Ryan Dilbert's 10-Count: WWE Must Boost Sasha Banks' Momentum Before SummerSlam

1. Letting The Boss Atrophy

Poor booking has not just left Sasha Banks out of the WWE Women's Championship picture; it's also stationed her in oblivion. 

It's hard to balance presentations of all the best wrestlers on the roster. After filling airtime with all the requisite title feuds, there isn't a ton of stage space left. Still, it's unacceptable to be wasting Banks the way WWE has since WrestleMania.

A woman PWInsider's Dave Scherer called "the best professional wrestler in America" is being ignored. 

Credit: WWE.com

If WWE has any intention of having her climb into contention come SummerSlam, it has to shift its approach in a hurry. It can't just shelve her until three weeks before the big event and try to get her some momentum then. 

The audience needs to see her fight her way to the throne Charlotte sits in. It needs to see her journey now so that it can be fully invested come SummerSlam. It needs to get to know who Banks is and why we should be rooting for her.

Will Pruett of ProWrestling.net put it simply:

But WWE is not doing that. It's not featuring Banks in promos or vignettes. It's not asking her to step into the ring.

Per CageMatch.net, Banks hasn't wrestled on TV since April 18. That makes three straight editions of Raw where she didn't compete on WWE's marquee show. She hasn't been in a match on SmackDown in seven weeks. 

Banks has just 13 televised matches to her name in 2016. That's less than Fandango (19) and only one more than Adam Rose, who has been suspended since mid-April. 

That would be fine if Banks was some midcarder with a moderate ceiling. But she's not. The Boss is one of WWE's most promising young stars.

She was vital to the recent surge in attention on the women's division. She and Bayley put on two legitimate Match of the Year candidates at NXT in 2015. Crowds seemed thrilled to see her within reach of the women's title at WrestleMania.

Taking advantage of that is a no-brainer. The same goes for listening to the ever-present chants of "We want Sasha!"

To not even put her on TV is a major mistake. It's a sign of a lack of creativity. Even with Charlotte vs. Natalya taking priority in the division and Emma vs. Becky Lynch brewing, WWE must find ways to keep Banks on fans' minds and let her deepen her connection with the crowd.

Why not make her Ms. SmackDown, going on a winning streak as she takes down foe after foe each Thursday night? Why not record an interview with her talking about everyone in the division being afraid of her, explaining that's why she hasn't been in the ring of late? 

Why not show vignettes of her training in a gym, cranking some poor sparring partner's arm backward?

The current approach, where Banks is neglected as much as Damien Sandow was, is going to lessen anticipation ahead of her expected SummerSlam title chase. Fan the flames that she started; don't just let them fizzle out. 

2. Fatal 4-Way Title History

Fans of The Miz have reason to be hopeful about his chances of retaining the Intercontinental Championship at Extreme Rules, even with three opponents gunning for him. History has not seen titles change hands often via Fatal 4-Way matches.

And it has happened only once in the past five years.

Championship	New Champion	Event	Year
United States Championship	Scott Hall	WCW Nitro	1999
Women's Championship (Original)	The Kat	Armageddon	1999
Women's Championship (Original)	Ivory	SmackDown	2000
Women's Championship (Original)	Victoria	Raw	2004
Women's Championship (Original)	Trish Stratus	Bad Blood	2004
WWE Championship	Triple H	Backlash	2008
WWE Championship	Randy Orton	Raw	2009
Divas Championship	Alicia Fox	Fatal 4-Way	2010
World Heavyweight Championship	Edge	TLC	2010
World Heavyweight Championship	Rey Mysterio	Fatal 4-Way	2010
WWE Championship	Sheamus	Fatal 4-Way	2010
United States Championship	The Miz	Raw	2010
Divas Championship	Eve Torres	Royal Rumble	2011

The Fatal 4-Way-themed pay-per-view in 2010 inflated these totals, including three champions crowned in four-way bouts that night. Minus that event, that kind of match has resulted in only 10 singles titles finding new owners. And never with the IC title.

If Cesaro, Kevin Owens or Sami Zayn are going to win at Extreme Rules, they will have to make history.

3. Throwback Video of the Week: Damien Sandow

Sandow headlined the group of wrestlers WWE let go last week. He is generally considered the biggest wasted talent of that collection of wrestlers. 

WWE's loss is soon to be someone else's gain, though. Sandow is sure to land a number of gigs outside the company. He could choose to return to Puerto Rico's World Wrestling Council, where he competed early in his career as Idol Stevens.

It's intriguing to see how much he evolved from that point. His Intellectual Savior of the Masses gimmick and run as Mizdow showed off his versatility and ability to entertain. He will be doing just that on the independent circuit now that WWE has jettisoned him.

4. The Revival Flourishing

When talking about the best tag teams in WWE today, from The New Day to The Realest Guys in the Room, don't sleep on The Revival.

The former NXT tag champs continue to thrive and surpass expectations. Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder are compelling each time out. They have perfected a hard-nosed, no-frills style, which has led to some outstanding matches. 

And now that they have lost the titles to American Alpha, they have become even more enthralling. The role of furious, snarling contenders is an even better fit for them than their previous villainous, do-anything-to-stay-champion act.

The Revival do not have as much charisma as The New Day. Wilder and Dawson aren't as great at the talk game as Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady. Instead, they make brutality an art, and they excel as a unit.

It's increasingly clear that WWE needs to put The Revival on the marquee and have them chasing WWE tag gold after they are done hunting the NXT belts. 

5. Heels Helping Out 

With as vile as they pretend to be on TV, Kevin Owens and Tyler Breeze don't exactly seem like the charitable type. Yet when a wildfire devastated Alberta, Canada, the two wrestlers both reached out to help in a big way.

Owens and Breeze started a GoFundMe page that has now raised over $45,000.

In a WWE.com interview, Owens said, "As I watched the footage on the news, I decided I wanted to try and help. It turns out I wasn't the only one thinking that because fellow Canadian Tyler Breeze was also trying to figure out how to help these people."

6. Mind Games Always Welcome

It's refreshing when someone manages to offer a wrestling story unlike any other. It's a medium that relies on tropes, telling David vs. Goliath and good vs. evil tales over and over again.

TNA has something fresh brewing on Impact Wrestling. 

Jeff Hardy's own alter ego is attacking him. The former TNA and WWE world champ found himself battling Willow, despite that being a masked character he has played in the past.

And not only did Hardy collide with an apparent impostor Willow, but he also had to battle a whole pack of them. Is Matt Hardy toying with his brother's psyche here? Is Jeff actually at war with himself in some psychological struggle transferred to the squared circle?

Either way, it should be a mind-bending ride that fans haven't been on before.

7. Not Exactly the Most Fearsome Club

WWE isn't treating Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson like the next version of The Shield. The newly arrived bruisers have been made more vulnerable than many would have expected.

Rather than have them tear through the roster like a storm, the company has them falling often already. Per CageMatch.net (link contains SmackDown spoilers), Gallows and Anderson have now lost three of their last four matches, with that sole win coming by disqualification. 

Their first loss came in just their fourth match.

That took the shine off them in a hurry. Suddenly, WWE is in danger of having Gallows and Anderson go from imposing to ordinary.

8. Best of the Banished

Alex Riley, El Torito, Sandow and Wade Barrett were among those WWE released last week. That departure doesn't mark the end of their wrestling careers, but with the WWE chapters of their stories now done, it's only natural to start reflecting.

To remember what each of these men looked like when given a strong story and ample spotlight, check out their best matches while with the company:

• Alex Riley vs. Kevin Owens: NXT, March 18, 2015
• Bad News Barrett vs. Dolph Ziggler: Raw, June 23, 2014
• Damien Sandow vs. John Cena: Raw, Oct. 28, 2013
• El Torito vs. Hornswoggle: Extreme Rules 2014 (WeeLC)

Ironically, Sandow's best effort came in the match that most hurt his perception. Failing to defeat Cena after beating him with his Money in the Bank briefcase and with Cena fighting with only one good arm had Sandow look like a chump instead of giving him a run with the world title.

He had moments of glory after that, especially his run as The Miz's stunt double, but this was the needle that let all his air out over time. 

9. Too Early for Dana

Dana Brooke announced her arrival to Raw on Monday night by attacking Becky Lynch backstage. 

If this indeed indicates a call-up to the main roster, it's a head-scratcher of a move. Even considering that injuries are hampering the women's division, Brooke is not ready for this kind of spotlight.

She improved her in-ring game during her NXT tenure, but she still had too many awkward moments in her matches. And on the mic, she has struggled with overacting. She still sounds like a developmental wrestler.

She will have a chance to prove her critics wrong, but it's going to be tough to make that jump from NXT to Raw and SmackDown with so many holes still in her game.

10. Bayley on Banks

Banks vs. Bayley I and II featured such great chemistry that WWE would be insane not to exploit it again on a bigger stage. And having them be the first females to step inside Hell in a Cell would be special, a chance for them to crank out another classic.

In a Facebook Q&A video, Bayley fielded a question about whether she would consider doing that kind of match. The former NXT champ said, "If it's with Sasha Banks, I will do anything because I just want to keep making history."