WWE SummerSlam 2020: Why Sasha Banks must retain her championship

Sasha Banks defends her Raw Women’s Championship against Asuka at WWE SummerSlam 2020, and she absolutely must retain her title.

Going into WWE SummerSlam 2020, many fans are expecting the match of the night to be for the Raw Women’s Championship as Sasha Banks defends against Asuka. It’s sure to be a must-see contest, but “The Boss” must retain her title when the dust settles.

Understandably, most fans didn’t expect Banks to take the title from Asuka in the first place. As a SmackDown mainstay connected to SmackDown Women’s Champion and fellow WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Bayley, it seemed like an odd call to put the title on “The Boss.”

While some could argue Banks’ reign began at The Horror Show at Extreme Rules, WWE only recognizes it as starting on July 27, 2020, when the episode of WWE Raw with their rematch aired. That timing ended Asuka’s reign at 78 days, and now Sasha Banks holds the Raw Women’s Championship for a record-breaking fifth time.

That timing is crucial, though. While it seems like Banks might be one of the most prolific WWE Raw Women’s Champions we’ve seen, the numbers show a criminal lack of confidence by WWE when it came to actually keeping the title on Banks.

WWE has never committed to Sasha Banks as a champion

For clarity, the title currently recognized as the Raw Women’s Championship was initially created back at WrestleMania 32. Then dubbed the WWE Women’s Championship, it was introduced as a replacement to the WWE Divas Championship as WWE finally phased out the term “Divas” and referred to the women’s division as superstars.

There were only two reigns under that iteration of the WWE Women’s Championship that happened entirely before the reintroduction of the brand split and renaming of the belt as the Raw Women’s Title. The first was Charlotte Flair, who was also the last WWE Divas Champion and took the win at WrestleMania 32.

The second was Sasha Banks, who won the title from Charlotte on an episode of Raw back on 2016, only to lose it back to her just 27 days later at SummerSlam 2016. That sounds a bit too familiar, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, this loss was the beginning of a terrible trend that has following Sasha Banks for the last four years. While WWE has been willing to pull the trigger on making her champion during five separate occasions, they’ve never committed to her holding the title for a long period of time.

Sasha Banks has the shortest reigns of any WWE Raw Women’s Champion

Being a five-time Raw Women’s Champion sounds great on the surface, but when you actually dig deeper you might notice that as of now Sasha Banks also has the five shortest reigns with the Raw Women’s Title. Banks’ prior title reigns (as recognized by WWE) tally out at 8 days, 19 days, two 27-day reigns, and her current reign as champion would yet again be only 27 days in length if she loses at SummerSlam.

The sixth shortest reign belongs to Charlotte Flair, who held it for 29 days back in 2016, but had already held the title for 113-days in a previous reign. Despite having 5 separate reigns, Sasha Banks is barely in the top five for cumulative days holding the Raw Women’s Championship.

Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch’s single reigns both tallied significantly more days than all five of Banks’ have so far. Charlotte Flair and her four reigns are in the third slot for cumulative days, and rounding out that top five is 3-time Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss.

Despite continuing to crank out amazing matches with basically every opponent she’s given, WWE refuses to truly commit to Banks as a champion. This cannot continue. Sasha Banks is one of the top in-ring performers in all of WWE, and she deserves the opportunity to prove her longevity and staying power as a champion with a reign that lasts at least four whole weeks.

There’s no doubt Asuka will bring the heat at SummerSlam and deliver an unforgettable match against Banks, but Asuka’s 78-day reign is the sixth-longest of any Raw Women’s Champion. WWE SummerSlam 2020 needs to be the night “The Boss” retains and goes on to have the longest title reign of her career.

In reality, Banks shouldn’t lose the title until WrestleMania 37. If WWE is continuing with the path of pitting Banks and Bayley on a collision course, the better call would be to have Bayley lose her title only to win the 2021 Women’s Royal Rumble and challenge her best friend at WrestleMania 37.