EP.2 - Banks vs Flair: “Iron Sharpens Iron”

Episode 2 covers the now iconic feud between Sasha Banks (Mercedes Mone) and Charlotte Flair in WWE during 2016. Iron sharpens iron as two superstars peak simultaneously, creating such memorable moments as being the first women to headline a Hell in a Cell PLE. The Boss vs The Queen, right here on Feud Rewind.

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Transcript

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Benza Lance: [00:00:00] Hey, this is Ben with Feud Rewind, with a quick word from our first unofficial sponsor. Water. You need some. I need some. We all need some. We're made of it. Guess what? It comes in a bunch of different varieties. Hot, cold, frozen. You can get it flavored, you can get it plain. With bubbles, no bubbles, out of your tap, out of a bottle, out of a box.

The possibilities are endless. Regardless, you need some. Before we get started, go get a glass. I'm gonna get one too. We'll meet back here and start the show. Thank you so much. Water.

December 18th, 2016. WWE is holding their roadblock end of the line pay per view in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Charlotte Flair and Chauncey Banks have wrestled to a 30 minute Iron Woman draw. They're tied at two falls apiece. [00:01:00] We're in sudden death over time. This is a feud that has taken the better part of three years to build to and culminate to.

How did we get here? Well, we're gonna have to spin it back with the rewind.

Now, there are a couple different ways that we can view this feud. On just a surface level macro status look at the feud. You know what I mean? It pretty much breaks down to the catchphrase of the feud, which is iron sharpens iron. Really what this is, is two performers, both at the peak of their game, both red hot at the same time, doing battle, trading [00:02:00] blows, trading titles back and forth.

And it's pretty simple, pretty straightforward. Just classic, good, old fashioned, bare knuckle, hard nosed, not bare knuckle, you get what I mean. Anyway, on a, like I said, big world view, that's what's going on. But deep down underneath, there's levels to this. So, coming out of 2015 and heading into 2016, We were starting to see not just a woman's revolution, because that has started years earlier, but we're starting to see a different level to this, a different crest to this wave.

A lot of the flowers have to be given to the four horsewomen of NXT, being Bayley, Becky Lynch, and the two women we're talking about today, [00:03:00] Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair. Starting off with Sasha simply because I mentioned her first and she is the younger of the two in this feud only being in her early, getting into the mid twenties.

At this time, going into the feud in 2015, she is sort of a heel, sort of a tweener. Either way, the crowd has always been very, very much behind Sasha. Um, Even if, as a heel, she's still sort of a crowd favorite heel, almost in that new ish MJF type of way, where you're sort of liking to boo her even though you absolutely adore her.

Part of that reason is she's very, very emotional. She wears her heart on her sleeve. That goes into her [00:04:00] selling as well and registering of offensive moves in the ring. She is second to none when it comes to conveying what's going on internally with her, both emotionally and physically. So the fans can understand on a level that's really simple and really humanistic.

Um, for on, on my money within the last 10 to 15 years, I would sort of put her in that Dolph Ziggler type of category as far as selling where you can put her in there with somebody and she might not be able to carry the match. But when it comes to offensive moves, she's gonna make her opponent look like a million dollars.

And of course her opponent in this feud is Charlotte Flair, who is a couple years older at the time. She's 29, 30, and [00:05:00] her history sort of speaks for itself pretty much with that last name, don't you think? She is Rick's daughter. Outside of that, she is uber talented. She is very, very methodical in the ring and in her promos, she can play face or heel.

My money on her is mostly being a heel. She just plays that character so well because she is so good. With a lofty air of self entitlement, however, with this little, hazy bit of doubt, because her dad is, in fact, gay.

And Charlotte was the first woman of those four NXT horsewomen to graduate from NXT to the main roster and sort of hit the ground running. She is the last Divas Champion [00:06:00] in the history of the company, and she is holding that title for the last third ish of 2015. She is the 2015. And, during this time, she is a face, a baby face, she's a good guy, or a good woman, good person, just cover all the bases.

Um, but she's slowly turning, um, specifically she's slowly turning on Becky Lynch, and that is a feud for another day that we will have to touch on because Becky and Charlotte's feud is It's nearly as iconic as Sasha in Charlotte's Feud. Notice the common denominator. Much to no one's surprise. Now, the next bit is the first inkling that we're sort of Maybe trying to force Shadow something bigger.

On January 24th, during Raw, Sasha does attack both Becky and [00:07:00] Charlotte. It's quite obvious that she's trying to insert herself into the main event picture. She has left Team Bad, um, her teammate Naomi and Tamina have been left behind. And she is ascending. There is a rocket strapped to her back. She is super over and being blasted to the moon.

