Sasha Banks, Naomi Walk Out Has Historical Precedent—But This Feels Different

Credit: WWE.com

WWE Women’s Tag Team champions Sasha Banks and Naomi walked out of Raw Monday night, dissatisfied with creative plans not only for the show but the lack of long-term commitment to the titles and the tag division themselves, according to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select.

Originally slated for a six-woman gauntlet match to determine the top contender for Bianca Belair’s Raw Women’s Championship at Hell in a Cell, they took exception to the layout of the match and the lack of forethought put into the women’s tag team division.

It is hardly the first time talent has walked out of WWE over a dispute with management, be it related to creative differences or something else. There is absolutely a precedent for it, but this one still feels different.

A History of Disgruntled Superstars

In 2002, WWE Creative booked a King of the Ring Qualifying Match for the June 10 episode of Raw pitting “Stone Cold” Steve Austin vs. Brock Lesnar. If you are thinking to yourself, “that’s a dream match; a WrestleMania main event,” you are correct. 

Austin recognized as much and took exception to the writing team booking that match with no build and no anticipation. He balked at the idea of it being given away for free and, more importantly, beating him on a whim. Stars like ol’ Stone Cold do not come around every day and wasting him in a throwaway match with Lesnar, when that should have been properly built to for a pay-per-view payoff, made no sense.

So he let. Walked out or, in the words of Vince McMahon, “took his ball and went home.”

Some 12 years later, CM Punk followed suit. While creative frustration over his role at WrestleMania 30 certainly played a part in it, a battered body and mind led to a very public, high-profile divorce from WWE that included a controversial podcast appearance, a lawsuit and Punk being released from his contract on his wedding day.

WWE is not the only company to have disgruntled stars walk out on them.

In 1999, Raven stood up in the middle of a meeting and walked out of WCW, disenfranchised with its impenetrable glass ceiling. A few months later, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko forced the company to grant them releases, frustration with their lack of opportunity and distrust of booker Kevin Sullivan the reasons for their departure.

In every instance, the performer(s) stood their ground and left when their opinions or viewpoints were not respected or heard by management. All were also high-profile figures in professional wrestling, regardless of where they may have found themselves on the card at the moment.

Austin came back. Punk did not. Raven went on to stints in both ECW and WWE while Benoit and Guerrero would win world titles in Vince McMahon’s company, a feat they never accomplished in their former place of employment.

Where Do Banks and Naomi Go From Here?

Walking out in protest over creative differences draws a definitive line in the sand. It is a declaration of independence, one that suggests to management that you are willing to fight for your beliefs and that you are very well aware of your worth. 

Banks is a star beyond the wrestling world. She is mainstream, thanks to her role on the Disney+ original series The Mandalorian, an appearance in the opening video for the 2022 college football national championship game, an episode of Hot Ones, and most recently, an appearance on Cold As Balls with Kevin Hart.

She also knows her value to the company and believes in herself in a way she may not have been at times when prior creative frustrations mounted, telling the aforementioned Austin on an episode of The Broken Sull Sessions:

“I’m done with the thankful. I’m done with the pizza. I don’t need that anymore. I eat steak. Like Vince McMahon. With vegetables. Like him, because I can be that. And that’s where I’m at. I’m not, ‘can I please be signed?’ I’m here. I’m signed, I’ve been here. I’ve put in the work and if I see myself where I want to see myself, I’m at Vince McMahon’s level.”

While no one really knows what sparked the walkout, Sapp’s report, coupled with PWInsider.com’s Mike Johnson’s zero-in on creative frustration. If that is the case, WWE officials are going to have to have to show some sort of goodwill gesture, most likely in the form of genuine plans for the tag team division, to bring Banks and Naomi back in the fold.

Even that may not be enough.

WWE has coerced disgruntled or disappointed talent back into the fold with promises of bigger and better things, only for things to return to what they were. Banks and Naomi may be looking for something more concrete than creative plans. Maybe they want the ear of the boss. Perhaps they want certain guarantees that the tag team they worked hard to develop in hopes of elevating a sub-par tag division will not be sacrificed in the name of enhancing stars who are already over with fans.

Maybe nothing can be done. Maybe the relationship is too fractured. 

That will not stop WWE officials from bringing the tag champs back. They have to recognize how valuable they both are, Banks as a breakout mainstream star and Naomi as a locker room leader. The company’s rush to release a defensive statement that skewed more negative and varied from what is being reported elsewhere, though, will make it more difficult. 

While WWE’s attempt to get ahead of the controversy with its own statement, and the mainstream media attention it has received, create a different feel in this instance, one can hope the two sides work things out and the two immensely talented performers can get back to entertaining the masses and further establishing their legacies.