Tamina Has The Most Confusing Career In WWE History
Highlights
- Tamina's WWE career has been marked by inconsistency and missed opportunities, despite her long tenure with the company.
- It took Tamina three years to find her footing in WWE, with her standout moment being when she became the bodyguard for Divas Champion AJ Lee.
- Tamina finally achieved her first title win in WWE in 2021, teaming up with Natalya to become the Women's Tag Team Champions, but injuries have hindered her progress throughout her career.
Out of all the wrestlers on the current WWE roster, Tamina is one of the longest-tenured in the whole company. She signed to the promotion all the way back in 2010, and whilst many wrestlers have come and gone over the years with firings, releases, and whatnot, Tamina has stayed with the promotion for the last 13 years straight. In that time though, it is hard to really make heads or tails of what her WWE career has consisted of. It has been so up and down, stop-start, and underwhelming that it is confusing to come to a conclusion about her run as a whole. Even though she is now a veteran, Tamina has never been a top star in the division, even though she has been involved in a variety of different factions, tag teams, and more.
It Took Tamina Three Years To Find Her Feet In WWE
A Strong WWE Debut Didn’t Mean Much For Tamina
- Tamina debuted in WWE alongside The Usos in 2010
- In 2013, Tamina became the heavy for AJ Lee
Tamina made her WWE debut alongside The Usos, targeting the Hart Dynasty and making an impact upon her debut. Despite debuting during the “Divas” era, Tamina was presented as more of a dominant competitor and badass, which was unique. This didn’t see much success for her though, as both she and The Usos quickly got lost in the shuffle on the WWE main roster. The two acts would soon go their separate ways, and Tamina was thrown into a romance storyline with Santino Marella. Already, a potential dominant heel in the division became yet another “Diva” who fell in love with a male superstar.
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They might be in different companies now, but during their time in WWE, Liv Morgan and CJ Perry became great friends outside the ring.Things weren’t going well for Tamina, but she was given a fresh start on SmackDown in 2011, being repackaged as a heel once again. Unfortunately for her, this didn’t change much. Tamina was just another member of the roster, losing a lot of the time in the women’s division and competing in mostly short matches. She may have gotten a Divas Title shot here and there, but these were fleeting challenges, and she fell back into obscurity. It wasn’t until 2013 when things finally started developing for Tamina.
WWE Matches | 650 |
|---|---|
Wins | 120 (18.8%) |
Losses | 526 (80.6%) |
Draws | 4 (0.6%) |
Tamina became the bodyguard of the top heel in the division, Divas Champion AJ Lee. This sort of role is what Tamina should’ve had from the start, but better late than never. She helped Lee through her matches, keeping the belt around her waist, and even stepped up against Paige during AJ Lee’s absence, becoming a legit title contender in her own right for the first time.
It Took Over A Decade For Tamina To Become A Champion In WWE
Tamina & Natalya Became WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions
- Tamina has spent many years wandering around the WWE lower card
- WWE Fans finally got behind Tamina in 2021
Tamina’s next notable step in WWE came when she joined forces with Naomi and Sasha Banks to form Team B.A.D. as WWE attempted to revolutionize the women’s division on the main roster. The act was pretty good, and they had some variety amongst their ranks, but they failed to truly make much of an impact as a group. Banks would even leave after a few months and feuded with Naomi and Tamina. Either way, Tamina was presented a little better.
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AJ Lee & CM Punk have been married for a long time, but how did these former WWE wrestlers get together in a romantic sense?Throughout the rest of the 2010s, Tamina floated around, not doing too much. She would join forces with Lana for some time, with Lana as her manager in an act which didn’t go anywhere. She competed for the SmackDown Women’s Championship on occasions, but no one ever took her seriously, and she also competed in Royal Rumble and Money in the Bank ladder matches too. Eventually, Tamina and Nia Jax came together to form a team, and became part of the women’s tag team division.
Teaming with the likes of Jax and later Natalya, fans did actually start to buy into Tamina a little, and even rooted for her to win Women’s Tag Team Title gold. It may have taken a decade, but by the time 2021 rolled around, fans wanted to see her win a title, and she finally did alongside Natalya, marking her first and only belt in WWE (not counting the 24/7 Championship).
Tamina Has Missed Years Through Injuries
WWE May Never Have Pushed Tamina Due To Being Injury Prone
- Tamina has gone through months and even a full year without appearing on WWE TV
- Tamina is still under WWE contract but spent most of 2023 out of action
Fans would be forgiven over the years if they had forgotten at times that Tamina was even on the roster. She has been one of the more injury prone names, and has had so many absences over the years (whether that be injury or creative issues) which has perhaps stopped her from ever forming any sort of momentum.
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Charlotte Flair suffered a knee injury on a recent SmackDown, but it sadly wasn't the first injury she has had to deal with during her WWE career.Tamina had a few months of absence in 2012, was out for an entire year between 2014 and 2015, a year between 2016 and 2017, nine months in 2018, six months in 2019, and she has been out through the most of 2023 too. Even though it has been over a decade since her debut, she has missed so much time, been booked bizarrely at times, and has had such an inconsistent run in WWE.
