Sasha Banks Says Women in NXT Were Told to “Wrestle Like Divas”

The Divas Revolution may have never happened at all if it weren’t for a certain trainer down in NXT developmental.

Current NXT Women’s Champion Sasha Banks was recently a guest on “Talk is Jericho” with Chris Jericho. During the podcast, Banks discussed the change that’s come with the Divas Revolution, as well as what it was like not having a strong female character to draw from as a child.

“Growing up, I never really had that woman figure of seeing that (empowering female influence) in WWE,” Banks said. “The time I was watching, it was all Bra and Panties matches and you had to be on the cover of Playboy to get a storyline. It was so frustrating for me to watch that, and to know that this is what I wanted to do when I grow up.”

Upon arriving in developmental, the style of wrestling females were taught to perform is nowhere near what we’re getting on weekly programming today.

“When we first started, they told us to wrestle like Divas,” Banks added. “So what exactly is that? We didn’t know. They were just like, ‘Be girly. Do hair-pulling. Do catfights.’ That’s not what we wanted.”

“So we kept striving and kept putting on these matches, and we made them pay attention to us. We created our own opportunity to have the matches we’re having now, and it’s taking off.”

The change in philosophy, in terms of booking women’s matches more like the men’s, came when indy star Sara Del Rey was hired as an NXT trainer, who Banks gives a ton of credit to.

“She’s the first female coach that we ever had in WWE, and she’s never been in the WWE,” Banks said. “So that says something for itself, and that says something for her work and where she’s come from and how hard she works. I definitely think that they looked at that and said, ‘Let’s give her a chance. Let’s see what she can do with these women.'”

Banks also mentioned how she cried upon learning that her and Charlotte would be main eventing a house show in Philadelphia, as well as how cool it is to have two Diva segments on “Monday Night Raw” every week.

To listen to the podcast in its entirety, click here.

Editor’s Note

Sasha Banks is the bees knees. Love this girl.

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