Sasha Banks and Bayley officially rule WWE now
Sasha Banks and Bayley have been killing it on all three WWE brands, and now they officially reign supreme.
The Two-Woman Power Trip, Sasha Banks and Bayley, along with Asuka, have been the MVPs of WWE over the past couple of months. BaySha have held the Women’s Tag Titles, defending them across all three brands since their title victory at Backlash. Bayley, as the Role Model of the company, continues to be an incredible SmackDown Women’s Champion, working with Nikki Cross in a great rivalry.
And now Sasha Banks is a five-time WWE Raw Women’s Champion.
It seemed like Banks won the title at Extreme Rules in a highly-anticipated match with Asuka, as The Empress’ mist backfired, hitting the ref. That enabled Bayley to take off the ref’s shirt and count to three, gifting her best friend the Raw Women’s Title. And in the process, making it seem like a possible feud over the SmackDown Women’s Title, perhaps at SummerSlam, wouldn’t happen after all.
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Stephanie McMahon had other ideas, announcing during that following Raw that Asuka and Sasha would need to have a rematch to decide the true champion on July 27.
The match on the July 27 episode of Raw shockingly didn’t main event, and the in-ring action was, as at Extreme Rules, classic. Asuka and Sasha are two of the best technical wrestlers on the planet, and their work was sublime. But because of the nerves and the ability to build on more storytelling, their match had even more layers to it.
In the end, though, we didn’t get a satisfying finish either. We did, though, get something unforgettable. During the match, Bayley, to write the exiting Kairi Sane off television, attacked Asuka’s tag team partner viciously backstage. Asuka had the advantage at that point in the match, but, concerned, she was torn between continuing to wrestle Sasha or save her friend.
Asuka chose her friend over the Raw Women’s Championship.
It was a poignant move to put friendship over personal gain, but, yes, it cost her the title. Asuka lost by count-out, and Sasha Banks became a five-time Raw Women’s Champion.
For weeks, wrestling fans have debated whether Sasha and Bayley should break up or if WWE should continue to get everything they can out of his historic run of greatness. Sasha and Bayley have been on another level on both brands, and, now, WWE are going all in with them.
They are their biggest stars right now without Becky Lynch, Roman Reigns, and Charlotte Flair on television. There is no question that Sasha and Bayley are on top, so by having them on all three brands as champions, they are doing their best to keep the ratings up. It makes sense from a business perspective.
But the concern is how this affects other women. Given the emerging rivalry between Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax and the hopeful return of Sonya Deville vs. Mandy Rose, the women’s division should be fine. Bianca Belair, Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, the IIconics, Nikki Cross, Alexa Bliss, Naomi, Lacey Evans, and more are getting some time, too, so it’s more on WWE than anything else.
Next. 5 women in WWE who are having a breakout year. dark
We’ll have more to analyze and more questions to answer, but, for now, enjoy Sasha Banks and Bayley holding all the gold and all the storyline drama it brings. You don’t get to see runs like this too often in your lifetime as a wrestling fan.