Recently, it was recently reported that Sasha Banks asked to be paid on a similar level if not more than her fellow two white horsewomen Becky and Charlotte only for WWE to simply tell her “no because you’re not a big draw” and “you’ve have already peaked as a performer” which is absolutely nonsensical if you ask me.
I have said that Sasha Banks has always been my personal favorite of in my opinion the most influential U.S. Women’s Wrestlers of all time in The 4 Horsewomen because she has bigger crossover superstar appeal, she’s the most technical and versatile in the ring, she’s more well known amongst casual non-wrestling fans than Bayley, Becky, and Charlotte.
One of the main reasons as to why she and real life bestie Naomi walked out of WWE back in May 2022 because they felt under appreciated, undervalued, and underpaid as two prominent black female wrestlers in the company and then for the company to publicly bury them through commentary on national television by saying things like “they were unprofessional” and “they let us down” which clearly had racial undertones behind that.
You have Sasha Banks who’s easily one of the best and most influential U.S. women’s wrestlers ever had the two of the best and most influential U.S Women’s Wrestling matches of the current era of U.S. Women’s Wrestling with her classic matches with Bayley at Takeover Brooklyn in 2015 and the historic all-black main WM37 event with Bianca Belair in 2021. As polarizing as Sasha Banks is to a lot of people, but she’s made history on numerous occasions such as her match with Bayley in 2015 being the first women’s match to be named WWE Match Of The Year and the biggest accomplishment of her illustrious WWE career is the historic main event with Bianca Belair at WM37.
Then you have Naomi, a black woman who has spent her entire 13 year career in WWE since the days of FCW had never been given her fair shake let alone be allowed to reach her full potential as an in-ring performer. Despite that, we have seen glimpses of what she can do in the ring as seen with Charlotte in the match on Smackdown in February 2022 which is easily the best match of her entire career. Naomi is easily one of the most underrated and underappreciated U.S. women’s wrestlers ever.
Then there’s Bianca Belair who’s currently not only having the best year of her career which is 2022, but she’s had the best and most dominant women’s singles world title run in the history of mainstream American main roster television. Bianca Belair came up to the main roster at the height of The Pandemic Era in April 2020 on Raw and has quickly become The Best PC/NXT Success story because unlike 4HW or Ronda, Bianca’s main roster run (minus the 26 second bullshit that happened to her at SummerSlam 2021) has been mostly a successful and dominant one. She’s Ms. WrESTlemania due to being the first woman to ever had back-to-back banger matches in WrestleMania history w/ Sasha in 2021 and Becky in 2022. Much like Sasha, Bianca has also accomplished as much and has made history on numerous occasions such as being part of the first women’s WarGames match back in 2019, first black woman to win The Royal Rumble in 2021, co-main evented with Sasha at WM37, and first woman to ever have three different matches in Saudi Arabia (triple threat, Elimination Chamber, and Last Woman Standing). She even wrestled in the first ever ladder match for a women’s singles world title aka Raw Women’s Title with Bayley at Extreme Rules 2022.
Women especially black women have been historically underpaid in all industries especially the wrestling industry due to racial biases from white male bookers and promoters as well as perceived as “not being as valuable and appreciated” as their white female counterparts and that still happens today in the case of Bianca, Sasha, and Naomi being criminally underpaid by WWE.
Even though Bianca, Naomi, and Sasha are three prominent black female superstars who have crossed over into the mainstream, but all three of these black women are criminally underpaid in WWE compared to Becky, Charlotte, and Ronda. Becky made $3.1 million, Ronda made $2.1 million, and Charlotte made $1.1 million all in 2022 while Bianca made $500,000, Sasha made $250,000, and Naomi made only $125,000 in 2022 and that’s absolutely egregious.
The Conclusion - One way that the wrestling industry needs to improve for the better is by addressing the racial wealth gap by paying their black wrestlers especially black female wrestlers for what they’re worth because they’re just as if not more valuable and reliable than their white counterparts.
I blame Vince for the reason Naomi and Sasha walked out as it shouldn't be a surprise since he is deep down a racist piece of shit. Naomi I don't think gets valued enough for what she's done for the company and it sucks since I feel like she's done a lot to connect with the fans and make money as she deserves a raise and a job with WWE once she retires. Bianca I think should be paid more as well and should be on the level of Becky and Ronda in terms of salary.
ReplyDeleteThen there's Sasha as WWE really fucked her bad at a time when it is clear that they didn't value her. Triple H did and I heard he did a lot to wanting to get her back but couldn't because of various issues. I think Sasha if anything should've been paid a lot more than someone like Charlotte. Ronda is a name but she's dull as fuck while Becky should be the top woman since she is their biggest star and Sasha should've been paid either equally or just as close as Becky.
If Sasha is indeed going to New Japan, she's going to KILL it there. I hope she joins Bullet Club and then create a faction of her own as I smell $$$$$$ in that.