Big Update on Sasha Banks' WWE Future

Sasha Banks has been absent from WWE programming for over five months now. In what kicked off one of the most newsworthy summers in professional wrestling history, then WWE Women's Tag Champions Banks and Naomi walked out of Monday Night Raw due to creative frustration. The two were scheduled to take part in a six-women contender's match for the Raw Women's Championship, which would have reportedly resulted in Naomi pinning Banks to earn the title shot. Naomi would've gone on to challenge Raw Women's Champion Bianca Belair while Banks would have gone up against then-SmackDown Women's Champion Ronda Rousey at WWE Hell in a Cell. 

This would have essentially put the WWE Women's Tag Titles on ice, which Banks and Naomi took issue with. The two women dropped the titles on then-WWE Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis's desk, and exited the arena. Banks and Naomi were stripped of the championships and indefinitely suspended shortly after.

From there, things get blurry. Some reports claimed that Banks had been released by WWE, while others have said that she is still on WWE's internal roster.

In an update, the Wrestling Observer reported today that Banks is "still under contract to WWE." That said, there is no indication on when she will be back on television, as there are reportedly "hang-ups in negotiations for a new deal."

Following this, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful responded to the report on Twitter, writing that Banks' representatives said "no wrestling-related book til January." This corresponds to a Fightful report from July, which said that "at least two wrestling promoters" were looking to book Banks but were told that she is not taking "wrestling related signings" until January 2023.

While she's been away from wrestling, Banks has been making numerous public appearances under her real name, Mercedes Varnado. Those have included autograph signings at Chicago's C2E2 Expo as well as Hollywood premieres for Marvel projects like She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

"She's a unbelievably talented young woman that can do just about anything she wants," WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque said regarding Banks. "It just comes down to whatever she wants to do now with her life or career or whatever that is. The passion clearly for what we do this passion for other things as well so it comes down to what does she want to do. Because it got to be right for her got to be right for everybody."