Report: NJPW bringing Sasha Banks to Wrestle Kingdom 17

Sasha Banks (Mercedes Varnado) is reportedly going to be at Wrestle Kingdom 17 on January 4, 2023. 

According to a report from PWInsider, it is not clear if Banks will be wrestling or even appearing before the live crowd on the show but NJPW is bringing her to the event. 

Back in October, Banks teased a potential match with IWGP Women’s Champion Kairi. She posted a match graphic to her Instagram stories that Kairi later shared on Twitter. 

One month after sharing the above match graphic, Kairi became the first-ever IWGP Women’s Champion at Historic X-Over on November 20. She defeated Mayu Iwatani in the finals of a tournament to win the title. 

Banks hasn’t wrestled since a WWE house show on May 15, 2022. Along with Naomi, she would walk out on WWE Raw the following night after a disagreement with management about the treatment of the women’s tag team division. 

Paul “Triple H” Levesque was asked about Banks’ WWE status during an interview with Ariel Helwani in September. 

“Time will tell,” Levesque responded. “I think in a lot of ways communication breakdowns are terrible. There was a communication breakdown there, for whatever reason. Starting back up that communication is not a difficult process but it can be a process and you have to go through the process. But she’s an unbelievably talented woman who can do just about anything she wants, it just comes down to what does she want to do now.”

“She’s an unbelievable performer that I believe in with everything I have,” he continued.