Sasha Banks to NJPW? Or to AEW? Or back to WWE?

[Vamp]

She trained with Sendai Girls. Given Meiko Satomura now works for the WWE I'm not entirely convinced that it wasn't at the WWE's suggestion.

 

[air_raid]

4 hours ago, rollthedice said:

Has there been anything from NJPW confirming and if so is she referred to as Sasha or is she Mercedes?

Presumably if shes Sasha then it's all been authorised by WWE and she hasn't left/isnt a free agent?

Apologies if I've missed something.

Yes, the OP where one rumour site reports they got it from another rumour site but don’t know if it’s true yet.

So no, nothing confirmed from New Japan yet.

[Guest]

11 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

Perhaps someone who’s more into the whole “extended universe” of Star Wars could will correct me (I’m fairly fair weather compared to some fans) and I get that The Mandalorian is a huge show, but people talk about her as if she’s some integral character when she really wasn’t, her character was one of at least two sidekicks to someone else. From what I remember they didn’t even seem to trust her with many lines in the first of the two episodes she was in. She probably had about 10 lines in the whole of her run on the show. 
Besides, every man and his Dog gets to be in Star Wars these days. Even Forum favourite Trevor Morgan from Eastenders turned up in Andor this year

Yeah it’s not a big part, but it’s still gonna get some traction, more so if she does more which is expected as it moves more to their civil war building over who leads them 

3 hours ago, RalphyV2 said:

I feel she should keep the Sasha part of her name if she can, much easier for casuals to recognise her if she is not on the poster, cant see so many knowing who she is as Mercedes. If she is in AEW, there is already one Mercedes so she probably wont use that name 

The dozens of pages and cages on the roster show that won’t be a blocker 

[DavidB6937]

2 hours ago, Louch said:

The dozens of pages and cages on the roster show that won’t be a blocker 

Yeah but think of poor JR.

[The King Of Swing]

Isn't Sasha's "Joshi training" really overblown by some fans? Like one session with Sendai after she and Bayley walked out that time. 

If this news is serious then Sasha Vs. Kairi has to be where New Japan are heading. Though it's worrying that Kairi is already working through injuries, she has the worst luck.

[BomberPat]

3 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said:

Isn't Sasha's "Joshi training" really overblown by some fans?

Seems to be. She trained with Sendai Girls that one time, and again more recently, it's not like she's been working her way through the dojo system. She did a seminar with Skayde recently too, which is great, but it doesn't make her a Luchadore.

At the moment, there's not really any news beyond "Sasha is watching Wrestle Kingdom". Fair enough, she watched a show at Arena Mexico earlier this year too, but nobody's speculating about her signing with CMLL. She's just doing a good job keeping her name in headlines while not working anywhere, though I expect she ends up in AEW next year anyway.

[gmoney]

32 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said:

Isn't Sasha's "Joshi training" really overblown by some fans? Like one session with Sendai after she and Bayley walked out that time. 

Who's overblowing it? Not quite sure what you're getting at. 

[The King Of Swing]

Just now, gmoney said:

Who's overblowing it? Not quite sure what you're getting at. 

Not here.

Just see it brought up elsewhere now and again (what I meant by some fans) like it's a big deal when all she seemed to do was show up for a training session one time.

I'm interested to see how she actually holds up outside of the WWE bubble after all these years.

[The King of Old School]

AEW.

Her against Jade at Revolution.

[gmoney]

9 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said:

Not here.

Just see it brought up elsewhere now and again (what I meant by some fans) like it's a big deal when all she seemed to do was show up for a training session one time.

Still a fairly big deal isn't it? If say Seth Rollins quit WWE and trained with New Japan for a session or two, that'd be a fairly big deal wouldn't it? I guess I'm not seeing people go on about it, so I don't know what level people are talking it up as. 

[simonworden]

14 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

Perhaps someone who’s more into the whole “extended universe” of Star Wars could will correct me (I’m fairly fair weather compared to some fans) and I get that The Mandalorian is a huge show, but people talk about her as if she’s some integral character when she really wasn’t, her character was one of at least two sidekicks to someone else. From what I remember they didn’t even seem to trust her with many lines in the first of the two episodes she was in. She probably had about 10 lines in the whole of her run on the show. 
Besides, every man and his Dog gets to be in Star Wars these days. Even Forum favourite Trevor Morgan from Eastenders turned up in Andor this year

I'd be more excited for Trevor in character in AEW to be honest. I have a feeling she is coming in long term to tussle with Jade.

If I had to chuck her somewhere it would be NJPW. I think who she is has more value to the Japanese audience than to the AEW who would give her the usual welcome but she would end up another Toni, Ruby or Saraya just part of the mediocre midcard that is the woman's division. 

At least New Japan could give her a big fancy entrance in the Tokyo Dome and just use her on and off. 

My guy feeling is that without the WWE machine behind her she'll be exposed as a bit bobbins . 

Edited December 9, 2022 by simonworden

[gmoney]

Just now, simonworden said:

My guy feeling is that without the WWE machine behind her she'll be exposed as a bit bobbins to be honest. 

I'd be surprised if that we the case. She was already excellent in NXT and in fact struggled a bit at the beginning on the main shows before she found her feet. 

[air_raid]

10 minutes ago, simonworden said:

My guy feeling is that without the WWE machine behind her she'll be exposed as a bit bobbins . 

I don't feel like the machine was behind her anyway. The bulk of her singles titles reigns were spent losing to Charlotte at the next immediate opportunity on PPV, including a Cell match in her hometown, and the decisive fall in an Iron Woman match by clean submission to the heel. She was consistently booked as a loser, choke artist, and finally, quitter. Then she did the team with Bayley and a will-they wont-they split that culminated not in a match at Mania but in the pre show battle royal won by, umm, Naomi. Then she was virtually an afterthought until they decided to use her to put Belair over at Mania which was Bianca's story, not hers. I don't think she was ever as big a star as she was at NXT Brooklyn, where she was the big bad. There were always two or three above her in the main roster pecking order, and they never felt like giving her the ball for long.

[Vamp]

7 hours ago, gmoney said:

Still a fairly big deal isn't it? If say Seth Rollins quit WWE and trained with New Japan for a session or two, that'd be a fairly big deal wouldn't it? I guess I'm not seeing people go on about it, so I don't know what level people are talking it up as. 

I mean, I like Sendai Girls and all but it's more like if Seth Rollins and trained with a promotion nobody knows the name of but calls "that blokes Japanese wrestling promotion." 

[Daaaaaad!]

Latest reports say that Sasha wanted to be paid on parity with Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, but WWE didn’t think she was worth it.

Aside from what’s happened around the leaving of Raw and such, surely that’s actually quite a reasonable request? Especially when you consider her recent forays into the mainstream, she’s probably within her rights to consider herself on the same level as the aforementioned two women. Bit concerning that WWE upper management don’t agree.