Sasha Banks is truly a fantastic wrestler, her character is unique and she’s held the RAW Women’s Championship 4x and the NXT Women’s Championship. Eddie Guerrero has always been a massive influence of Sasha’s. She’s currently teaming with Bayley on RAW and there’s even chatter of them both being the first ever Women’s Tag Team Champions.
Sasha Banks began training in 2008 and made her debut under the name Mercedes KV in 2010 in a losing effort intergender tag team match. As part of Chaotic Wrestling, she took part in a 5 Woman Gauntlet to determine the first ever Chaotic Women’s Champion which she unfortunately lost. Sasha did win the Championship eventually in 2011 in a “I Quit” match, she had many successful title defences. She became the longest reigning Chaotic Women’s Champion beating Alexxis’ previous record. The Chaotic Woman’s Championship was declared vacant in August of 2012, ending her 260 day reign, after she signed with WWE.
It was in NXT that she shook off the Mercedes KV character and became Sasha Banks. Her TV debut was against Paige in a losing effort, she had winning effort against Alicia Fox, Sasha then entered into a storyline where she received letters from a secret admirer. The admirer turned out to be Audrey Marie, who attacked her upon her return as she was portrayed of being jealous of Sasha. The feud with Audrey ended when she teamed with Paige to defeat Audrey and Summer Rae. Sasha entered the tournament to determine the inaugural NXT Women’s Champion but lost to Summer in the first round.
Summer Rae slowly influenced Sasha into becoming a lot more relevant and then Sasha teaming with Summer debuted her fantastic character The Boss. She and Summer daubed themselves The BFF’S (The Beautiful Fierce Females) and they started making themselves known in NXT and Charlotte even turned on Bayley to join The BFF’S. Summer Rae moved up to the main roster, Sasha and Charlotte continued to team and feuded with Bayley and Natalya. Sasha entered another tournament to win the vacant NXT Women’s Championship but lost in the semi finals to Natalya. The BFF’S broke up after a winning effort against Becky Lynch and Bayley, Charlotte left after the match and Bayley attacked Sasha.
Sasha lost a number one contendership for the NXT Women’s Championship, Sasha attacked Bayley after her title match against Charlotte but Charlotte stopped her. Becky Lynch also attacked Bayley and the pair aligned with each other. Sasha had several unsuccessful title matches and at one point, Becky even attacked Charlotte causing a disqualification. Dissention appeared between Becky and Sasha. Sasha was finally successful in gaining the NXT Women’s Championship in a Fatal Four-way with the Four Horsewomen.
Sasha had many successful title defences and then was called up to the main roster along with Charlotte and Becky Lynch as part of the Women’s Revolution, she dropped the NXT Women’s Championship to Bayley at NXT TakeOver Brooklyn. After the match, Bayley celebrated in the ring with Sarah, Becky and Charlotte, it was daubed one of the greatest women’s matches in NXT. Sasha’s last NXT match was against Bayley in an Iron Man Match at NXT TakeOver Respect.
On the main roster, Sasha was part of Team B.A.D (Beautiful and Dangerous), over the month, Sasha had multiple matches and even entered into a feud with Paige. Sasha started a winning streak, but had a few months off due to injury. Upon her return at Royal Rumble 2016, she attacked Becky Lynch and Charlotte after their title match, Sasha declared that Team B.A.D was over and even attacked Tamina Snuka and Naomi the girls who formed Team B.A.D. Sasha entered a number one contendership to be Divas Champion, but the first match ended in a double pin, the second match ended after Charlotte attacked them both. It was then decided that it would be a Triple Threat match for the Divas Championship at WrestleMania 32, the Divas Championship was ditched for the RAW Women’s Championship which Charlotte won.
After WrestleMania 32 and a brief hiatus, Sasha had a few matches before the brand split. Sasha remained with RAW, the first RAW match of the brand split, Sasha was crowned RAW Women’s Championship for the very first time. For the rest of 2016, the RAW Women’s Championship went back and forth between Charlotte and Sasha. The feud was electric and they even had the first event women’s Hell In A Cell match, and they had my favourite match of the feud a Falls Count Anywhere in which Sasha wrenched Charlotte through a stair handrail with the Banks Statement. The feud ended with and I Quit match in which Charlotte won the RAW Women’s Championship and Sasha was RAW Women’s Champion 3x.
Sasha then entered into a feud with Nia Jax and she helped Bayley defeat Charlotte for the RAW Women’s Championship. Sasha had another unsuccessful attempt at grabbing the RAW Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 33, Sasha entered a gauntlet match to determine the next number one contender for the RAW Women’s Championship which she won. Unfortunately, she didn’t win the Championship match at Great Balls of Fire, even though she won, it was a win via Count Out which meant Champion Alexa Bliss retained. Sasha did win at SummerSlam and this was her 4th and to date final RAW Women’s Championship run, which unfortunately like all her other title reigns didn’t last long.
Sasha, teamed with Bayley and Mickie James to go against Absolution (Paige, Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose) in December of 2017, she had a history making title match against Alexa Bliss in Abu Dhabi. Sasha took part in the first ever women’s Royal Rumble in 2018, as the first entrant. She had an excellent spot with Trish Stratus, she lasted 54 minutes and was eliminated by The Bella Twins. Sasha also took part in the first ever women’s Elimination Chamber match which she lost, although she did help Alexa Bliss win after helping her eliminate Bayley. After lots of animosity teased between Bayley and Sasha, they brawled backstage, they did have a match but it ended in no contest due to The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan) attacked them both.
Sasha competed in the second women’s Money In the Bank match to a losing effort. All over summer, Sasha attacked Bayley and they even had “counselling” during which Sasha declared that she loved Bayley despite their differences. They then became known as the Boss N Hug Connection, Sasha had time off due to an undisclosed injury and returned in October. Sasha took part in the first ever all women’s PPV – Evolution, she was teamed with Bayley and Natalya against The Riott Squad which they won. Sasha was the last women on Team RAW at Survivor Series and was eliminated by Asuka after being attacked by Nia Jax. After countless more matches against The Riott Squad, Sasha defeated Nia Jax to become the new number one contender for the RAW Women’s Championship. The match will take place at this year’s Royal Rumble against Ronda Rousey.
I would absolutely love for Sasha to walk into WrestleMania 35 as RAW Women’s Champion but I think WWE are determined for her to be the first ever Women’s Tag Champions with Bayley. Either way, Sasha is an absolutely sensational wrestler and has had great career, hopefully she does become women’s Champion again and it’s a lengthy reign.
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