Awesome / Sasha Banks

• Sasha's match with Bayley on August 14, 2014 to determine the No. 1 Contender to Charlotte's NXT Women's Championship. Sasha lost, but you sure can't say it was for lack of trying!
  • Pretty much any Bayley-Sasha match counts. They have great chemistry.
  • When The Undertaker thinks the two of you have put on the best women's match in ages, you've made it.
• In the same vein, Sasha's title match with Charlotte herself at NXT [R]Evolution.
• Sasha's title rematch against Charlotte on the December 25 episode of NXT. What a kickass Christmas gift to give NXT fans! It also was the first Divas match to main event NXT.
• Her corruption of Becky Lynch. Not only did she manage to do it with just one short conversation, but since turning, Becky's actually been winning a lot more.
  • It ended up coming back to bite her when Becky's ambitions turned her against Sasha, but even that produced an awesome moment of its own—their amazing Women's Title match at Takeover: Unstoppable in which both women tried to destroy the other's arm. Sasha retained in that one, btw.
• Winning the NXT Women's Championship in a Fatal 4-Way match at NXT TakeOver: Rival in one of the best women's matches in company history, and she won clean as a whistle. This match is considered the tipping point for the main roster girls rallying behind the Twitter hashtag #GiveDivasAChance, as they continually get two minute matches while the NXT women tear the house down each week with huge crowd support.
• Her Big Entrance at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, in a black Escalade and with a security detail. Then, even though she lost, the incredible match she had with Bayley.
• And then repeated, possibly even topped with the 30 minute Iron (Wo)Man match against Bayley at NXT TakeOver: Respect (even though she lost again). Highlights include:
  • Using Bayley's Good Is Dumb tendencies to sucker her into a vicious slam, leading to an absolutely brutal series of offensives that ended in Sasha throwing Bayley bodily into the LCD screen at the top of the entrance ramp.
  • Taunting Bayley's biggest fan, Izzy, while brutalizing Bayley up against the steel ring steps, until Izzy broke down in tears. (Keep in mind, Izzy is a young girl of 8 or 9. Even Kevin Owens called the move out as disgusting.)
  • Using Bayley's "Bayley-to-Belly" finisher against her.
  • Overall, wrestling not one, but two matches (three if the match vs. Becky is included) widely considered to be Match of the Year candidates for the entire WWE. As a female wrestler. In the developmental promotion of WWE.
• Sasha's main roster run has been a little more low-key than fans were hoping for. Then comes Royal Rumble 2016. After Becky Lynch's losing effort to Charlotte, Sasha makes a surprise return from injury, kicks Becky out of the ring like she's a piece of trash, and then congratulates Charlotte on her big win..... and then immediately puts Charlotte into the Bank Statement. The Orlando crowd, as you can probably imagine, loved this.
• See all of the above? Now remember she's barely 24! She's a legitimate prodigy.
• And let's not forget that not only did she, Charlotte and Becky Lynch share the WrestleMania 32 poster◊ with Roman Reigns, Triple H, Shane McMahon, The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar and Dean Ambrose, but the women were also front and center on the graphic at the front of AT&T Stadium◊. Sasha was very overwhelmed upon seeing it for the first time.
  • And the match itself would be considered by many to be the best worked match at the 32nd Showcase of the Immortals — with many people's only gripe with it being Sasha not winning. This speaks a lot to the Horsewomen's work and the popularity of Sasha herself.
• July 25, 2016 edition of RAW finally saw her obtained the WWE Women's Championship from Charlotte.
  • Special mention goes to tossing the title belt to Dana Brooke, before falling down, causing the referee to eject Dana. As mentioned by the announcers, this was a favorite trick of Sasha's favorite wrestler.
• And the next week in RAW's opening promo, she gives Charlotte an epic putdown.
  Charlotte: You're just a one night stand.
  Sasha: (instantly) You're the daughter of Ric Flair.
  • Sasha's big grin as she says this and Charlotte's look of horror as she realizes that she'd thrown such an easy fastball makes it even better. Sasha following up on it was just icing on the cake.
  Sasha: If it wasn't for a one night stand, you probably wouldn't be standing here. WOOOOOO!
• October 3, 2016: Sasha and Charlotte clash again for the WWE Raw Women's Championship and this time, it's main-eventing Raw. To put that in perspective, it's just the third time ever such a match as taken place, the first since 2004 and the first not to involve Lita. And did they deliver for the Los Angeles crowd. Before the match, Dana Brooke got into Bayley's face and paid for it by getting slammed into equipment, taking her out of Charlotte's corner. During the match, Sasha and Charlotte fought each other like they were back in NXT. They worked each over back and forth, with one spectacular spot being Charlotte hitting Sasha outside the ring with a corkscrew moonsault! Even after hitting her with Natural Selection, Sasha kicked out, just about making Charlotte have a Villainous Breakdown, yelling that Sasha will never beat her, screaming at her to stay down. Sasha soon got Charlotte into the Bank Statement, winning her second Raw Women's Championship.
• Sasha AND Charlotte both got tons of awesome moments on the October 10, 2016 edition of RAW.
  • First, Sasha challenges Charlotte to up the ante from their previous matches and fight for the RAW Women's Championship INSIDE Hell in a Cell for the first time. Everybody goes insane.
