It does seem like a work due to the way they are handling the "issue" publicly. Over explanation on social media the other day and then making a tournament and big announcement on TV.

I can see it going either way because I could see Sasha "doing something like this" at some point, but I can also see her creating this walk out angle to stir shit and make some waves, and perhaps pitching it at the right time to the right person to get it done.

I they’re working a shoot.

You can cut it both ways; by announcing a tournament they’ve now got to throw some teams together and put some spotlight on the belts, which is a bit of a “fuck you” to Sasha in particular. They didn’t have to that, they could have just quietly forgotten about them entirely given the lack of depth across the division(s). Or, they ran this angle to put some spotlight on the division, but they couldn’t have done that without trashing their talent.

I can see Naomi coming back and that being tied into the Bloodline stuff. I can see Sasha being done for now.

If it is a work, then why in the world did WWE include the part in their statement that it’s alleged that two of their workers are unsafe? Or all the breaking kayfabe parts?

If it is a work then it very much reeks of WCW Russo’s “Is it a work or a shoot?” booking.

wrestling fans thinking everything is a work is probably the worst thing Vince Russo contributed to wrestling

it always make my head want to explode

Yeah I agree it wouldn't be the first time and I'm also really surprised Sasha has not been let go by now since this is not the first time she's"walked out" or whatever. I wouldn't have thought they valued her that much to put up with that

One day when Vince McMahon dies half of the wrestling fans will ask if it's a work or a shoot

Well it depends on how he does I guess. If he gets shot it's obviously a shoot

Lol that was a terrible joke

WWE has not been creative in storytelling for nearly 20 years at this point but people will always be convinced somehow 'it might be a work' all the time when news breaks


meanwhile...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Then…Now…<br>Sasha Banks replaced by Cody Rhodes on signature intro from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SmackDown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SmackDown</a> <a href="https://t.co/GehzRWkXHV">pic.twitter.com/GehzRWkXHV</a></p>&mdash; Promo Joe (@PromoJoeYT) <a href="https://twitter.com/PromoJoeYT/status/1527912045655498758?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Yeah idk I don't think Sasha makes it through the rest of the year with the company

I still cling to hope that Eddie Guerrero will show up one day and be all "Guess what, holmes? ..... I lllllllliiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeedddd!!" and then the fans go banana as he does the shoulder shimmy

Yeah and I cling to hope Chris Benoit shows up at my house one day so we can 'hang out' in the gym

Wow another awful joke...sorry I'm striking out today I got nothing

The joke just wasn’t set up properly. Your premise is as about as flimsy as a cheap carabiner with a faulty safety latch that everyone tells you isn’t sufficient to hold a 220 lb man as he descends from the top of an arena in Kansas City, Missouri.

To be fair, the last time he died it was a work.

jfc:lol::lol::lol:

Just came here to say Fuck Vince McMahon and his terrible company.

This. They could have just done Shayna & Natalya vs. Asuka & Io Shirai and been done with it. Or just forgotten about the belts and let the girls involved bury the belts.

I don’t think they want Naomi to be a heel. She’s a “positive role model” for a demographic they’re after. I don’t really know how well she would do as a heel either.

Oh, no doubt the breaking kayfabe stuff is shit.

Lol, shut the fuck up. Each case is different, and you’re being worked all the time.

It’s all you’ll have soon. Goodbye.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Hearing rumors from sources <a href="https://twitter.com/WWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@wwe</a> that Sasha and Naomi actually walked in on <a href="https://twitter.com/VinceMcMahon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VinceMcMahon</a> naked with wrist/ankle Velcro straps to the wall and a penis pump maxed out being held by Nick Khan with Abyss reading out the show aloud. Let’s just wait for more details for fucks sake.</p>&mdash; The Big Guy Ryback (@Ryback) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ryback/status/1527835125190234113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Here’s something that separates this from all the other “it’s a work” hoopla you hear: This is making people care more about Sasha, Naomi and the Women’s Tag Team Titles. If people were suspicious of this and it was making them more irrelevant (no mention of them on TV, the belts disappear or are put immediately onto another team), then I’d be right there discrediting it too.

