According to a report that was put out by Raj Giri of Wrestling Inc., Sasha Banks has been released from WWE. He adds that it is unknown if she requested her release or if this was a decision made by WWE themselves.
Giri posted this news late on June 15 and it was quickly followed up with Sean Ross Sapp from Fightful. Sapp added in that he spoke to Raj in the afternoon and asked WWE himself. As of 8 PM on June 15, he had not heard one way or the other if it was accurate or not. He would go on to say that Giri has good sources.
Banks alongside her tag team partner Naomi was indefinitely suspended by WWE on May 20. This was made official on the air during the SmackDown broadcast. This was as a result of the tag team champions walking out of the May 16 episode of Raw. According to WWE’s official statement at the time, “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.”
Banks and Naomi were scheduled to compete in a six-pack challenge on May 16 prior to them walking out. The bout was later changed to a singles match between Lynch and Asuka. WWE announcers referenced the walkout and referred to both Banks & Naomi as “unprofessional” and added that they “disappointed the WWE Universe.”
Banks last wrestled on May 13 when she and Naomi defended the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships successfully on SmackDOwn against Natalya & Shayna Baszler.
Shortly after Sapp made the post on his social media, he would compile what he knows of the situation. The information provided was as follows –
“Sean Ross Sapp spoke with Giri hours prior who informed him of the claim of Banks’ release. Fightful reached out to numerous WWE reps, one of which got back to us and stated “Not that I’ve heard” in regards to the release. They confirmed later that they saw Giri’s tweet, but didn’t comment beyond that. Thus far, nobody in WWE has explicitly shot it down, they’ve just said they haven’t heard about it. This is as it pertains to talent, front office, public relations, and staff. If Sasha Banks has been released, the company has kept it very quiet. Contacts close to talent relations were unaware of a release as of 8 PM EST.
Fightful exhausted a number of resources this afternoon, and weren’t able to find anyone who could confirm or deny the release had happened. We will continue exhausting those resources as this is a huge story. The claim, again, unverified by us as of yet, were that Banks’ lawyers were involved and there had been eyes on a physical WWE release.
Thus far, Sasha Banks remains on the roster page of WWE.com, and there haven’t been any internal memos sent out to staff (as of 1 AM EST, June 16) to remove her from shop, roster or other pages. There was an “urgent” email sent earlier this week to a live event venue to remove her from advertising as she was no longer a part of the event. We’ve also not heard of any talent relations memos being sent to talent, who are often notified of releases.
Again, we can’t confirm if a release has or hasn’t happened. We will constantly update this post as we get more information.”
Banks is one of only four female Grand Slam Champions in WWE and is one of only five women to ever main event a WrestleMania in the history of the company.
Diva Dirt will follow up on any further news on the status of Sasha Banks as it presents itself moving forward.
