Sasha Banks

[Reel]

We'll see how the next few years play out, but she has been one of the best BIG MATCH wrestlers since she got to WWE. The week-to-week stuff is fine, it's never objectionable but for the most part, I've never come away from a random TV match overly impressed, but when a match really needs to deliver, she delivers. The TakeOver match with Becky, The Bayley stuff in NXT, the Raw title matches with Charlotte, the cell matches the last two years. She was the glue for the first Woman's Royal Rumble. All great stuff.

[Grimmas]

Talking about big matches, she just delivered another classic in the main event of the first show they had infront of fans for over a year! One of the best WM main events in a long time.

[Kadaveri]

I'm gonna go after a big gun here, but I think if you compare Sasha's 2015-21 with Bret Hart's 1991-97, Sasha's more consistently delivered in big matches than Bret. That match she just had with Bianca Belair (Bianca's first ever PPV singles match) was better than any match Bret had with Shawn Michaels, and there was no rational reason to think that match would be great except "it's Sasha in a main event."

[Boss Rock]

The biggest issue I have with Sasha as a candidate right now (and this could change in 5 years) is that her output was severely hampered by inconsistent and downright piss-poor booking. Imagine if she had gotten Charlotte's push for all these years.

[Grimmas]

12 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

The biggest issue I have with Sasha as a candidate right now (and this could change in 5 years) is that her output was severely hampered by inconsistent and downright piss-poor booking. Imagine if she had gotten Charlotte's push for all these years.

I can see that helping, but to me that doesn't effect her ability so it's not going to hurt how I rank her.

This goes back to the greatest wrestling career vs greatest wrestler debate on how you rank people, which probably a topic that should be another thread.

[Alex]

She was always going to be on my list, the WM main event just made her case even stronger.  Holy shit that was great.  She can only go up further on the list for me.  

[MoS]

She's at her peak right now and might have just had the greatest North American women's match in history (it's amazing how many other contenders involve her too) so hopefully she goes on to have a really great main event run

[strobogo]

I don't even know how one substantiates who is a draw or not in WWE unless their segments consistently hemorrhage viewers. New Day has been in the top 3 merch movers and at times top merch movers for 5-6 years straight, but their segments don't do any better ratings than any one else, and I can't imagine people were buying tickets to PPVs specifically for New Day matches. Becky was so hot but ratings were still on the consistent slide they'd been on since 2001 and she did nothing to stop that. Everything is built around the brand first and foremost by design so even when someone takes off, it's pretty hard to tell if they're really a draw in the sense of bringing eyeballs to the shows or just popular among the audience already watching. 

 

In Sasha's case, she clearly does get outside eyeballs based on how much stuff she does outside of wrestling, but she's rarely been really given the ball in prominent positions for a significant amount of time to see. She's headlined PPVs and weekly shows, but those decisions have generally been made the week of or days before and so have never really been built around her specifically headlining. The HIAC with Charlotte wasn't the main event until I think the Friday before the show. The Raw main event with Charlotte was day of. Unless there's another huge boom, I don't know how one can really define any individual as the draw, which again is intentional. 

 

As a performer, she's pretty much untouchable. The only female talent states side that I can say is maybe better than Sasha is Io, but Io hasn't had any matches in NXT as good as Sasha's work in NXT or main roster in similar positions. I would say in a big match situation, no one has delivered more than Sasha in WWE since 2015. 

[Kadaveri]

19 minutes ago, strobogo said:

I don't even know how one substantiates who is a draw or not in WWE unless their segments consistently hemorrhage viewers.

Drawing doesn't matter for this project but just FYI, Dave Meltzer will tell you that Sasha's one of the very few wrestlers of the last 5 years who is a demonstrable ratings draw (her competition are guys like Goldberg). This goes back to the 2016 feud with Charlotte, where their matches were doing the biggest numbers of anything on WWE TV in the football season that wasn't Goldberg returning and nothing else came close. And just last October the Bayley vs. Sasha match on Smackdown did their biggest rating of the pandemic.

[strobogo]

I believe it. You'd think that would make them actually position Sasha in a way to carry shows and ratings then. If she's drawing the best ratings when you put her in a big match the day of the show or a week in advance, what if you gave yourself an extra 2-3 weeks to promote and see what happens? Idk. 

[Microstatistics]

The best non-joshi woman wrestler? Provided career best matches for Bayley, Ronda, Bianca and maybe Becky and Charlotte as well. Even if her match as a whole doesn't hit the great mark, I appreciate her tendency and ability to add creative and typically vicious touches. Not sure if she's a lock at this point but will definitely be in contention.

[jushin muta liger]

After the Mania match with Bianca, she's vaulted into the Top 100 for me.

Also, I now have her in the Cena/Bryan/Flair/Tanahashi/Hokuto level of unselfish superstar who is willing to put over anybody in order to get a star more over or create a new one.

[Ed.]

I have no idea where I'll put her, but she's a lock to make my list and starts out at least as the top of her class of North American womens wrestlers.

I'm stoked she was able to have A. a main event match at Mania regardless of it's quality and B. a show stealing performance in it as a veteran putting over a new star.  It would of been a shame for Sasha's career if in 5 years time, we were still talking about Takeover Brooklyn and her 2015 in general as her peak and she never got the opportunity to have something like that again.  The Bianca match has every chance to eclipse the Brooklyn match now as the match I think about when I think about how great Sasha is.

Something that comes to mind when I think about how great she is would be something like the match against Carmella from TLC 2020.  I don't think anyone else is getting that good of a match out of Carmella on that roster.  

