10 Things You Didn’t Know About Sasha Banks

5. Norman Smiley Was A Big Influence

Norman Smiley WWE
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Norman Smiley doesn’t get the credit he deserves. To the average wrestling fan, the Northampton-born veteran is best known for his ‘hilarious’ run in WCW’s dying days, where he dominated the WCW Hardcore Championship division despite screeching all the time and acting as if he was afraid of weapons. Those last couple of WCW years were rough, to say the least.

Smiley signed on with WWE as a trainer in 2007 and many superstars have gone to great lengths to sing his praises, none more so than Sasha Banks. The Boss has openly referred to Smiley as the ‘G.O.A.T’, stating that she wouldn’t be the wrestler she is today without the influence of the Malenko-trained legend.

Smiley taught Banks the basics and then some, and the two have remained close ever since. Sasha was lucky enough to train under some seriously iconic talent in those early days, none more legendary than Dusty Rhodes, but the influence of Norman Smiley was the biggest. Now, if only we could all forget the screeching and the way WCW ruined Meng…

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.