Bayley announced on Smackdown last night that she is now a single’s Superstar. According to a report from Wrestling Observer Radio, however, the plan had always been to split up the Boss N Hug Connection after WrestleMania regardless of whether Sasha Banks was still an active performer with the company or not.
“It was not only that they were losing the championships that they found out on Sunday but they were told they were splitting up the team,” Dave Meltzer said.
Sasha Banks is not currently scheduled for upcoming TV appearances. WWE company has reportedly given her a couple of weeks to reconsider evaluate her future. They are optimistic she will return by the next pay-per-view, Money in the Bank.
The Boss N Hug Connection would only hold the WWE Women’s Tag Team championships for a total of 49 days. They won the titles at the Elimination Chamber PPV in February and then dropped them to the Iiconics at WrestleMania 35.
The Boss N Hug Connection defended the titles just once on WWE programming, defeating Nia Jax & Tamina at the Fastlane PPV. Including dark matches and house show results, however, Sasha Banks & Bayley defended the titles 14x within their 49-day reign as champions.
Sasha Banks tweeted a message to ‘marks’ on Monday after a chaotic week of reports and speculation about her future with WWE.
For a full recap of all the news about Sasha Banks last week, check out our roundup feature from over the weekend, What’s Going On With Sasha Banks?
Ahead of tonight’s Superstar Shakeup, Sasha Banks tweeted a message stating, “If you only knew, ya marks!” The former Women’s Tag Team Champion tagged WWE brands Raw, SmackDown Live, NXT, NXT UK as well as independent promotions Progress and Evolve.
She included the lips and peach emoji, which has often been used to express the phrase, “Kiss my *ss.”
It will be interesting to where Sasha Banks lands after the Superstar Shakeup. More specifically, whether or not she remains on the same brand as Boss ‘n Hug tag team partner Bayley.
Late last week, Raw and SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch called out Sasha Banks on Twitter. After an abrupt ending to Sasha and Bayley’s title reign, Becky Lynch’s latest challenge is a sign Sasha Banks could be shifting back to singles competition.
Sasha Banks has been a hot topic of conversation in the wrestling world this past week. Since WrestleMania, there has been a lot of news about her future with WWE. In an effort to provide some clarity, we’ve compiled this timeline of events regarding Sasha Banks’ week.
Sasha Banks’ WrestleMania Loss
Sasha Banks and Bayley lost the Women’s Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania. They dropped the titles to the IIconics in a fatal 4-way match. This was surprising on a few levels. Banks and Bayley vowed to be fighting champions by defending the titles on Raw, SmackDown and NXT.
As cornerstones of WWE’s Women’s Evolution emphasizing wrestling ability and athleticism, Sasha and Bayley were an appropriate pick to legitimize the new titles. Their reign only lasted 49 days and the new champions represent the ‘Diva’ archetype of yesteryear.
Monday Fallout
On Monday, Sasha Banks posted a few introspective tweets questioning what she’d do differently if she could “start again.”
“There is something about the way life happens today that makes it hard to look ahead,” Banks wrote. “There are things that make it difficult to laugh; difficult to live the way you want. There are things that make it almost impossible to trust where you are, or to believe in where you want to be. You look around and life is happening way too fast. Sometimes it feels like the moments are gone. Everything happens all at once and right away.”
She continued, “We’re marching towards a destiny we cannot understand, towards the kingdom of convenient. Then one day you look up and you can’t find the meaning. Your crisis of purpose and passion is acting up, but they tell you that that’s supposed to be normal. Well… I don’t want normal, I want magic; cause that’s the place that feels like home to me. That’s the place where I remember what dreams look like, where meaning is effortless, and purpose is simple. That’s the place where love still matters. I want that feeling of coming home again. I want to feel like myself….. I want that magic.”
— Mercedes Moné Varnado (@MercedesVarnado) April 8, 2019
Dave Meltzer wrote in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, “She missed Raw on Monday and had been scheduled.”
