There is so much content packed into a three hour episode of Monday Night Raw, sometimes it takes a bit for things to register. Last night, Nia Jax demolished Sasha Banks for the second night in a row. The crowd didn’t care. They didn’t really boo when Nia Jax went after Sasha’s injured knee. There was mass confusion in this match because the timekeeper rang the bell too early and the referee had called for the bell yet. Moving past that, the goal of this segment was clearly to get heat on Nia Jax and make the WWE Universe dislike her. Sure, there may have been a smattering of boos but I think this segment was a huge failure. It didn’t help anyone. The WWE has tried to get people invested in this storyline but it just hasn’t worked. When they aired that video of Nia Jax attacking Sasha Banks while she was getting evaluated, did you care? I know I didn’t.
That was two weeks ago and here we are doing the same thing. Sasha Banks is playing up an injury and Nia Jax is taking advantage of it. Bayley begged Sasha to not fight Nia Jax last night on Raw. Sasha dismissed Bayley and ignored her suggestion. She wound up getting her ass kicked by Nia Jax for the second night in a row. After the match, Bayley helped Sasha Banks to the trainer’s room. The WWE clearly laid the groundwork for something between Bayley and Sasha Banks last night. It just got lost in the shuffle.
Nia Jax has been a failure to this point. On the main roster, she has not connected at all. Say what you want about Charlotte, at least she generates a reaction. I enjoy Charlotte’s work as a heel and I think she is terrific at cutting promos that piss people off. Her feud/storyline with Bayley has been very lame so far but that is another rant for another day. Nia Jax doesn’t matter right now. That is because she was off TV way too long and to be honest, she hasn’t had a good match on the main roster. Everything she has been a part of since joining Raw has been forgettable.
This article was supposed to be about Sasha Banks, so why did I bring up Nia Jax? I think Sasha Banks is 10x the heel that Nia Jax is. She is just playing the role of a face right now and it is not working. If it was working, people would have cared that Nia Jax was targeting her injured knee. Nobody cared. Nia Jax just isn’t connecting with the WWE Universe whatsoever and the audience has completely lost interest in Sasha Banks.
Sasha Banks needs to turn heel. If Bayley defeats Charlotte and wins the Raw Women’s Championship, she will need someone to feud with. I’m not sure if Nia Jax is the answer anymore. That hasn’t exactly panned out the way I thought it would. Banks had a particular tone with Bayley and said that “unlike some people, I am not okay with coming up short.” I took that as a direct jab at Bayley for having a smile on her face the night after losing a match for the Raw Women’s Championship against Charlotte. We’ll see what happens but I think it is time to turn Sasha Banks heel. The audience simply does not care about her right now and they do not care about Nia Jax either. Hopefully this interaction with Bayley last night is a sign of things to come for Sasha Banks.
