Smackdown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks was the most recent guest on WWE Network show The Broken Skull Sessions. Towards the end of the episode, Sasha discussed her lengthy absence from WWE with host Steve Austin. Speaking on the 2019 hiatus, Sasha said the following:
“Depression,” Banks began. “Depression was taking over. My mind was taking over. My thoughts were taking over. This place was being bigger than me. And I really, really lost myself because for a good seven years, I didn’t even hear my real name. I didn’t hear Mercedes anymore. All I heard was Sasha Banks, and traveling on the road, we only get one to two days off.
“So, I’m home, not even seeing what my real hair looks like. All I see if purple hair every single day. There were just so many things that were just — I let it control me. I let it take it and be like, ‘This is too much’ instead of being like, ‘You know what? Everything’s good. Breathe. Everything’s fine.’ [Laughs]”
“I couldn’t even look at myself,” Banks said. “I didn’t even know who the hell I was. How I was going into work, how angry I was going in, how sad I was. I was not the person that I dreamt to be.
“It hit the fan and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t lose myself. So I said, ‘You know what? I got to take a step away and find myself again and I gotta be brave about that.’ And that was probably one of the hardest things I had to do — ask to leave the WWE.”
“I asked to leave and Vince was like, ‘no,’” Banks laughed. “He said no. He said I’m gonna give you 30 days to think about it. And I took more than 30 days.
Credit to WWE for the original footage. H/T to Wrestling Inc for use of the quotes in this article. The original article can be found here.
