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The Revival’s Scott Dawson recently explained in a ‘WWE Now’ interview that Sasha Banks & Bayley’s legacy in the wrestling business will forever be the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles.
Why? Because while The Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection spent most of 2018 competing in relatively meaningless televised matches against The Riott Squad, they were trying to make a difference off-screen by persistently “annoying” Vince McMahon and attempting to persuade him to introduce a female tag division.
In December 2018, they finally got their wish when Vince himself announced on the Christmas Eve episode of Raw that the titles will be launched in 2019. Two months later, Banks & Bayley outlasted five other teams at Elimination Chamber to become the inaugural holders of the new titles.
From that moment on, it looked as though they were set to have a lengthy reign as Champions, or they would at least be allowed the television time to build an interesting storyline to make the titles really mean something. However, after just one successful defence against Nia Jax & Tamina, they were defeated by The IIconics in a Fatal 4-Way match at WrestleMania 35.
There have been all sorts of stories since then about Banks’ future in WWE, with some reports stating that she has requested her release. From an on-screen perspective, this story became even more intriguing during the Superstar Shake-Up, when Bayley was surprisingly drafted to SmackDown Live as a singles competitor.
So, just two months after the Women’s Tag Team titles were introduced, how have things gone so wrong so quickly? Let’s take a look at five theories why WWE decided to split up Banks, who is still on Raw, and new SmackDown recruit Bayley.
#5 Nothing left to achieve after losing the tag titles
It was recently reported by Pro Wrestling Sheet’s Ryan Satin that Sasha Banks and Bayley complained in the locker room and in front of one of their hotel rooms about losing the Women’s Tag Team titles at WrestleMania 35.
He tweeted last week:
If correct, this is obviously not a good look for the inaugural Tag Team champions. Bayley was heavily booed during her SmackDown Live debut on Tuesday, while Banks’ name also received jeers despite the fact that she was not even on the show.
Moving forward, perhaps WWE decided that the duo had gone as far as they could as a babyface tag team, even at this early stage, and that it was time to split them up.
#4 Is Sasha Banks leaving WWE?
Sasha Banks has been typically cryptic about her future with WWE since WrestleMania 35. The following day, she was supposed to feature in a segment with Bayley and Alexa Bliss on Raw, but she did not appear. The next day, she was supposed to be a guest on the Wendy Williams talk show but, once again, she did not appear.
Since then, she has been posting images of herself on holiday on social media, while she teased a possible appearance in the Superstar Shake-Up on Tuesday by tweeting (the post has since been deleted):
“If you only knew, ya marks!” #Raw #SDLive #NXT #NXTUK #Progress #evolve #ShakeUp
Widespread reports over the last few days have suggested that, after requesting her release, “The Boss” has been given time off by WWE to think about her future.
The break-up of The Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection certainly seems to suggest that WWE is making plans for storylines without her.
#3 New tag partner for Bayley
Before Bayley and Sasha Banks put their NXT rivalry aside and became a tag team on the main roster, “The Hugger” was very close friends and tag partners with Carmella in NXT.
The only woman still left on SmackDown Live from the original 2016 WWE Draft, Carmella has become a prominent Superstar on the blue brand, and she has been left without a tag partner following Naomi’s move to Raw on the first night of the Superstar Shake-Up.
It is clear that WWE thinks highly of “The Princess of Staten Island” – she also won the Women’s Battle Royal at WrestleMania 35 – so perhaps they decided to switch Bayley over to SmackDown Live to reunite the former NXT duo (aka Baymella).
Granted, Bayley mentioned on Tuesday how she has moved to SmackDown Live to be a singles competitor, but then she went on to compete in a tag match moments later, so can we really take the “singles competitor” term too seriously?
#2 Sasha Banks title reign
Excluding the injured Nia Jax and Ronda Rousey, the Raw women’s roster currently reads as follows: Becky Lynch (Raw Women’s champion), Alexa Bliss, Alicia Fox, Dana Brooke, Lacey Evans, Naomi, Natalya, Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan, Sasha Banks, Tamina, Zelina Vega.
With big names including Asuka, Bayley, Carmella, Charlotte Flair, Ember Moon and Kairi Sane on SmackDown Live, there appears to be a lot less major competition in the women’s division on Raw following the Superstar Shake-Up.
Alexa Bliss, Naomi and Natalya are all former champions, but do any of them need another title reign? No. Sasha Banks, on the other hand, desperately needs to improve her reputation after failing to defend the Raw Women’s Championship in any of her four title defences in 2016 and 2017.
Perhaps WWE opted to split up The Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection in order to give Banks another opportunity at holding the Raw Women’s title at some point in 2019.
#1 Swerve - they will be back together
One day before moving to SmackDown Live, Bayley teamed with new Raw recruit Naomi to defeat The IIconics in a non-title match on Monday’s episode of Raw. Following the show, she tweeted that The Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection’s “goal of striving to be the best tag team in this division has not changed”.
Then, in yet another plot twist in this story, Sasha Banks did not appear on WWE television this week, while Bayley surprisingly moved to SmackDown Live.
Even though right now it looks as though “The Hugger” will go at it alone on Tuesday nights, WWE has been known to mix the rosters up outside of the Superstar Shake-Up in the past (e.g. Jason Jordan to Raw in 2017, Kevin Owens to SmackDown Live in 2019).
Perhaps Banks will make her return on SmackDown Live in the not-too-distant future and this past 10 days of speculation will all soon be forgotten about!
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