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WWE Rumors: Sasha Banks ‘Raw’ Promo Causes Heat Backstage

By Shawn Lealos
Published on: 01:16 PST, Sep 8, 2016

The Sasha Banks promo from WWE Monday Night Raw has caused some people backstage to question whether it was appropriate or not. For those who might have missed it, Sasha posted on Twitter on Monday that she had some bad news and then Banks came out on WWE Monday Night Raw and cut an emotional promo that made it look like she was being forced to retire due to her injury.

The Sasha Banks promo was all a ruse, as Dana Brooks came out and Sasha hit the Bank Statement and said that the bad news was for Charlotte. That is when Banks made it clear that she was cleared to return from her injury and was going to face Charlotte for the Women’s Championship at Clash of Champions. According to The Wrestling Observer, there are people backstage who are not happy about the fake Sasha Banks retirement angle.

The biggest complaints about the Sasha Banks promo have occurred thanks to the Daniel Bryan injury situation. It hasn’t been that long since Bryan had to come out and announce his legitimate retirement from the WWE due to his concussion issues. It was very similar to The Edge’s retirement due to a bad neck that threatened to paralyze him if he continued to wrestle.

The Sasha Banks injury was a back injury but she also has suffered from concussion issues as well in her career. According to The Wrestling Observer, it was mainly friends backstage of Daniel Bryan and Tyson Kidd who felt the Sasha angle and promo wasn’t appropriate. Of course, most wrestlers know it was not Sasha Banks who wrote the promo so the heat is on the creative team.

Sasha Banks had just won the WWE Women’s Championship before SummerSlam and it seemed strange that Banks lost it at SummerSlam since that ended her feel-good story so soon. However, when it was learned that Sasha was dealing with a back injury, the call was made to put the title back on Charlotte as a way to protect the company from being forced to take the title off of Banks based on injury.

It seems ironic though that the WWE still had to deal with it when Finn Balor beat Seth Rollins for the WWE Universal Championship at SummerSlam but tore his labrum in the match. Balor had to relinquish the title the next night and the WWE reported that the surgery went well but Balor will miss some significant time.

Just two weeks after Finn Balor had to come out and emotionally relinquish his WWE Universal Championship because of his injury, Sasha Banks was sent out and had to act distressed as she pretended that she was being forced to retire based on her injury. The Sasha injury promo was all done as a swerve, but the real life cases of men like Daniel Bryan, Edge, and Tyson Kidd, as well as the recent Finn Balor injury, caused the entire Sasha Banks promo to feel wrong and very awkward.

Related WWE Reports By the Inquisitr

The fake retirement angle can work well when done right. An example is when Mark Henry came out and faked his retirement a few years back only to turn on John Cena. It was a perfectly played moment for Henry and maybe the highlight of his career. However, Henry was not faking an injury to retire.

With the Sasha Banks promo, the WWE was playing off her real-life injury to make fans believe she was retiring. Banks sold it well, acting like it was making her sick to have to make the announcement, but when Banks revealed that she was returning, it just made the real life injury retirements seems a little less important as a result.

[Image via WWE]

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