some UNFINISHED BUSINESS to take care of with @MickieJames and @AlexaBliss_WWE! #NotLikeMost #RAW pic.twitter.com/8Ur8qnn3O2
— WWE (@WWE) March 20, 2018
Nia Jax vs Alexa Bliss: The Naysayers
The detractors who have called out this angle have seemingly singled on three things that irritates them, despite them being classic angles used for men’s stories with zero of the negative feedback (except for maybe the third one).
I) Nia Jax and The Tears
While it was only briefly during her rage that destroyed the women’s locker room last week, some fans were irate that Nia Jax showed that kind of emotional vulnerability, suggesting it destroyed any credibility she had as a legitimate threat. The tears were a simple method used in wrestling to evoke an immediate emotional connection with the fans for a face. In 1987, Hulk Hogan practically burst into tears when Andre the Giant turned on him, ripping off his iconic gold necklace, leaving a shattered Hulkster in a state of bewilderment. When Andre finally defeated Hogan for the title in early 1988, there was no stopping the tears that fell from the eyes of Hulk Hogan. If tears couldn’t derail Hulkamania at its strongest, it will not stop Nia Jax.
II) The Hypocrisy of Mickie James
The next argument from fans was Mickie James going along with Alexa Bliss’ shaming of Nia Jax, when she herself was a victim of the same shaming herself back in 2010 in her last angle before leaving the WWE, in the infamous “Piggy James” storyline. But wrestling characters have constantly flip flopped on their principles when going from heel to face. Returning to Hulk Hogan, when he joined the nWo in 1996, “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan turned his back on every principle that made him the Real American in the 1980s. Heels become heels because they lose their path of their previous virtues, just like when people turn face they have changes of heart. Clearly not as hypocritical as people are making it out.
II) The Shaming of Nia Jax
But arguably the biggest complaint by fans has been the seeming hypocrisy of a company that runs an anti-bullying campaign like Be A Star pushing a character as a bully doing the exact things they are telling kids not to do at these programs. But the WWE, as they are oft to say when these kinds of complaints are aroused, are in the storytelling business. And in order to tell a tale of good vs. evil, you have to actually let the evil be…well…evil. The hero cannot triumph over a heel if the heel has all the same virtues as the hero themselves. The Nia Jax vs Alexa Bliss story has essentially hit its next phase of the story – consider everything else like the Star Wars prequels where Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker were friends. We’ve just hit the end of Revenge of the Sith, where they’ve begun to dislike each other very much. Before we can get to the payoff of Jax gaining her revenge on her on-screen bully, the bully has to actually bully her. The bullying isn’t the lesson that the WWE is teaching children – it’s the triumph of standing up to said bully and showing them that they aren’t afraid of them anymore. And judging by Nia Jax’s Tweet following the show, that’s exactly what she intends to do.
They’ll tell you…
Not to try.
Not to dream.
Not to be yourself.That you’re not enough… And you’ll teach them…
That you work harder.
Can do better.
To be YOU is the best thing you can be. I’m going to @WrestleMania.
And winning. #NotLikeMost #TheIrresistibleForce pic.twitter.com/mvm2vM1kMC— Lina Fanene (@LinaFanene) March 20, 2018
