Sasha Banks and Naomi walked out of an episode of Monday Night Raw back in May over a creative dispute about how they were being booked as WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. The pair dropped the titles on John Laurinaitis’ desk and left the arena, prompting WWE to suspend the pair indefinitely, strip them of their titles and have the commentary teams for both Raw and SmackDown publicly chastize them for weeks. But just two months later both Laurinaitis and Vince McMahon were gone from the company, leading fans to believe it would only be a matter of time before the two returned.ย
Videos by ComicBook.com
But even though WWE never removed the pair from the official roster page, the likeliness of “The Boss” returning consistently decreased. There were reports of her being granted a conditional release and that the company tried to reconcile with her but couldn’t meet her asking price on a new contract. She’s now in Japan for an appearance at Wrestle Kingdom 17 and has reportedly signed with New Japan’s parent company Bushiroad on a highly-lucrative contract that will see her feud with Kairi (Sane) over the IWGP Women’s Championship.ย
Banks has refused to comment about the entire situation, only noting that she’s working on other projects outside of wrestling like a film role and a make-up line. Dax Harwood, who is incredibly close with Banks, offered some insight in a new interview with AdFreeShows while promoting his new podcast FTR With Dax Harwood.
“I think that, just like me, I feel that sometimes she gets a bad rep because of how passionate she is and how much she wants,” Harwood explained. “You know, she wants it all, but she wants to work for it. That’s the same with us. Like, I want everything this business, but I want to work for it and I want you to know that I’m going to work hard for you, and that’s her, man. She knows what she deserves, and she knows what she’s earned, and she works her ass off to get it, and if she doesn’t get it, she feels slighted and she has a reason to feel that way. Huge star, huge heart, beautiful human being, the greatest woman wrestler of all time. I think she’s just incredible.”
