On Monday night, Sasha set the crowd in Toronto ablaze with her return interrupting Natalya. When we thought she was going to say a few kind words about her late father, Jim Neidhart, Sasha switched it up. She snatched off her wig and the figurative edges off of the fans in the arena and watching at home and went to work.
She brutally attacked Natalya, slamming her into steps and peppering her with lefts and rights. However, before she could really give her that work, in came Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch.
She too got beat, and in dramatic order, she took a chair shot to the back, the back of her head, abdomen, and was left a prone heap while The Boss walked away unscathed, and smiled. It was a shock. Many, myself and other writers on women’s wrestling expected her to be done. Fellow Diva-Dirt writer Nick and myself thought that if she wasn’t on hand for SummerSlam, she was through. How wrong we were.
Sasha’s return has set the world on fire this week. The video tweet of her return garnered 423,000+ hits on Twitter. The corresponding YouTube video has over 3 million views. No other superstar, male or female has come close. Not Rollins, not Orton, Flair, Owens nor McMahon. The closest in views is Buddy Murphy’s match with Roman Reigns with 2.2 million. Sasha has the world talking in a big way, and now it’s on WWE on how to go forward.
Sasha, especially the heel, has always been popular with audiences because she brags about how good she was and goes out and proves it. When she made her way onto the main roster, WWE had a chance to capture lightning in a bottle and truly make her a superstar and they, much like they did with Becky from 2016-2018 and Bayley for most of her main roster stay, they dropped the ball. They saddled her with an uncomfortably executed gimmick, a hokey partnership that saw more ups and downs than NeNe Leakes and Kim Zolciak, and meaningless title reigns. Now, much like Becky, WWE has a second chance to catch lightning in a bottle and give the fans the Sasha we’ve been clamouring for.
Only time will tell what happens and how WWE will manage to either capitalise or drop the ball, but it cannot be denied that Sasha has star written all over her and this week, she provided receipts. The world is watching, and right now, they’re watching the woman with blue hair on the red brand.
Are we excited to see Sasha? How will they handle her return? Are you surprised by the reaction and reception of her return? Sound off!