Sasha Banks Misses Scheduled TV Appearance
Sasha Banks missed a scheduled appearance on the Wendy Williams Show on Tuesday. She did not appear. Page Six reported that the last-minute cancellation left Wendy and her staff fuming.
“She won’t be booked again,” an insider told Page Six. “She didn’t give a real reason for canceling, and she did it only hours before the show tapes, so production was left scrambling to fill her spot.”
Banks apologized on Twitter for missing the appearance due to “personal reasons.”
Due to personal reasons, I had to pull out of my appearance today on @WendyWilliams . Sorry to everyone who was looking forward to it. Hopefully the opportunity will be there again later. #IfYouOnlyKnew
— Mercedes Moné Varnado (@MercedesVarnado) April 9, 2019
Wendy Williams commented on the situation on-air. She told viewers Sasha Banks had a “family emergency” and is welcome back in the future.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful commented on the situation. “Whatever the situation surrounding Sasha Banks, many on the SmackDown crew had no idea that she’d even missed her morning obligation (despite her tweeting about it), let alone were clued in about what is going on.”
Sasha Banks Tries To Quit WWE?
This week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter shed new light on the situation. Dave Meltzer wrote, “According to one person high up, Banks tried to quit over the weekend, as she felt blindsided when finding out at the last minute that they were taking the tag team titles from her and Bayley.”
Meltzer noted that WWE taking the titles of her and Bayley was a big factor in Sasha’s hiatus from WWE. “Basically she has been given a few weeks to think things out before sticking to a choice the company believes may have been made as a rash decision. Anyway, that’s been largely confirmed by others but probably will be denied very quickly.”
Dominican Republic Vacation
Sasha Banks and her husband were spotted vacationing in the Dominican Republic with Kalisto and his wife.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwH1dCDDqp5
Making A Scene At WrestleMania?
Sasha Banks and Bayley reportedly made their unhappiness known at backstage at WrestleMania.
Mikaze, a WWE costume designer and husband of Sasha Banks, posted an inspirational message on social media about life’s big decisions. Maybe it’s completely unrelated to Sasha Banks’ situation, but it seems relevant.
While Sasha Banks has been pretty silent on social media since the reports of her trying to quit WWE came out, her husband has now come forward with a very interesting message.
Sasha’s husband Sarath Ton, also known as Kid Mikaze who is currently working for WWE as a costume designer recently made a tweet, seemingly featuring an inspiration message.
In the tweet as seen below, he talks about how sometimes in
life passion and pleasure intersect with each and you have to make choices
which people don’t fully understand:
— Sarath a.k.a Mikaze / Mr. Castle (@IamMikaze) April 12, 2019
While this tweet could very well be him sharing his thoughts
independently, the timing for the statement forces us to wonder if this is his
response to the recent controversy surrounding Banks.
As we noted before, Sasha Banks missed a couple of her scheduled appearance after WrestleMania including a last-minute cancelation to The Wendy Williams Show.
While the show makers claimed that she was unable to make an appearance due to a family emergency, later it was revealed that Sasha had actually tried to quit WWE sometime over the WrestleMania weekend.
The former Women’s Championship was upset over the decision
of taking the Women’s Tag titles off her and partner Bayley and she felt
blindsided by this call which she was made aware of at the last minute.
WWE officials thought that she may have made a rash decision
so they have given her some time to reconsider her decision and we’re still
waiting for the Boss to respond to these reports.
We noted before how Sasha Banks tried to quit WWE over the WrestleMania weekend, though latest update on the situation reveals that this wasn’t the only headache she gave the WWE Officials during the week.
According to Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet, Sasha, along with her tag team partner Bayley caused a number of scenes backstage and at their hotel during the night.
This duo reportedly showed their frustration with the decision to take the Women’s Tag titles off them by laying on the floor in the locker room on Sunday and being vocal about their unhappiness in the hotel lobby:
As we noted before, Sasha Banks and Bayley lost the Women’s
Tag Team Championship to the IIconics during WrestleMania in a fatal four-way
match.
The Boss was made aware of this change at the last minute.
