“I smell war… and I'm game” these words, laid out over a Dakota Kai Instagram story that also featured a promotional poster for WWE's Clash at the Castle, pretty well qualifies the relationship between the invading team of Bayley, Kai, and Iyo Sky and Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss, and Asuka, the babyface trio looking to keep RAW right and proper. Neither team particularly likes the other, and they aren't going to suddenly let bygones be bygones anytime soon.

Now granted, one has to wonder if a three-on-three war between the two teams was initially Triple H and company's plan, as Becky Lynch originally returned to the ring to back up Belair after her post-match RAW Women's Championship battle, but after suffering a separated shoulder – a shoot injury that was further Pillman-ized for dramatic effect on the following RAW – her inclusion in the story was ended for the time being. Asuka was feuding with Lynch at the time, and after completing her post-Fiend therapy, Bliss would tell anyone who cared to listen that she wanted to return to the championship picture, leading to questions about their status as a tag team.

And yet, here we are; Asuka and Bliss are a team, they have a spot in the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship Tournament with a match booked for RAW against Nikki ASH and Doudrop to decide on which team makes it to the semi-finals, and will eventually have to deal with Kai and Sky as soon as Round 2. Will the team be able to put it all together on the fly and become WWE's next great Women's Tag Team? Or will they struggle to mesh and find themselves overpowered by a Kai-Sky team looking to make waves in a much deeper RAW talent pool?

Can Alexa Bliss and Asuka overcome the odds to become a successful WWE team?

According to Cagematch, Asuka and Alexa Bliss have shared the ring on 73 occasions. They first wrestled all the way back in 2015, when they took part in a tag team bout that saw Carmella and Asuka defeat Bliss and the performer eventually known as Tenille Dashwood in NXT, and will take part in their 74th match on RAW, where the duo will team up to wrestle Nikki ASH – Bliss' former tag team partner – and Doudrop.

Article Continues Below
More WWE News
IMAGE: WWE Superstar R-Truth looking mad/annoyed in center, WWE Superstar John Cena on left side, WWE Superstar Cody Rhodes on right side, Intuit Dome (home arena of the Los Angeles Clippers and host of WWE Money in the Bank) in background
Even MLB was surprised to see R-Truth return at WWE Money in the BankJordan Llanes ·
R-Truth with the Money in the Bank logo as the background.
R-Truth shockingly returns at WWE Money in the Bank to cost John CenaMatty Breisch ·
Dominik Mysterio during the Men’s Royal Rumble match during the WWE Royal Rumble at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Dominik Mysterio adds shocking new match to WWE Money in the Bank at Worlds CollideMatty Breisch ·
WWE 2025 Money in the Bank logo and Superstars featured on the match card, such as John Cena, Logan Paul, Rhea Ripley, Seth Rollins, and Cody Rhodes.
WWE Money in the Bank 2025: March card and bold predictionsAndrew Korpan ·
John Cena fires up the crowd during the WWE Fastlane pro wrestling event Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
John Cena shockingly makes light of R-Truth’s WWE exitMatty Breisch ·
Ric Flair exclaims his trademark WOOO at his Last Match press conference at the Fairgrounds in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, June 23, 2022. Ric Flair Last Match Press Conference
WWE news: Ric Flair confirms second cancer diagnosis in 3 yearsBurtland Dixon ·

Of those 73 matches, 23 came in one-on-one solo action, 14 can in multi-person bouts, and 36 came in tag team action. And yet, of these 36 tag matches, only four came with Bliss ad Asuka on the same side of the vs. symbol. Not only that but of the four matches in question, only one came before July of 2022, which wasn't quite when the idea of Bayley, Dakota Kai, and Iyo Sky came into being – as, according to Kai, she wasn't approached about a SummerSlam return until the “last minute” – but was close enough to RAW‘s female inflection point to make a union between the two performers believable.

But hey, you know what they say about wrestling, sports, or anything, really – it's not always about how you get to the show but what you do once you arrive. Even if the plan was originally to have Belair, Lynch, and maybe a third woman compete with Bayley, Kai, and Sky for the foreseeable future, Bliss and Asuka are more than capable of picking up the slack, as the duo are both previous champions and can thus hold their own against pretty much anyone else on the RAW roster. This, understandably, drew the attention of Bayley, who tried to shut down the duo plus their leader Bianca Belair on RAW Talk, as you can read below thanks to a transcription from Sportskeeda.

“Yeah, I'll wait, okay? We have waited long enough, okay? So don't tell me to wait anymore, don't tell Iyo Sky to wait, don't tell Dakota to wait because we are done waiting and we cannot wait till Clash at The Castle because we're going to make all three of them pay for what they've done to this division. It's ours now and so are those tag team titles.”

Oof, Belair, Asuka, and Bliss clearly have gotten under Bayley's skin.

Will Asuka and Alexa Bliss ultimately pull out the win over Nikki ASH and Doudrop on RAW? Probably, yeah; the duo are being pushed far harder than ASH and Doudrop and thus will likely earn a match against Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky unless something fishy happens like outside interference. But after that, when the team has to take on Kai and Sky, who have already secured their spots in the second round of the tournament, it is where things will incredibly interesting both for the tournament and for the WWE Universe for the foreseeable future.