Sasha Banks
Mercedes Justine Kaestner-Varnado (born January 26, 1992) is an American professional wrestler and actress currently signed to WWE as a member of the SmackDown brand under the ring name Sasha Banks.
Banks previously wrestled on the independent circuit, most notably for Chaotic Wrestling, where she won the Chaotic Wrestling Women’s Championship. She signed with WWE in 2012 and was assigned to the NXT brand. She was promoted to WWE’s main roster in 2015. Her match against Bayley at NXT TakeOver: Respect in October 2015 was the first women’s match to ever headline a NXT TakeOver, the first iron woman match in WWE history, and the longest women’s match in WWE history at the time with a length of 30 minutes.[6] Their match was voted by Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) as Match of the Year, with Banks also being voted as Woman of the Year.
Banks went on to hold the Raw Women’s Championship five times. In 2016, she and Charlotte Flair became the first women to headline a WWE pay-per-view event, the first women to compete in a Hell in a Cell match, and the first women to win the PWI award for Feud of the Year.[7] In 2019, she won the inaugural WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship with her former tag team partner, Bayley, at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. In 2020, she won the SmackDown Women’s Championship at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, thus becoming the third-ever WWE Women’s Grand Slam Champion and the fourth WWE Women’s Triple Crown Winner. That year, she was named Wrestler of the Year by Sports Illustrated.[8] At WrestleMania 37 in 2021, Banks and opponent Bianca Belair became the first African Americans to jointly headline a WrestleMania.[9][10]
Kaestner-Varnado began training at Chaotic Wrestling (CW), based in Woburn, Massachusetts, in 2008.[citation needed] She made her in-ring debut, under the ring name Mercedes KV, on October 1, 2010, in an intergender tag team match, where she teamed with Nikki Roxx in a losing effort to Alexxis and Danny E. KV and Roxx quickly formed an alliance, teaming together regularly and accompanying each other to ringside.[citation needed] On October 22, KV lost her debut singles match to Danny E,[17] and lost a rematch to him on November 13.[18]
On January 7, 2011, KV earned her first victory when she and Roxx defeated Alexxis and Mistress Belmont in a tag team match. On February 11, KV took part in a five-woman gauntlet match to determine the inaugural Chaotic Wrestling Women’s Champion, but was unsuccessful.[19] KV continued competing in singles matches throughout the remainder of 2011 and on December 2 defeated Alexxis in a “I Quit” match to win the Chaotic Wrestling Women’s Championship for the first time.[20]
KV made her first successful title defense against Barbie on January 6, 2012.[21] KV faced Luscious Latasha with the championship on the line on January 27, where KV retained the title.[22] KV successfully defended the championship against Alexxis in a rematch.[23] She then successfully defended the championship twice against Nikki Roxx. On June 1, KV defeated Alexxis, Barbie and Mistress Belmont in a fatal four-way match to retain the championship, after which she became the longest reigning Chaotic Wrestling Women’s Champion in history by breaking Alexxis’s previous record of 182 days.[24] KV went on to defend and successfully retain the championship against Barbie on June 24, against Aida Marie on July 20, and on August 17 against Kasey Ray.[25] KV made her final appearance for Chaotic Wrestling on August 18, where she lost to Ivy Fit in a non-title match. On August 17, the Chaotic Wrestling Women’s Championship was declared vacant after Kaestner-Varnado signed a contract with WWE, thus ending her reign at 259 days.[26]
