As we reported the other day, Insane Championship Wrestling confirmed that NXT UK Women’s Champion Toni Storm will be defending her title against Piper Niven at ICW Shug’s Hoose Party 6. In that initial announcement on Twitter, Sasha Banks decided to put her two cents in by replying, “Can I?”
Obviously, Sasha Banks isn’t going to ICW any time soon and the tweet itself is hardly worth speculation; it’s just a tweet. However, seeing Sasha Banks insert herself into conversations regarding the NXT UK Women’s Championship got our minds going for a second.
Eventually, our team – specifically, B2B founder Kristen Ashly deserves full credit on this one – came up with the idea that in light of Sasha Banks’ refusal to work on the main roster as of late, maybe it’s time for The Boss to make a full time move to the NXT UK roster.
Sasha Banks would not be the first person in the past year alone to move to the yellow brand and don’t consider this a demotion by any means. Tyler Breeze just returned to NXT and now, for the first time in four years, his booking and career have some direction. Similarly, after losing matches left and right in NXT, Kassius Ohno moved to NXT UK a couple months back and has developed a winning streak; more recently defeating Ligero and Jack Gallagher in stellar bouts.
Furthermore and the most important piece of the argument, let’s not forget that back in 2017, after commentating on the main roster for the better part of a year, Mauro Ranallo and WWE “mutually agreed to part ways.” This release came after Ranallo had been absent from commentary for some months and rumors circulated that the combat commentator was being bullied by fellow commentator JBL.
Whatever had happened on the main roster that led to Ranallo’s exit clearly had something to do with the main roster environment. Shortly after that exit, Triple H re-hired Ranallo as a commentator for NXT, where Ranallo has been ever since. From the looks of it, Ranallo couldn’t be happier where he’s at now since making the move to NXT.
Sasha Banks seems to be in somewhat of a similar situation where a disagreement of sorts seems to have happened between her and The Powers That Be on the main roster. That is, if recent rumors are correct in suggesting that Banks’s finally straw was having to drop the Tag Titles at WrestleMania after Vince & Co. promised her and Bayley a multi-month run with the gold.
If the main roster environment is indeed the issue, a move to the main roster could do wonders for Banks’ mental health, as well as providing a new spark for her to look forward to in the ring. Much like how Banks’ original start in NXT helped put her on the map and hone her craft, a move to NXT UK could do a lot to re-charge her batteries and bring back whatever spark she might have lost for wrestling since her experience on the main roster.
The NXT UK roster is filled with some of the best women’s competitors on any WWE brand: Toni Storm, Piper Niven, Nina Samuels, Killer Kelly, Jinny, Kay Lee Ray, Jazzy Gabert … all brand new match-ups for Banks to tangle with in the ring.
Now, obviously, there are other factors at play than just wrestling in Sasha Banks’s situation – such as respect and poor booking for starters – and some of these issues can’t be fixed just by allowing Banks to switch brands. However, the prospect of Sasha Banks on NXT UK is a fascinating one to me and I truly believe that in some ways, Banks might be happier in NXT UK and treated better as both a wrestler – booking wise – and as an employee for a company that should’ve treated her better these last few years.
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