Bayley and Sasha Banks won the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship last Friday. Who could step up as their first challengers in a title defense?
Last week’s SmackDown saw Bayley and Sasha Banks beat Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship and their second reign is already preparing to be starkly different from their first. Not only because the new heel image for both of them presents a new dynamic different from their babyface Tag Team Title run last year, but because there is a whole new story to be told.
Last year’s inaugural run was all about Bayley and Sasha Banks making those titles feel special and worth chasing. This new run seems to be more focused on continuing to plant the seeds for a feud between the two Superstars at the center of the title, while giving us a simply entertaining reign to boot.
But to have an entertaining reign, tag teams need entertaining feuds and matches. That starts with the champs having interesting, captivating opponents. Thankfully, with the titles being defended on Raw, SmackDown and NXT, there are plenty of teams in the women’s division to choose from. Some of which may have not even officially formed yet, but could based on how deep these women’s divisions are right now.
WWE have not had the time yet to establish Banks and Bayley’s next and first title feud, but let us take some guesses as to who their challengers could be.
Naomi and Bianca Belair
At this point, it just feels inevitable that Naomi and Bianca Belair are bound to work together sooner rather than later the more than people put that thought into the universe.
Naomi herself has already admitted on Chasing Glory (h/t WrestlingInc) that she actually already “put that bug” of a program between herself and Bianca Belair (either as a feud or as a team) in WWE’s ear. Then, WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy Hart said during the FS1 Watch Party for WrestleMania 3 last month (h/t WrestlingInc again) that he wanted to see a team between these WWE Superstars come to fruition.
The WWE Universe is incredibly behind cheering on both Naomi and Bianca Belair in their singles careers, which should suggest that an on air team consisting of them has potential to be the most over pairing on the roster instantly. Having a team so popular and beloved take on the Women’s Tag Team Champions does wonders for those titles.
Not only would such an over babyface team get Bayley and Sasha Banks over as a heel act, but the fans will care enough to be invested into a title program hot enough to last multiple months. Sounds like a win-win for everyone involved.
Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez
Ever since Dakota Kai first turned heel months ago, she’s found herself competing alongside Raquel Gonzalez. More than a tag team, Raquel Gonzalez has essentially served as Kai’s bodyguard – the Diesel to Kai’s Shawn Michaels, if you will – and have tried to reign dominantly over the NXT women’s division. Maybe it’s time that they take a crack at dominating for the Women’s Tag Team Title division as well.
Granted, the idea of a heel vs. heel title feud seems hard to pull off in wrestling, but in this no crowd crowd era of wrestling, WWE seems to have been more lenient towards allowing heel vs. heel feuds and matches to flourish. Last month alone gave us Bayley vs. Charlotte Flair and AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura. Both were heel vs. heel situations and both made for stellar contests.
WWE could pull off the same kind of magic between these two heel teams. Plus, this gives Bayley and Sasha Banks to chance to do something that they never got the chance to do before their first reign as champions ended: defend against tag teams from NXT.
And that is not even the only team they could defend against on the Black and Gold brand.
Tegan Nox and Shotzi Blackheart
Since we are already in NXT, let’s stay down there to acknowledge a dream match. Well, half of a dream match at the very least. For a while now on social media, fans have been salivating at the thought of a Tegan Nox vs. Bayley encounter to the point that even the wrestlers in question had to acknowledge it as recently as yesterday on Twitter.
The past few weeks, Nox has formed of an alliance of sorts with Shotzi Blackheart. Not necessarily to form a tag team, but to take out a common enemy in both the afformentioned Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez. But since they (and Mia Yim) just so happened to beat Gonzalez and Kai (and Candice LeRae) last night at NXT TakeOver: In Your House, there’s hope that maybe they’ll decide to keep this hot streak going as an official tag team.
If they do, there is hope for fans to see Nox vs. Bayley in some form or another. If not a bonafide singles match, then certainly a match-up where Nox teams with Blackheart to face Sasha Banks and Bayley for their titles.
Not to mention, who wouldn’t want to see Sasha Banks vs. Shotzi Blackheart. With this feud, fans get two dream matches for the price of one.