What’s the story?
It seems like the WWE may have been foreshadowing a Sasha Banks heel turn on Bayley last night on WWE Fastlane. This would set up a match-up between the pair at WrestleMania 33, in Orlando, for the WWE Women’s Championship.
In case you didn’t know...
Last night at WWE Fastlane, Sasha Banks scored a win over Nia Jaxx, while Bayley retained her Title against Charlotte and ended Charlotte’s PPV winning streak in underwhelming fashion. Sasha and Bayley then appeared together on Raw Talk after Fastlane and seemed to be overly friendly and proud of each other.
Sasha and Bayley joined the panel together, wearing matching sweaters and joking that they were twins. Bayley said that the title meant a lot to her and she spoke about ending Charlotte’s PPV streak. Bayley continued saying that it was unbelievable to think that she was not even on the card for WrestleMania last year and this year, she will be walking into the event as the Raw Women’s Champion.
Both Sasha and Bayley teared up when Sasha recalled that they had started at NXT together and Bayley’s first match was against Sasha. ‘The Boss’ concluded by saying that Bayley deserved to walk into WrestleMania as the Women’s Champion. After the duo left Jerry Lawler said that he had his reservations about their friendship.
The King said that he did not buy into the entire friends being happy for each other farce and said, “All women secretly despise each other.”
The heart of the matter
Had Jerry Lawler not hit you over the head with it, any up-to-date wrestling fan would have seen that the WWE was planting seeds for Sasha’s heel turn on Bayley. The match was speculated to take place at WrestleMania about 6 months ago, but lately, most have been reporting that the Raw women would be involved in a fatal 4-way match, featuring Charlotte.
Nia Jaxx, Sasha Banks and Bayley, with the Sasha heel turn expected after ‘Mania. However, based on last night’s booking, it appears that the WWE may be bringing the match forward and have returned to the original plan to have Sasha vs. Bayley at WrestleMania, leaving Charlotte and Nia Jaxx out in the cold for WrestleMania.
There is also speculation that the WWE only opted to go down that path on the day of the PPV, with original plans slated to be Nia Jaxx going over Sasha and Charlotte vs. Bayley going to a non-finish.
It’s highly unlikely that the original plans called for Charlotte to lose her heavily hyped up unbeaten streak on a transitional B level PPV, therefore, there certainly is merit to the speculation that a late decision has been made to move away from the Fatal-4-Way and begin the Sasha vs. Bayley program sooner than planned.
What’s next?
Raw takes place on Monday, with lots of work to do. Despite having a projected 16 match card, WrestleMania currently only has one match officially announced – that being Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar, now officially for the WWE Universal Title.
This episode will present the most likely opportunity for Sasha to turn so that they have three solid weeks to build to the match and tell the story. Turning any later reduces the time to establish the turn.
The WWE could have a triple threat between Sasha, Nia and Charlotte, which Sasha could win, prior to the turn. However, I feel it is not needed and that Sasha and Bayley could simply tag up, win their match and Sasha could turn after the match.
Sportkeeda’s take
I am often told by my sources that Vince McMahon looks at WrestleMania like the Star Wars script (a real expression used within the WWE). If information gets out, he hates it and decides to change things. We saw this when fans chanted “Un-der-taker” at John Cena when he returned, as a Undertaker vs Cena match had been speculated on the dirt sheets for several months, prompting Vince McMahon to change it.
The rushed nature of Charlotte’s streak ending, the surprise loss of Nia and the comments made by Jerry Lawler all point to a change of direction by the company. If they go down to route of Sasha vs Bayley, WWE are likely to say that Sasha assisted Bayley as she feels like she is easier to beat than Charlotte, something Stephanie McMahon has alluded to previously. Unfortunately, this is another part of the plot which doesn’t make sense in reality, as Sasha has many victories over Charlotte, but, she lost two very high profile matches to Bayley on NXT Takeover shows, with the Brooklyn encounter being a match of the year contender in 2015.
Therefore, the fact that Sasha has a better win/loss record against Charlotte, makes her motivations totally illogical. However, logic has never stopped WWE doing anything and re-writing history is what the WWE do with great regularity.
This women’s division has failed to do the right things and right time since it’s inception, with Sasha not winning the Title at WrestleMania 32 or Hell in the Cell and Bayley not winning the Title and ending Charlotte’s streak simultaneously on a big PPV. Had Bayley beaten Charlotte at the Royal Rumble, winning her first Title and ending the streak infront of 60,000 before moving onto a mega-feud with Sasha, that would have been good booking.
However, if Sasha turns tonight, that will mean the WWE will be continuing down the route that has hurt this division throughout, illogically changing course. But, after the sewing all seeds the last night, it would now be less logical for Sasha not to turn tonight. The damage was done when they beat Charlotte, by wasting something that had been built and focused on for 18 months, in highly anti-climactic fashion.