Banks felt blindsided by the decision since she was under the impression that
they will have a long reign with the newly introduced belts.
As a result, Sasha tried to quit the company sometime over
the WrestleMania weekend but her request wasn’t granted and she was sent home
instead.
The WWE Officials believe that Banks may have made a rash
decision so they have given her some time to think things over and it’d be
interesting to see what decision she makes at the end.
There have been titbits about Sasha Banks missing some recent scheduled appearances due to a family emergency; however latest report suggests a very different reason for her absence.
According to a higher-up source of Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Banks actually tried to quit WWE sometime over the WrestleMania weekend.
Sasha, alongside her partner Bayley became the Inaugural Women’s Tag Team Champions during Elimination Chamber recently. She was under the impression that the duo will have a strong run with the belts to establish credibility to the new Championships.
However, she was made aware of the decision to put the belts
on the IIconics during WrestleMania at the last minute, and according to
reports, the former Champion felt blindsided by this call.
This led to her trying to quit the company and the Officials have given her a few weeks to think things over as they believe that she may have made a rash decision.
Sasha Banks was called out by Alexa Bliss on Twitter this Monday morning but she did not appear on this week’s episode of Raw. Her partner Bayley ended up taking a singles loss to Bliss during the show.
Rumors about The Boss’ status started spreading after she missed a scheduled appearance at The Wendy Williams Show on Tuesday and made a cryptic tweet claiming that she wants to feel the magic again.
There is no word yet on how WWE will handle the situation if Sasha decides to stick with her decision after the given period but letting her go when AEW looks to be closing in on a TV deal will not be a wise decision.
Though we have no details on her contractual status with the
company and it’d be interesting to know what choices WWE will have if she makes
a conclusive decision on quitting. We’ll keep you posted on the matter.
We have an update on Sasha Banks’ situation, courtesy of television personality Wendy Williams. On Wednesday’s episode of the Wendy Williams Show, Williams announced that Sasha Banks would not be making her scheduled appearance due to a “family emergency”.
You can see footage of Williams’ comments below, courtesy of Casey Michael of Squared Circle Sirens:
The episode was set to be filmed Tuesday, and when Banks missed the filming, show staff and insiders were said to be “fuming” that the former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion had “bailed” last minute.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful released a report stating, “Whatever the situation surrounding Sasha Banks, many on the SmackDown crew had no idea that she’d even missed her morning obligation (despite her tweeting about it), let alone were clued in about what is going on.”
Questions regarding Banks’ whereabouts started Monday on Twitter, when Banks didn’t appear on Raw. The questions intensified when Banks tweeted out a post with a very melancholy undertone.
— Mercedes Moné Varnado (@MercedesVarnado) April 9, 2019
The news that Banks missed The Wendy Williams Show last minuted only added to the concern over what seemed to be the 27-year-old wrestler’s “disappearance”. Though the situation is still grim, the explanation that Banks has left due to a family emergency at least gives fans a plausible reason for her MIA status.
Sasha Banks and tag team partner Bayley dropped their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships, and their first-ever reign, last Sunday to the IIconics, during WrestleMania.
The Boss ‘N’ Hug Connection were picked as clear favorites to retain the titles, and when they belts were stripped away, fans were not surprised to see vague and troublesome social media messages. There’s been plenty of fans and critics calling for Banks and Bayley to leave WWE for other promotions, considering how poorly the company has used them since their call-ups from NXT.
The staff at SEScoops wishes for a swift recovery for Sasha Banks’ family, and we hope to see The Boss back in the limelight soon.
What’s your theory on Sasha Banks’ behavior, as of late? What are your thoughts on her enigmatic tweet?
WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Bayley and Sasha Banks have been dethroned in their second defense as champions on pay-per-view.
The IIconics (Billie Kay & Peyton Royce) beat Nia Jax & Tamina, Beth Phoenix & Natalya, and Sasha Banks & Bayley in Fatal 4-Way Match at WrestleMania 35.
