Sasha Banks has yet to win a Rumble match in her illustrious career, but here’s why that will all change at WWE Royal Rumble 2020.
Now that Survivor Series is wrapped up, the build toward WWE Royal Rumble 2020 will begin shortly. When taking stock of the early favorites to win the Women’s Rumble, Sasha Banks stands out as an exceptional candidate who checks off all the boxes.
Banks has been one of the best wrestlers in the world since becoming a prominent figure in NXT five years ago. She’s been involved in many of the most iconic matches over the past decade, including a duo of acclaimed TakeOver bouts with best friend Bayley.
A four-time Raw Women’s Champion, Banks also had a widely-praised rivalry with Charlotte Flair, was the Iron Woman in the first ever Women’s Rumble and then gave Ronda Rousey the best match of her career at the following Rumble Pay-Per-View.
Despite only beginning her wrestling career at the start of the decade, Banks has a resume in WWE that few can match. Yet she has yet to win a Royal Rumble or Money in the Bank match in her career despite being a standout at multiple Pay Per Views bearing the gimmicked name.
Here’s why that should no longer be the case at WWE Royal Rumble 2020. Though I’m sure many of my good readers can come up with more reasons than three, here are a trio of reasons why The Legit Boss should punch her ticket to WrestleMania 36.
It’s time for WWE to put all their chips in Sasha
Vince McMahon and the rest of WWE’s decision-makers have known for years that Sasha Banks is their most talented women’s wrestler and one of their most indispensable athletes overall. They even made that much clear in her tear-jerking, uplifting WWE Chronicle after her return from hiatus.
Banks was sorely missed post-WrestleMania 35, and it’s no wonder why her return was met with so much fanfare. The Legit Boss’ blue-wig heel turn will forever live as one of the best heel turns of this era, and it kickstarted a marquee rivalry with Becky Lynch that culminated in an instant classic at Hell in a Cell.
The brutality of Banks’ matches is only surpassed by the big-fight buzz preceding the match. Banks knows how to sell any match on the strength of its stakes and anticipated quality, never ceasing to overdeliver in even the biggest of matches.
So why wouldn’t you want her to be in a marquee match at WrestleMania 36 in Tampa?
Since partaking in the historic women’s Triple Threat match at WrestleMania 32 with fellow Horsewomen Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, Banks hasn’t had a truly big WrestleMania moment. And even in that match, Charlotte emerged the winner, simply because WWE knew it would be better for the title to validate Flair and to wait on giving Banks a babyface push in the summer.
There should be no waiting now. Banks has waited long enough not only for her next title, but a title reign of actual substance. The Legit Boss has uplifted others with her promos and in-ring work, and it’s high time she basked in a Rumble/WrestleMania win, much like her friend/rival Becky Lynch did in 2019.
A wrestler as accomplished as Banks will win at least one Rumble in her career, and this feels like the year to finally press the button on the big push.
A story with Lynch or Bayley
Right now, the women’s champion’s in WWE are Becky Lynch and Bayley, who both have lengthy histories with Sasha Banks that date back to NXT. Becky’s first “get over” match came at a TakeOver Special against Banks, while the battles Bayley and Banks have fought against each other and side by side are well-documented.
It may be difficult to envision Becky and Sasha having another big match together after the way their Hell in a Cell match ended, but there is possibly unfinished business there. At least, there’s enough left in the open that a WrestleMania rematch for the Raw Women’s Championship is believable, giving a potential Banks win additional intrigue.
If both Bayley and Becky are still champions by the time February hits, who does Sasha pick? Will she go the LeBron James/Antoine Griezmann route and have a television special on FS1?
Because if Bayley is still the SmackDown Women’s Champion, that would seemingly be the dream match. As much as fans have love the “Two-Woman Power Trip”, there’s this dark part of us on the inside that wants to see these two women tear the house down on the WWE main roster. Both women are even better performers than they were in NXT, so the dream WrestleMania match that we were briefly teased in 2018 could become a reality in 2020.
Maybe it’ll never happen and it’s not worth getting our hopes up, since asking them to top what they did in NXT (twice!) will be difficult. But these two women are so talented and were meant to wrestle each other. I want to at least leave that option open and go nuts over the possibilities the moment that Banks wins the Rumble.
Spotlight on the Road to WrestleMania
When we talk about dream matches at WrestleMania, we should spend more time discussing the build toward the match instead of just fawning over the match itself. So the allure of having a marquee match for Sasha Banks at WrestleMania 36 goes beyond her elite in-ring skills; Banks is also one of the best in the business at building to the biggest matches.
Take, for example, her work in the lead-up to her match against Ronda Rousey at Royal Rumble 2018. Banks absolutely owned Rousey on the mic and wiped the floor with the rest of the wrestlers in the locker room, carrying Raw’s programming for the better part of three weeks. She delivered scathing one-liners, served GOAT-tier facial expressions, and had us all on the edge of our seats, foolishly believing in an unparalleled upset of the then-Raw Women’s Champion.
Throughout her career, Banks has gripped our attention and made us suspend our disbelief. She lives and breathes a larger-than-life character, and while I’m sure it can be draining for her, it is a selfishly rewarding experience for us to witness her command on promos. Everything Banks does has a purpose, whether it’s a callback, foreshadowing, or a well-timed barb that draws out a little bit of extra emotion from her feud partner.
Banks vs. Bayley, Banks vs. Becky, or Banks vs. any top star in WWE ends up being more than just a match. Heck, she’s made an entire long-running Twitter feud out of Sasha and Alexa Bliss stands that dates back to an unbelievable work-shoot promo on Raw Talk.
So imagine her with the spotlight on FOX’s Friday Night SmackDown after a Royal Rumble win as a heel before her first singles match for a title at WrestleMania 36. We’d get the absolute best of The Boss, and that’s frightening in the most exhilarating way possible.