On Sasha, Naomi, Shida, and Standing Up For Yourself

On Friday, May 13th, a pre taped episode of AEW Rampage aired. The broadcast was earlier than usual because playoff hockey was scheduled for Friday night. During the show, an interview segment with Jade Cargill and her pals led to the revelation that Hikaru Shida was not available to compete in the Owen Hart Foundation tournament, where she had been scheduled to compete against Red Velvet. 

On Monday, May 16th, WWE Monday Night Raw opened with a graphic for a six pack challenge. The winner was to face Bianca Belair for the Raw women's championship at the upcoming pay per premium live event. It was to be between Becky Lynch, Asuka, Doudrop, Nikki ASH, Sasha Banks, and Naomi. So that's two women rekindling a feud in Becky and Asuka, the women's tag team champs, and the pair that has been presented as the next challengers to the tag belts. Midway through the show, Becky mentioned that Naomi and Sasha left the building and she shouldn't have to compete. A little later, Corey Graves made a comment about Sasha and Naomi being unprofessional. The six pack was changed to a one on one match between Asuka and Becky Lynch, with a clean finish. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? We all know rewrites happen constantly, and that Raw is notorious for advertising a match and then switching it up mid-show. Hell, they did it with Theory and Mustafa Ali in this same show!

Shida was still suffering from the effects of her street fight with Serena Deeb, we were told. Cargill's lawyer assumed Red Velvet would win by forfeit, and move on in the tournament. It was then revealed that a returning Kris Statlander would replace Shida in the tournament. 

This is all standard wrestling stuff though. People get hurt, either legitimately or in storyline. Competitors are swapped out. Tournaments are scheduled, but the card is always subject to change. 

What was odd was, after the segment aired, Hikaru Shida tweeted a reply: "What?"

A follow up tweet went further, stating "Well...I already had 4 matches after the street fight and just finished the greatest fighting musical show. But I seem to have been injured...Japanese wrestling is nothing for them. I'm so sorry. And sorry couldn't be in the tournament too." Later, Shida went on to post a statement that read  "After my Philadelphia street fight a doctor check from AEW was required to participate in the Owen Hart Cup. And I couldn't re-enter the country in time."

This doesn't seem to be a work to me. It seems like it's miscommunication at best, and lying at worst. Maybe Tony Khan accidentally double booked Shida, and had to work a way around her Japanese tour to keep the tournament going. Or maybe Khan just doesn't value his longest reigning women's champion, or women's wrestling in general. Shida has said in the past that she doesn't feel particularly important to AEW. Maybe he just didn't care to put her on TV because he sees someone else as more likely to draw a crowd, or some attention.

The line was drawn on the Hikaru Shida opinion quickly - you were either on her side, or on AEW's. Either she deserved notification before the replacement segment aired, or she was just an employee and shouldn't demand to be in the conversation because it's not her company. I side with workers when these kind of conflicts arise, but I also don't lock into anything before I have a chance to learn more. That said, if I'm to choose between a billionaire and a worker bee, I'm going with the person more like me every time.

So I had an opinion on Shida, as did many other people, and we all moved on. Then Monday happened.

This next bit of info is based on reporting I've read online, most of it coming from Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, a reliable source when it comes to backstage news. From what he's said, Sasha and Naomi felt they weren't being given the level of respect they deserved as the women's tag team champs. The storylines that were to branch out from that six woman match don't sound like they would have done much to change that notion. 

Naomi was scheduled to win the six pack challenge, and she was to do so by pinning Banks, per some reports; others say Banks and Naomi were never to interact during the match. Regardless, that's not the part that irked Sasha and Naomi. According to reports, the tag champs would have gone on to programs with both women's champions. Their short feuds would both have been resolved at Hell In A Cell, with Naomi losing to Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks taking the loss to Ronda Rousey. I didn't read if Naomi and Bianca would be turning heel for this feud, but it seems likely since Bianca and Ronda are working face right now.

So we come to the events that took place during Raw. I have read that Sasha wasn't happy with the creative direction she was given, and requested a meeting with Vince McMahon. That meeting happened, but neither she nor Vince would change their minds on what to do next. Another meeting, this one with "creative" (I haven't seen any names yet), went poorly as well, with whoever represented creative telling Sasha and Naomi to check their attitudes. That led to, I imagine, some heavy conversations between Sasha and Naomi. Ultimately, they went to John Laurinitis, the current WWE Head of Talent Relations. During that meeting, they left their tag team championship belts on his desk and left the arena.

Again, this is all reporting from one source, and may not be true. But historically Mr. Sapp doesn't put anything out there without verifying it first, so I'm inclined to believe it. 