Bayley and Banks won the titles to become the inaugural champions back at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event in February. This is where they outlasted teams such as Sarah Logan & Ruby Riott, Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose, Billie Kay & Peyton Royce, and Carmella & Naomi.
The company has already made it known that they’re going with the idea of one set of champions defending the gold on both brands – Monday Night RAW and SmackDown Live.
It appears that Banks and Bayley will get their rematch for the straps at the next pay-per-view event, Money in the Bank, that goes down on May 19th in Hartford, Connecticut at the XL Center.
Turns out that the WWE Universe may have to wait even longer for the rumored faction feud between WWE’s Four Horsewomen and Ronda Rousey’s MMA Horsewomen.
Despite recent reports speculating that WWE is aiming to close WrestleMania 35 with a feel-good moment for the WWE Four Horsewomen, this may no longer be the case.
Writing in a post on the Wrestling Observer Forum, Dave Meltzer divulged that this is apparently no longer the current plan for the end of ‘Mania.
“This is not happening,” he said, “well at least as not happening can be with Vince changing his mind every hour. It makes no sense with the direction they are going.”
Close The Show
With Charlotte Flair now holding the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship, the rumor speculated that Becky Lynch would defeat her rival, Ronda Rousey, for the RAW Women’s Championship.
Lynch and Flair, now each holding gold, would then be joined by their former Horsewomen stablemates and WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, Bayley and Sasha Banks. That is, of course, if they successfully defend them in their matchup.
In case you didn’t know, the women were colloquially known as the Four Horsewomen during their time in NXT. Since that time, Ronda Rousey and a number of her MMA friends have joined WWE’s roster. Prior to that, however, they had also adopted the Four Horsewomen name.
Both took the name in honor of legendary wrestling stable, the Four Horsemen.
What do you think? Are we on the way to a feel-good moment? With Ronda’s Horsewomen stablemates still in NXT, Is a clash between the two still a long way off?
WWE has no intentions on slowing down with their recent clothing collaborations. The company recently partnered with New Era Cap to release a range of Superstar specific caps. Now, WWE Superstars announced their partnership products with Foot Locker and FILA.
This deal sees a limited number of sneakers available for purchase at footlocker.com and the Foot Locker store in New York’s Time Square. The shoes will launch on April 4th—so just in time for wrestling fans descending upon New York for WrestleMania 35.
WWE x FILA
Two Superstars, in particular, have shared their collaboration shoes, inspired by their character and gimmicks.
“The Boss” Sasha Banks shared an image of her golden sneakers inside a locker, writing that:
“Sasha Banks Edition part of the Fila x @WWE collab, launching on 4/4, exclusively on , and available at the Footlocker times square location. Just in time for you to rock them at the grandest stage of them all, WRESTLEMANIA!!!
Sasha Banks Edition part of the Fila x @WWE collab, launching on 4/4, exclusively on https://t.co/oGotyhTQPA, and available at the Footlocker times square location. Just in time for you to rock them at the grandest stage of them all, WRESTLEMANIA!!! pic.twitter.com/qDEs7WKTvg
— Mercedes Moné Varnado (@MercedesVarnado) March 31, 2019
It’s Limited Edition, Yes It Is
New Day’s Kofi Kingston, on the cusp of Kofi-Mania, also hyped his FILA x WWE collaboration, sharing that the Kofi/New Day shoe is limited to only 483 pairs. The number is representative of the New Day’s 483-day tag team title reign.
He wrote:
“Ya boys done came up…We got our own sneaker! ? Only 483 pairs made in honor of our record tag title run.”
So if you’re a wrestling fan, a sneakerhead, enjoy collecting, or just like the look of these shoes, be sure to grab them as soon as they become available. The New Day ones, in particular, may not be around for long.
Sasha Banks revealed a few details on how she and Bayley pursued Vince McMahon to bring the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles in the company.
Banks says that they would visit Vince McMahon’s office every week asking for the introduction of tag titles and would be met with mixed reponses.
“It felt like the whole of last year we were asking, like we would be knocking on the door of Vince’s office every week,” Banks told Sky Sports.
