Last Monday as Monday Night RAW was going on the air behind the scenes the women’s tag team champions were making a stand. Sasha Banks and Naomi walked out as the show was going on air due to the pair having real frustrations about their storylines going forward for the next two months.
To summarize, Naomi & Sasha were to take part in a 6-Pack challenge featuring Banks, Naomi, Piper Nevin, Nikki Cross, Asuka and Becky Lynch to determine the #1 contender for RAW Women’s Champion Bianca Belair at the upcoming PPV Hell in a Cell. The booking decision called for Naomi to go over and challenge Belair. While some reports had Naomi pinning Piper Nevin for the win most reports had Naomi pinning her tag team partner Banks to close the show. When Banks found out about the planned match, she called a meeting with CEO Vince McMahon to discuss her concerns with the match and the plans for the tag team champions and tag team division going forward. When it became clear Banks & Naomi’s concerns and frustrations were falling on deaf ears, they both decided enough was enough.
By the time Vince McMahon found out Naomi and Sasha left, he became irate and began rewriting the show on the fly. He had Becky Lynch film a backstage promo to help set up the main event match with her & Asuka while announcer Corey Graves was told to say that, “Naomi & Sasha Banks summarily & unprofessionally left the arena” causing the change in the main event. About an hour into the show WWE released a statement about the walkout:
When Sasha Banks and Naomi arrived at the arena this afternoon, they were informed of their participation in the main event of tonight’s Monday Night Raw.
quote courtesy of WWE.com
During the broadcast, they walked into WWE Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis office with their suitcases in hand, placed their tag team championship belts on his desk and walked out.
They claimed they weren’t respected enough as tag team champions. And even though they had eight hours to rehearse and construct their match, they claimed they were uncomfortable in the ring with two of their opponents even though they’d had matches with those individuals in the past with no consequence. Monday Night Raw is a scripted live TV show, whose characters are expected to perform the requirements of their contract.
We regret we were unable to deliver, as advertised, tonight’s main event.
For WWE to release a statement less than halfway through the show was unprecedented and smacked of pettiness and unprofessionalism. The statement read as a burial of Banks & Naomi and a way to denigrate both wrestlers who were simply voicing their concerns over shoddy booking and a need to highlight the women’s division in general and the tag team championships in particular.
A few things stood out to me regarding WWE’s hastily put together & false statement:
- According to several reports, the main event was not announced or advertised as the show went on the air.
- Contrary to the statement, Banks & Naomi left the arena right before RAW went on the air.
- WWE never announces that their show is scripted & that the performers work on constructing the match in official statements.
- Naomi & Sasha did not nor have they ever had a problem working with Piper & Nikki.
- Even when matches are advertised WWE always adds the fine print of the card being subject to change.
Banks & Naomi’s concern was, and is, valid. They have worked hard over the last 3 months to try and make the tag titles relevant when Vince McMahon & WWE has made it very clear that tag team wrestling as a whole is not important to them. The storyline after the 6-Pack challenge would’ve had Naomi challenge Bianca Belair at HIAC with Bianca while Sasha was going to go to SmackDown to challenge Ronda Rousey for the SmackDown Women’s title at Money in the Bank with Ronda going over. In short, the tag team champions would have been used for the next 2 months to put over the singles champions. The tag team titles would’ve been devalued once again.
A Twitter user whom Naomi follows offered what could be Naomi & Sasha’s side of the story:
The thing is WWE could’ve still had Piper & Nikki featured in a Fatal 4-Way or they could’ve added two other women into the match – something both Banks & Naomi lobbied for. WWE opted to go with a one on one match use Naomi & Sasha’s walkout as the reason Piper & Nikki were removed from the match to further paint the two in a negative light. It speaks to WWE creative being unwilling and unable to showcase more than a couple of wrestlers. With all the talent on the women’s roster WWE solely chooses to focus on 4 women – Charlotte Flair, Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch & Bianca Belair. It’s a problem not just in WWE but with the industry as a whole regardless of if they’re male or female. There are tons of talented women’s wrestlers but their time for being showcased pales in comparison to the men and even with the men the focus is simply on the men WWE feels can ‘move the needle’. Athena, formerly known to WWE fans as Ember Moon, spoke about WWE’s lack of creative continuity.
Fast forward to this past Friday on SmackDown and lead announcer Michael Cole announces that Sasha Banks and Naomi are suspended indefinitely, stripped of their titles and a tournament to determine the new tag teams will be forthcoming. Cole began the announcement with the statement that Naomi & Sasha “let us all down”. It was a painfully awkward statement read by Cole while Pat McAfee listened with raised eyebrows:
Late Friday night all of Naomi & Sasha’s merchandise was pulled from WWE Shop, their images removed from the TV intros and their Facebook pages were scrubbed. This all reads of a smear campaign against the two ladies and the levels that WWE are taking to publicly shame Banks & Naomi speaks to more than just the company being upset with two of its talents. It smacks of them using Sasha & Naomi as an example for other wrestlers not to try to speak up for themselves. It also speaks to WWE’s(and the wrestling industry as a whole) handling of how they’ve dealt with wrestlers of color. Keep in mind back in 2016 Titus O’Neal was suspended 60 days for simply playfully grabbing Vince McMahon. Keith Lee was labeled as ‘problematic’ after Lee had questions about his booking and character portrayal. Mustafa Ali had concerns about his character development which led to him being stuck in catering for months and being denied his release. He’s currently still with the company but being sparingly used(i.e. being squashed by Veer). And let’s not even venture into the decades of sickening stereotypes and storylines that performers of color had to go through. So offensive were they that NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service 86’d those segments from its streaming site.
There are those who will say that Naomi & Sasha were unprofessional, spoiled brats and they should’ve just gone with the program. I wonder if those who said that kept that same energy when Jeff Hardy bolted or when Toni Storm packed up & went back to Australia. Did they keep that same energy when Stone Cold Steve Austin left? CM Punk? Shawn Michaels? Naomi & Sasha are world class athletes who put their bodies on the line to entertain and only want what’s best for the profession they both love and a women’s division that is sorely underutilized. It always amazes me when people argue for corporations who show little to no loyalty for their employees(Oh by the way wrestlers are not employees – they’re independent contractors. People should look up the difference.) and expect these wrestlers to just ‘shut up & play ball’. I wonder if those same people would just suck it up at their place of employment if their concerns & questions continued to fall on deaf ears. It further amazes me that some people who are all for diversity & showcasing light for black wrestlers are now on radio silence when these two black women are having their reputations trashed by a company that has the type of sordid history WWE has. I applaud Naomi & Sasha Banks for standing up for what they believe and holding firm to those beliefs even at the cost of possibly being released from WWE or worse yet having their contracts frozen and being stuck in catering. This whole fiasco makes WWE look petty, incompetent, shabby and second rate. If WWE is truly interested in doing what’s best for business, they should start by truly valuing the talent they have. The perfect place to start is with Naomi & Sasha Banks.
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