  • As Charlotte comes down the aisle to respond, she's interrupted by, of all people, Rusev and Lana. Rusev starts talking bullshit about how no one cares about the women's revolution...but Charlotte rips the microphone out of his hand mid-sentence and shuts him down, telling him no one disrespects the Queen, and then ACCEPTING the challenge to fight inside Hell in a Cell!!! Rusev, in typical fashion, takes the mic back and goes on undeterred, but Sasha also rips it out of his hand while he's talking and spikes it into the ground.
  • Finally, Lana starts informing both Sasha and Charlotte that they are "lost women who need to know their place" and how Hell in a Cell was built for "real men" like Rusev...and she also doesn't finish that sentence because Sasha and Charlotte shove her down. An angry Rusev yells at them, then turns his back to check on his wife, and Sasha and Charlotte nail him with stereo dropkicks, sending him out of the ring, to the crowd's delight.
  • To sum up, Sasha and Charlotte stood up to the Bulgarian Brute, one of the most dangerous fighters in the WWE, who has made numerous other men pass out or tap (including John Cena and Roman Reigns, two of WWE's top stars), and fearlessly made him look stupid. And they instantly put their personal problems aside to do it, showing that they may fight on their own, but they will defend the revolution they helped build together.
  • And then Sasha and Charlotte found themselves teaming with Reigns and Rusev, respectively, in a mixed tag team match. The match ends with Sasha locking the Bank Statement on Charlotte again when out of nowhere, Reigns leaps over both women as they're on the ground and spears Rusev in half just as Charlotte begins tapping out. It has to be seen to be believed.
• The November 28, 2016 RAW, which saw Sasha get what was billed to be her final chance to regain the title in Charlotte, NC. So much awesome:
  • Despite the match being in Charlotte's hometown (the very hometown that bears her name), she was roundly booed as a heel should be, while Sasha received a pop - and both reactions were pretty big. In an era where WWE crowds don't always stick to Kayfabe, this spoke to how over each woman was in her respective role.
  • The match started as a midcard(ish) match that, if not for who was involved, almost looked like it was going to be a throwaway to officially wrap up the feud. It ended in a Double Countout, which viewers likely thought was meant to set up one last PPV match. Nope - Mick Foley comes out and drops a bombshell, saying that not only will the match restart as the main event of RAW, but will do so as a no-countout, no-disqualification match where Falls Count Anywhere.
  • The actual match itself was amazing and equaled, if not slightly beat, their HIAC match in sheer brutality. Kendo sticks got involved, mostly over Charlotte's torso, Charlotte hit an apron Big Boot on Sasha, inducing a bump where it literally looked like Sasha had broken her damn neck, and Charlotte hit a moonsault off the announcer's table to the pit below the stage, which is legitimately about a 10-ft. drop. They brawled in the ring, around the ring, through the crowd... The match finally finished when Sasha trapped Charlotte between some stair railings, kneed her in the stomach about ten times, and then switched back into a horrifying-looking Bank Statement variant where Charlotte's back was bent double the wrong way around the arena rails. Given that Sasha had subtly been targeting Charlotte's back and ribs the whole match, Charlotte only lasted a few seconds before tapping, giving Sasha the victory and her third RAW Women's Title win.
  • And if that weren't enough, as the victor celebrated in the ring.... "WOOOOOOOO!" Ric Flair himself comes down to the ring to embrace Sasha and raise her hand, signifying a tremendous show of respect for her and the Women's Division.
• Her now somewhat infamous tirade on the post show for Great Balls of Fire that blurred the lines between kayfabe and reality. During it, Sasha blasted the Raw Women's Champion Alexa Bliss, stating that Bliss was nothing but a generic Alpha Bitch that made a mockery of the women's division.
  Sasha Banks: "You know, she came in so cute, so humbled. She came in so fake, with her fake little stories, her fake little 'I love wrestling growing up, I love Matt Hardy'. You know what? You can’t even tell the difference between Jeff and Matt. You idiot. Yeah, we call you on all your lies, sweetheart. You’re just here to be another girl. Another heel. You just want to be here for a Hollywood act. You’re on Total Divas now, you’re getting what you want and you can talk your way into everything, but you know what? You can’t run away from me. You can talk this, but you can’t walk the walk - cause you’ll never be me. I’m a three time Women’s champion for a reason, and I will be a four time Women’s champion very soon. I won that match tonight, and I demand my rematch.".
• After taking a four-month impromptu sabbatical, Sasha made her return to WWE on the Raw following the 2019 SummerSlam, enacting one of the most despicable and volatile beatdowns the women's division has ever seen by assaulting an injured Natalya. When Becky Lynch runs out to make the save, Sasha quickly fights her off before smashing a chair over her back nearly a dozen times. The Boss has finally taken her place back atop the women's division.
• October 25, 2020. Bayley vs Banks. Hell in a Cell. The stakes were high, and the Boss not only rose to them, but surpassed them. Sasha not only beat Bayley, ending her historic 380-day Smackdown Women's Championship reign, but in winning, captured her own Grand Slam Championship. The match was 26 minutes of sheer brilliance, with the two women pulling out all the stops. Banks forced Bayley to tap to a Banks Statement on a steel chair, successfully utilizing the kicking move that had nearly gotten her the win at Takeover: Brooklyn.
• Mercedes making her long awaited AEW debut in her hometown of Boston at Big Business.