WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Alexa Bliss and Tatum Paxley defend the titles against B-Fab and Michin on the Oct. 23 episode of SmackDown. The match was announced during the Oct. 16 SmackDown at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California. Bliss and Paxley won the gold from Fatal Influence on Oct. 9, so the bout marks the first defense. Five factors make the assignment a difficult one for the champions.
Two six-woman tag team matches in 2026 went the way of B-Fab and Michin. At Saturday Night’s Main Event on May 23 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the duo teamed with Jade Cargill to beat Bliss, Charlotte Flair, and Rhea Ripley. Cargill took out Bliss and Flair, then pinned Ripley with Jaded.
The same trio beat Bliss, Flair, and Paxley at Sunday Night’s Main Event on Sept. 6 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Late in the match, B-Fab booted Paxley into Flair to break up a pair of Figure Eight attempts. Cargill hit Flair with Jaded moments later for the pin.
B-Fab and Michin have had outside help throughout the feud. On the May 15 SmackDown, Cargill pulled Bliss out of the ring during a pin attempt, which cost the challengers the match by disqualification. Bliss lost a July 10 singles match to the challengers’ ally. Michin and B-Fab then held Flair back while Cargill used a steel chair on Bliss’s arm.
The latest attack came on Oct. 9 at the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana. Cargill jumped Flair backstage before a scheduled title shot alongside Paxley against Fatal Influence. Bliss took the open spot, and the new pairing won the titles anyway. Cargill is not part of the Oct. 23 match, though B-Fab and Michin have relied on that backup for months.
Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid won the titles from Paige and Brie Bella at Saturday Night’s Main Event on July 18 at Madison Square Garden. Paige had Reid trapped in a victory roll when Jacy Jayne reached in and reversed the pin for the three-count. The reign ended on Oct. 9, when Bliss hit Reid with Sister Abigail and Paxley pinned Henley with Cemetery Drive. Paxley also took the NXT Women’s Championship from Jayne at Halloween Havoc on Oct. 25, 2025. The belt went back to Jayne at Gold Rush on Nov. 18.
Henley, Reid, and Jayne interrupted Bliss and Paxley in the ring on the Oct. 16 SmackDown. Jayne mocked the celebration speeches and claimed the friendship with Bliss was only convenient for Flair. Henley and Reid followed with claims that Flair did not care about the champions and found Paxley strange. Bliss and Paxley knocked Henley and Reid out of the ring, attacked Jayne, and left before Fatal Influence could regroup.
Paxley held the NXT Women’s North American Championship from March 7 to June 9, 2026, before moving to SmackDown. A main roster debut followed on Aug. 7, with a dive off the top rope onto B-Fab and Michin that helped Flair beat Cargill. Paxley’s first SmackDown match came on Aug. 28 and ended with a Cemetery Drive pin on Michin.
The champions became a team out of necessity on Oct. 9. B-Fab and Michin have worked together far longer, dating to a February 2025 alignment after B-Fab split from The Street Profits. The two sided with Cargill, then the Women’s Champion, on March 20, 2026, and helped beat down Ripley on SmackDown.
Flair has stood with Bliss throughout the feud, and the two previously held the Women’s Tag Team Championship. The Queen did not appear on the Oct. 16 SmackDown. In the ring that night, Bliss said Flair had wanted a spot in the title match and praised the friendship. Paxley mentioned a special gift for Flair and whispered the details to Bliss. The Oct. 9 victory gave Bliss a fifth reign with the tag belts and Paxley a first main roster title.
Bliss and Paxley earned these titles the hard way. The pair overcame a backstage ambush on Flair, a last-minute partner change, and a Fatal Influence team that cheated to win the belts in July. Lafayette proved the champions can win under pressure. Oct. 23 brings a tougher problem.
B-Fab and Michin are no fluke. The duo has beaten Bliss twice in six-woman matches, and Cargill keeps turning up at the worst possible moments. Fatal Influence is circling, and Flair was nowhere in sight on Oct. 16. Without Flair, the champions have no backup if Cargill shows up at ringside. A clean, fast victory is the safest path to keeping the gold.
Paxley spent years grinding in NXT for a shot like this. Dropping the gold in the first defense would be a gut punch. Bliss has five reigns to lean on, and that know-how matters most in a fight like this one. The champions should survive, but nothing about this defense is easy.
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