WWE has reportedly released Sasha Banks.
The surprising news comes a month after Banks walked out during an episode of WWE Raw in May with her tag team partner Naomi, reportedly over creative differences and feeling that the WWE women’s tag team division wasn’t being taken seriously by the company. The two were WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions at the time.
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News of the release was first reported by Wrestling Inc founder Raj Giri, who said that “I’m hearing Sasha Banks has been released. I don’t know if [she] requested it or if it was on WWE’s end.” Details are currently unclear with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp unable to confirm the release with WWE as of yet. ComingSoon will make sure to update the post as more details come in.
We’ve been unable to confirm the Sasha Banks news as of yet.
She’s on the roster page, WWE reps haven’t confirmed, talent relations hasn’t issued anything to talent, and no internal memos have gone out yet.
We’ll keep digging to get an answer. If it happened, it’s been quietly
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) June 16, 2022
Back in May, WWE issued a statement on both Banks and Naomi leaving and subsequently suspended the pair.
“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,” said WWE. “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.”
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A five-time WWE Raw Women’s Champion and a one-time WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion, Banks was a face of the women’s division’s renaissance in the past decade having also main evented WrestleMania with Bianca Belair in 2021. “The Boss” first became a star in WWE NXT, where she had a memorable feud with Bayley, who she would later hold the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship twice with.
Banks, whose real name is Mercedes Varnado, has branched out into the world of acting as she appeared in two episodes of The Mandalorian as Koska Reeves.