The NXT Stable That Launched Sasha Banks & Charlotte Flair’s WWE Careers

Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair are two of the most successful and notable women in WWE history, with a long list of accomplishments, nearly unmatched star power, and a wide array of great matches, with several more years left to in their wrestling careers. Many fans will remember their rise to stardom in NXT, with many fans looking back at Flair breaking out during a match against Natalya, and Banks breaking out with a match against Flair. Each step prompted a change in women’s wrestling, and the start of a “revolution” in WWE. However, fans may forget what came just before that, with the BFFs stable being the thing that kick-started the careers of both Flair and Banks in WWE.

Summer Rae Enlisted The Help Of Sasha Banks, Forming The BFFs

When NXT was repackaged into WWE’s developmental brand, there was a redesigned focus on women’s wrestling, with the match between Paige and Emma at NXT Arrival showcasing that the NXT Women’s Title was being taken seriously. In NXT, the female performers weren’t ‘Divas’, they were ‘Superstars’. That meant better storylines, more focused gimmicks, and less of the classically bad WWE tropes that they had placed on women’s wrestling.

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Early on in Banks’ run with NXT, she was initially presented as a babyface who mostly put over others on the roster, but for several weeks, Summer Rae was attempting to push Banks to become something more, with a persistence to make Banks relevant in NXT. In September of 2013, Banks turned heel, attacking Paige following a match, and joining forces with Rae. A few weeks later, Banks cut a promo in which she called herself “The Boss”, which would be the gimmick that would define her going forwards for the next eight years of her WWE career. Rae and Banks called themselves the BFFs, which stood for Beautiful, Fierce Females.

Charlotte Flair Joined The BFFs, Teaming Up With Sasha Banks And Summer Rae

Over the next couple of months, Rae and Banks attempted to enlist other women on the roster, including Bayley. However, the individual to finally join their ranks ended up being Charlotte Flair, marking a heel turn for her too. It is certainly strange to think that Rae was at the forefront of the group initially, and this would lead to her main roster call-up after a few months, leaving Banks and Flair as the remaining members of the BFFs in NXT. The trio were very good together, and provided a mixture of strong promo work, good in-ring talent, and a lot of charisma, which allowed them to stand out as the top heels in developmental.

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After teaming with Banks for a little while, Flair would eventually find herself in the tournament finals to crown a new NXT Women’s Champion, where she would defeat Natalya to win the belt. Her alliance with Banks still existed, but they were slowly drifting apart. A brief return from Rae kept the pair together, but it wasn’t long until everything imploded. Flair would eventually stop putting up with Banks, leading to the dissolution of the group, as Flair gradually turned face, much to the annoyance of Banks.

The BFFs Stable Helped To Create Two All-Time WWE Greats

Their alliance within the BFFs stable created come great conflict and a strong story as Banks targeted Flair and her NXT Women’s Title. This added a lot of heat to their eventual match, which was an incredible battle at NXT Takeover: R Evolution, turning both of these two women into stars. In the following months, Bayley and Becky Lynch were added to the title scene. The four became what would be known as the ‘Four Horsewomen’, with them arguably being the biggest female names in the world at this point within the professional wrestling world.

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This all stemmed from the BFFs, as what followed was a direct consequence of the goings on in that stable. The friendship and conflict between Banks and Flair started here, which would then be taken to the main roster, with the two having the first ever all-female PPV main event in WWE history in 2016, as they battled at the Hell in a Cell PPV.

The group was also responsible for the highly popular “Boss” persona for Banks, which would help her eventually become NXT Champion, sparking an all-time feud with Bayley that contained one of the best female matches of all time. Although Banks has swapped between the babyface and heel sides throughout her career, she has always retained elements of the gimmick which started within the BFFs, making the faction hugely important to what women’s wrestling is today. Without this faction, the careers of Flair and Banks might not be where they are today, and the women’s division in WWE could have turned out completely differently.