“Me and Bayley would go up to him and some weeks he’d say no and some weeks he’d say yes and then bam, it’s here. So that just proves that you should never give up on your dreams. If you’re annoying enough you can make things happen and that’s probably what happened, he just got annoyed with us.”
Despite constantly “annoying” McMahon for the titles, Banks hopes that the CEO understands how much it means to them.
“I hope he understands how important this is to us and we’re going to make it really special. That’s just Vince every week – you never know how he’s going to be. You just have to keep on trying.”
The titles were established in December of 2018 and were unveiled on the January 14, 2019 episode of Raw. The inaugral champions were decided in a tag team Elimination Chamber match on the Elimination Chamber event, which took place on February 17. Sasha Banks and Bayley as The Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection won the match, making them the inaugral champions.
The duo will be seen defending their titles against The Divas of Doom (Beth Phoenix and Natalya), The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce), and Nia Jax & Tamina at WrestleMania 35.
This past January at the Royal Rumble, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey would successfully defend her RAW Women’s Championship against Sasha Banks. Rousey wasn’t shy in admitting that she considered this matchup a “dream match” for her.
But was the feeling mutual?
Speaking with journalist Vicente Beltran whilst doing international media for WWE, Sasha Banks would comment on their Royal Rumble clash. She confessed she didn’t consider it to be a “dream match” for her.
“No,” Banks admitted. “It was a dream match for her though. She said it.”
“It Could Be Any Team, Any Place, Any Time”
Later in their conversation, the discussion turned to the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. Sasha shares these titles with her partner, Bayley.
She would comment on how The Boss ’N’ Hug Connection is committed to defending their belts on any show, wanting them to become esteemed in the process. When asked how they would feel if they were to defend their titles on an NXT TakeOver event, Banks would reply:
“I think that would be amazing. That’s exactly what me and Bayley want to do, we want to take these titles all over the world. Whether it’s RAW, SmackDown, NXT, NXT UK, it doesn’t matter. It could be any team, any place, any time. We really do mean that; we want to take over the world and we want to make the tag team titles very important.”
The team will be defending the championships at WrestleMania 35 in a Fatal 4 Way against The Divas Of Doom (Beth Phoenix and Natalya), The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce), and Nia Jax and Tamina.
History will be made next Sunday when Ronda Rousey, Becky
Lynch, and Charlotte Flair become the first women to headline WrestleMania in
their match for the Raw Women’s Championship.
This moment is also special for the other female members of the WWE roster and one half of the current Women’s Tag Team Champion Sasha Banks is one of them.
Banks was recently interviewed by The Independent and when asked about the Women main eventing the Show Of Shows this year, the Raw Star said that she is very proud of it:
“I’m very proud, It’s cool to see the women you started
with get this dream. I think it’s all of our dreams about to happen and I am
more than happy for all of them.”
Apart from this Sasha also talked about Eddie Guerrero’s
influence on her life and how Eddie’s wife Vickie Guerrero has been amazing to
her.
She told a story of Vickie giving her a pair of Eddie’s tights, claiming that the former SmackDown General Manager has absolutely no idea what they mean to her and she hopes that she is making him proud.
Sasha Banks along with Bayley is currently scheduled to defend the Women’s Tag Title in a multi-team match at WrestleMania. You can check out an updated match card for the event at this link.
While speaking to Mirror, Bayley revealed how The Revival helped them transition from a singles wrestler to a tag team: “It’s so hard. It’s so so different. It’s a whole different psychology and it’s been a struggle to learn, but it’s been very fun.”
Bayley also expanded on how The Revival helped them understand the psychology of tag-team wrestling and why it is necessary to stay in sync with your partner.
“Sasha and I are so lucky to have The Revival on Raw with us and we’re so lucky to be such good friends with them because they help us so much in understanding the why in so many things. They teach us the psychology of actually being a tag team – people don’t understand that.”
“Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder will sit with us and watch matches with us and show us matches that we all learn from and I can’t say enough good things about them, because they’ve helped us so much. I’m just excited to get better.”
WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Bayley and Sasha Banks successfully made their first defense as champions against Nia Jax and Tamina. This contest went down at the WWE Fastlane pay-per-view event on Sunday night.
Bayley and Banks won the titles to become the inaugural champions back at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event last month. This is where they outlasted teams such as Sarah Logan & Ruby Riott, Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose, Billie Kay & Peyton Royce, and Carmella & Naomi.
The company has already made it known that they’re going with the idea of one set of champions defending the gold on both brands – Monday Night RAW and SmackDown Live.
It will be interesting to see who will be next in line for the titles. There was some talk a few months ago that WWE Hall of Famers Trish Stratus and Lita could potentially be coming back as a tag team for WrestleMania.
There’s always a chance that WWE could bring Nikki and Brie Bella back to television for more exposure in hopes of increasing viewership of Total Bellas and Total Divas.
At the March 7 NXT Live Event in Largo, Florida, the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions ‘The Boss n Hug Connection’ made a surprise appearance.
The duo were received with a strong “Welcome back!” chant from the crowd.
Bayley said that since they were present at the WrestleMania 36 announcement press conference in Tampa Bay, Florida, they decided to pay a visit to the yellow brand.
They then stayed ringside to watch the triple threat tag team match between the teams of Io Shirai & Kairi Sane vs Aliyah & Vanessa Borne vs Rhea Ripley & Reina Gonzalez.
The match resulted in a no contest when Shirai and Sane got ganged up by the other four women. Banks and Bayley however came to the rescue and cleared the ring.
The WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship can be defended on any brand, including NXT. The champs previously made an appearance on NXT during the February 20 TV tapings at Full Sail University and announced that the tag titles are open for the NXT women to challenge for.
The Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection will make their first title defense against Nia Jax & Tamina at the Fastlane PPV event on March 10 from the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
The inaugural modern era Women’s Tag Team Champions are set to defend their titles at WWE’s Fastlane event on March 10th. The matchup will see Bayley and “The Boss” Sasha Banks go up against the team of Nia Jax and Tamina Snuka.
That hasn’t stopped the Boss ’N’ Hug Connection from repeatedly stating that they are ready for all comers, no matter what brand they happen to be on. This has lead to some interesting challenges, including one that Bayley extended to a few WWE Hall Of Famers.
Now it appears that their next challenge could be the SmackDown Live team, The IIconics.
Billie Kay and Peyton Royce took to Twitter in order to spark a back-and-forth with the Women’s Tag Team Champions.
Taunting the Champions seems to have worked, as both Sasha Banks and Bayley would take the bait, responding to the challenge.
“The Boss” wrote, “Oh don’t worry, once we defeat Nia and tamina at fastlane, we’ll be more than happy to come over to smackdown and handle you two. By the way… How’s the catering? Jajajaja”
Oh don't worry, once we defeat Nia and tamina at fastlane, we'll be more than happy to come over to smackdown and handle you two. By the way… How's the catering? Jajajaja https://t.co/VHtX7eOUfV
Her partner, Bayley, would also reply, responding to The IIconics question over their whereabouts by stating, “Building this division. You guys want in?”
She would follow up with a more succinct reply, “Don’t you worry. See you soon…”
Assuming that Bayley and Sasha Banks manage to retain their championships on March 10th, it seems they’ll be heading to the blue brand next to answer the IIconics’ challenge.
A new match has been announced for the upcoming WWE Fastlane PPV. That match will see WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Bayley and Sasha Banks make their first defense as champions against Nia Jax and Tamina.
WWE made the match announcement on Monday’s episode of Raw where Bayley battled Nia Jax in a singles match. Bayley and Banks won the titles to become the inaugural champions back at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event earlier this month.
WWE presents the Fastlane pay-per-view event on March 10, 2019 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio that will air on the WWE Network. WWE Champion Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston is expected to serve as the main event.
