Sasha Banks is just 24 years old and already a 2-time WWE Women’s Champion and a former NXT Women’s Champion. She’s also one of the four horsewomen – the foursome who’ve helped bring in the era of women’s wrestling in the WWE. From her battles with Bayley in NXT to her wars with Charlotte on the main roster, Sasha has impressed with every opportunity she’s been given.
Along with her contemporaries, she’s leading the charge of women’s wrestling in the new era. Sasha and Charlotte’s match got some of the biggest reactions on Raw last week and she’s played her part in helping cement the women as top attractions in the WWE and they are no longer a side show.
10: Her cousin is Snoop Dogg
Sasha Banks is the cousin of rapper, Snoop Dogg. Snoop is a WWE fan himself and used to take his young cousin to WWE events and even took her backstage where she met the likes of John Cena. Sasha begged Snoop when she was 16 to take her backstage to Wrestlemania XXIV and he obliged.
Snoop famously walked Sasha down the ramp at Wrestlemania 32 while performing her theme song. Even though Sasha was unsuccessful that night, the image of Snoop accompanying her to the ring for her first Wrestlemania match will live on.
9: Her first ring name
Sasha started her wrestling training in 2008 at Chaotic Wrestling in her native Massachusetts. Chaotic Wrestling has also had other WWE Superstars like John Cena and Kofi Kingston pass through its ranks. As the only woman in the class, she learned to wrestle by facing male opponents.
At the time, she wrestled under the ring-name Mercedes KV which is a play on her real name Mercedes Kaestner-Varnado. She settled on the name Sasha Banks soon after joining the WWE Performance Center and is an amalgamation of two different names she’d come up with.
8: Her mother tried to stop her from watching wrestling
Sasha has been a wrestling fan from her teenage years but one person who wasn’t always a wrestling fan was her mother. Sasha’s mother used to ask her to switch off the television when she caught Sasha watching wrestling as a youngster.
This led to Sasha watching matches in her brother’s room and on his television instead, away from her mother’s eyes. Sasha recently revealed that her mother is far more tolerant towards wrestling nowadays with her daughter one of the biggest stars in the current generation of the industry and even calls her up after matches, especially if Sasha was on the losing end.
7: Favourite wrestlers
It’s well documented that Sasha’s favourite wrestler of all time is the late great Eddie Guerrero. Sasha has spoken of her love for Eddie on numerous occasions and has paid homage to him on quite a few occasions. Sasha was coincidentally also in attendance at Eddie's memorial episode of Raw on November 14, 2005, in Minneapolis and has revealed that she was unaware of Guerrero’s death before she arrived at the arena.
As far as female wrestlers are concerned, even though she was a huge fan of Trish Stratus and Molly Holly, her all-time favourite female wrestler is Japanese legend Akira Hokuto.
6: Asian pop-culture nerd
Sasha appeared on Xavier Wood’s YouTube gaming channel “UPUPDOWNDOWN” earlier this year that she’s a huge Asian pop-culture nerd, especially Korean pop-culture and has named Rain and G-Dragon as some of her favourite musicians. Sasha is also a huge anime fan and cites Japanese anime series Sailor Moon as one of her favourite shows, especially citing the Selena character.
Even Sasha’s love for wrestling began in the far east as she grew up a huge fan of All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling which had a much more hard hitting style than the Divas of WWE’s past.
5: She weighed 99 pounds when she started training
Even now, Sasha Banks is one of the smaller women amongst WWE’s women wrestlers. Sasha recently revealed she weighed just 99 pounds when she began first began training so imagine how much smaller Sasha was back then when she first learn how to take bumps and suchlike.
Sasha has also revealed that she only began proper strength training and lifting weights after signing with the WWE and joining the WWE Performance Center.
4: Her favourite trainer was Norman Smiley
Sasha signed for WWE in 2012 soon after a successful tryout and hasn’t looked backed since. During her time at the Performance Center she’s been under the wings of some of the most talented names in the pro wrestling industry including the late Dusty Rhodes, Joey Mercury and Sara Amato who has covertly helped usher in the era of women’s wrestling in the WWE.
However, Sasha’s favourite trainer at the Performance Center was former WCW Cruiserweight Champion Norman Smiley. Although Smiley was never a big name during his wrestling career, he has taken to coaching by storm and is one of the most popular trainers at the WWE Performance Center.
3: Married to a WWE seamstress
Sasha Banks broke the hearts of countless fans when she married Sarath Ton earlier this year in a private ceremony. Ton is a former wrestler turned WWE seamstress and costume designer who will be familiar to UpUpDownDown fans as ‘Mikaze’.
Sarath Ton started off as an independent wrestler under the name Kid Mikaze before moving on to another area he excelled at. Ton moved on to designing the costumes of several WWE Superstars including his wife, Sasha Banks.
Speaking of costume design…….
2: Ring outfits inspired by Beyonce, Eddie and others
Sasha Banks looks stunning both inside and outside the ring and has some incredible ring-gear to boot. What fans might not know is that Sasha’s ring gear is often based on her influences and others.
While originally looking for inspiration, Sasha was initially inspired by popstar Beyonce, with Sasha admiring the way in which Beyonce always turned heads wherever she went. Her attire went heavy on bling and diamonds, accompanied by her shades which helped Sasha stand out from amongst the crowd.
For her Iron Woman match against Bayley at NXT TakeOver: Respect, Sasha got her attire that night to look like the stuff she originally wore in the indies and is a throwback to the early days of her career. As for her Wrestlemania debut earlier this year in Dallas, Sasha got a costume inspired by her hero, Eddie Guerrero.
1: One of the first women to main event a Raw since 2004
Sasha Banks and Charlotte main-evented Raw last week when Charlotte faced off with Sasha, defending her WWE Raw Women’s Championship. Sasha and Charlotte put on a spectacular match that was more than worthy of its spot in the card with Sasha leaving with the title on the night after forcing Charlotte to tap out to the Banks Statement.
In the process, Sasha and Charlotte became the first women to main event an episode of Raw since Trish Stratus and Lita faced off for the Women’s Championship 12 years ago in 2004.
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