New Report States Sasha Banks' WWE Release Hasn't Been Finalized
Sasha Banks' status with the WWE isn't quite as clear as originally believed. News broke back on June 15 via Raj Giri of Wrestling Inc. that "The Boss" had been released from her WWE contract roughly one month after she and Naomi walked out of Monday Night Raw and were suspended indefinitely. No other major outlet was able to confirm Giri's report, but no internal sources were able to disprove it either. Dave Meltzer appeared on this week's Sunday Night's Main Event with an update regarding Banks, saying that her release has not been finalized. It was also reported late last week that Banks had her lawyers working on getting her out of her deal.
"As far as I know, the only thing that I have been told is that they are negotiating it right now," Meltzer said. "I don't know that the negotiation is final. I know that it's been written (in media reports) that it is. The last I asked, which would have been two days ago, it was not final but it wouldn't shock me if it happened this week. That is how it was described to me a couple of days ago. Where it is at this moment, I don't know."
Banks and Naomi's walkout was, reportedly, due to the pair disagreeing with WWE's Creative Team over how they weren't being utilized as a tag team. WWE apparently had the idea for them to challenge Bianca Belair and Ronda Rousey for their respective women's championships at Hell in a Cell and ignored their pitch of defending their tag titles against Doudrop and Nikki ASH. The pair were stripped of the tag titles and the promise of a future women's tag team championship tournament was made on TV, but that idea has since been reportedly dropped and the titles have been left in limbo.
"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. 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," WWE's statement on the pair read. "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 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."