Welcome class to another lecture plus lab. Today I'm setting to cast a scientific eye to a most wonderful specimen:
Sciency Name: Wrestlerus Bossius Legitimus.
If somehow you weren't aware? This total package of the World of Professional Wrestling is Sasha Banks. She currently rules the Squared Circle as NXT's Women's Champion, and as I'll explain over the course of today's lecture? One of the BEST things NXT has done. One of the best, well defined characters in all the WWE, a terrific wrestler, a good promo, and charisma off the charts.
So lets take our scalpel to look at the short, but spectacular career of Sasha Banks. Her rather amazing rise to, damn near, the top of the realm as the Queen of Women's Wrestling, and how her along with the bevy of talented women that are either IN NXT, or have come up through NXT mean great things for the future of these WWE's Diva's Division.
First Things First: AKA A little History (wikipedia)
Sasha Banks was trained and debuted as a professional Wrestler (The good professor reminds the class that we should all remember the #2ndW, despite the WWE's wishes) – sometime in 2010. She trained and started her career in Chaotic Wrestling which is located in Massachusetts. She made her in ring debut as an 18 year old. AN increasingly common theme with many of the best Women over the last few years: AJ Lee, Paige, Nattie, Bayley… All got involved with the business, or grew up wanting this. Admittedly I'm assuming this about Banks, but I think its a damn safe conclusion to jump to. You don't, end up wrestling at age 18, unless its something you've had your sights set on. She was in a ring, basically, as soon as she was legally allowed. She clearly had a successful run in the indies. Won some championships and it wasn't long before she got a tryout with WWE.
In August of 2012 it was announced that she had signed a developmental deal and ended up in NXT. Which is where she became Sasha Banks. It is here where she set off on becoming one of the most complete characters and all around performers in NXT, and the WWE as a whole. But first things FIRST? She debuted in NXT onDecember of 2012. A little over two years after her professional debut. It sounds like when Kevin Owens was griping about people getting to NXT before him, he should have included the Boss on his list. Cuz that's a helluva successful two years! And she was only getting started!
Spoiler Alert?
Her debut match in NXT was against Paige. Her first televised win month later against Alicia Foxx. I wonder if she knew that almost exactly two years, she'd be the NXT Women's Champion, and helping leading a new era for Women inside the WWE? I'm sure it was a goal, but to get where she has gotten how quickly she's gotten there? She truly is a…
Legit Boss
Arguably one of the most consistent characters in the entirety of the WWE Universe. Be it as part of the BFFs or Team BAE (Best at Everything for the uninitiated, and the only reason your humble writer will ever utter or type the phrase "BAE") – Sasha has cultivated a mean girl persona that has graduated to brilliantly manipulative egotist. Manipulating her friends and fellow competitors to aid and abed her. Manipulating the crowd and relishing in her dirty deeds.
Her ring entrance now involves her grabbing the middle rope and leaning out towards the crowd while she dangles the NXT Women's championship towards the crowd. Taunting us. Literally shoving our faces in everything that she is and everything we're not. How at 23 years of age the sky is the limit and that she is only beginning to scratch the surface of what she can, and no doubt will accomplish. She has evolved into the "Legit Boss". Everything about her oozes superiority. For the most part standing on her own since the fracturing of Team BAE, though there is a chance that maybe she and Becky Lynch can reform their alliance. Even when she's shown glimmers of that toughened cocky Boss shell breaks… the post match hug after beating Charlotte… she quickly shoves the former champ away. Even the post match interview with Renee Young where she starts off in total Boss Mode, but Renee did a great job working her out of that and got some legitimate emotion (The picture above of her with the Championship is the interview I'm referencing) . How much it meant to be holding that championship. Its no wonder that despite her more vile tendencies?
People are cheering for her. Crowds roar their approval when her music hits. She has a natural charisma and people genuinely care bout her and what she does in the ring. So much so that even those that chant "SASHA'S RATCHET" feel like THEY're trying to play a role of a fan who genuinely dislikes Sasha Banks, as opposed to actually hating The Boss. These fans will almost always be answered with "NO SHE'S NOT!" She's on the precipice of being in the company of Stone Cold, or the Rock, or a few select others, where despite her being a villain? The crowd won't accept it. The "crowd turn" could easily be in Sasha Banks' future. A main roster call up is DAMN sure in the future, where she could continue to excel and shine. Like the name of the column states there is:
MONEY IN THE BANKS!
The #GiveDivasAChance movement was partly inspired by lackluster and lazy booking the Divas on the WWE's main roster Got. They'd get "pennies on the dollar" when it came to their NXT Counterparts when it came to ring time, or opportunities for segments or interviews. And its shown. WWE roster members pine for the time and chances NXT gives their talent. Its such a cliche among wrestling fans ,and I'll own up to it, for a lot of years I've felt conditioned to see Diva's matches on Raw or PPVs as "bathroom/snack break" fodder. I've even looked back over time and its been since the days of Molly Holly, Lita, Victoria, or Gail Kim that I've cared about the WWE's Women's division as a viable WRESTLING product (#RememberThe2ndW) , and I can't really remember definitively when I could say I had a "favorite Diva"… Maybe Lita?… Probably was a "Knockout"… (Spinoff Column Self Plug: I'll do an OCHO of women's wrestlers soon) ALL that has changed for me, and for a lot of wrestling fans. The women of NXT from Paige and Emma to Bayley, Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and of course… Sasha Banks have given us a reason to care. They have set the bar so insanely high in NXT that a lot of us are worried about what lies ahead. We KNOW what can happen after call up… Emma… Or? WHAT CAN HAPPEN… Paige!
There are questions, but for the Women of the WWE, as the NXT Opening states: THE. FUTURE. STARTS. NOW! That future is the current NXT Women's champion. She's had an amazing ascent to where she is now. Two years ago she was a newbie in NXT. Two years before that? She was just learning her craft. Can we imagine for a second…
Where is Sasha Banks going to be two years from NOW?! I don't know, but I know for DAMN sure I won't be taking a snack break.
