Sasha Banks spoke with Yahoo Sports to promote WrestleMania 32. Here are the highlights.
Can we go back to the day you attended the Eddie Guerrero Memorial episode of “Raw” in 2005 and finding out that your favorite wrestler had passed away. How did it affect you and how did you handle that day?
That was probably one of the worst moments in my entire life. It was a WWE supershow on a Sunday night. I remember I had gone to church and a lady from the church wanted to take me shopping. I went to go pick out my outfit because I was so excited to go to this show. I remember I didn’t turn on the TV, Internet or radio on that day. My mother and I listened to the John Cena “You Can’t See Me” CD on the way to the event. I made my sign that said “I love Eddie Guerrero.” I remember I walked inside the building and so many people had signs that said “RIP Eddie” and “We’ll Miss You, Eddie.” It was scheduled to be Eddie versus Bautista versus Randy Orton. In my mind, I thought that maybe they switched it to Eddie Guerrero versus the Undertaker. I had seen so many “Rest In Peace” signs so that’s where my mind went. It didn’t hit me until I was standing in line waiting to go in – still smiling with my Eddie Guerrero sign – and a fan came up to me and said “You know that Eddie died, right?” I felt like a hammer hit my heart and the glass didn’t break. I was so confused because this was my favorite wrestler of all time and the reason I’m in wrestling today. I remember how bad it hurt me and it makes me cry to this day. I missed school for a week because it affected me so much. He’s the reason why I wanted to be the best. I want to be the female version of him. I felt like I really lost a family member. It was awful.
Do you prefer wrestling 15-minute quality matches in front of 300 people in NXT or 5-minute not so memorable matches in front of 15,000 people on RAW?
To be honest with you, the adjustment was hard. It was hard to leave NXT after the Brooklyn match with Bayley and the “Iron Woman” match for 30 minutes. At that moment I realized we were really changing women’s wrestling. But I also knew that my biggest dream was to be on Raw and SmackDown. We don’t have as much time now, but I didn’t start NXT with 30-minute matches, either. We had to work our way there. It’s almost like starting over again and eventually we will get that. With WrestleMania coming up, the opportunity to open so many doors for women after this match because we are here to put our name on the card and show the world that women’s wrestling is where its at. I think a lot of people will see this match and be like “Wow, give these girls more time.”
Your cousin is Snoop Dogg, who you had the opportunity to attend a WrestleMania with him in the past. Is there a chance that he will be at WrestleMania to see you perform next weekend?
I’m not telling you any secrets! You’ll have to see at WrestleMania.
You can read the entire interview here.
