Interviewed on Chris Jericho's Talk Is Jericho podcast in August 2015, shortly before she dropped the NXT Women's Championship to Bayley at TakeOver: Brooklyn, WWE Diva Sasha Banks was very clear on the person who'd inspired her to fall in love with wrestling, the person who she'd modelled herself after, and the kind of wrestler she'd hoped to be allowed to be when she signed with WWE and started in NXT. It wasn't necessarily who you'd expect, either.
"Ive always wanted to wrestle like the guys, but I never had woman figure in the WWE. The time I was watching, it was all bra and panties matches. You had to be on the cover of Playboy to get a storyline, and it was so frustrating for me to watch that when this is what I want to do when I grow up. But I always watch guys like Eddie Guerrero and you and Rey Mysterio and Dean Malenko, and I always wanted to be like that. My number one was Eddie Guerrero. I dont know what made me connect to him so much. He was the first match that I saw that hooked me on wrestling. Everything about him I just love. I want to be the female Eddie Guerrero. - Talk Is Jericho, August 12th 2015
She was discouraged when she first started in NXT - they were just being encouraged to wrestle "like Divas", with no real striking and a lot of hair pulling and screaming. That was only a matter of weeks before indie wrestling stalwart Sara Amato (who'd worked under the name Sara Del Rey) joined as NXT women's coach. She immediately put a stop to the regressive practice, beginning to teach wrestlers how to wrestle, irrespective of gender, which pleased the young Mercedes Kaestner-Varnado no end. You can see elements of Eddie Guerrero in Sasha Banks' style in her strikes, in the somersault plancha and the classic wheelbarrow roll-up, in the way she rolls through into a pin from the wheelbarrow facebuster, and the way she transitions into the Banks Statement from the backcracker. It's all Eddie-esque, and although her character of 'The Boss' isn't exactly 'Latino Heat', the babyface version isn't a million miles away. Kaestner-Varnado never got to see Guerrero perform live, although she came heartbreakingly close when she was nearly fourteen:
I was at the show after Eddie had passed away. So: my favorite wrestler of all time, and Im at that show. The day before I had won tickets, and I thought it was a sign. I get to meet Eddie Guerrero, and I get to see him, and he had passed away. I hadnt turned on a radio or TV or nothing, and I made my little sign that said I Love Eddie Guerrero and I went to the arena and saw all these signs that said R.I.P. Eddie and Well Miss You, Eddie and I just thought in my head, "Oh my god, everybody in Minnesota must hate Eddie", because I thought in my head he must be wrestling The Undertaker or something. Then a fan came up to me and he said "You know Eddies dead, right?" and Im like, "No..." It felt like a hammer hit my heart. I just died inside. - Talk Is Jericho, August 12th 2015
Guerrero was famously a fiery but passionate and inclusive sweetheart backstage, who treated the boys like family. You get the impression he would have loved Sasha Banks - both Mercedes, prone to bursting into tears with sheer emotion, a lifelong pro wrestling devotee, and The Boss, the sassy, arrogant-yet-insecure wrestling titan in the slender, bird-like body.
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