Why Nia Jax Being Left out of Elimination Chamber Match Has Tons of WrestleMania Implications

When Kurt Angle announced the field for the first ever Women's Elimination Chamber match, we all expected Nia Jax to get a spot. After all, Jax is off to a hot start in 2018 and it would make sense to have her in the history-making match. However, Jax missed the cut, but for several good reasons.

According to the Wrestling Observer, WWE decided to switch out Jax for Mickie James. This left Jax available to have a singles match with Asuka at the February 25th show. But that contest is far from just an exhibition, if Jax wins, then she will have earned the right to face the RAW Women's Champion to WrestleMania.

But here's where things get interesting. Per The Observer, WWE plans to have Jax face Bliss one on one in New Orleans for the RAW belt. Ths is where the spoilers get introduced. For one, it sounds like Alexa Bliss will retain her championship at Elimination Chamber. Secondly, this means the Asuka will be exercising her right as Royal Rumble winner to chose SmackDown Women's champion, Charlotte, as her WrestleMania target.

If Jax faces Bliss and Asuka challenges Charlotte, then that rules out Ronda Rousey for any sort of WrestleMania title match. Instead, we can look for her to be involved in a tag match against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. Current rumors have Rousey being paired twitch Kurt Angle, Braun Strowman or possibly even The Rock for her first ever WWE match.

For Jax and Bliss, WrestleMania would mark the culmination of a long-term build. Even though WWE has abandoned their conflict on several occasions, the beef between Jax and Bliss dates back to this fall. However, due to the arrival of Asuka, the building of the Women's Royal Rumble and the debut of Ronda Rousey put their story on the back burner for months at a time. But a WrestleMania rivalry between them would be a fun narrative to watch and an actual match is guaranteed to entertain.

If Asuka is destined to choose Flair, then we can deduce they she'd likely move to Smackdown to do so. Seeing that she's been undefeated since arriving in WWE, it's hard to imagine Asuka not becoming SmackDown Women's Champion at WrestleMania. After all, if anyone is going to kill her streak, it's going to be Ronda Rousey.