Sasha Banks' Reaction to Fans on Monday

Sasha Banks lashed out at the fans, but were they right?
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Sasha Banks and Nikki Bella got the main event match slot, although it wasn't the final segment of the show. The match wasn't exactly the best representation of what those two could theoretically produce (and Brandon Stroud has a theory about that in Best and Worst), but it also wasn't necessarily the kind of match that should have drawn the kind of ire that your average NXT Tag Team Championship match seems to deserve at a Takeover event. Still, the fans grew restless and chanted "We Want [Brock] Lesnar" and "JBL." The former chant might be understandable since Lesnar is a Minnesota native, but the JBL chant usually only gets rolled out for stuff like Sheamus vs. Randy Orton. It's highly uncharacteristic for the Divas Revolution to get that kind of reaction.

Some theorize that the reaction came from the crowd rejecting the match's quality, which is a theory indeed. Then again, match quality is highly subjective. Other theories suggest that Banks and Bella were set up to fail by being placed in the "death" slot, but I'm not sure I buy that either. It could just have been a confluence of a million different unique circumstances. But Banks herself took to Tumblr to provide her own reason:

They want change yet don’t change themselves

On one hand, Banks' reaction is incredibly understandable. She went out and busted her ass for an unappreciative crowd. OF course she's gonna feel some resentment. In a way, she's also right in that it's hard for human beings, not just wrestling fans, to change their preconceived notions.

But again, fans do have the right to react the way they want to a given match or segment as long as it's not bigoted. Now, is reacting to a women's match like that sexist? Remember, it's not like they chanted "CM Punk" or their boyfriends' names or "We Want Puppies!" It was the same stuff they'd give to Orton and Sheamus. And that's the key to this Divas Revolution succeeding in the long term. Women have to be allowed to fail the same as the men, without malice over their gender, but with annoyance at their performances without looking at who they are. Look, I was kinda annoyed at the reactions when they happened too. But they're needed at times, as long as they don't revert to the bullshit that used to be chanted at these performers.