Sasha Banks Turning On Bayley Is Not What WWE Originally Planned

The simmering tensions between Sasha Banks and Bayley exploded into conflict this week on Raw.

After weeks of passive-aggressive gestures from both women, Sasha Banks and Bayley finally had enough of one another.

With Bayley announcing her intentions to join the WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal, Banks began to confront her friend about her chances in the historic match. Bayley accused Banks of being intimidated by her then reminded “The Boss” how short all of her Raw Women’s title reigns have been.

Banks refuted Bayley’s points by slamming her head into a locker.

The former friends then brawled throughout the locker room area until WWE officials were able to separate them.

Last month, Madison Square Garden had Bayley advertised as Elias’ partner in a tag team match against John Cena and Nikki Bella at a WWE live event on March 16. It was an odd pairing since Elias is a heel and Bayley is supposed to be a beloved character. Come showtime, Sonya Deville replaced Bayley as Elias’ partner. As it turns out, Bayley was listed as Elias’ partner because WWE planned on turning her heel by that time. The turn, however, was dropped.

Dave Meltzer mentioned this tonight on the F4WOnline.com message board:

“Bayley was scheduled to turn. The MSG card had her teaming with Elias vs. Cena & Nikki right until the decision was made to hold up the turn. It wasn’t a red herring, it was a plan written for a turn by that date that they changed. It appeared Banks did the turn however. Plans like that change weekly. The Banks heel turn was scheduled well before the 2017 Mania at first. People who act like this stuff doesn’t change 100 times are mental because you have to ignore everything every wrestler tells you in every inside interview to believe that.”

Bayley has said that she would love to evolve her character more and does not envision a Ricky Steamboat type of babyface run. Additionally, Bayley shared that she would like to bring more fire and intensity to her character to become a female version of ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin.

“I do definitely want to evolve my character, eventually, just because, I mean, since I started in NXT, I’ve kind of been doing the same thing. Like, I have grown a little bit, but I don’t know. I think it is going to be time for a change eventually. I think that would be like the fun of it all and everyone changes,” Bayley said on Edge and Christian’s podcast.

“I plan on being here for a long time, and I want to go through all those stages and be a bad guy, and then be a good guy again, then be a bad guy, and, like [Edge and Christian] have been a bunch of different characters and all that stuff. And I just think that’s part of the fun being with WWE, so I want to go on that roller coaster and have the fans be like they know they can count on me and, like, care about me, but still hate me at the same time, but know when I’m on the camera for them to cheer or to boo, like, they’re going to enjoy it.

“So I’ve recently thought about it and just as far as trying to be more aggressive, I think I want to be a girl version of ‘Stone Cold’, but it’s kind of hard to think of my character turning into a badass like Austin.”