Sasha Banks’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Mercedes Justine Kaestner-Varnado (born January 26, 1992) is an American professional wrestler. She is signed to WWE, where she performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Sasha Banks.

She previously wrestled on the independent circuit, most notably for Chaotic Wrestling, where she once held the Chaotic Wrestling Women’s Championship. Between WWE and their developmental brand NXT, Banks has had six championship reigns—being a former NXT Women’s Champion, a record-tying four-time Raw Women’s Champion and the inaugural WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion alongside Bayley. Her match against Bayley at NXT TakeOver: Respect on October 7, 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. Their match was voted by Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) as the Match of the Year, with Banks also being voted as the Woman of the Year, while their match at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn in August 2015 won the NXT Year-End Award for Match of the Year.

In 2016, she and Charlotte Flair became the first women to headline a WWE pay-per-view event and the first to compete in a Hell in a Cell match (both at Hell in a Cell in October 2016), the first women to main event Raw in a women’s match since 2004 and the first women to win the Pro Wrestling Illustrated award for Feud of the Year. In February 2019, she won the inaugural WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship with her tag team partner, Bayley (together known as The Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection), at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.

Early life

Mercedes Justine Kaestner-Varnado was born in Fairfield, California, and later moved to various places, including Minnesota, to find schools and hospitals for her disabled brother. Her family settled in Boston, Massachusetts, where she began her professional wrestling career. She went to school online and grew up watching All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling (AJW). She is of African American and European descent.

Professional wrestling career

Chaotic Wrestling (2010–2012)

Kaestner-Varnado began training at Chaotic Wrestling (CW), based in Woburn, Massachusetts, in 2008. 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. On October 22, KV lost her debut singles match to Danny E., and lost a rematch to him on November 13.

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. 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.

KV made her first successful title defense against Barbie on January 6. KV faced Luscious Latasha with the championship on the line on January 27, where KV retained the title. KV successfully defended the championship against Alexxis in a rematch. 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. 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. 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.

Independent circuit (2010–2012)

On August 8, 2010, KV made her debut in New England Championship Wrestling (NECW), teaming with Ivy to defeat the team of Ariel and Sammi Lane. She returned to the NECW on September 4, 2011, again teaming with Ivy, defeating Mistress Belmont and Veda Scott. On September 23, KV defeated Mistress Belmont in a singles match. KV once again returned to the promotion on July 14, 2012 at the Red White and Bruised event, where she was defeated by Adrianna by countout.

KV, under the ring name Miss Mercedes, debuted for National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) on November 19, 2010, where she faced Julian Starr in a losing effort. On the following two nights, Mercedes defeated Sheik Ali and Nick Fahrenheit in singles matches. Mercedes began to feud with The Great Cheyenne, losing to her on several occasions. On August 9, she wrestled her last match for the NWA, defeating Arlene in a singles match.

WWE

The BFFs (2012–2014)

In June 2012, Kaestner-Varnado participated in a WWE tryout camp and on August 18 it was announced that she had been signed to a contract. She was assigned to NXT, WWE’s developmental territory, where she adopted the ring name Sasha Banks, and made her televised debut on NXT on December 12, losing to Paige. Banks’ first televised win on NXT was on the January 23, 2013 episode against Alicia Fox. Banks then entered a storyline where she received letters from a secret admirer, who was eventually revealed to be Audrey Marie, who returned and attacked Banks on the February 20 episode of NXT, due to Marie’s jealousy of Banks’ success. Marie went on to defeat Banks in a match later that episode. Banks’ feud with Marie came to an end on the April 3 episode of NXT, when Banks teamed with Paige to defeat Marie and Summer Rae. On the June 19 episode of NXT, Banks competed in the NXT Women’s Championship tournament to determine the inaugural champion, but lost to Rae in the first round.

