Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks lost their bid for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships at WWE Fastlane amid more miscues that led to Banks taking a pinfall loss. Following the match, Sasha Banks continued her heel behavior, slapping Belair and calling her a “rookie.”

WWE leaned on a familiar trope of two babyfaces chasing for the tag team championships throughout WrestleMania season, a trope that was again used this week with Finn Balor and the heel Karrion Kross. In the case of Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks, this has undermined what should have been a historically significant and creatively fulfilling feud.

With up-and-coming Bianca Belair calling herself the EST of WWE, while the highly decorated Sasha Banks countered that she’s the “B-EST of WWE,” WWE had a built-in storyline with two of its most successful top stars vying for the richest prize in their division on SmackDown. Instead, WWE merged this one-one-one feud into a comedy angle involving Reginald and Nia Jax, and Sasha suddenly finds herself in a love triangle that nobody asked for.

Among the many vocal critics of this angle was WWE’s own Corey Graves, who is opposed to seeing two world title contenders chase the Women’s Tag Team Championships this close to WrestleMania.

“The Nia/Shayna story is about two foes that became partners so I’ve seen it enough,” said Graves on his After the Bell podcast.

“I’m out on it, I would love to see them as tag team champions but not what is leading into a WrestleMania story because I believe the two individuals themselves have a great story just based on Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair, the Tom Brady vs. Patrick Mahomes scenario. I don’t need anything to water this down. Let it breathe on it’s own, let it naturally blossom into what I believe will be a phenomenal WrestleMania moment come April.”

Unfortunately, this feud has been watered down in conjunction with Graves’ worst fear. What once was a storyline about competitive dominance has now devolved into an episode of Jerry Springer with way too many moving parts in a feud that only required two women.

The good news is Banks and Belair can now move on to focus on one another in the home stretch of WrestleMania season. On paper, there’s enough talent bettween these two to overcome this feud’s shortcomings in the ring.