MJF floating his interest in WWE doesn’t help AEW. That doesn’t make sense as a work. Cody falling out with them didn’t make them look good. Not a work. Sasha & Naomi? This could very easily be a main event program for them when they crown new champs. Could very easily be a work.

How did they come up with it? Russo’s been in the news and trying to get a job back with them. It could have been the women’s ideas themselves to give them more of an edge. It could be inspired by CM Punk and the pipe-bomb, but neither girl is an excellent promo so they’re using backstage actions. It’s got elements of The Awesome Truth (lol remember that?). And there’s elements of Montreal here. Except instead of Vince doing it himself, it’s Michael Cole speaking for the company. Hell, there were rumors of Ronda walking out as recently as Mania. That could have been the germ of the idea right there.

We’ll see. But this has working potential, which you can’t say for everything else that makes a company look bad that people claim is a work. “It’s a work that WBD didn’t give AEW much attention at the upfronts” is a ridiculous idea. Sasha & Naomi as pariahs in the WWE is not.

I don't understand what elements of Montreal you see in this

So WWESHOP pulled all Sasha and Naomi merch, yet you can still buy Cesaro stuff and he has been gone for months. Such a work lol

yeah when they dropped there merch i knew it was no work.

The company is playing the role of Vince McMahon.

What’s the precedent on WWE taking down people’s merch? Don’t they usually discount it?

They have never pulled anybody's merchandise quicker other than Benoit. I dont even think they pulled Hogan's merch after his racist tirade this quickly.

and I have the opposite reaction to that than erickman does, I think them pulling merch further leans into this being a work. They don't pull anyones merch for anything ever, no matter how bad it is, and they've had worse fallings out than this before. They want people thinking this is a huge deal. Why? To what end?

Same, WWE is just not going to eat the costs of their merch.

There was a story going around that when they fired Enzo, they had a boatload of new G shirts made, and they gave Chad Gable the Shorty G gimmick solely so they could repurpose those shirts and still sell them.

If they are willing to do that, it shows how much they do not want to have sunk costs.

Equally the talent make money off the sales too. Removing that revenue stream on top of whatever they get above their guarantee is a bit of a “power play”.

Again, you can probably look at every aspect of this and flip a coin on whether you call if a work, a shoot, or a shoot that became a work.

so it was enzos fault for shorty g. i wonder who will get the name glow to get rid of those shirts. boss will be a good one for a heel.

They took Riddick Moss off tv for repackaging. Expect him to come back as Riddick Boss.

Credit: SPWW Forums.

SPWW?

lol this isn't a work

If that story is true, I am not certain I buy that, but it was floated.

They do still have Alexa carry that stupid Lilly doll to the ring even though she isn't doing that gimmick anymore because WWE still wants to sell them.

I'm going with the "working a shoot" theory for now it seems the most plausible

I'm very disappointed in you supreme! To make a joke like that is very low unlike Owen Hart's fall unfortunately

I dunno. Remember when Alberto Del Rio was released after hitting an employee who made a racial joke at his expense and WWE twitter started burying him and sticking up for a guy who made a racial joke?

Yeah they have been putting out statements over the last light almost 10 years now even for suspensions. Remember when Chris Jericho "desecrated" the Brazilian flag?

Unrelated: Remember when the Undertaker was going to eviscerate CM Punk live on Raw?

(verbally)

Yeah and Bret screwed Bret.

