Following the reintroduction of the WWE brand split and subsequent draft on July 19, 2016, then-WWE Women's Champion Charlotte was drafted to Raw, leaving SmackDown without a women's championship. Immediately following SummerSlam on the August 23, 2016, episode of SmackDown, SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon and general managerDaniel Bryan unveiled the SmackDown Women's Championship. A six-pack elimination challenge was then scheduled for Backlash on September 11, 2016, to determine the inaugural champion. The six women who competed at SummerSlam in the six-woman tag team match were chosen for the six-pack challenge: Alexa Bliss, Becky Lynch, Carmella, Naomi, Natalya, and Nikki Bella. Lynch became the inaugural champion when she last eliminated Carmella. The NXT Women's Championship would become WWE's third main women's title when the NXT brand, formerly the promotion's developmental territory, became WWE's third major brand in September 2019 when it was moved to the USA Network. The championship belt design is physically identical to the Raw Women's Championship with the only difference being that the background of the center plate and the default side plates' globes are blue to symbolize its exclusivity to SmackDown. In what has become a prominent feature of the majority of WWE's championship belts, the side plates can be customized with the champion's logo. During Naomi's second reign, strips of multi interchanging colored LED lights were placed around the outline of the WWE logo and the outline of the belt to go with her "glow" gimmick. The title headlined a pay-per-view event for the first time at in December 2018, where Becky Lynch defended it in a triple threatTables, Ladders, and Chairs match against Charlotte Flair and Asuka, which Asuka won; this was also the first women's TLC triple threat match. The title was then on the line in a winner takes all triple threat match in the main event of WrestleMania 35 in April 2019, where Flair defended the title against Raw Women's ChampionRonda Rousey and Lynch, who won the match. This was the first women's match to main event a WrestleMania – WWE's flagship event. At Super ShowDown in February 2020, the title became the first women's championship to be defended in Saudi Arabia, where Bayley retained the title over Naomi; this was only the second women's match contested in the country.
Inaugural championship match
Reigns
As of ,, there have been 17 reigns between 8 champions and 1 vacancy. Charlotte Flair has the most reigns at five. Bayley's current reign is longest singular reign at + days, while Flair's fourth reign is the shortest at 4 minutes and 55 seconds due to Bayley cashing in her Money in the Bank contract on Flair, who had just won the title from Becky Lynch. Bayley also has the longest combined reign at + days. Asuka is the oldest champion, having won the title at 37, while Alexa Bliss is the youngest when she first won it at 25. Bayley is the current champion in her second reign. She won the title by defeating previous champion Charlotte Flair on the October 11, 2019 episode of Friday Night SmackDown in Las Vegas, Nevada.
