What’s the story?
Naomi’s father, who is a renowned soul/R&B musician from South Florida, confirmed that his daughter would be back in time for WrestleMania which quite incidentally takes place in their hometown of Orlando, Florida. When a fan quizzed him about when Naomi would be back, he tweeted from his band’s official profile- ‘She will be back by WrestleMania’. He also confirmed in a follow-up tweet that her injury was in fact, legitimate and not a work, as many have been speculating.
In case you didn’t know...
Naomi won the Smackdown Women's Championship belt for the first time at Elimination Chamber defeating the former champion Alexa Bliss, only to relinquish it at the very next episode of SmackDown LIVE due to a knee injury.
Daniel Bryan had to reclaim the title as it was established that she would be unable to defend her championship within 30 days, as is custom with any title in WWE. As a result, she was publicly stripped of the title by SmackDown General Manager, Daniel Bryan. A title match followed between Alexa Bliss and Becky Lynch, and Bliss reclaimed the championship for the second time.
The heart of the matter
With Alexa Bliss defending her championship against every available female on the roster at Wrestlemania, there is a great possibility of Naomi returning and picking up the prize from Bliss in the multi-woman match. As Naomi had mentioned herself in her tweet, she’s trying her best to make it to Mania and not giving up at all. Her dad pretty much just confirmed what we all had suspected all long.
She will probably receive a huge ovation from her hometown crowd.
What’s next?
It is unclear whether Naomi returns in a non-wrestling segment before Wrestlemania to announce that she’ll be a part of the fray, or if she directly shows up at Wrestlemania to reclaim her prize.
Author’s take
The 30-day rule is honestly quite bogus considering Chris Jericho hasn’t defended his US Championship in the last 30 days either. The only plausible explanation for stripping Naomi of her championship must be so that she can win it back on a bigger stage, at home. We’re certain Naomi will come back and bask in her long overdue moment of glory.
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