Is Sasha vs. Bayley 2.0 FINALLY happening?

Women’s Tag Team Championships
Sasha Banks & Bayley vs. Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax

Tonight The Golden Role Models defend their tag team championships against the reluctant, but powerful duo of Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler.

The Road to Payback

This is both a long and winding road full of dead ends and a short quick trip down the block. On the one hand, we have the years of build-up between Sasha Banks and Bayley in a never-ending torrent of will they/won’t they energy, and on the other, we have a championship match that was thrown together in a week.

Long story short. Asuka beat Sasha Banks at SummerSlam (only just last weekend!), taking her RAW women’s championship.

While Banks has a staggering history of losses on PPV’s this one could be chalked up due to her bad luck and Bayley’s interference - or lack thereof. Earlier in the night, Bayley was able to retain her SmackDown women’s championship because Sasha took a bump from Asuka, but when it came time for Bayley to return the favor, she didn’t.

To make matters worse, Sasha lost her rematch against Asuka the following Monday night. 2BeltsBanks is now, solidly, a thing of the past.

Bayley also had a match on RAW against Shayna Baszler that was interrupted by Nia Jax, leading to a disqualification. While Jax and Baszler were fighting, Banks and Bayley were egging them on from the sidelines, which didn’t exactly sit well with either of them. They simultaneously turned their focus from each other to the tag team champs and hustled them out of the ring.

Now, Jax and Baszler have both been looking for an opportunity since coming back to RAW and have had no qualms about fighting anyone (even refs) to get noticed. This overwhelming desire for attention has led them to butt heads for weeks. Sure, they could continue to just fight it out between themselves, but neither of them currently have anything worth fighting for. Sensing a golden opportunity, the duo agreed to put their differences aside and take on the champions.

You know what they say. The enemy of my enemy is my friends.

What’s at Stake?

This is, yet again, the deciding moment on whether or not we are getting Banks versus Bayley 2.0. I feel like I’ve written that 1,000 times, but this time it does feel like a reality. They have actually put in the time to build this story up to the crescendo. Everything was golden when they both held gold, but if only one of them does...well, you can see where that is headed, especially if the person who no longer holds the title of champion blames the other for their loss. What was the word Sasha used? Oh yeah, VENGEANCE.

Also, I don’t know about you, but having Baszler and Jax as the grumpy, reluctant powerhouse tag champs sounds really fun. It’s a classic enemy to friend story, and I am wildly here for it.

Will we finally see Banks turn on Bayley, or is this yet another false start? Find out tonight at Payback 7E/6C on the WWE network and check back here at CageSide Seats for all your up to date coverage!