WWE: From Golden Role Models to Two-Woman Power Trip

Imagine Sasha Banks and Bayley with all the WWE gold.

Imagine a time where two powerful personalities in wrestling held all the gold. Tag team champions and singles champions, all encompassed in one unit. If you are thinking about the Two-Man Power Trip that tormented the WWE back in 2001 then you are on to something. While that duo of Triple H and Steve Austin is 19 years in the past, WWE could experience a similar situation with Sasha Banks and Bayley. With a larger storyline at play, now would be an intriguing time to revive the duo, but with a bit of style that only Banks, and Bayley would bring to the combination.

This Sunday, Bayley and Banks are involved in two high-profile title matches. Bayley defends her SmackDown women’s title against Nikki Cross, while Banks challenges Asuka for the Raw women’s title. All the while, they hold the WWE women’s championship. It has been quite the month for one half of the Four Horsewomen, and they have made the most out of every moment on television. Walking out of Extreme Rules with all four of the women’s main roster belts would secure their place as the WWE tag team of the year while making them 1 and 1A of the top wrestlers in 2020.

Triple H and Austin successfully gathered the tag team championships to go along with the WWF and Intercontinental belts. They were a feared duo, putting beatings on anyone who stood in their way. While Banks and Bayley have not displayed that type of mean streak, they are every bit as entertaining. Many of the top matches across all three brands have featured either the duo or in individual matches. Their promos, interactions with Michael Cole and even trolling fans on social media all worked to the benefit of elevating their status higher than its been at any point in their career. That is unless they can leave Sunday’s PPV with all the gold.

The match we all want to see

However, this poses the question: what about the Bayley versus Banks feud that the wrestling world has been waiting on since Bayley joined her friends on the main roster? We have all seen the 2015 NXT TakeOver: Respect match where they put on perhaps the best women’s match of all time. The idea of getting that on the main roster has left wrestling fans salivating for years. With both women at their heights it seems like this is the best time to force the split to put them at each other’s throats. Or is it?

COVID-19 has forced WWE, along with the rest of the wrestling world, to produce shows without a crowd in attendance. During this time, it has become clear that the crowd plays an important role in how a match is remembered or praised. The crowd at NXT TakeOver: Respect were hanging on every moment of Banks versus Bayley. That is part of what made that match so special. If they were given another opportunity to go against each other in front of an even larger crowd, there is no telling how high they would soar. Unfortunately, there is no telling when wrestlers will practice their craft in front of crowds again. As numbers throughout the United States continue to surge, that time looks further away.

WWE Creative could still find a way to put all the titles on the Golden Role Models, only to split them up weeks later. That would give everyone what they want, but at the cost of long-term booking; a practice that is not a strength within the WWE. There is no telling what the WWE is planning heading into and coming out of Sunday’s PPV. The only thing that is known is anything involving Banks and Bayley is worth watching. Even if that means getting a better version of the Two-Man Power Trip but with a fresh twist.