But they already have sort of a built in storyline with Becky and Charlotte. So for the Sasha angle, she does end up packing the rocket. Becky and Charlotte, like I said, in January. Um, and on the first of February, her solid, white hot face status is cemented when her former Team Bad teammates, Naomi and Tamina, do attack her.

And this helps us inch slowly closer to the start of our feud between Sasha and Flair. [00:08:00] Over the next month, Sasha is going to feud with her former Team Bad teammates. This is going to end up resulting in a tag match where she is going to team up with Becky to defeat her former team. And this is going to cause Sasha and Becky to face off in a number one contenders match.

The first match ends in a draw as both women's shoulders are pinned at the three count. This causes a second match to occur. This match ends with an interference by Flair who runs in and attacks both competitors. What this causes to happen is a triple threat match at Wrestlemania 32. We're not going to focus on Wrestlemania 32 right now.

Long story short, Flair retains and this also acts as sort of a linchpin for the Divas [00:09:00] Championship. being rebranded to the Raw Women's Championship. This does start a new title reign, so to speak. Well, no, it does. I take that back. And this first run with the Raw Women's title, this first snapshot of that title, Championship belts lineage we're gonna see that the title belts gonna go back and forth just a couple times between Charlotte and Sasha or Is it?

Nah, it is But these two women Sasha and Charlotte don't really circle each other for a couple months Sasha will actually spend a little bit of time off of TV And, a very pivotal moment will happen for Charlotte on the Roth following Extreme Rules in May. [00:10:00] Charlotte turns on Rick, claiming that she's never needed him, doesn't need him, slaps him.

This might come back to play into our feud at some point?

Hey there, this is Benzo with Feud Rewind coming at you with a quick word from our second unofficial sponsor. The sun. That's right. Summertime is here and the living, if your living is like mine, is extremely difficult. But what's not difficult is popping in your earbuds, putting on those headphones, Using a little Bluetooth speaker and going on to the sun while you're listening to this podcast, you and me, let's go get some vitamin D while we enjoy the [00:11:00] sun.

Thank you, son. Now back to the show.

What happens is on June 20th, that episode of raw Sasha does show up and attacks Charlotte. Shortly after this, the brand draft happens, and Charlotte ends up being drafted to Raw with Sasha. This right here is where the feud starts. These two women are made for each other. Circling back to what we said to begin this episode, this isn't a teacher versus student, friend versus friend, family, this isn't anything like that.

This is iron [00:12:00] sharpening iron. This is Bruce Lee versus Luke King from Mortal Kombat, if you know what I mean. Like, these are just two competitors at the apex of their ability, peaking and performing at the highest of levels simultaneously. Absolutely stunning. However, we still have a couple steps to take to get this going.

Sasha Banks and her bestie, Bailey, are going to team together to defeat Dana Brooke and Charlotte on the 25th. Sasha is going to challenge for the title. And Sasha is going to win. And she wins big. Sasha being the Emotional, borderline messiah complex character [00:13:00] that she is, gives a very impassioned promo after the match.

This really drives home how over she is with the crowd. The crowd just cheers and gushes over her the whole time. And you can't sort of help but cheer for Sasha if you don't like that sort of Mighty Mouse type of, you know, forever face. Even though, you know, I'll have to digress a little bit because Sasha is a fantastic heal when it calls for it.

And going back to our iron, sharpening iron motif. This is where we're going to start to see some back and forth. With Sasha's July 25th win on Raw, that ended Flair's first Raw Women's Championship reign in 113 days. Flair is not going to Let Sasha have the same type of leeway and [00:14:00] length of title reign with her first girl reign.

The next month at SummerSlam, Charlotte wins the belt back. Sasha's reign has ended at 27 days.

The next month at Clash of Champions, Charlotte does retain her title in a triple threat with Sasha and Bayley. However, on the October 3rd edition of Raw, Sasha does prevail and she wins the Raw women's title back again. It's right here that I want to put a little pin in the conversation and we're going to come back in a second because I want to take a minute to talk about what some people would have to say about that.

Um, Transcripts provided by Transcription Outsourcing, LLC. Maybe consider, or at least start to consider, a hot potato, hot shot booking with the title type of situation, given the fact that over the span of not even four months, the title has gone back and forth between these two [00:15:00] women a couple times.

Once again, we are talking about an iron sharpening iron situation. I could look at either Charlotte Flair or Sasha Banks in the summer and fall of 2016 and go, either woman could hold this title. Them hamming it back and forth in what turn out to be pretty historic matches that hold up. still in 2024. I think it's pretty incredible.

