Why Io Shirai Should Be Bayley's Next Challenger for WWE SmackDown Women's Title

Bayley is the longest-reigning SmackDown women's champion in WWE history at over 250 days, and now she has run through nearly every woman on the blue brand roster, it is time for a new challenger to emerge.

It seems like a near-certainty that the person to take the title off Bayley will be Sasha Banks, but since the time isn't yet right to make that happen, someone needs to step up in the interim.

WWE may have teased it slightly last week on NXT when Bayley and Banks successfully defended the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships against Tegan Nox and Shotzi Blackheart.

Following their victory, NXT women's champion Io Shirai ran down and took them both out.

Shirai is still part of the NXT roster since she is a titleholder, but doing a one-off match between her and Bayley at Extreme Rules makes sense for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the champion has no one left to beat on SmackDown.

On Friday's episode, several members of the women's roster were discussing who deserved to face Bayley next. Alexa Bliss, Lacey Evans, Dana Brooke, Tamina and Naomi were among those holding court, but The Role Model has already successfully defended her title against all of them.

In fact, Bayley won a Fatal 5-Way against Evans, Naomi, Tamina and Banks at WrestleMania 36, so the time is right for WWE to bring in a completely fresh opponent for her.

With the exception of a five-day run Charlotte Flair had with the title in October 2019, Bayley has essentially been SmackDown women's champion for 400 days. As such, a retread opponent from the blue brand simply wouldn't be a believable threat to her reign.

Shirai is in a different category since she is in the middle of the best run of her career and considered by many to be the best female wrestler in the world.

The Genius of the Sky beat Flair and Rhea Ripley in the Triple Threat main event of NXT TakeOver: In Your House on June 7 to win the NXT Women's Championship for the first time, and since it is still early in her reign, she isn't currently embroiled in a feud.

Now is the perfect time to allow her to cross over briefly and get NXT some added attention by making appearances on SmackDown as well as the Extreme Rules pay-per-view on July 19.

There would be at least some belief among fans that Shirai could beat Bayley for the title, plus it would be a dream match of sorts between two all-time greats who have yet to face each other.

In order to keep the title on Bayley and protect Shirai, WWE could book the match in any number of ways. The most obvious scenario would see Banks getting involved by either helping the champion win or getting her disqualified.

Either way, it would be a great angle to build further tension between Bayley and The Boss ahead of a potential match at SummerSlam on August 23.

It would also be WWE's way of introducing Shirai to a wider audience and seeing if fans believe she can eventually be one of the top female stars on Raw or SmackDown in the future.

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