WWE will be announcing more matches for this show in the coming weeks. Here is the updated card:
Updated WWE Fastlane Card
WWE Champion Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston
WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos vs. Shane McMahon & The Miz
WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Sasha Banks & Bayley vs. Nia Jax & Tamina
What are your thoughts on this match being added to the card? Sound off in the comment section.
WWE Raw Tag Team Champions The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder), as well as WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Sasha Banks and Bayley, are hoping that 2019 will be a big year for the tag team divisions for both men and women.
WWE sent out this video on their official Twitter account with the teams interacting and talking about being champions, which you can see here:
While Dawson and Wilder are reviving the RAW Tag Team division, Banks and Bayley are set on defending their titles not only on the main roster shows – Monday Night RAW and SmackDown Live – but also in NXT as well.
The Revival has gone as far as teasing bringing back the old design of the WWE Tag Team Titles, which has fans talking. This is just one of the many examples of how these two WWE stars want to bring back tag team wrestling to its glory days on the red brand.
The Revival beat Bobby Roode and Chad Gable to win the straps back on the February 11th episode of Monday Night RAW. On the flip side, Bayley and Banks became the inaugural Women’s Tag Team Champions at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event.
WWE’s new Women’s Tag Team Championships will be defended in NXT.
Inaugural champions Sasha Banks and Bayley made a surprise appearance at Wednesday night’s NXT TV tapings from Winter Park, FL. Click Here to check out complete spoiler results from the tapings.
The Boss and Hug Connection hit the ring at Full Sail University, the scene where both of them raised the bar for women’s wrestling before joining the main roster. Banks says it’s good to be home and she’s never forgotten where she came from. Both of their journeys started in NXT and they have a big announcement to make.
Bayley said the last time Sasha was in an NXT ring was the first ever Women’s Iron Women Match at NXT Takeover: Respect (2015). They are fighting champions and they welcome all challengers. That includes the women of NXT.
Sasha Banks and Bayley officially put NXT’s female wrestlers on notice: their titles will be defended not only on Raw and SmackDown, but NXT as well.
Female competitors in NXT that could challenge the Boss and Hug Connection include established teams like Io Shirai & Kairi Sane, Marina Shafir & Jessamyn Duke as well as the likes of Bianca Belair, Candice LaRae, Dakota Kai and Deonna Purrazzo.
Check out the Full Sail University crowd react to Sasha Banks & Bayley’s surprise return:
This past Sunday at WWE’s Elimination Chamber PPV, Sasha Banks and Bayley would make history. The two would survive the Chamber matchup to be crowned the modern era’s inaugural WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. The duo saw off stiff competition from Nia Jax and Tamina, Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan, Billie Kay and Peyton Royce, and Carmella and Naomi, and Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville.
Given that these new championships are intended to be defended across multiple WWE brands, it didn’t take long for challengers to step forward, proclaiming their interest in the titles.
Others have also expressed an interest, including NXT’s Dakota Kai and Tegan Nox.
Dakota would tweet out her thoughts, saying, “… women’s tag titles defended on all brands including @WWENXT , you say? @TeganNoxWWE_ #TheComeback #FlyKicks”
Bayley would respond shortly after with a succinct, ‘Please do, we’re ready”
The biggest interaction, however, took place off the back of a Hall Of Famer’s praise.
Trish Stratus would reach out to congratulate the team, “My loves!!! I may or may not have tear’d up a little #itsaproudmamathing
Beyond proud… the right ones for this amazing and historic opportunity… ladies, here’s the ball…. @SashaBanksWWE @itsBayleyWWE the FIRST EVER @WWE #WomensTagTeamChampions”
An interesting fact has surfaced online about the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles, which are currently held by the inaugural champions Sasha Banks and Bayley.
They accomplished this goal after they outlasted 5 other teams in their Elimination Chamber match at the Elimination Chamber PPV.
It was noted by IWNerd that as a result of this win, Sasha, Bayley, Charlotte Flair, and Becky Lynch, who used to go by the name the Four Horsewomen as a group while in NXT, are the first winners of every current Women’s Championship on the main roster.