And if you would consider that hot potato or hotshot booking of a title, I think at the very least it's intellectually dishonest. And honestly, I hate to say that it might be misogynistic, but given that we're talking about women's wrestling, I Have to bring that up. [00:16:00] Anyway, pin out of the conversation and we carry on to Probably the biggest historical moment dude and of course i'm Talking about the hell in a cell match This was the first women's Cell main event to main event of pay per view You And doing the research for this and all my videos just because it's been, in some cases, you know, 30 years since I've watched something.

Not something like this because this was relatively recent, 2016. But I have to go back and watch matches. I say have to with air quotes because boohoo with me I have to go back and watch wrestling. But I have to go back and watch wrestling. This cell match, I watched twice. So [00:17:00] I try to watch all the feuds in chronological order as well.

This one, I went back after I watched the feud to watch it again. I'm just going to say that's that good.

And this might be a part of my podcast, at least for now that might irk some people, but you really need to go watch it. I'm not going to sit here for 20 minutes and describe to you this iconic piece of artwork that occurred in Hell in a Cell. It starts with the entrances. In all the pomp and circumstance of Sasha coming out with the SUV and the security detail, these two women start fighting, specifically Charlotte, before the cell is even fully [00:18:00] lowered.

A whole match, well, not really match, but a whole, to use a quote from good ol JR, takes place before the match officially begins. It happens, the two women brawl into the crowd, Sasha gets in some offense, Flair gets in some offense, Flair ends up getting in the better of Sasha, at one point the two women are trying to climb the outside of the structure, Flair gets knocked to the ground.

She regains her composure and ends up delivering Sasha through an announce table, I believe the Spanish one, via powerbomb. Michael Cole, one of the GOATs as far as commentary is concerned, does a really fantastic job of describing Sasha's history with her back, that goes into her selling. One of Sasha's [00:19:00] greatest attributes is the fact that she's able to be ragdolled in looking like how a person would actually look if they're getting thrown through a table or on top of a table like what happens later on in this match multiple times.

It looks so believable because it is. And the EMTs come out and they're about to will Sasha away. They're calling the match. Charlotte's going to win by default. And that's when Sasha hops off that gurney and runs into the cage. So this match officially starts then. Absolute lunacy. Remember earlier when I mentioned, That Charlotte had turned on Rick

Well about two thirds of the way through this [00:20:00] match Charlotte either is Very winded and that's why she's emotional and out of breath or she is just Such a great crafts person at what she does which Is what I like to believe Where she is just crying like a child for approval, she's crying for respect, she's begging Sasha but really she's begging Rick.

You can remember being a kid and trying to get your parents attention and affection and praise and validation. That's what makes all this so good, is going deeper, it's now bigger than both of these women that are just absolute ace [00:21:00] when it comes to their craft. This is really about just being accepted for who you are, being able to Rest your own self on your laurels, live up to someone else's expectations, or quite possibly not having to have somebody, in this case a parent, live vicariously through their child in a way that maybe the child doesn't see fit.

I'm not a therapist, I, I, with that breakdown it's probably pretty clear that I need one. I'm But I digress. After Hell in a Cell, this could have been the perfect end to the feud.

Ultimately, in Hell in a Cell, Charlotte wins. Again. She always [00:22:00] wins and keeps on winning. Now, is this the end of the feud? No, not by any stretch of the imagination. This would have been a fantastic spot to end it, and I would suggest that if you're not going to end it here, that we need to go out on a much more band bastic note, which is It's gonna be damn tough because we just had the first ever women's Hell in a Cell main event on a pay per view.

It was an absolute banger, and we are nowhere close to Wrestlemania as far as having this match on a grand stage. So, what do we do? What we do is we march into the November 28th edition of Raw and have an absolutely Killer false count anywhere match where Sasha wins the title back again. And [00:23:00] deservedly so.

Coming out of this is really to me, at any way, where the pedal is sort of gonna meet the pavement. In early December, Rick is gonna come out and endorse Sasha. This is definitely gonna not drive a knife into Charlotte, but it's gonna twist a little bit and In endorsing Sasha, Sasha is gonna sort of repay the favor to Rick and dedicate her title defense, her title victories, to his honor.

Well, this pisses off Charla, Charlotte, deservedly so, and this is all gonna come to a head at Roadblock, end of the line. This is the last pay per view event of the year. This is the last two. Time that these women are going to be able to face off this year. And they use it as a nice way to [00:24:00] bookend this feud.

