Why WWE & AEW Wrestlers Are So Unhappy Right Now

Oddly enough, Sasha Banks has been at the centre of this before.

'The Boss' had simply had enough of being overlooked after a WrestleMania 35 Tag Team Championship loss, and took herself out of the wrestling rat race until the night after SummerSlam. The 'Show Of Shows' loss - as is the case with the 2022 Raw main event - wasn't an isolated incident, and as a wrestling fan constantly looking for the biggest picture and paycheque, the Mandalorian star could see the red flags.

During this time, All Elite Wrestling was preparing to launch Dynamite and assembling a roster fit and capable enough to keep up with the demands of weekly television and semi-regular pay-per-views. It obviously never went reported if the two sides conversed, but it'd be naive to assume friends-of-friends-of-friends weren't at least speaking to each other about the possibility of there being a future working relationship.

We are back there yet again. WWE contracts aren't a law unto themselves exactly, but different wrestlers have had hugely different experiences when trying to leave the organisation. Some, like Mustafa Ali very recently, are benched for so long that it becomes rational to simply return to work, smile and nod and see what happens. Truthfully, following her SmackDown Women's Championship loss to Bianca Belair in the main event of WrestleMania 37 Night 1, Banks has felt like somebody experiencing a similar churn.

AEW is the obvious go-to, but talking simply in terms of wrestling might be missing the point entirely. In both Banks and Naomi, the company have profoundly failed to fully capitalise on the stars they've helped cultivate. Perhaps falling down for a living isn't the only option anymore, and why would one choose it if the fun had disappeared too?

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