<iframe id="reddit-embed" src="https://www.redditmedia.com/r/SCJerk/comments/uw66qh/i_cant_wait_for_sasha_to_go_to_aew_she_will_be/?ref_source=embed&amp;ref=share&amp;embed=true" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" style="border: none;" height="583" width="640" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Didn’t they add “verbal” to it halfway through the show? As if someone actually looked up the definition of “eviscerate” an hour in and they called an audible. Lol

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I spoke with Raj this afternoon and asked WWE about this. As of this evening, they said they hadn't heard that, and talent relations didn't seem to know.<br><br>Not saying that it didn't or isn't happening, but this is what I've heard so far when I asked. Raj has good sources <a href="https://t.co/cnBADkuFyg">https://t.co/cnBADkuFyg</a></p>&mdash; Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) <a href="https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1537271608401924100?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 16, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Bound to happen, wouldn't be surprised if this is true but I also wouldn't be surprised if it's not either

You gotta believe that even if it wasn’t her call, this is probably what Sasha “wants.” I doubt she ever irons out all the issues she’s drummed up for herself. Would she go to AEW? It seems clear-cut, but she might have her own ideas.

I’ve never been her biggest fan. She’s been part of some great stuff, but I think a lot of the women she’s achieved that with have actually been the better workers. A lot of what she has going for her has been largely produced by WWE. I wonder if Mercedes KV coming out and acting like she owns the place is going to have the same effect as Sasha Banks doing it. Time will tell, I guess.

She’s got a following and she’s been featured. If someone else were to start up a new company, she would be a really good pick to talk to and put focus on the women’s side of things. Whether that’s Freddie Prinze, Jr. or a TV network or whatever. She’s got value in that sense. Her and Tessa Blanchard, if you can pay Tessa the money and give her to the platform to be a good girl, would be the two biggest female stars available. Ivelisse is good and has a striking look as well, but again you’ve got to circumnavigate these personal issues. But if you have the money and the political skills, you might be able to pull it off.

Dare I say it, and I’m not a fan of her work or really her as a personality from what she puts out — Nia Jax might be a smart signing as well. Even if you make her someone’s bodyguard. She is much closer family to The Rock than a lot of the other Samoans are (apparently), and if WWE undergoes a major political shift and The Rock is looking to springboard the XFL off some wrestling involvement, brownie points with the family doesn’t hurt.

Get Scarlett Bourdeaux because she’s hot, maybe Taya Valkyrie with John Hennigan. You can start to piece together even a male roster by mapping out the female side of things.

She's great and yeah an obvious hire for AEW... but man she's just gonna make AEW feel more like a WWE brand.

Realistically, AEW wants to be like a WWE brand in the sense of competition, they will literally sign anybody coming from WWE but I don't think Sasha Banks alone is going to have that effect on AEW's unique "identity" and from what I hear Tony was a big WCW fan and more so aspires to have a similar product that they did in their hay day than WWE.

I just feel she’ll be underwhelming in AEW. They don’t have the women’s roster to scaffold her. She’ll be all “I’m the best” and the crowd will go nuts, then there will be a bunch of sloppy matches and everyone will get over it really fast.

She may just retire and try and go into acting or something.

Well it's more her character and personality that does it for most people than her actual wrestling which is sub par imo. I like Sasha but you are correct that AEW does not have the women's division that WWE has and there won't be a whole lot to do with her in the long run

I agree with you, but I think a lot of her fans (and her herself) are convinced she’s ace in the ring.

Sasha was putting on good to great matches in nxt. I don’t buy that she’s sub par in the ring. I think WWE’s cookie cutter match structure is what makes everybody look so bland in the ring. Becky and Bianca had the match of the night at mania and it’s because it wasn’t the usual plodding structure WWE matches usually have.

Sasha would be a great for AEW. She’d come in red hot, she can talk, she can work a character and she’s going to be allowed to work matches similar to her nxt stuff. Plus she’s the biggest female mande they could sign. They’d be idiots not to try and pick her up.

You add her with Jade and Britt and suddenly the top of that division looks stronger.

She is capable of putting on good matches sometimes no doubt depending on who she's working with but I personally don't think she's anything to write home about in the ring...she can be very sloppy a lot of times and it looks really bad imo

I'm not saying she's the worst or absolutely terrible or anything... I just think her wrestling skills are overrated

Her best work comes from her being paired with superior workers. Charlotte, Becky, Bayley, etc. When she “leads,” it’s often pretty messy.

I would rank her last out of the four horsewomen tbh

:y: 100% agree with you

It’s been so long since I’ve seen any of her matches that I can’t speak on her being sloppy. I just know that when I watched her work in nxt I was impressed enough to think she’sa good worker and great heel, and when I watched her in WWE it came off very boring, deliberately paced and a big left turn from what made her work in NXT.

I thought her match with Bianca last year at Mania was great. Sasha has 6 years and multiple stops over Bianca, who’s a WWE only graduate from what I know, and I think it’d be a pretty asinine take to say that having Bianca work a veteran like Sasha didn’t help elevate her game.

I don’t think she’s some match of the night factory. I don’t think that about any current woman in wrestling, Charlotte included. But I do think she’s a good worker, I think she gets how to be a heel based on her nxt stuff, and that it’d bea boon to AEW to pick her up.

She fits at the top of a division that lacks star power, she’s only 30, she can talk, and she’d come in with hype and buzz because of everything that’s happened. I get the stigma of signing EVERY WWE reject, but she’s no reject. They’d be idiots to pass her up if they have the chance.

She's a decent heel and I'm not saying she's awful in the ring just vastly overrated

I actually like Sasha tbh

Add her to Jade’s “Baddies”. Job done.

I don’t have a dislike for Sasha either. I just think her presentation lends itself to her talents being overblown.

I do like that WWE fans have dismissed Sasha’s popularity and said she’s nothing special. Anybody can do what she does if given the opportunity.

Which means WWE can make anybody a star and they’re just… choosing not to do so

Roman, Drew, Riddle, Lashley, Becky, Charlotte, Bianca. They’re all stars.

What? Roman and Lashley are stars. Maybe Becky too. That is it.

They’re all incredibly talented and would be stars wherever they went. Just like Sasha.

Drew and Bobby already did this.

This is going to turn into an argument over the semantics of what a star is, lol.

Drew and Bobby stood out in TNA, but I don’t know if you’d call them stars because of it. But have at it.

Sasha is a no-brainer signing, by the way. I’m not saying she sucks. She’s very much a product of WWE’s system though. Her best work comes paired with better dance partners than her, and she’s not necessarily going to have that anywhere else. She’s also not going to have access to the Sasha Banks name or the same presentation. I can see her feeling like a knockoff of herself in pretty short time.

Sasha was thrown together into a makeshift tag team with Naomi and they ended up being one of the top merch movers in the company. Clearly anybody can make WWE a star seeing as they have so many that they have to call back Lesnar to lose to Reigns again at Summer Slam.

I would say Sascha is def popular enough to be called a "star"

Do not get into a discussion with Noid about what a star is. He struggles to keep track of his own definition :lol:

Aren't all WWE wrestlers considered SUPERSTARS?

Agreed. She could easily be listed with the talents I named. But I think she’s hurt by leaving WWE and playing against that. It suits some people, but she’s going to be without tools.

Big disagree.

Will aew take a chance on her given shes a huffy little cunt and goes home if she doesn't get her own way?

I mean they hired Jeff Hardy after he literally went home DURING a match. At least Sasha went home before being in the ring that night.

Is she really a huffy little cunt it was she just tired of the same old shit after 7 years? And yes they should take a chance. They’d be stupid not to.

I wonder who is going to last longer there — Jeff Hardy, Sasha Banks or Toni Storm?

Her release has still yet to be officially confirm which kind of surprises me. I thought WWE would post something the next day

I wonder if they will give her a full release or a conditional one? I dunno why, but something about the delay in the news made me think of it. I mean, that could explain why they just don’t want to make a full-throated announcement of it.