And we'll say it's tough to follow up a Hell in a Cell match, but a 30 minute Iron Woman match. That's a, that's a pretty good way to follow that up. Once again, with all these feuds, you absolutely need to go watch this. I mean, I don't know what they show in wrestling schools. I would show this match. For as great and historic and awesome, gives me goosebumps just thinking about it, that the Hell in a Cell match is, this 30 minute match.

Is just an absolute cinematic, tour de force, master class, knee deposit halfway through to catch my breath because it's just stunning. Not necessarily fast paced until, you know, the very end. That's how most Iron Man, Iron Woman matches go. [00:25:00] But this one is great. Once again, Flare is coming in as the big, huge, cocky heel.

Very, very, very methodical. What makes Charlotte so great, one of the things that does, and I love it specifically about her, is through this match, as they're trading falls back and forth, and she's not getting maybe as many falls as she would like, she does them. little things like stop to register that she's actually thinking by Hemming her hands sort of play across her chin almost like she's going through her playbook Trying to find something that Sasha hasn't seen yet that she can get one over on her with It's little things like this, instead of just sitting there with a big, wide open mouth after a 2.

9 kick out, that [00:26:00] changes the perception on a subconscious level deep down for people. Instead of being surprised and astonished every single time someone kicks out at 2. 9. This person is already trying to think of the next step, of the next move, submission, maneuver they can do to this person to get the win.

It's absolutely beautiful, it's a really subtle thing, blink and you miss it. If you don't miss it, it makes you really really appreciate the craft of what these people do. Going back to the match itself We're not going to get our first fall until about 19 minutes in and the first ball is going to go to Charlotte via natural selection Sasha's going to get the second fall at about no less than 22 minutes in versus a [00:27:00] really sneaky cover about 90 seconds later She is gonna get another fall via the bank statement.

Right after this, this is where Flair really viciously attacks Sasha's knee. Going back to Sasha being a masterful seller. The way this neat injury and attack looks. makes my meniscus hurt. It looks frickin god awful, and that's what makes it great. It's one of those things that's terrible to say, but Charlotte and Sasha, if you can see me on video, I'm giving you a little bow and a hat tilt.

For that little thing, because, oh man, it looks really, really bad. The fourth fall, Flair's gonna tie it up with three seconds to go in this match, with the figure eight, to tie it up. What do we get? Well, we get sudden death [00:28:00] OT. This is the best scenario that we could be in. Now, going into the sudden death aspect of this match.

Sasha was already wrecked. It doesn't take any more than a couple of minutes for Charlotte to tie a bow in this feud, this match, in this era of her career, with another finger. Here is your winner, and the new Raw Women's Champion, Charlotte Flair! Yes! Charlotte is a four time Women's Champion! We have two apex performers that have been feuding very, very heavily for six months.

Circling each other for the better part of half a decade. And it [00:29:00] comes down to Charlotte Flair picking up the 5th fall via figure 8. Sasha at this point is an absolutely bloody mess. And while she might not come out a victor, she definitely comes out beloved. Charlotte is coming out of Victor, and while she might not be loved in an overtly positive way, I would put her, especially in her heel Charlotte form, in sort of close to that triple H, early 2000s, late 1990s realm.

Where as a heel, he's top notch, hated. But Damn, he's so good, and you want to see him show [00:30:00] up because you know it's going to be an awesome match and a great performance, and you want to see him get stomped. Same thing with Charlotte. You don't have to like her, but like she said throughout this whole feud, You have to respect her.

You have to respect Sasha as well. Both of these women took half a year out of their life to give us literally a lifetime of enjoyment. This feud deserves a much, much deeper dive and a much more intelligent person than myself to dissect it for y'all. The NXT Horsewomen season. Bailey, Becky, Sasha, Charlotte.

All of these women have feuds that we will be going over throughout our time here at Feud Rewind. And, honestly, I wish [00:31:00] That women got more time. This is a fantastic example of a few that could have been told from either a male or female, masculine, femme, however you want to put it perspective, the fact that they let the woman run with it and not only create great moments and great matches, but canon events in history.

That we can look back on and go, this happened eight years ago and the women are still not getting their fair shake that they deserve. If I could believe blunt, that's a little low key bull, but we're not going to drop too much negativity into this podcast.

For this week, that's going to do it. I want to take. Time now to thank the performers involved. [00:32:00] I want to thank everybody listening for taking your time. If you have any comments, criticism, either constructive or destructive suggestions on feuds, you would like to hear me cover anything like that. You can drop me an email at feud rewind at gmail.

com. You can also hit me up on Instagram at feud rewind, or really on anything social media related at feud rewind. I really appreciate your time, I hope you have a fantastic week, and I will be back next time with another Feud to Rewind.