Sasha Banks Recalls Being Told She Was "Just A Good Hand" In WWE NXT
Before making major headlines this week with her abrupt exit from WWE RAW alongside Naomi, Sasha Banks appeared on Cold As Balls on Kevin Hart's Laugh Out Loud Network. The concept of the show sees Hart and a celebrity, in this case, Banks, submerge themselves in freezing ice water as they conduct an interview.
Banks started off by giving the famous actor/comedian a bit of insight on how she first got interested in WWE.
"Ten years old, scrolling through TV and WWE just popped up, and I'm like, 'Ahh!' Like, a light just opened up. I was like, 'This is your calling and this is everything that you're supposed to be. This is your soul purpose, and instantly, at ten, I was like (snaps her finger). Every day and every night, you just think about that one goal. 'I just can't wait to be the best wrestler in the whole world and I can't wait to change the game!"
With her path ahead laid out, Banks would attend the New England Pro Wrestling School, and email WWE often for a potential tryout.
"I went to this pro wrestling school called New England Pro Wrestling in Boston and I trained there for two years. Any time that WWE came to town, I emailed them and was like, 'Hey, can I be an extra for you guys? Can I get a tryout?' Finally, they brought me in for a tryout and I went to Florida for a week.
"Back then and for women, it was extremely rare [for women to get a tryout like that], and especially for women with a background in wrestling. Back then, all WWE wanted was a beautiful face, a model, but I went down there for my tryout and got the call 3 months later that they wanted to hire [me]."
The multi-time women's champion admits that the first few months were extremely difficult on her body, but even more challenging was the task of delivering promos in front of one of the greatest wrestlers on the microphone: Dusty Rhodes.
"We did a lot of running the ropes, hitting drills, and we did promos which were so hard because we did it in front of Dusty Rhodes, the greatest of all time. First of all, I'm a fan my whole life, and just to hear his knowledge and hear him speak, and just to get his tips right away, I was just like, 'Alright, this is do or die. You've got to do it.'"
One may be led to believe that Banks' "defining moment" in her career took place at WrestleMania, or when she won her first women's title or something along those lines. But it was actually in NXT, at the genesis of her WWE career, that 'The Boss' really took things to the next level.
"It was probably down in NXT, but I wasn't really being used," she said. "A writer came up to me and told me that, 'I'm just a good hand'. [NXT] is our developmental brand, it's the people that you see before you see them on the main roster. That was my defining moment because I was like, 'You know what? I am going to show you.' And in the next month, I just turned it up and the next thing you know, I'm the NXT Women's Champion."
As noted, a six-pack challenge to determine the #1 contender for the RAW Women's Championship was supposed to see WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, Naomi and Sasha Banks, compete against Asuka, Becky Lynch, Dewdrop, and Nikki A.S.H on last night's Raw. That match got abruptly changed early on when Adam Pearce switched it to a singles match between Becky Lynch and Asuka to determine the #1 contender.
WWE then gave a statement on why the match was changed stating, in part, "[Sasha Banks and Naomi] walked into WWE Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis' office with their suitcases in hand, placed their tag team championship belts on his desk, and walked out."
You can find the latest updates on that story at this link.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Cold As Balls on the LOL Network with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.