WrestleMania 36 match breakdown: The Women’s Five Pack Challenge

Update 4/5: After some early fighting, including a brief reunion between Tamina, Sasha, and Naomi of the previous faction Team BAD, the four other women teamed up to eliminate the monster Tamina together. Sasha then gave Naomi the Bank Statement, and she fell by the wayside via submission. Then Bayley and Sasha teamed up to beat up Lacey, but a missed knee from Bayley flattened Sasha, and then Lacey flattened Sasha with A Woman’s Right.

And with Bayley and Lacey Evans the only two left, it looked like Evans was going to get the title after she hit a huge moonsault. But because the match was no disqualification, Sasha came back in and hit a backstabber on Evans that proved to be the difference. Bayley then got the 1-2-3 on Evans, and the sometimes turncoat Banks helped her best friend walk out with the title. But you could feel the tension as they walked out of the ring.

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Sometimes WWE mass matches can turn into spot-fests that are tough to follow and not always easy to process, but this one has some potential. You’ve got three very talented workers, a monster that’s had a nice build in Tamina, and... um... Lacey Evans too.

Dana Brooke will been held out of this match due to coronavirus concerns, but we can still get quite a showdown for SmackDown at WrestleMania 36 this weekend.

Bayley (C, SmackDown Women’s Champion) vs. Lacey Evans vs. Dana Brooke vs. Tamina vs. Naomi vs. Sasha Banks

How did this feud develop

Pretty straightforward. Live on Skype, Paige was empowered by Fox to set a match for Bayley at WrestleMania. And Bayley, rightly reminding Paige she’s beaten everyone in the division, let her mouth got a bit ahead of her desire to fight. And the stakes kept getting upped, all the way down to her bestie Sasha Banks being put in the match as well.

Where this feud stands now

Since Paige is no longer able to wrestle due to a career-ending injury, all we know is she won’t be getting in the ring. But otherwise this is wide open. There’s a good dynamic between all the women involved, and having all of them gang up on Tamina early might be the plan. She’s looked super-strong in her last few tv appearances.

The pick

You can make a good argument for any of the five women on the roster here, but I think having it come down to Bayley and Sasha Banks at the end might be the most fun ending. They’ve already had their battles, but they friend/foe dynamic between them is unending, and they’ve already had the best women’s match in sports entertainment history, and what was possibly the match of the decade anywhere. Let them finish it off one more time.

Or let Naomi get a big win in her hometown, about 15 minutes down the GreeneWay from her alma mater, Oviedo High School.