After weeks of influence by Summer Rae to make herself relevant, Banks was defeated by the NXT Women’s Champion Paige on the September 11 episode of NXT, after which she attacked Paige after the latter attempted to console her, leading to Banks turn into a villainess. Two weeks later on NXT, Banks defeated Bayley, while accompanied by Rae. After the match, Banks cut a promo with Rae and debuted a new gimmick as “The Boss”. Banks and Rae, who dubbed themselves The Beautiful, Fierce Females (BFFs), faced Paige and Emma on the October 16 episode of NXT, where they emerged victorious. On the November 13 episode of NXT, the BFFs defeated Bayley and Charlotte in a tag team match, when Charlotte attacked Bayley and aligned herself with Banks and Rae. In mid-January 2014, as Rae moved up to WWE’s main roster, Banks and Charlotte began a rivalry with Bayley, who had aligned herself with Natalya, and lost in both singles and tag team matches. On April 6, Banks made an appearance at WrestleMania XXX as a part of Triple H’s entrance. In May, Banks entered a tournament for the vacant NXT Women’s Championship, defeating Bayley in the first round, but losing to Natalya in the semi-finals. On the July 3 episode of NXT, Banks and Charlotte defeated Bayley and Becky Lynch, only for Charlotte to leave Banks after the match to get attacked by Bayley, with Banks officially disbanding the BFFs in a backstage segment later that night.

NXT Women’s Champion (2014–2015)

On the August 14 episode of NXT, Banks lost to Bayley in a match to determine the number one contender to the NXT Women’s Championship. At NXT TakeOver: Fatal 4-Way on September 11, Banks attacked Bayley after her title match with Charlotte, before Charlotte stopped her. Becky Lynch turned on Bayley and aligned herself with Banks on the October 23 episode of NXT after Banks defeated Bayley in a singles match. Banks promptly began feuding with NXT Women’s Champion Charlotte, leading to a match between the two at NXT TakeOver: R Evolution on December 11 with Charlotte’s championship on the line, which Banks lost. Banks received a rematch on the December 25 episode of NXT, where she was once again unsuccessful. Banks first appeared on WWE’s main roster on the December 30, 2014 episode of Main Event, where she lost to Charlotte in a non-title match. On January 21, 2015, Banks received another title match against Charlotte, which she lost after Becky Lynch attacked Charlotte, causing a disqualification, which led to dissension between Banks and Lynch.

On February 11 at NXT TakeOver: Rival, Banks won the NXT Women’s Championship by pinning Charlotte in a fatal four-way match that also involved Lynch and Bayley. Banks successfully retained the championship against Charlotte in a rematch on the March 4 episode of NXT, and against Alexa Bliss on March 25. At NXT TakeOver: Unstoppable on May 20, Banks defended and retained the title against Becky Lynch. On the July 8 episode of NXT, Banks teamed with Charlotte to defeat Emma and Dana Brooke, after which Charlotte challenged Banks to an NXT Women’s Championship match, which Banks accepted. They had their championship match the following week on the July 15 episode of NXT, in which Banks retained the championship and the two shared a hug, with Charlotte raising Banks’s hand as a sign of respect.

At NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn on August 22, Banks dropped the NXT Women’s Championship to Bayley, thus ending her reign at 192 days. After the match, Banks celebrated with Bayley and former rivals Becky Lynch and Charlotte. The match was highly praised by critics and won Match of the Year at the NXT Year-End Awards. At NXT TakeOver: Respect on October 7, Banks was defeated by Bayley in the main event in the first women’s 30-minute Iron man match in WWE history, losing two falls to three in what would be her last match in NXT.

Women’s Revolution and Team B.A.D. (2015–2016)

Banks made her official debut on the July 13, 2015 episode of Raw along with Charlotte and Becky Lynch, after Stephanie McMahon called for a “revolution” in the WWE Divas division. While Lynch and Charlotte allied with Paige, who was feuding with Team Bella (Alicia Fox, Brie and Nikki Bella), Banks allied with Naomi and Tamina, who later dubbed themselves as Team B.A.D. (Beautiful and Dangerous), leading to a brawl between the three teams. In her WWE pay–per–view debut on July 19 at Battleground, Banks competed in a triple threat match against Charlotte and Brie Bella, which Charlotte won. Banks went on to defeat Paige twice, first by submission on the July 20 episode of Raw, in a tag team match where Banks teamed with Naomi for the first time, and again on the July 27 episode of Raw in a singles match. After defeating the Divas Champion Nikki Bella by submission in a non–title match on the August 17 episode of Raw, Banks participated in the first ever Divas number one contender’s Beat the Clock challenge match, in which she fought Paige to a time limit draw and Charlotte was named the number one contender. Following this, Banks rekindled her rivalry with Paige and defeated her twice on the September 7 and 14 episodes of Raw. Although she lost in a fatal four–way number one contender’s match for Charlotte’s Divas Championship in November, Banks was not pinned and began a winning streak, defeating the likes of Brie Bella, Alicia Fox, and Becky Lynch on various shows.

