May 23, 2022 Observer Newsletter: Sasha Banks & Naomi walk out of Raw, Ric Flair returning to the ring

WWE women’s tag team champions Sasha Banks (Mercedes Kaestner-Varnado, 30) and Naomi (Trinity Fatu, 34) walked out during the 5/16 Raw show in Norfolk, VA where they were supposed to be in a six-way main event that would build to each of them challenging for the Smackdown and Raw singles women’s titles on the 6/5 Hell in a Cell PPV show in suburban Chicago.

At the start of the show, it was announced that there would be a six-pack challenge with Banks, Naomi, Becky Lynch, Asuka, Nikki ASH, and Doudrop, with the winner facing Raw champion Bianca Belair at the PPV show. It didn’t make sense that Doudrop, who had not been on television much, and ASH, who had been losing all of her matches, would be in that match while Rhea Ripley, in particular, coming off a win over Liv Morgan, would not. But that’s a minor part of the story.

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