WWE MVP 2020: Sasha Banks

Sasha Banks had an amazing year littered with championship victories, prominence on shows, and solid matches. One-quarter of the Four Horsewomen of Wrestling, Banks has long been a foundation for the success of the Women’s Revolution in WWE.

This year epitomized the ability of Banks as a figurehead for the division and while Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair would go absent, Banks was one member of the roster ready to take the reigns and carve a year showered in championships.

Banks began the year partnered with Bayley, the Smackdown Women’s champion at the time, and thus continued to tease a potential feud with her best friend as tensions seemed to grow from Banks saving Bayley’s run as champion time and time again.

Despite the teased break-up and the tensions Banks and Bayley would go on to capture the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles, their second reign with the belts, and Banks would further go on to beat Asuka for the Raw Women’s title thanks to help from Bayley. At The Horror Show during Extreme Rules, Asuka would blow the green mist in the refs face inadvertently, then Bayley would pull on the black and white jersey and make the count for herself. In their rematch on Raw Asuka would abandon the match to save her now-departed partner Kairi Sane who was at the receiving end of a beat down from Bayley.

Banks’ win meant that she and Bayley were the first female tag team to hold all the belts simultaneously. At Summerslam, Banks would lose her title back to Asuka and seven days later at the Payback event, Banks and Bayley would lose their tag titles to Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler.

On the September 4th episode of SmackDown following a loss in their rematch for the tag titles, Bayley would turn on Banks with a savage attack, finally igniting their long-built feud and turning Banks face.

Following weeks of promos and hype, we finally got a taste of Banks vs Bayley on the October 9th episode of SmackDown, before Bayley attacked Banks with a steel chair to lose by disqualification but ultimately retain the blue belt.

Their differences were finally settled in a fantastic Hell In A Cell match at it’s PPV namesake and saw Banks overcome the cunning Bayley, thus gaining her revenge and securing her first reign with the blue belt.

She proceeded to retain the belt against Bayley on the November 6th episode of Smackdown, ending her run of unsuccessful defenses, and ending their feud. It’s a shame their feud wasn’t timed for WrestleMania, both of the ladies work during their tag team run and their final rivalry was perfect and believable and would have been a prime candidate for a WrestleMania level feud, with a match that would suit the Show of Shows to perfection.

Banks would go on feud with her current nemesis Carmella towards the end of 2020, and while the feud is underwhelming on the whole, Sasha Banks continues to cut her signature confident promos and round off a fantastic year with a solid end.

What has made Sasha Banks one of the MVP’s of WWE has been her reliability, she has week in and week out been one of the highlights of the blue brand beside and opposite Bayley as women’s wrestling begins to grow. Due to Lynch’s pregnancy, WWE lost its top women’s babyface and Banks has now filled the void superbly as the new face of the women’s division and has never looked out of place with the title in her hands.

A prime example of the popularity of The Legit boss is at the most recent PPV event TLC, Sasha Banks post-match interview clocked over 250,000 views whereas WWE champion Drew McIntyre clocked under 140,000 views on the official WWE YouTube channel. This means that closing out 2020 Sasha Banks was more popular than the WWE champion, if that doesn’t show her value as face of the Women’s division, then I don’t know what does.

Sasha Banks appears to be going into Mania season with a full head of steam and once she has shaken her feud with Carmella, it’s an almost guarantee that she will be heading to the Grandest Stage Of Them All against a fresh and exciting challenger, maybe Bianca Belair?

What do you think of Sasha Banks’ 2020? Was she your WWE MVP? Be sure to let us know on Twitter.