Nia Jax Beats Alexa Bliss for Raw Women's Championship at WrestleMania 34

Nia Jax defeated former best friend Alexa Bliss at WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans on Sunday to become Raw women's champion for the first time.

Jax smartly made it a one-on-one match by attacking Mickie James before the opening bell. That eliminated her from the equation and ensured Bliss wouldn't have any outside help as she looked to retain the title.

Bliss held her own for a while after resorting to raking Jax in the left eye. Eventually, The Irresistible Force's power was too much to overcome, and she won after hitting a Samoan drop from the middle rope:

Sunday's bout was a long time coming since tension between Nia and Alexa had been building for months prior to The Showcase of the Immortals.

Jax and Bliss are close friends in real life as highlighted on the reality show Total Divas, and that friendship became part of a storyline on Raw with Nia essentially acting as Alexa's protector against opponents such as Bayley, Sasha Banks and Asuka.

In some ways, their on-screen relationship was reminiscent of the one between Shawn Michaels and Diesel during the 1990s.

Diesel eventually got fed up with Michaels bossing him around, and he went on to become a major singles star, which is a path Jax is now following.

Things came to a head several weeks ago when Nia and the entire WWE Universe became aware of Alexa's true feelings.

A private backstage conversation between Bliss and Mickie James was captured on camera during an episode of Raw, and it featured Alexa making mean-spirited comments regarding Jax's weight and intelligence.

Bliss also declared she was simply using Nia, and that threw Jax into a fit of rage due to the betrayal she experienced. 

Alexa's attitude came back to bite her when Raw general manager Kurt Angle granted Jax a match for the Raw Women's Championship at WrestleMania.

Jax didn't want to wait until Sunday to get her hands on Bliss, though, which led to several instances of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's cousin pursuing the former champion.

Little Miss Bliss more than makes up for her lack of height with mounds of ingenuity, and while that largely allowed her to successfully avoid Jax during the build toward WrestleMania, she had nowhere to hide in New Orleans.

Although Bliss is as savvy as they come, she was clearly at a significant disadvantage at WrestleMania considering the size and strength advantage Jax possessed.

Alexa's willingness to do anything necessary in order to win was an X-factor. However, Nia managed to prevail and become a champion for the first time in WWE.

Jax is finally at the top of her profession after coming close on a number of occasions, and if WWE manages to book her properly in the coming weeks and months, she has a legitimate chance to be one of the most dominant women's champions in WWE history.

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