On the May 16 episode of Monday Night Raw, something happened before the show that caused both Sasha Banks and Naomi to walk out. Not only are both women multi-time champs, but are also the current Women’s Tag Team Champions as well. During the show, a rumor went around saying that Sasha and Naomi had walked out over issues with creative, not soon after, it was confirmed by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful on Twitter.
Before the main event, WWE issued their own statement laying out what they said happened. “When Sasha Banks and Naomi arrived at the arena this afternoon, they were informed of their participation in the main event of tonight’s Monday Night Raw,” it said. “During the broadcast, they walked into WWE Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis’ office with their suitcases in hand, placed their tag team championship belts on his desk, and walked out.”
The statement went on to say how the women “claimed they weren’t respected enough as tag team champions” as well.
“Even though they had eight hours to rehearse and construct their match, 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. Monday Night Raw is a scripted live TV show, whose characters are expected to perform the requirements of their contract. We regret we were unable to deliver, as advertised, tonight’s main event.”
Originally, a six-pack challenge was planned for the main event featuring Banks, Naomi, Asuka, Becky Lynch, Doudrop, and Nikki A.S.H to determine a number one contender for Bianca Belair’s Raw Women’s Championship. That changed to a singles match between Lynch and Asuka, with Asuka coming out on top.
It gets interesting here as it was reported by Fightful that Naomi was supposed to win the match, but also that Banks had a meeting with Vince McMahon about the direction with creative and he didn’t back down.
This is far from the first time stars have walked out about disagreeing with creative over their character work, most notably was “Stone Cold” Steve Austin losing to Brock Lesnar back in 2002 for a King of the Ring qualifying match.
Austin believed he wasn’t being treated properly–as someone who had done so much to build the company up–and he didn’t want to have a match without any hype or big-time feel, so he left for almost a year. McMahon took to TV and got in front of the narrative saying that Austin had “took his ball and went home,” without really getting into the specifics at the time.
