WWE WrestleMania 36: It looks like Sasha Banks vs. Bayley won’t happen

Bayley vs. Sasha Banks has been the ideal SmackDown Women’s Championship match at WWE WrestleMania 36, but it looks like we won’t be getting a singles match for the title this year.

The SmackDown Women’s Championship has been one of the most prestigious titles in all of wrestling over the years, reaching great heights in the reigns of Becky Lynch and Bayley in recent years. So in an ideal world, the title would be defended in a singles match at WWE WrestleMania 36 this year, as the WWE Championship, Universal Championship, and Raw Women’s Championship will all be defended in marquee one-on-one matches.

Unfortunately, it appears WWE has a Six-Pack Challenge planned for the SmackDown Women’s Title at the Show of Shows this year.

Per a source close to talkSPORT’s Alex McCarthy, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Naomi, Lacey Evans, and Carmella are the five names planned for the match. It’s unclear who the sixth woman would be in this reported Six-Pack Challenge for the title.

The majority of wrestling fans have been hoping for Sasha Banks and Bayley to add another chapter to their story at WrestleMania. Although they’ve had matches on Raw and have been associated with each other on SmackDown as a team after winning the Women’s Tag Titles early in 2019, they’ve never had a Pay Per View match outside of NXT. In NXT, Bayley and Banks had two of the greatest matches in history at TakeOver Specials.

However, McCarthy’s source believes the duo would prefer to have their big PPV match at a later date. McCarthy brought up past comments Sasha and Bayley made to him, stating they didn’t feel they would have sufficient time to tell their story on a WrestleMania card.

McCarthy adds that Bayley vs. Banks was the original plan for WrestleMania, but Banks’s recent injury, which cost her an appearance in the Royal Rumble, delayed the build to this dream match on The Grandest Stage of Them All.

It would be preferable for the SmackDown Women’s Championship to still be a singles match at WrestleMania, but because all of the women mentioned in the currently rumored match have been a part of the story around the title, WWE may want to put them all in the match as a reward. Hopefully, the match won’t be relegated to the WrestleMania pre-show, though, since WWE has been known to do that for title matches with multiple opponents.

Fans will be disappointed to see that Sasha vs. Bayley is no longer the plan for the title because it would be a “Match of the Night” dream match at ‘Mania – or any card for that matter. However, if Banks and Bayley want to have their big match at a later date and can get that wish, then maybe it will all work out in the long run. Patience is a virtue, and if they want to hold off the match for, say, SummerSlam, it seems like they also value having time to tell the best story possible.

Of course, since things in wrestling change all the time, don’t rule out Bayley vs. Banks still happening for the title at WWE WrestleMania 36. You never know for sure!