The wrestling world has been in shock ever since Sasha Banks and Naomi walked out of WWE Raw back on May 16.
And now, there are conflicting reports that Sasha Banks may have been released from the company.
Sasha Banks is one of the greatest female talents of the century. A trailblazer in many ways for women’s wrestling and wrestling as a whole.
The real-life cousin of WWE Hall of Famer and multi-platinum record artist Snoop Dogg has put her tag title on WWE official John Laurinaitis’ desk and left.
Banks and her tag team partner Naomi reportedly walked out right before Raw went on the air after feeling disrespected by the company.
On the following SmackDown, WWE announced the suspension of both and stripped them of their tag team titles.
The Boss has been been a multiple-time women’s and tag team champion as well as a WrestleMania Main Eventer.
In addition, she starred in Disney’s ‘The Mandalorian’ a few years back.
There is no argument that Banks is a legit star of the entertainment industry that knows her value.
WWE has given her a lot since her debut in 2012, but is it enough to keep a once-in-a-lifetime performer like her happy?
The company has certainly made a lot of errors with Banks, some of which you can check out here.
6. Short Title Reigns
34 days, 49 days, 8 days, 20 days, 27 days. Sasha Banks’s WWE run has been plagued by short title reigns.
She even went on to be unable to defend her championships for a while. Banks kept losing when it was time to defend.
She might have piled up a big number of them, but with title reigns like that, barely any of them were as meaningful as they should have been.
The Boss deserves better.
5. Second Fiddle To Other Talent
In 2018 WWE produced a tournament called “Mixed Match Challenge”, which featured Banks teaming with Finn Balor.
However, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to WWE’s plans for Sasha Banks in the past.
Often Banks has played second fiddle to other people like Tamina, Naomi, Bayley, Summer Rae, and others.
When Sasha Banks got the chance to shine on her own she shined. But since WWE likes to go the ‘tag-team, then break-up, then feud’ route a lot in their women’s division – this was her destiny.
Instead of putting on great meaningful storylines Sasha Banks, like many others, found herself in endless multi-person matches that rarely truly mixed with her boss attitude.
4. Midcard Matches On PPVs
Her being in nonsense multi-person matches resulted in her rarely having big one-on-one matches on major WWE PPV events in recent months.
In 2021 she had two matches one-on-one at a PPV. One at the Royal Rumble and the historic main event match against Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 37 Night 1.
You could argue that giving her the Women’s Tag Team Championship with Naomi at this year’s WrestleMania 38 might actually elevate the titles.
Which, reportedly, Banks and Naomi also had in mind. But WWE did not.
The WWE Women’s Tag Team belts unfortunately are mid-card titles and the state of the Women’s Tag Team Division is shameful.
3. Whatever Happened On May 16
Both Sasha Banks and Naomi have been heavily criticized for her walk out – but also supported.
WrestleTalk has covered this story at length but to narrow down what we know right now:
Sasha Banks and Naomi apparently were trying to make a feud with Nikki ASH & Doudrop happen, which WWE denied on multiple occasions.
Instead, WWE planned to use the tag team champions as an obstacle to further WWE Raw Women’s Championship storyline between Asuka and Becky Lynch.
Something Banks and Naomi seemingly did not agree with. Which ultimately prompted an assumably very once-sided rare public statement by WWE.
Later that week on SmackDown, Michael Cole announced that both were suspended and the tag team championships will be fought out in a future tournament, which we are still yet to hear anything further on.
2. Not Using Her On Multiple Occasions
Alongside Becky Lynch, Bayley and Charlotte Flair, Banks is one of the Four Horsewomen of WWE.
Yet WWE failed to use her on many occasions. As I previously mentioned when featured on PPV, Sasha Banks usually did not wrestle in singles competition recently.
But in total, Sasha Banks has had phases where WWE barely used her at all despite her being available.
If you can not come up with propper long-term storytelling for a talent like The Boss that knows her worth it is going to backfire eventually.
1. No Royal Rumble or Money In The Bank Victory
The Royal Rumble victory and the Money in The Bank briefcase are some of the biggest accomplishments of the industry.
Yet Sasha Banks, in ten years with the company, has won neither of them.
A guaranteed shot at immortality – not given to someone this talented, despite Banks showing her skill on multiple occasions.
This just adds up with her. And Naomi, despite being incredible by herself, never really got a chance either. And she has been there even longer than Sasha Banks.
WWE’s lack of being able to deal with talent of this magnitude at times just might lead to these situations coming up a lot more often.
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