Sasha Banks’ time in WWE looks to be coming to an end, and whilst she may make her way back to the company in the future, it looks like it won’t be for quite some time with bad blood between the two parties. This has given fans a chance to look back at her career, which is surprisingly long considering her still being relatively young.
Amongst her championship wins and WrestleMania main events, there are matches which some fans may have forgotten that Banks competed in during her career, with some of those being quite surprising and/or overlooked.
10 Paige Vs Sasha Banks, NXT 12th December 2012
On the night in which Seth Rollins became the very first NXT Champion, Sasha Banks also made her official debut for WWE (after previously wrestling at live events). Her first match was overlooked at the time, as she was used solely to put over Paige.
It was a quick match which lasted under five minutes and wasn’t the best of ways for Banks to kick off her WWE career, even though it was against quite a major opponent.
9 Sasha Banks Vs Charlotte Flair, Main Event 30th December 2014
Following their great matches in NXT, WWE decided to trial both Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair on an episode of Main Event, which marked each of their main roster debuts. For two of WWE’s biggest female stars of all time, this felt like an underwhelming place for their main roster journey to begin.
The match lasted just four minutes, and it didn’t lead to a call-up until the following summer, making the entire thing feel a little pointless.
8 Sasha Banks & Enzo Amore Vs Charlotte Flair & Chris Jericho, Raw 1st August 2016
On paper, this looks like a completely randomly thrown together collection of superstars – and it was at the time too. On an episode of Raw, these two pairs of feuding wrestlers had a segment to open the show, leading to an impromptu mixed tag team match.
This came near the start of the 2016 brand split, and it was the follow up to Sasha Banks’ big Raw Women’s Title win the week prior. In typical WWE fashion, the champion was on the losing team in this match.
7 Rich Swann & Sasha Banks Vs Noam Dar & Alicia Fox, Extreme Rules 4th June 2017
Conventionally, PPVs are supposed to offer big matches and showcase the biggest feuds, so to see a mixed tag team match involving Rich Swann & Sasha Banks taking on Noam Dar & Alicia Fox, it isn’t something that screams “PPV quality”.
This was nothing special, lasting just six minutes, and it felt like a complete waste of both the cruiserweight and women’s divisions, with no one really caring for this lackluster rivalry.
6 Six-Woman Gauntlet Match, Raw 26th June 2017
Often, Gauntlet Matches can help create stars and moments, with recent examples being Seth Rollins’ incredible effort a few years back, in addition to the New Day earning Kofi Kingston a WWE Title opportunity.
In 2017, WWE gave the women of Raw an entire half an hour to put together a Gauntlet Match – and it was entertaining! Sasha Banks would emerge victorious after managing to survive Nia Jax, who had gone on a dominant path throughout the match. This was a great win for Banks, but it brushed over very quickly.
5 Women’s Battle Royal, WrestleMania 34 Kickoff 8th April 2018
For someone as big as Sasha Banks, you’d think that she would be at the top of WWE’s priorities when it comes to WrestleMania. However, in 2018, she wasn’t in any significant plans, and was instead thrown into a pre-show battle royal, which felt like a slap in the face to her talents and star power.
She was one of the last three women in the match, but overall, it served no purpose and didn’t even benefit the winner, which ended up being Naomi. It was a pointless match with little substance when all was said and done.
4 Sasha Banks, Natalya, & Bayley vs The Riott Squad, Evolution 28th October 2018
When looking back at the historic first and only all-female WWE PPV, it is a surprise to see that Sasha Banks and Bayley didn’t have a more prominent role. On paper, this six-woman match looked like an afterthought going into the event.
However, this turned out to be a gem of a match, and up there with the best on the entire show. With the lack of stakes involved and the thrown-together nature of the match, it doesn’t get brought up despite its great quality from bell-to-bell.
3 Bayley & Sasha Banks Vs Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair, SmackDown 4th October 2019
For WWE’s debut on Fox, they stacked the card to make it as star-studded as possible, which meant for the inclusion of a major tag team match between the Four Horsewomen of WWE, although it didn’t have the best of builds for such a huge match.
It also lasted for just 8 minutes, and whilst the action was fun, seeing these four women in the ring at the same time should be something that felt more grandiose and special, and not just included for the sake of boosting ratings and interest.
2 Team SmackDown Vs Team NXT, SmackDown 15th November 2019
In the lead-up to Survivor Series 2019, with NXT involving themselves in the battle for brand supremacy, some NXT stars wrestled on SmackDown. The NXT team consisted of Dakota Kai, Rhea Ripley, Mia Yim, and Tegan Nox, three of whom didn’t even make it onto the PPV card.
Team SmackDown saw Sasha Banks, Dana Brooke, Carmella, and Nikki Cross win the match, which was a questionable choice given who was involved on the other team. This was a surprising match as it helped to build up Kai’s eventual NXT heel turn, allowing stories to carry on and progress.
1 Bayley & Sasha Banks Vs Shotzi Blackheart & Tegan Nox, NXT 17th June 2020
When the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles were first introduced, Bayley & Sasha Banks intended to defend across all three of WWE’s brands. However, this didn’t happen as they lost the belts quickly, with the titles never appearing on NXT.
When Bayley & Banks won the belts for a second time, they were finally allowed to live up to their promise by appearing on NXT, defending the belts against Shotzi Blackheart and Tegan Nox in a fun but short match on TV. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a common occurrence, which is a shame considering how fun it would have been for the titles.