Backlash 2016: Six-pack challenge

The first SmackDown Women’s Champion will be crowned at WWE Backlash Sunday, Sept. 11, when Becky Lynch, Nikki Bella, Natalya, Naomi, Alexa Bliss and Carmella compete in a Six-Pack Challenge. The first Superstar to claim a fall will be declared the victor and new titleholder.

SmackDown Live General Manager Daniel Bryan and Commissioner Shane McMahon unveiled the newly commissioned championship on Aug. 23, only two days after Team Blue received a “Fearless” surprise.

The longest-reigning Divas Champion in history, Nikki Bella returned unannounced at SummerSlam in her first match back since undergoing neck surgery in January. Taking the spot of Eva Marie in a Six-Woman Tag Team Match, Nikki showed she hasn’t lost a step, winning the bout for her team after torching Carmella with a new finishing maneuver.

In a post-match interview, Nikki left no doubt that she has come back with the intention of dominating SmackDown Live, but to become the brand’s top female Superstar, she must contend with a dangerous playing field that barely resembles the one she left in October 2015.

Former Divas Champion Natalya has grown more vicious inside the ring since then, while “Irish Lass Kicker” Becky Lynch — the only member of the “Four Horsewomen” to have never won a title in either NXT or WWE — looks to prove that Bryan and McMahon’s faith wasn’t misplaced when they made her Team Blue’s first female WWE Draft pick.

SmackDown Live’s increasingly stacked Women’s division doesn’t end there. With a new, jaw-dropping entrance to match her vivacious style of combat, Naomi is eager to leave the competition in the “Rear View,” and WWE newcomers Carmella and Alexa Bliss seek to continue the trend of NXT women quickly ascending the ranks in WWE.