If the timeline is accurate, that six woman match was advertised even though WWE knew it wasn't going to happen. They set up a match that they were going to change, just so they could blame their tag champs for the way the main event was handled. If they handn't said anything afterward, we probably wouldn't have even known about the backstage drama. But, even with the snide commentary and weird vindictive booking of the main event, the coup de gras (apologies to Finn Balor) wasn't coming until after Raw aired.

 WWE released a statement about the whole thing, first to reporters and then publicly on their website. I'll post that here:

 "When Sasha Banks and Naomi arrived at the arena this afternoon, they were informed of their participation in the main event of tonight's Monday Night Raw.

During the broadcast, they 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.

They claimed they weren't respected enough as tag team champions. And even though they had eight hours to rehearse and construct their match, they claimed they were uncomfortable in the ring with two of their opponents even though they'd had matches with those individuals in the past with no consequence. Monday Night Raw is a scripted live TV show, whose characters are expected to perform the requirements of their contract.

We regret we were unable to deliver, as advertised, tonight's main event."

I don't remember WWE ever going this far to distance themselves from talent. Even when Stone Cold Steve Austin left the company, rather than lose to a then up and coming Brock Lesnar, the worst thing I recall being said was that Austin "took his ball and went home". To flat out blame the main event change on Superstars seems like going too far. 

Sasha Banks is a goddamn Superstar. She's been featured on The Mandalorian TV show. She's probably the most popular female performer on the roster. She's gorgeous, talented, good on the microphone, and arguably more over than anyone who isn't related to a Horseman. She took a second reign as tag team champ, and it seems like she was willing to do it to help elevate those titles. Aside from the IIconics and Bayley, I can't think of anyone else who has made those titles matter. To then take that gift and basically ignore it, and the titles, so the current champs can get a little more over, seems ridiculous. 

There are plenty of women on the roster who could have "done the job" for Bianca and Ronda, and it wouldn't have hurt them in the long run. Asuka and Becky just came back fairly recently - both have a built in excuse for a loss. Alexa Bliss is always considered a contender, it wouldn't have destroyed her momentum to drop a match against either established champ. Ronda literally just won her title at Backlash, she doesn't even need to immediately defend it at the next pay per premium live event! 

This is all to say that, if this story is to be believed, I can't imagine why one wouldn't agree with Sasha Banks and Naomi. But many people do! The general consensus seems to be that they should just do their jobs. They signed a contract, and therefore should be beholden to the story given to them. Just go out and do what you're being paid to do, they say. 

 I cannot disagree with that more. 

 The fact is that these are people, with valid opinions. Naomi has been with the company over ten years, and Sasha is one of their most popular superstars. Together, they have made the women's tag team championships more valuable than they've ever been. They obviously want their characters, and the titles they represent, to be viewed as special, important things. If the direction given doesn't jibe with that story, why would they be expected to roll over and accept it? 

 I will say that the people on Twitter who immediately went to bat for WWE after Raw did so with a venom I'm uncomfortable seeing. Words like "pathetic", "disgraceful", "disgusting", and "selfish" were thrown about. The side of the performers wasn't even thought about - they went against WWE and are therefore the enemy in these people's eyes. 

 I think I rambled a bit today, so let's sum up here. Yeah, maybe it was a little lousy of Naomi and Sasha Banks to leave, rather than go along with the story they were given. Then again, would Tom Hanks go along with a script change where he's required to toss Meg Ryan off the Space Needle rather than fall in love? No, because it makes no sense in the long term. His son needed a mom, or a kidney - I never watched that movie and I'm going off a plot summary I've half remembered since it's release. The point is, there's a narrative that should be agreed upon, especially when it involves some of your most popular performers. 

 I hope something positive comes from all this. I hope Sasha and Naomi can have a productive conversation with the other talent, Vince, Bruce Pritchard, and the creative team. I hope that leads to some good storytelling in the women's division, both in the tag ranks and elsewhere. I also hope Hikaru Shida can iron out her issues with Tony Khan. It would be nice if she felt more respected, and it would be nice to see more than one women's storyline being reliably pushed over in the AEW shows. Having a women's match on every week at half past hour one generally shows that they think they have a system that's comfortable. I would argue that maybe using a women's match as an opening contest, or at the top of the hour, would show more confidence in the performers. The AEW roster has a lot of talent; they just need a chance to shine. 

 I just want everybody to love what they do. I want these women to enjoy their stories, their characters, and their jobs. I want to enjoy watching, and writing about it, and eventually turning this into a paying gig. I want you to enjoy reading what I write, and watching what they put out there. That's not too much to ask.