After a month off television, Banks returned at the Royal Rumble pay–per–view on January 24, 2016, attacking Charlotte and Becky Lynch after their championship match, showing her intentions to gain the Divas Championship. Prior to a match with Lynch on the February 1 episode of Raw, Banks claimed that she was “on her own”, signaling that she had moved on from Team B.A.D., only to be attacked by Naomi and Tamina during the match, turning Banks into a fan favorite in the process. The feud between Banks and Naomi and Tamina continued throughout February, and led to a tag team match at Fastlane on February 21, where Banks allied with Lynch to defeat the two. Banks and Lynch went on to compete in two matches to determine the number one contender for Charlotte’s Divas Championship at WrestleMania 32, with the first bout ending in a draw after a double pin occurred as both of their shoulders were down for the count, and the second in a no contest after both Banks and Lynch were attacked by Charlotte. As a result, a triple threat match between Banks, Lynch and Charlotte for the Divas Championship was announced for WrestleMania. At the event on April 3, the Divas Championship was retired and replaced with the new WWE Women’s Championship, with all three women competing for it in the triple threat match; Banks was unsuccessful in capturing the new title at her WrestleMania in-ring debut.

After a hiatus, Banks returned to WWE television in early June, and later reignited her feud with Charlotte over the WWE Women’s Championship after an attack along with Paige on the June 20 episode of Raw. This led to a tag team match the following week, on the June 27 episode of Raw, where Banks and Paige scored the victory. Following multiple attacks and matches between Banks and Dana Brooke, Banks and her mystery partner Bayley defeated Brooke and Charlotte in a tag team match on July 24 at Battleground.

Raw Women’s Champion (2016–2017)

After being drafted to the Raw brand as part of the 2016 WWE draft on July 19, 2016, Banks made her first appearance for the brand on July 25, where she defeated Charlotte to win the WWE Women’s Championship for the first time. On August 21 at SummerSlam, Banks dropped the championship back to Charlotte, ending her reign at 27 days. Around that time the title was renamed the Raw Women’s Championship following the creation of the SmackDown Women’s Championship. On September 25, Charlotte successfully retained the championship against Banks and Bayley in a triple threat match at Clash of Champions. Banks was granted a one-on-one rematch on the October 3 episode of Raw, where she defeated Charlotte in the main event to capture her second Raw Women’s Championship.

Banks challenged Charlotte to compete for the championship in the first ever women’s Hell in a Cell match at the titular Hell in a Cell pay-per-view event on October 30, which was then announced as the main event, making it the first time women had received the last match of a pay-per-view card in WWE. At the event, Charlotte defeated Banks, again ending her reign at 27 days. A few weeks later, on November 20, Banks was part of Raw’s women’s team for Survivor Series, during which she was eliminated by Natalya, but Team Raw was ultimately victorious. On the November 28 episode of Raw, after invoking her rematch clause a week prior, Banks defeated Charlotte in a falls count anywhere match to win the Raw Women’s Championship for the record–tying third time. A 30–minute Iron man match between the two took place at Roadblock: End of the Line on December 18, which resulted in a 2–2 draw, but Banks lost to Flair 3–2 in sudden death overtime. With the loss, the feud between the two was ended, since it was stipulated that Banks could not invoke her rematch clause if she lost.

The next night on Raw after Roadblock, Banks called Flair out to congratulate her on her victory, but Nia Jax came out instead and attacked her. This led to a match between the two at the Royal Rumble pre–show on January 29, 2017, where Banks was defeated. On the February 13 episode of Raw, Banks helped Bayley defeat Charlotte Flair to win the Raw Women’s Championship in the main event after she stopped Flair’s submission and attacked her with her crutches. Banks gained revenge on Jax as she defeated her at Fastlane on March 5, thus handing Nia her first loss since she joined the main roster. Banks again helped Bayley defeat Flair to retain her championship. The feud between Banks and Jax, and Bayley and Flair led to a fatal four-way elimination match at WrestleMania 33 on April 2, where Bayley retained the Raw Women’s Championship.

On the June 26 episode of Raw, Banks scored a victory over Bayley, Jax, Dana Brooke, Mickie James and Emma in a gauntlet match to become the number one contender for Alexa Bliss’s Raw Women’s Championship. Banks received her title match on July 9 at Great Balls of Fire, where she defeated Bliss via count–out, which allowed Bliss to retain the title. In a rematch between the two on August 20 at SummerSlam, Banks defeated Bliss to become a record-tying four-time Raw Women’s Champion. Eight days later, Banks dropped the title back to Bliss on Raw. At No Mercy on September 24, Banks received her rematch for the title as she took part in a fatal five-way match which was won by Bliss.

