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To say that the situation between Sasha Banks and her position in the WWE is tumultuous is an understatement. Her refusal to show up after 'Mania isn't unprecedented, but it is one of the most recent examples of a current WWE superstar not even showing up for work in order to express unhappiness.
The former Neville did the same a few years ago when he was booked to lose the Cruiserweight Title to Enzo Amore after a dominant and lengthy reign. Neville was a top-notch performer while Amore got by because he was electric on the mic. In the ring, Amore wasn't the most technical.
Even before Neville sat at home until his contract ran out, the most infamous recent example has to be when CM Punk walked out of the WWE following the 2014 Royal Rumble due to frustrations with WWE. One truth about the situation, and that usually is the case with situations like this, is that neither side is 100% right or 100% at fault.
Since the story will continue to go on until an agreement is reached between Banks and the WWE for either reconciliation or release, it will still remain a stalemate until things are rectified. In the meantime, here are three reasons why Banks is at fault and three reasons why WWE shares some of the faults.
Sasha is at fault - There are people who have been booked a lot worse than her
One thing that Sasha Banks may not have taken into account is that even if she feels that she is being under-booked, there are numerous other Superstars that have fared worse than she has. A prime example of this is the Riott Squad. While Riot may have gotten the upper hand at points in her feud with Natalya last Summer, she ultimately lost that feud.
Her group also lost almost every feud following that. That's not even mentioning the handling of the Squad during the whole Becky Lynch-Ronda Rousey-Charlotte Flair program build. Riot actually received a title shot at Elimination Chamber but was dispatched in less than two minutes.
If that isn't more unfavorable booking of a talented Superstar, then I don't know what is. And during the main event build for 'Mania, the whole 'Beat the Clock Challenge' that had no real purpose only made the Riott Squad look even worse. Morgan lost in under two minutes to Lynch, while Rousey and Flair dispatched of Riott and Sarah Logan respectively in under five minutes each.
While Banks has had some unfortunate bookings while on Raw, she's at least won a lot of matches, unlike the Riott Squad. Superstars like Dana Brooke and Mickie James rarely ever appeared on Raw and when they did, it was likely in a losing effort. There is a need for some wrestlers to lose to others, and the point is that Banks has fared a lot better than some other of the ladies on her show.
WWE is at fault - WWE reportedly told her day of 'Mania about title loss
The whole maturation of the friendship of Bayley and Banks has been on full display from their time fighting against each other in NXT to their time on the main roster. It was believable that they were friends onscreen and off because of the fact that the WWE Universe was able to witness almost every pivotal moment in their careers.
Because of that relationship, they were the easy and sentimental choice to become the first-ever Women's Tag Team Champions. That thought became reality when they walked out of the Elimination Chamber as champions and also defeated Tamina and Nia Jax at Fastlane. It was evident that a multi-team match was on the books for WrestleMania, but when the day of the show came, the cart fell off the wheels.
After the show, reports came out that the champs were told that they would be dropping the titles on the day of 'Mania. They were also told that they were going to be broken up during the upcoming Superstar Shakeup. I don't know how WWE expected the former champs to react, but sometimes bosses underestimate how some employees may react to news of a change.
Bayley and Banks were probably elated to not only be champs but to also be defending the titles at 'Mania. For WWE to tell them of the new directions on the day of the PPV was only likely to lead to unhappiness.
Banks is at fault - Only the top three or four stars in the company will routinely be booked the best
Sasha Banks probably thinks she is the best Superstar in the WWE and she should. Athletes need to always think that they are the best in order to remain confident that they can accomplish anything. If she didn't think that way, she probably wouldn't have gotten as far as she has in the wrestling industry.
But physically, she's one of the smaller women in the company and that usually comes into play when booking matches. She might be able to take a lot of punishment, but regardless of that, only the top few stars in the men's and women's division are going to be booked strongly year-round.
Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair were obviously the top dogs on Raw and SmackDown respectively. They had to keep Rousey's mystique going as the 'Baddest Woman on the Planet' since she was a legit butt-kicker in the UFC. And unfortunately for the rest of the women in WWE, Flair is a favorite of 'the Chairman' and management.
Those two women are always going to kept looking strong, which is why their match at Survivor Series ended in disqualification after Flair mercilessly attacked Rousey with a kendo stick. They didn't want either woman to lose, especially since they planned on the triple threat main event for 'Mania.
And I'm not even going to get into the booking of Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar and the rest of the men in WWE. Banks might think she's the biggest star in the WWE, but she's not always going to be the champion. There are many women who haven't been champions yet (Brooke, Ember Moon, Lana, Mandy Rose, Riott Squad, Sonya Deville), so perhaps 'the Boss' persona was partially an extension of herself when outside the ring.
WWE is at fault - Banks has never had an extended run with any title on main roster
During the brand split, Banks and Flair routinely battled over the Raw Women's Title, usually in 'first-ever' type matches like their Hell in a Cell match. When they were feuding a few years ago, they traded the title with each other so many times, it started to lessen the prestige of being the Raw Women's Champion.
While Flair was allowed to defend the title against Banks and other opponents, every time Banks captured the title, she dropped it every time she tried to defend it. It clearly led to frustration for Banks. Nia Jax even poked fun at that during the build to their match at Fastlane. While Banks and Bayley defeated Jax and Tamina, the duo would lose the titles at the next PPV, WrestleMania 35.
The fact is, Sasha Banks has never been given a proper run with any title on the main roster, so it can't be all that surprising when she reacts angrily when history continually repeated itself around her. If one or more of her reigns was at least a few months long, she probably would have been a little happier.
The whole adage that you're not really a champion until you defend your title is almost completely true, and because of that, Banks' reigns as champion have asterisks next to them in the history books.
Banks is at fault - She's been one of the top women with the company for years and knows how things work in WWE
When the 'Women's Revolution' in WWE was essentially created by Paige in response to the unfortunate nature of the 'Divas Era' in WWE. Banks, Flair, and Lynch made main roster debuts and immediately changed women's wrestling in WWE. They had already been doing so for a few years down in NXT, but things took a lot longer to change on the main roster.
Women hadn't main-evented a PPV in WWE history and weren't allowed to have matches like Hell in a Cell or an Extreme Rules match. Once those women joined the main roster, those matches happened, and during her time on the main roster, Banks had to have realized how things work on Raw and SmackDown opposed to how things go down in NXT.
People don't always have the same success on the main roster that they had in NXT, but Banks is a five-time champion on Raw. The bookers were going to have their favorites and Mr. McMahon is known to change his mind many times before signing off on some things.
While giving her the news of dropping the titles and a split from Bayley on the same day was likely not the best decision, she had to have known that it was a possibility regardless of what she wanted to do with the belts.
WWE is at fault - Most women were going to be used to help make Ronda Rousey look invincible
To anyone who saw how things were handled with booking for Brock Lesnar, they might have been able to predict the same once the former UFC Bantamweight Champion joined the WWE. Lesnar was always booked to look strong and was an unstoppable force of nature. He defeated practically every challenger from Braun Strowman to Finn Balor to Samoa Joe to Kane to Dean Ambrose.
Rousey was a huge star outside of the WWE and was going to be booked as a world-beater regardless of the opponent. In order to maintain the aura of invincibility around Rousey, every Raw woman, and not just a few, was going to probably lose to Rousey at one point or another.
That meant that women like Bayley, Jax, Banks, Alexa Bliss, and many others had to take their turns losing when facing Rousey. And let's not forget poor Ruby Riot's booking when she faced Rousey for the title earlier this year.
WWE may have inadvertently upset a lot of their women performers with maintaining Rousey's aura of mystique. Some people have rolled with the punches so to speak, but it was never going to be rainbows and puppy dogs while Rousey was beating most of Raw's women on a weekly basis.
