Austin welcomes Sasha Banks to the show.
Banks informs that she spent the early years of her life moving from city to city, accommodating her brother who has autism. Her mother and her would spend a lot of their time caring for him, but her getaway was watching wrestling for a few hours each week.
She feels like she’s been training to be a wrestler her entire life. As a teenager she’d rent wrestling movies and take bumps on her mattress. She mentions that she never really had a backup plan other than becoming a professional wrestler and Austin says that he didn’t either, even though neither of them would recommend that.
She began training in MMA at a young age, training in Judo, Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu, but she didn’t like getting punched in the face so she started training to become a professional wrestler when she turned 18. Initially she was afraid to take bumps but she had a pep talk with herself, encouraging herself to follow her dream and stick with it. She absolutely loves taking bumps now, and she still loves the business very much.
When she was still in wrestling school she created her own opportunity in WWE, sending an email to WWE asking to be an extra the next time they came through Boston. Her trainers told her she wasn’t ready but she sent the email herself anyways and got the call. She says that too many people wait for opportunities to fall in their lap, when they need to be proactive and make those opportunities happen.
When she started working in NXT her initial character was a happy-go-lucky babyface, and she wasn’t comfortable talking then at all. Dusty Rhodes wanted her to be sassy all along, and when she cut her first promo as ‘The Boss’ that sassiness finally came out. All of a sudden she became very comfortable on the mic.
Banks is working as a babyface right now, but Austin admits that he prefers watching her as a heel because he thinks her character is more effective as a heel. Banks says she enjoys working as a heel very much, and admits that she’s more comfortable in that role because she believes she can act more naturally as a heel. The one thing that she does really enjoy about being a babyface is seeing all the young kids dressing up as her and cheering for her.
She believes that the high point of her career up to this point was her NXT Takeover match against Bayley, and Austin thinks that was one of the best matches of that year. She admits that she still gets nervous every time she’s about to go out to the ring, and she has to remind herself that she belongs in that situation so she has nothing to worry about.
Banks informs that Snoop Dogg is legitimately her cousin, but they’re not as close as some people might think. She never met him until she was 12 years old, but upon meeting they bonded over their love of wrestling. She’d beg him to bring her to wrestling events that he was a part of and he’d agree every time, and that’s why it was so special for her to have him be a part of her entrance at WrestleMania 32.
Banks mentions that she’s about to head to India as a part of WWE’s Indian tour and she’s excited about that because she hasn’t been there before. On the other hand, she points out that those overseas tours are brutal because you wrestle in a different town every day and it becomes exhausting. Austin mentions that back when he was working, he and the other guys would drink in the back of the tour bus and the hotel bar every single night, and that’s how they got through those tours.
Austin asks Banks how long she sees herself wrestling, and if she has any future plans. Banks says that although she’s only 25 she’s already been working for 7 years. She hesitates when Austin asks her if she has another 10 years left in her, and she points out that she’d love to become a Producer at some point because she loves the art of putting matches together.
That sums up this week’s episode of The Steve Austin Show. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!