Partnership with Bayley (2017–2019)

At the end of 2017, Banks alongside Bayley and Mickie James started a feud with the debuting faction Absolution (Paige, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville) who continuously attacked them on different occasions. That led to various singles and tag team matches, that were mostly won by Absolution. Also in December, Banks competed in the first ever women’s match contested in the Middle East against Alexa Bliss. On January 28, 2018 at the Royal Rumble, Banks was the first entry in the first Women’s Royal Rumble match, and she eliminated Vickie Guerrero, Bayley and Trish Stratus, lasting 54:46, due to being outside the ring for most of that time, before being eliminated by The Bella Twins. A few weeks later, on February 25, Banks took part in the first ever women’s elimination chamber match at the namesake pay-per-view, where she helped Alexa Bliss, the eventual winner, eliminate Bayley from the match after she pushed her off the pod when the two were “apparently” working together to eliminate Bliss.

On the March 26 episode of Raw, after weeks of animosity between the two, including Bayley betraying Banks during their matches, they brawled backstage and had to be separated. Banks and Bayley faced off in mid-April but their match ended in a no-contest after The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan, and Liv Morgan) interfered and attacked them both. In the following weeks, Banks competed in different singles and tag team matches in both winning and losing efforts. In June, after she defeated Ruby Riott in the finals of a gauntlet match for the last spot, Banks competed for the first time in her career in a Money in the Bank ladder match, that was ultimately won by Alexa Bliss. Throughout mid-2018, after Banks and Bayley continued to attack each other, they were told to attend counsellor meetings to help maintain their friendship. In July, the two reconciled and created a tag team, known as “The Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection”.

After a short hiatus from the ring due to an undisclosed injury, Banks returned to WWE television in October, and took part in the first ever all women’s pay–per–view Evolution, where she teamed with Bayley and Natalya in a winning effort against The Riott Squad. In November, Banks again competed at Survivor Series as part of Team Raw, where she was the last woman from the team that was eliminated by Asuka after an attack by teammate Nia Jax. On January 27, 2019, at the Royal Rumble, after she defeated Nia Jax to earn herself a title match, Banks unsuccessfully challenged Ronda Rousey for the Raw Women’s Championship.

On February 17, at the Elimination Chamber, Banks and Bayley won the inaugural WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship by lastly eliminating Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville in a six tag team Elimination Chamber match. In their first title defense, Banks and Bayley successfully retained over Nia Jax and Tamina, at Fastlane, on March 10. At WrestleMania 35 on April 7, Banks and Bayley lost the championship to The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce) in a fatal four-way tag team match after Kay pinned Bayley, ending their reign at 49 days.

Hiatus and heel turn (2019–present)

The following day, Banks canceled an appearance on the morning talk show Wendy at the last minute. Throughout the following week, speculation from dirt sheets emerged that she was looking to quit the company due to her longstanding frustrations with WWE. Banks held the impression that she and Bayley were going to have a long title reign to bring credibility to the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship, with the two allegedly not being informed until the last minute that they would be dropping the titles at WrestleMania. Her talk show cancellation was reported to be due to a personal matter, but neither Banks nor WWE had confirmed the rumors of her attempted departure from the company.

