WWE Raw: Sasha Banks return and heel turn has changed the game

The Aug. 12 edition of WWE Raw was the follow-up of the SummerSlam Pay-Per-View just 24 hours earlier and things drastically heated up with the unexpected return of Sasha Banks.

The post-SummerSlam edition of WWE Raw saw the fallout take place from the biggest party of the summer, including the Raw Women’s Championship picture after Becky Lynch defeated Natalya to retain her title in a submission match.

Natalya came out to address her SummerSlam match with The Man with her arm in a sling.  She acknowledged that Lynch was the better woman last night and that she deserved to win, but she also said there will come another day in which she gets another shot at Lynch and she’ll be ready.  After that point, however, the segment turned a bit emotional for Natalya, who had other things on her mind as well.

She began to reminisce about her late father, Jim ” The Anvil” Neidhart, who passed away one year ago to the day.  In the midst of holding back tears and overwhelming emotion, Sasha Banks’ music hit and she made her surprising return to the WWE for the first time since WrestleMania 35.  This was totally unexpected, but it paled in comparison to what would come next. Banks embraced Natalya and comforted her, that is until she didn’t.

The Boss struck down Natalya and began attacking her while also pulling off her fake pink wig to showcase her new blue hair.  The mood totally changed in the arena and Banks was relentless in her attacking of Natalya.  She even took a shot at Nattie’s heartfelt words towards her late father.  However, The Man wasn’t going to sit back and let this continue and she came out to fend off Banks.

Lynch got a few shots in herself, but Banks turned the tide on her and began attacking her as well.  It got even more intense when she relentlessly hit Lynch with a steel chair in her back over and over.  After it was all said and done, The Boss walked away with a look of serious intent and cockiness like she hasn’t had in a long, long time.  This was one of the biggest moments the red brand has had in months and it’s only the beginning.

Banks had been off of WWE TV for four months and nobody quite knew her status within the company with rumors swirling that she would take her talents elsewhere.  However, with her return last night, everything has changed in the women’s division, especially now that she finally turned heel after well over a year of fans clamoring for the villainous makeover of her old NXT days.

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Her return in itself was big enough, but now that’s she’s a heel, the possibilities are endless for what could lay ahead for The Boss.  This is a move that could help lift up several different facets within the WWE, starting with the women’s division in general.  The women’s evolution reached a fevered pitch with the first-ever women’s WrestleMania main event earlier this year.  It was a major moment, but since then, there hasn’t been anything feel anywhere close to as significant.

With the return of Banks and heel turn, this feels like the biggest thing to happen to the women’s division since the epic buildup towards Lynch vs. Flair vs. Rousey at WrestleMania 35.  In addition, this greatly helps out the Raw Women’s Championship picture.  The Man has had a stellar title reign, but the reign has failed to recapture the magic that she had towards the end of last year and heading into WrestleMania 35.

Now with a villainous version of The Boss to feud with, Lynch can have her best feud to date as Raw Women’s Champion and maybe find the spark that helped launch her unprecedented run in the first place.  And then there’s the Banks dynamic specifically, which has been in an interesting state for quite some time.  There are very few superstars that can be credited for helping launch the women’s evolution more than what Banks has done over the years.

She has been a pioneer for this movement, but over the past couple of years, Banks has had more of an up and down ride in the WWE.  She’s had big moments in that timeframe, but there were too many times that she felt like she didn’t have a clear creative direction.  Not to mention, fans had been clamoring for her to turn heel for a long time, so this move makes sense for the betterment of the women’s division and The Boss’s career in general.

In a matter of one segment, the women’s division has changed for the better thanks to a long-awaited moment fans had been waiting for.