Sasha Banks appears to be one of the victims of the injury bug that’s been going around the WWE locker room lately.
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According to a report from Wrestling Observer‘s Dave Meltzer, Banks has not been cleared to wrestle since her match with Ronda Rousey at the Royal Rumble. She was still not cleared as of Monday, but WWE was able to work around it by having Alicia Fox and Nikki Cross attack her on the entrance ramp prior to a tag match on this week’s Raw, forcing Bayley to work the entire match alone without Banks ever tagging in.
Meltzer noted that it’s rare for WWE to even allow someone out to the ring when they’re not cleared for in-ring competition, but it’s possible it was done to have the Boss ‘n Hug Connection still qualify for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship Elimination Chamber match at the Feb. 17 pay-per-view.
Banks is reportedly expected to be cleared for that match, though the extent of her injury has not been revealed.
Other recently injured stars include Men’s Royal Rumble winner Seth Rollins, who is currently dealing with a back injury, and AJ Styles, who is reportedly working through a hernia. Also on SmackDown Live this week Mustafa Ali suffered a nasty black eye from his match with Randy Orton.
Banks spent the second half of 2018 tag teaming with Bayley after the two appeared to be headed towards a feud that called back to their multiple classic matches from their time in NXT. She dipped her toe back into singles action at the start of the year when Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey granted her a title match at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, which the former UFC Champion won.
After the match Banks opted to throw up four fingers in Rousey’s direction, hinting at a potential feud between the Four Horsewomen of WWE (Banks, Bayley, Charlotte Flair and Bekcy Lynch) and the Four Horsewomen of MMA (Rousey, NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir). The night after the Rumble Rousey was challenged by another of the Horsewomen in Lynch, who won the Women’s Royal Rumble match the night prior after last eliminating Flair.
That feud continued this week when Lynch was suspended by Stephanie McMahon for refusing to have a doctor examine the knee she injured during the Rumble match. This carried over to SmackDown Live, where Lynch attempted to storm the ring to attack Flair only to be stopped by Triple H.
