Monday night’s episode of Raw from Norfolk had a bit more drama than normal and necessitated a rebooking of the main event on the fly.
Originally, WWE promoted a 6-Pack Challenge for the main event, with the winner getting a title shot against Bianca Belair at Hell in a Cell. Partway through the show, a segment was aired that showed Adam Pearce telling Becky Lynch she would instead be in a singles match against Asuka for that title shot. Both Pearce and (later) Corey Graves noted that Sasha Banks and Naomi, who were two of the six Superstars scheduled for the original main event, had left the arena.
Was it for real? Pro Wrestling Illustrated was first to report that Banks and Naomi had indeed walked out on the show.
RAW MAIN EVENT CHANGED AFTER TALENTS WALK OUT OF TAPING Elite: https://t.co/edyxs1e0su, Free: https://t.co/vnn5ujuKhJ
— PWInsider.com (@PWInsidercom) May 17, 2022
Fightful Select confirmed that report with its own sources a short time later, adding that Naomi was scheduled to win the match as well, making the departures even more curious.
Before Raw got to its new main event, WWE released a statement telling its side of the story (as originally shared by Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp):
When Sasha Banks and Naomi arrived at the arena this afternoon, they were informed of their participation in the main event of tonight’s Monday Night Raw.
During the broadcast, they walked into WWE Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis’ office with their suitcases in hand, placed their tag team championship belts on his desk and walked out.
They claimed they weren’t respected enough as tag team champions. And even though they had eight hours to rehearse and construct their match, they claimed they were uncomfortable in the ring with two of their opponents – even though they’d had matches with those individuals in the past with no consequence.
Monday Night Raw is a scripted live TV show, whose characters are expected to perform the requirements of their contract.
We regret we were unable to deliver, as advertised, tonight’s main event.
There’s bound to be more to a story as big as the women’s tag team champions being so displeased that they decide to go home, but it’s possible Banks and Naomi were upset that pushing one of them for a singles run was doing a disservice to the work they’ve done to elevate the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship. Certainly, Naomi facing Belair at Hell in a Cell would mean no tag team title match at the event, and the champs didn’t have a spot on the WrestleMania Backlash card either.
Wrestling Junkie will share more details as they come to light, but suffice it to say that “card subject to change” has rarely been as applicable as this memorable episode of Raw.