By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Sasha Banks and Naomi have been stripped of the WWE Women’s Tag Titles and suspended indefinitely. Michael Cole announced the news during WWE Friday Night Smackdown and said that “a future tournament” will be held to crown the new champions.
Powell’s POV: Cole laid it on thick while delivering the message from the broadcast table when he said that Banks and Naomi “let us all down” and “disappointed millions of WWE fans and their fellow Superstars” when they walked out of WWE Raw on Monday. Pat McAfee sat next to Cole and essentially remained straight faced without adding any comments.
Neither Banks nor Naomi have publicly commented since they left Raw. WWE issued the following press release regarding the matter on Monday.
“When Sasha Banks and Naomi arrived at the arena this afternoon, they were informed of their participation in the main event of tonight’s Monday Night Raw.
“During the broadcast, they walked into WWE Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis’ office with their suitcases in hand, placed their tag team championship belts on his desk and walked out.
“They claimed they weren’t respected enough as tag team champions. And even though they had eight hours to rehearse and construct their match, they claimed they were uncomfortable in the ring with two of their opponents – even though they’d had matches with those individuals in the past with no consequence.
“Monday Night Raw is a scripted live TV show, whose characters are expected to perform the requirements of their contract.
“We regret we were unable to deliver, as advertised, tonight’s main event.”
I guess we all have aspects of our jobs that we may not like or would like to be different; whether it is enough to walk off the job and leave is another matter. It seems to be more prevalent in modern times for sports related areas. With the NFL it’s not only contract extensions and pay, but now some who get compensated what they want still up and demand a trade because they don’t like how they are being implemented. It’s like saying “I want all this money for my skillsets but after you pay me don’t turn around and utilize my skillsets to their best application in game situations.”
I guess they all can’t just say “That doesn’t work for me brother”.
All this just because Sasha doesn’t want to job to Ronda again and this time has dragged Naomi down with her. At some point I hope people realize that she’s got the attitude of Hogan or Austin but with the drawing power of Barry Horowitz.
And I want to say that I wasn’t taking a dig at Hogan. There are times where his creative control was not good for the programming but he also transcended pro wrestling and built up his marquee value over many years, and not just any type of pro-wrestler can shoulder that position successfully and maintain the interest of the casual masses and pro wrestling stalwarts.
Sounds like these two are walking off to make a point because they don’t like one specific singled-out issue. Unlike an ordinary reasonable working person who may walk off a job after many months or years of poor conditions without relief this situation is a bit different, like a higher-up tasked with giving a public presentation already scheduled and then not liking the itinerary so suddenly walking off instead of fulfilling his/her responsibility.