10 Things We Learned From WWE Chronicle: Sasha Banks
The Boss is back, but ready to move forward...
As Sasha Banks was probably happy to attest to after her post-SummerSlam return, great pro wrestling is often as much to do with great timing as anything else. This documentary felt the benefit too.
Wrestler mental health is a searingly hot topic at the moment. Kevin Owens opening up about losing the love of wrestling on Lilian Garcia's podcast seemed to fuel fan support for his overdue babyface turn on television earlier this year. The artist formerly known as Big Cass remains troubled by a myriad of demons, but has spoken on them in such a way that the conversation around what it is to battle them at all has completely changed. Kylie Rae's sudden absence from All Elite Wrestling (and radio silence on the matter) has led the less-ghoulish of the community to instantly send messages of support even on an off-chance she's suffering alone.
Even for wrestlers, wrestling can and perhaps should be the distraction rather than the dangerous obsession when it comes to matters of the mind. Lik Owens, Cass and Kylie, Sasha's open forum offered additional insight into a growing unwelcome trend, wrapped in a host of notable, quotable moments.
Sasha Banks' Chronicle was underpinned not by the reasons she left, the reasons she returned, nor even the reasons she became a wrestler in the first place, though they are all points of focus throughout. It was a story of a human being trying to take control of her life, her mental health and her emotional wellbeing.
10. Paige
Largely forgotten by most fans that rushed to support Paige during a particularly trying time, Sasha Banks' incidental involvement in the injury that ended the Brit's career unleashed a wave of trolls in her direction, blaming her for a perceived botch.
Attempting to push back tears as she presumably did those abusing her online, Banks attributes this as one of several starting points in late-2017 that contributed to the erosion of her love for the only profession she'd ever had in her adult life.
Her 2018 direction (and more on that later) was little help - 'The Boss' floated up and down the card with criminal abandon for much of the year as a potential feud with Bayley was constantly thwarted by stop-start booking and an unacceptable indifference towards coherent storylines and continuity. A different Banks might have fought it, but this one simply didn't have the time and inclination to bat back such bad booking.