Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: naomi, sasha banks, wrestling, wwe

Sasha Banks and Naomi Walked out on WWE Raw Main Event

Published Mon, 16 May 2022 22:47:11 -0500

Instantly creating a story more interesting than anything that's aired on WWE TV in years, Sasha Banks reportedly had a creative dispute with WWE and walked out ahead of the main event of WWE Raw, taking tag team partner Naomi with her. The Women's Tag Team Champions were set to compete in a six-pack challenge to determine the next contender for Bianca Belair's Raw Women's Championship, but instead left the arena, forcing WWE to change plans at the last minute (though, to be fair, it's WWE, so they probably would have done that anyway).

Greetings, comrades! It is I, your El Presidente, bringing you the latest wrestling news and hot goss liberated from the capitalist dogs who run for-profit paywalled wrestling sites and distributed to the people vi the glories of socialist wrestling journalism! This latest story comes via PWInsider, who first reported the news, claiming that Banks was upset with the creative direction of the planned main event, took her case to Vince McMahon, and decided to walk out when he refused to change his mind, with Naomi choosing to leave with her. However, the story gets even more interesting, because WWE issued a statement with highly unusual kayfabe-breaking wording about the event, according to Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp, who also confirmed the walkout report:

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.

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. We regret we were unable to deliver, as advertised, tonight's main event.

For WWE to take this step either means the dispute is extremely serious or completely worked. Becky Lynch, who fought Asuka in the main event to replace the planned six-pack challenge, also mentioned the incident on air, which might lead one to lean toward it being a work, but remember, when Stone Cold Steve Austin walked out on WWE back in the day, WWE spent what seemed like months constantly reminding everyone that the Texas Rattlesnake "took his ball and went home." In fact, saying that Steve Austin "took his ball and went home" may be one of the earliest examples of WWE mandated phrases, evolving today into the thing where every time Sasha Banks arrives on screen, Michael Cole must say: "Could it be? It is! It's boss time!" Which really means all of this has come full circle.

Comrades, this sort of thing never happens in my country. The people are free to follow my orders or not, whatever suits them. Total creative freedom. Of course, if they disobey me, I will have their families tortured in the dead of the night, so most people choose to just go along with my ideas. Haw haw haw haw haw!

Shoot, work, worked shoot, work that worked so hard it worked itself into shoot, or shoot that becomes a work, whatever this is, it's the most interesting Raw has been in years, so we'd like to encourage more WWE Superstars to walk out the day of the show more often. It could be the WWE equivalent of AEW promoting a big announcement from Tony Khan on Dynamite, a trick that the marks will always fall for. Until next time, comrades, remember: socialism or death!

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