Sasha Banks is nowhere to be found in WWE since walking out from the company on May 16, 2022 episode of Monday Night Raw in light of her frustration regarding her booking by Vince McMahon. Back then she was the reigning Women’s Tag Team Champion alongside Naomi who also opted to accompany her during the walkout. That possibly marked the end of their WWE career for good.
As it’s been reported in recent times, Sasha Banks is likely to be done with her WWE career. Her obligations with the company are likely to end by 2022, making her a free agent, thereafter. She is thereby scheduled to appear at the NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 pay-per-view at the Tokyo Dome in Japan on January 4 2023 that’s going to be her first non-WWE appearance in years.
Fightful Select has now provided an update that Sasha Banks’ exit from WWE was negotiated months ago. To be exact December 31st will be her final day serving as a WWE Superstar. January 1, 2023, is the day when she’ll become a Free Agent and her arrival in the NJPW is a done deal. The source mentioned that the speculated NJPW deal is a ‘go’ for the former WWE Superstar.
WWE did try to reach a deal with Sasha Banks but they’re unable to do so as she has been asking for a lot of money. With NJPW, she will be staying in a per-appearance deal and the source noted that she’s now become the highest-paid wrestler in the company. While the exact number is yet to be revealed, it’s more than what Chris Jericho was making during his time in New Japan Pro Wrestling in the past few years.
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Sasha Banks will receive more money than wrestling legend Chris Jericho in NJPW
Here’s what the Wrestling Observer reported about Sasha Banks’ contract situation,
“Chris Jericho made $100,000 a show when he was working for New Japan, and, man, $100,000 a show, she’s gonna have to… with Chris Jericho he was actually underpaid because of how much revenue he drove between New Japan World and ticket sales at the different shows and things like that. But I don’t see her driving that revenue, but I guess we’ll find out.
The Tokyo Dome may be one thing, but for other shows, and a lot of them in the United States, I don’t see where she’s gonna drive $100,000 of extra revenue.”
It was further added that Sasha Banks will be making a ton of more money with her each NJPW appearance but the Japan-based promotion won’t be able to book her in the number of shows that WWE used to have. On the flip side, this will allow the former Women’s Champion to get involved in multiple non-wrestling future projects.
Below-given is the updated match card for the Wrestle Kingdom event in Japan where Sasha Banks is rumored to make her much-anticipated return to a wrestling show,
– IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Jay White (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada
– IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Kenny Omega
– IWGP Tag Team Championship: FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) (c) vs. Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi)
– NEVER Openweight Championship: Karl Anderson (c) vs. Tama Tonga
– IWGP Women’s Championship: Kairi Sane (c) vs. Tam Nakano
– IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Taiji Ishimori (c) vs. El Desperado vs. Hiromu Takahashi vs. Master Wato
– Tournament Final to crown the inaugural NJPW World Television Champion: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Ren Narita
– IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Catch 2/2 (TJP & Francesco Akira) (c) vs. Chaos (Lio Rush & Yoh)
