Naomi relinquishes the SmackDown Women’s Championship

Naomi was forced to relinquish the SmackDown Women’s Championship on Tuesday night, and the brand already has a new champion.

While equating the situation to when he had to give up the WWE Championship, Daniel Bryan claimed in SmackDown’s opening segment that Naomi wouldn’t be able to defend the title within 30 days due to an injury and asked her to vacate it.

Naomi suffered a knee injury at Elimination Chamber while doing a split-legged moonsault at the finish of her title win against Alexa Bliss, but Dave Meltzer reports that the injury is not believed to be that serious. She wouldn’t have been able to wrestle this week but it is considered a minor injury by wrestling standards.

Naomi eventually relinquished the title after mentioning that she could be losing her opportunity to wrestle at WrestleMania as well.

Bliss then came out to demand that Bryan give her the title back, which led to him announcing Bliss vs. Becky Lynch on SmackDown to determine a new champion. Bliss won that match and regained the title after using underhanded tactics.