After a four-month hiatus, Banks returned on the August 12, 2019, episode of Raw as a heel, where she attacked a kayfabe injured Natalya. Banks donned a new blue hair color beneath a purple wig and went on to attack Becky Lynch with a steel chair, after the latter tried to make the save for Natalya. In September, Banks reunited with Bayley, when the latter also turned heel, and the two attacked both Lynch and Charlotte Flair. Upon her return, Banks reignited her feud with Lynch, which led to a match between the two at Clash of Champions for Lynch’s Raw Women’s Championship on September 15. At the event, Banks took a win via disqualification after Lynch inadvertently attacked the referee with a steel chair. After the match, the two continued to brawl inside the arena. The feud between the two women eventually led to the second-ever women’s Hell in a Cell match, which took place on October 6, at the namesake pay-per-view, in which Banks was unsuccessful in capturing the title. Banks was drafted to SmackDown as part of the 2019 WWE Draft. Banks then went on another brief hiatus from TV due to injuring her tailbone, and was not cleared to compete. Banks did however, come to SmackDown on October 18, as Bayley was being interviewed by The Miz. On the November 8 episode of SmackDown, Banks debuted a new remixed theme featuring her cousin Snoop Dogg. On the same episode, it was announced that Banks would be the captain of the SmackDown women’s team leading into Survivor Series. At the pay-per-view, Banks was the last woman standing for the SmackDown brand in the Women’s Survivor Series match, however lost to Rhea Ripley from Team NXT, who performed a Riptide on Banks to win the match after interference by Io Shirai and Candice LeRae. On the November 29 episode of SmackDown, Banks and Bayley stated that they didn’t lose at Survivor Series because Team NXT was better, but because the rest of Team SmackDown let them down. Banks and Bayley criticized each member of Team SmackDown with Lacey Evans being last, coming out to confront them and delivering a Woman’s Right to Banks, marking Evans’ face turn. The three proceeded to feud through the next two months, culminating with a title match between Bayley and Evans at the Royal Rumble, which Bayley won.

Banks was a fan favorite to win the 2020 Women’s Royal Rumble match, however was absent from the event and several episodes of SmackDown preceding it, which led to speculation that she had sustained an injury. During a backstage segment on the January 17 episode of SmackDown featuring The Revival, the camera panned to Bayley and Lacey Evans in a brawl, during which Banks was on the floor. The latter had been slated to have a match against Evans later in the night, however was replaced by Bayley during a segment showing a kayfabe injured Banks in the doctor’s office. On the February 28 episode of SmackDown, Banks once again made her return after Bayley interrupted the start of her match against Naomi to introduce Banks, who was met with a pop from the crowd despite her status as a heel. During the match, Banks proceeded to attack Naomi, leading to a win via disqualification for the latter, followed by Evans coming out to assist Naomi and the match restarting as a tag team match. A rematch was scheduled for the following week, in which Banks and Bayley prevailed.

On the March 20 episode of SmackDown, Banks and Bayley interrupted a segment featuring former brand general manager Paige, who was slated to confront the latter in the week prior, but was absent due to travel issues. During the segment, Paige proceeded to announce a six-way elimination match (later announced to take place as a fatal five-way) at WrestleMania 36 for Bayley’s SmackDown Women’s Championship, in which Banks was inserted. At the event, Bayley retained the title.

Other media

Video games

• Banks made her WWE video game debut in WWE 2K17. She later appeared in WWE 2K18, WWE 2K19 and WWE 2K20. She also appears in the mobile games WWE SuperCard and WWE Mayhem.

Music

• “Song For Sasha Banks” – Written & performed by The Mountain Goats, tells the story of Sasha’s childhood, watching Chris Jericho on SmackDown, and then becoming a pro wrestler in her own right. It was released as a single digital track on June 18, 2018.

Personal life

Kaestner-Varnado is a first cousin of rapper Snoop Dogg, who helped develop her in-ring persona. She is also a first cousin of music producer Daz Dillinger and singers Brandy Norwood and Ray J. She is a fan of K-pop music and Japanese anime Sailor Moon. Kaestner-Varnado married WWE costume designer and retired professional wrestler, Sarath Ton, also known as Kid Mikaze, on August 4, 2016. Kaestner-Varnado has cited Eddie Guerrero as her favorite wrestler. She was in attendance at Guerrero’s memorial episode of Raw on November 14, 2005 in Minneapolis, and she also revealed that she was unaware that Guerrero had died before she arrived at the arena.

Championships and accomplishments

• Chaotic Wrestling
  • Chaotic Wrestling Women’s Championship (1 time)
• Independent Wrestling Entertainment
  • IWE Women’s Championship (1 time)
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • Feud of the Year (2016) vs. Charlotte Flair
  • Match of the Year (2015) vs. Bayley at NXT TakeOver: Respect
  • Woman of the Year (2015)
  • Ranked No. 2 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2016
• Ring Wars Carolina
  • RWC No Limitz Championship (1 time)
• Sports Illustrated
  • Ranked No. 8 with Bayley of the Top 10 women’s wrestlers of the year (2019)
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter
  • Worst Feud of the Year (2015)
  • Worst Feud of the Year (2018)
• WWE
  • NXT Women’s Championship (1 time)
  • WWE Raw Women’s Championship (4 times)
  • WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Bayley
  • NXT Year-End Award (1 time)
    • Match of the Year (2015) vs. Bayley at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn