Sasha Banks (Mercedes Varnado) is expected to be finished with WWE at the end of the month, as she is scheduled to attend NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 in January and has additional dates with the promotion scheduled for 2023.
According to Voices Of Wrestling, NJPW is working on a limited appearance deal for her that will pay “a fee that would be significantly higher than what NJPW paid for Chris Jericho” and make her “the highest paid Bushiroad (parent company of NJPW and STARDOM) contracted wrestler.”
It’s unclear if she’s signed the contract yet. Dave Meltzer discussed the report on today’s Wrestling Observer Radio.
“Voices of Wrestling said that it was a per-appearance deal at the highest price that Bushiroad has ever paid anyone, and they said it was more than Chris Jericho….Chris Jericho made $100,000 a shot when he was working for New Japan, and $100,000 a shot, she’s gonna have to….with Chris Jericho he was actually underpaid because of how much revenue he drove between New Japan World and ticket sales at the different shows and things like that.
“I don’t see her driving that revenue, but I guess we’ll find out. The Tokyo Dome may be one thing, but for other shows, and a lot of them in the United States, I don’t see where she’s gonna drive $100,000 of extra revenue.”
Melter recapped the rumors that Banks would make an appearance at Wrestle Kingdom 17 to set up a future match with KAIRI.
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
