Sasha Banks Returns to Take Back Her Division

WWE’s women’s division has been on fire for much of the past two years. Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey and Charlotte wrestled in the main event at WrestleMania this past year — the first time a women’s match headlined WWE’s biggest show — and prior to that Charlotte and Sasha Banks were making history by main-eventing pay-per-views for the first time and wrestling in first-time women’s matches, such as Hell in a Cell.

Charlotte was part of the history-making three-way match at WrestleMania, but Banks was not.

Instead, “The Boss” was wrestling for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship, a set of titles that were brand new and WWE seemed to put little thought into.

Was it a slap in the face? Maybe. Not everyone can main event every show. But Sasha took it as one. Reports surfaced that she threw a fit in the locker room and tried to quit the company. She was gone for months, until returning two weeks ago after SummerSlam by attacking Natalya.

On last night’s edition of RAW, she addressed why she attacked Natalya. With Rousey gone, Becky Lynch as a top babyface and Charlotte feeling somewhat stale as a top heel, Sasha addressed the crowd in a show-opening promo and immediately thrust herself back on top of the division.

“I was relegated to a WrestleMania tag team match I cared absolutely nothing about,” she said, “defending tag team titles that meant even less, while Becky Lynch got to headline WrestleMania against Ronda Rousey.”

The women’s division, as strong as it has been, has been missing a true heel like Banks. When Charlotte was making history with Banks two years ago, the crowd was almost cheering for both of them. Those matches weren’t about the babyface-heel dynamic, and instead were about two women breaking barriers, and the crowd applauded that.

Becky Lynch was supposed to be the major heel for this division a year ago, when she began calling herself “The Man” and complained that Charlotte stole her WWE Women’s Championship, only the crowd agreed with Becky. She became the antihero, and the (this is high praise) Steve Austin of her division.

Rousey turned heel prior to WrestleMania, as the crowd began rejecting her as a top babyface, and that worked. But, it was shortlived. Rousey is in the middle of a hiatus that began right after that WrestleMania main event.

So, enter Sasha Banks.

This is her time to take back the division she helped put on the map two years ago. It looks like she’s going to run through Natalya — she beat her again with a tapout on last night’s show — and a future title match against Lynch isn’t far away. Maybe WWE can hold off until Survivor Series, and with Paul Heyman booking the show, they should be able to show the discipline it takes to tell a proper story.

Regardless of when it happens, it’s happening. The Boss is back, and she’ll be running the division again soon.