[Kadaveri]

13 minutes ago, Ed. said:

Something that comes to mind when I think about how great she is would be something like the match against Carmella from TLC 2020.  I don't think anyone else is getting that good of a match out of Carmella on that roster.  

Another match like this I gave almost as much weight to arguing she was great in 2015 is Sasha vs. Brie Bella on Main Event 10/21/15. I know right, not exactly an obvious place to be looking, but she has a legit good match with Brie who I must stress (and most who've watched a lot of this era will back me up) was one of the worst workers on the roster. You wouldn't even know that if this is the only Brie Bella match you watched.

[Grimmas]

Sasha is really making a top 10 challenge. Just insanely great matches when put into a big spot, plus really good matches against not good workers too. It's only been 6 years now, so we'll see if she can continue this into 2026, but if she does top 10 is pretty reasonable.

[jushin muta liger]

9 minutes ago, Kadaveri said:

Another match like this I gave almost as much weight to arguing she was great in 2015 is Sasha vs. Brie Bella on Main Event 10/21/15. I know right, not exactly an obvious place to be looking, but she has a legit good match with Brie who I must stress (and most who've watched a lot of this era will back me up) was one of the worst workers on the roster. You wouldn't even know that if this is the only Brie Bella match you watched.

I remember the Brie Bella match and that was a really fun match.

[Ed.]

15 minutes ago, Kadaveri said:

Another match like this I gave almost as much weight to arguing she was great in 2015 is Sasha vs. Brie Bella on Main Event 10/21/15. I know right, not exactly an obvious place to be looking, but she has a legit good match with Brie who I must stress (and most who've watched a lot of this era will back me up) was one of the worst workers on the roster. You wouldn't even know that if this is the only Brie Bella match you watched.

I don't remember that match, but I don't doubt Sasha got something out of her that others couldn't .  I might try and find it later.

On a similar note, I think Sasha Vs Bliss at Great Balls of Fire is the best match of Alexa's career.  

[Kadaveri]

I've only half-developed this thought, but I rewatched the Sasha vs. Bianca match today and noticed even more how it revolved around Sasha fighting dirty by using Bianca's hair against her, all building to that moment where Bianca whips her with the braid. Everyone who's seen the match remembers that spot don't they? This is an era where wrestling is so homogenised with supposedly dozens of 4+ Star matches every year which nobody remembers anything about by the year's end (e.g. every G1 Climax). Sasha doesn't do that. One of her special touches is so many of her big matches have these very memorable moments that belong to that match only. Bianca's braid, stomping Bayley's hand, stealing a girl's hairband, killing Charlotte with the kendo stick, that insane dive into Asuka's kick spot. She crafts singular matches which leave a lasting impression.

It doesn't always quite work. An example I'd give is her winning the tag belts in the first women's Elimination Chamber match by applying the crossface with her foot as her arm was injured. That was a bit hokey. But I see the intention and value it and think it adds something to her candidacy.

[strobogo]

I think that particular spot in the EC was because her arm was actually injured from the Ronda match and she couldn't actually apply the hold normally. But yeah I fully agree with her making memorable moments in big matches that stick with people in a way that really very very few can. 

[Microstatistics]

4 hours ago, Kadaveri said:

I've only half-developed this thought, but I rewatched the Sasha vs. Bianca match today and noticed even more how it revolved around Sasha fighting dirty by using Bianca's hair against her, all building to that moment where Bianca whips her with the braid. Everyone who's seen the match remembers that spot don't they? This is an era where wrestling is so homogenised with supposedly dozens of 4+ Star matches every year which nobody remembers anything about by the year's end (e.g. every G1 Climax). Sasha doesn't do that. One of her special touches is so many of her big matches have these very memorable moments that belong to that match only. Bianca's braid, stomping Bayley's hand, stealing a girl's hairband, killing Charlotte with the kendo stick, that insane dive into Asuka's kick spot. She crafts singular matches which leave a lasting impression.

It doesn't always quite work. An example I'd give is her winning the tag belts in the first women's Elimination Chamber match by applying the crossface with her foot as her arm was injured. That was a bit hokey. But I see the intention and value it and think it adds something to her candidacy.

This is an excellent point. 

[Tetsujin]

I'm pretty sure Banks is reading this thread (or will do it, eventually) and boy is she gonna feel great. As she should, because her career is going pretty fucking well even with WWE booking downtimes.

Let's see how much she brings to the table in the next five years, but for now, even though she's a wrestling prodigy, I don't think I'll rank her. For a Project like this, I want to look at any nominee's career as a whole (or at least as already defined as possible), and Sasha isn't even in her 30s yet. When 2026 GWE happen, she'll have 34 years old still, she might be in her peak years (that sounds crazy considering how good she already is, but mid-thirties is the usual peak run for most wrestlers), and with so much to add to her case as a veteran. We will see.

[Marksman]

On 4/25/2021 at 8:21 PM, Kadaveri said:

 This is an era where wrestling is so homogenised with supposedly dozens of 4+ Star matches every year which nobody remembers anything about by the year's end (e.g. every G1 Climax). Sasha doesn't do that. One of her special touches is so many of her big matches have these very memorable moments that belong to that match only. Bianca's braid, stomping Bayley's hand, stealing a girl's hairband, killing Charlotte with the kendo stick, that insane dive into Asuka's kick spot. She crafts singular matches which leave a lasting impression.

Yeah, love this point. A lot of the modern 4/5 star matches leave me cold because they seem samey, but whenever Sasha's in there there's ALWAYS the potential for something incredible.