10 Creative Triumphs Of WWE’s PG Era
5. Bayley Vs. Sasha Banks
...on NXT. NXT. The retread teased on RAW recently has vast potential, but it needs a bit more than that to meet the standard of their seminal 2015 programme.
Their chemistry in the ring was sublime, their contrast of character even more so. Banks was a rare cool WWE creation in how fleek she was. She stepped right out of the times in which she wrestled, adopting the symbology of urban culture to craft her awesome 'Boss' persona.
Bayley, meanwhile, though as classic a white meat babyface as they come, was also something modern and relatable; she was adorkable, almost like a wrestling Zooey Deschanel. It was easy to buy into their conflict. Banks was always going to viciously dismiss Bayley as this geeky hanger-on. Bayley was always going to look up to this star with a starstruck gaze. In their two classics of character development/reinforcement, at Takeovers: Brooklyn and Respect, Bayley and Banks achieved two profoundly challenging objectives.
They restored the purity of the babyface/heel dynamic long after it was borderline extinct, and woke North American audiences up to the fact that women's wrestling, when treated with respect, is easily as psychologically and athletically brilliant as anything the men can muster.