10 WWE Matches That Changed EVERYTHING
3. Sasha Banks Vs Bayley (NXT Takeover: Respect)
WWE’s women’s division has reached such heights of late that it can feel as though its top stars have been around forever, but as recently as 2015, WrestleMania featured one women’s match that didn’t go past seven minutes. Luckily, NXT was there to help correct that course.
The black and gold brand boasted some of the world’s top female talent, and at TakeOver: Respect, two of the very best were given the time and position on the card to demonstrate how far things had progressed.
We know now that Sasha Banks and Bayley are two of the business’ top performers full stop, with their slow build feud probably WWE’s biggest success in 2020, but their Iron Woman match at Respect was the final piece of the puzzle. A brilliantly worked epic tussle, it had the crowd gripped and earned Match Of The Year nods from all over the internet.
A year later, Sasha Banks would join Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair in ‘Mania 32’s best match; three years further on, women would headline the show of shows. It was a long time coming, but this match was the game changer the business needed.