Courtesy of: Disney and Lucasfilm
If you haven’t seen The Mandalorian season two trailer, and you’re a wrestling fan, I get it. Watch it. Sasha Banks is featured prominently in the trailer. It’s why she took some time off while they were filming it. Now she’s back and arguably in the most featured storyline in WWE. Sasha Banks and Bayley have finally split up, except it’s Sasha’s time to be the babyface here. That’s all well and good, but WWE has already botched this.
The simple fact is that they’re about to have a wrestler on the roster that’s on the BIGGEST show on planet Earth. If you don’t agree with me, check out the streaming numbers for The Mandalorian. If any old jobber was on the show, you’d have to push them to get something out of the show. Sasha Banks is no jobber. She’s one of the building blocks for a stacked WWE Women’s Division. Which is why it’s all the more bewildering that they wouldn’t have seen this coming. Millions and millions of people are going to look at that trailer and see Sasha Banks. They’re then going to look to their friends and go “who the hell is that actress?”.
WWE could capitalize on that fact by having Sasha Banks promoted front and center for every show from here until the show ends. I don’t know how prominent Sasha is actually on the show, but judging from that trailer, she is at least part of the overall plan.
WWE Seriously Botched This, And They Continue To Botch Sasha Banks
I’m not as big of a fan of Sasha Banks as resident President, Vice President, Next-In-Line To Marry Her, member of the THS Wrestling Show, Neesin Williams. But I am a huge fan of her work. She’s great in the ring, she’s great on the microphone, and she sells merchandise. What more does WWE want? Well probably a lot. Vince McMahon still calls the shots, and I don’t. That doesn’t mean that WWE shouldn’t have some foresight here. Which is a long-term problem in WWE. Anything long-term is a problem for WWE. I can see it now.
WWE Rushes The Title Back To Sasha And Messes Up The Bayley-Banks Feud
If WWE is great at something, it’s ruining long-term feuds. They did it with Charlotte and Sasha Banks when they hot-shotted the title between the two of them. They did it with Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins by injecting Bray Wyatt where he didn’t need to be. It’s a continual flaw in their booking. They don’t know how to just…. let something simmer. So they probably are going to quickly realize how bad they messed up when The Mandalorian drops on October 30th. Vince is going to get told about some Star Wars show, and he’s not going to know what it is. The aid, is likely going to show him the clip from The Mandalorian. Vince is still going to not understand what it is. Then, if the aid is smart, is going to show Vince the streaming numbers for the show.
That’s what’ll do it for Vince, he’ll throw out whatever plan they have currently, and book Sasha to win the title back that day. Instead of planning ahead for the arrival for this trailer and all the media buzz, they’re going to rush it. It’s going to kneecap what would have been a great, possibly all-time, feud between Sasha and Bayley, and turn it into merely a good one.
They very easily could have just moved up their feud at some point in the year so that Sasha’s coronation as a babyface starts when the show starts. The show picks up in popularity and her character is a favorite, then she starts picking up popularity on Smackdown. You still have Bayley and Sasha’s reign of terror as double champions or you don’t even have Sasha win the Raw Women’s title at all. It is so easy to write and book, that a dummy like me could do it. That would of course, require the aforementioned, foresight, on WWE’s part.
The Mandalorian Could Make Banks Into A Mega-Star
WWE needs someone to carry the torch into the next era. They had Hogan, Austin, Rock, and Cena. Everyone assumes that the next big thing is going to be a dude. Why not Sasha Banks? If her appearance on The Mandalorian is dynamite (not the AEW kind), what’s to say Hollywood doesn’t keep calling. Or that Star Wars doesn’t spin her off into a show or movie? What does WWE do then? They probably realize, without publicly saying, that they really screwed up.
You have someone with all the talent in the wrestling ring, that drives sales, that is passionate, and above all else, wants to be in WWE. Why not strap the rocket to her? Star Wars is the biggest property in the entertainment world still. No matter how anyone wants to say that it’s popularity is fading or that Kathleen Kennedy is destroying it, it’s more popular now, than ever. Sasha Banks is about to join that world, and I don’t think WWE is ready for it.
For more on WWE, Star Wars, The Mandalorian, or any other general pop culture, make sure to check back to That Hashtag Show.
