Report outlines reasons behind Sasha Banks & Naomi walking out of WWE Raw

Details are still light regarding exactly what happened that caused Sasha Banks and Naomi to walk out of WWE Raw Monday, but one Tuesday report has a version of what led to the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions leaving the venue.

According to PWInsider, the plan for Raw was that Banks and Naomi would go head-to-head in the planned Six Pack Challenge with Naomi getting to challenge Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair at Hell in a Cell.

The report then went to say there is a belief this Friday’s SmackDown would kick off an angle to set up Banks vs. SmackDown Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey at Hell in a Cell with both Banks and Naomi losing at the event.

A pitched alternative idea including Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H. that would have set up a different program was not gone with, leading to the two eventually informing John Laurinaitis they were leaving and handing over the titles.

On the post-Raw Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said the two went to Vince McMahon about the creative plan and Vince didn’t back down and didn’t agree to what they were asking.

The report said Mahon learned of their departure reportedly right as Raw was going live with the eventual Becky Lynch/Adam Pearce segment pitched and approved on the spot that led to Lynch vs. Asuka instead.

From the report:

“The belief among some is that the creative issue was not with Banks losing to Naomi but how the duo would have been portrayed over the next several weeks, especially after they had put so much time into building their team once Vince McMahon issued an edict that they would be teaming and winning the Women’s Tag Team titles at Wrestlemania 38 – and that after diving into building that team, they were going to wrestle each other and go off to put over other talents, leaving them, exactly where, which apparently was the crux of the issue. The WWE plan looks to have been that the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship would have been downplayed until their next program after Hell In A Cell concluded.”

On the post-Raw edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer said the situation may also be related to a contract situation with Banks and Naomi.

During the show, WWE released a statement to the media that said the two “claimed they were respected enough as tag team champions” and that “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.

PW Torch’s Wade Keller refuted that statement, saying, “I can just say that I asked around and there wasn’t a pre-existing issue with Naomi and Sasha and anyone in that match.” He also said there wasn’t much sympathy backstage toward either woman nor a sense of them taking a stand for something people agreed with.

As of now, both women are still on the active roster.