WWE Roadblock: End of the Line: Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte full match preview

WWE Raw Women's Champion Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair will settle their year-long, on-again off-again feud with a thirty minute Iron Man match. There is no rematch clause baked into the match contract, meaning this contest will decisively end (for now) their epic struggle one way or the other.

Banks and Flair have made history repeatedly over the course of their struggle: they fought (also including Becky Lynch) at WrestleMania to be the inaugural WWE Women's Champion, they were the first women to main event Monday Night Raw in 12 years (and then for good measure, did it a second time a month later), they competed in the first ever women's Hell in a Cell match, they were the first women to ever headline a WWE main roster pay-per-view—and now will be the first women to compete in an Iron Man match on the main roster. (They also snuck a Falls Count Anywhere match in there, too.)

... oh, is that all?

It's a return of sorts to Pittsburgh for The Boss, who first won the championship from Charlotte—after paying homage to her childhood hero, Eddie Guerrero—in the Steel City back on the July 25 episode of Raw. After her victory, she announced to the world that it was "the era of women's wrestling"—but it was not the era of a long title reign for Banks.

Less than a month later at SummerSlam, in the building that launched Sasha to megastardom—the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York—Charlotte reclaimed her championship. After targeting Banks' back with precision throughout the match, Flair was able to counter the Bank Statement into a pinning combination, and Sasha was unable to muster the strength to kick out.

After a brief absence, The Boss would return to Monday Night Raw, fake a retirement and ultimately warn Charlotte she would be coming again for the championship. After Charlotte won a triple threat at Clash of Champions by pinning Bayley, Banks would receive her one-on-one rematch for the title on the Oct. 3 episode of Raw. She did not waste her opportunity, forcing her rival to tap out once again to the Bank Statement.

Eager to end the feud with a bang, Banks proposed to Flair they meet inside Hell in a Cell in her hometown of Boston during the eponymous pay-per-view on Oct. 30. Charlotte powerbombed Sasha through the announce table prior to the match even beginning, and after almost being made to forfeit, Banks offered a spirited fight to retain her championship. Unfortunately for Sasha, her back again proved incapable of holding up. When she attempted to exact some revenge by powerbombing Charlotte though a table, she instead crumpled to the mat, and after being tossed into the table twice herself, was hit with Natural Selection and pinned. The fairy tale ending Banks desired was not on hand.

But Banks wasn't the only one to suffer from the hometown curse. After a double countout earlier in the night, Banks and Flair faced off in a vicious Falls Count Anywhere match Nov. 28 for the championship in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bout involved vicious kendo stick shots, a moonsault off the announce table, a Meteora off the barricade, and more—a veritable river of enmity. In the end, after the pair had found their way into the crowd, Banks was able to lock on the Bank Statement through a railing in the aisle, forcing Flair to immediately tap out. Now Sasha and Charlotte both were three-time champions.

At the close of the match, Charlotte, who had banished her Hall of Fame father months prior (saying that she "no longer needed him") was stunned as Ric endorsed her chief rival. The following week, she pretended to make a "public apology," but instead doubled down on her rejection, yelling that she was his "flesh and blood" and yet he had raised Sasha's arm all the same. Sasha, who had rushed to make the save, was left prone in the ring, with Charlotte mocking her and her father.

"Iron sharpens iron" states the hype package, and it's hard to disagree. The seesawing feud has dramatically elevated the Women's Championship, and the careers of both women. There's a very good chance their fight will be the match of the night this evening.

In October 2015, Banks was defeated by Bayley 3-2 in the only ever women's Iron Man match in WWE history, in the main event of NXT TakeOver: Respect. Will her experience in the match type pay dividends for her, and allow her to finally successfully defend the Women's Championship—and in the process snap Charlotte's undefeated streak on pay-per-views? Or will it be deja vu all over again, with Charlotte regaining the title for her fourth reign? And will the Nature Boy get involved this time—and if so, for which woman?

Find out tonight during Roadblock: End of the Line.