For a history lesson, Flair became the first WWE Women’s Champion at Wrestlemania 32 (now called the RAW Women’s Title) when she beat Banks and Bayley in 2016 at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas
Moving along, Lynch became the first Smackdown Women’s Champion at Backlash in 2016 when she won a six-pack elimination challenge against Alexa Bliss, Carmella, Naomi, Natalya, and Nikki Bella.
Banks and Bayley are likely slated to make their next title defense against unknown opponents at the next pay-per-view event, Fastlane, on March 10, 2019 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. This will mark the final PPV before WrestleMania 35 in April.
The next possible challengers for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles, which are currently held by the inaugural champions Sasha Banks and Bayley, may have been revealed.
Those challengers are Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose. This comes after the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event where Banks and Bayley beat Nia Jax & Tamina, Sarah Logan & Ruby Riott, Deville & Rose, Billie Kay & Peyton Royce, and Carmella & Naomi in an Elimination Chamber Match.
This potential feud makes sense as these two teams started out and ended up finishing the match on Sunday night. The speculation started when Deville and Rose took to social media.
Deville wrote on her official Twitter account, “I have no words. Tonight was special @itsBayleyWWE and @SashaBanksWWE are GREAT but @WWE_MandyRose and I aren’t finished here. See you soon Champs.” On the flip side, Rose wrote on Instagram, “Couldn’t have done it without you @sonyadevillewwe & were not finished!! Those titles belong to us… #firendesire #wwewomenstagteamchampionship #eliminationchamber.”
If WWE did go in this direction then the first match between the two teams would likely take place at the next pay-per-view event, Fastlane, on March 10, 2019 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. This will mark the final PPV before WrestleMania 35 in April.
Last night (Sun. February 17, 2019) Sasha Banks and Bayley won the inaugural WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles. Banks and Bayley outlasted other teams like Nia Jax & Tamina, Sarah Logan & Ruby Riott, Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose, Billie Kay & Peyton Royce, and Carmella & Naomi inside the Elimination Chamber. The victory also resulted in a fairly interesting bit of history.
Shortly after their victory, WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon took to Twitter to congratulate The Boss N Hug Connection. She also had some nice words for all the other women who competed in the historic bout:
Also at Elimination Chamber last night, Finn Balor captured the Intercontinental Championship by defeating Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush in a 2-on-1 Handicap match. This was Balor’s first singles title victory on the main roster since becoming the inaugural WWE Universal Champion back in 2016.
Unfortunately, Balor only held that title for one day before vacating it the following night on Monday Night RAW due to injury. During his interview for WWE’s YouTube channel after his win, Balor took a shot at Sam Roberts:
“Well, unlike Sam Roberts, I like to do my talking in the ring,” Balor said. “And, you know, I know Sam Roberts has a face for radio, so maybe he should stay on it.”
We have an interesting fact to pass along about Sasha Banks and Bayley’s WWE Women’s Tag Team Title victory. Banks and Bayley captured the inaugural titles at last night’s (Sun. February 17, 2019) Elimination Chamber pay-per-view (PPV) from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
The Boss N Hug Connection outlasted the likes of Nia Jax & Tamina, Sarah Logan & Ruby Riott, Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose, Billie Kay & Peyton Royce, and Carmella & Naomi. However, with their victory, it turns out that all current WWE Women’s Titles were initially won by members of The Four Horsewomen Of WWE (Bayley, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair).
Charlotte Flair won the WWE Women’s Title at WrestleMania 32, which has since been rebranded as the RAW Women’s Title. Becky Lynch was the first-ever SmackDown Live Women’s Champion. And now, Bayley and Banks are the first-ever WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions.
It should be noted, these new titles do not share the same lineage as the old Women’s Tag Team Championships from the ’80s. It will be interesting to see if the Four Horsewomen Of WWE eventually match-up with The Four Horsewomen Of MMA (Rousey, Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke, and Marina Shafir).
What do you think about The Four Horsewomen being the first title holders of all current Women’s Titles?