Ryan Dilbert's 10-Count: How to Build on Sasha Banks' WWE Women's Title Victory

1. Maintaining the Buzz Around The Boss

Sasha Banks' stirring moment is over.

She climbed the WWE mountain, wrenched Charlotte's back until she submitted and held up the Women's Championship for the first time as her eyes filled with tears. 

Now that her triumph on Monday's Raw is in the past, a more difficult task lies ahead for WWE: maximizing Banks' title win.

The Boss' victory over Charlotte was no normal win. As Will Pruett of ProWrestling.net noted, it was part of a statement:

The length and prominence of the match was a testament to the significance of women's wrestling in the New Era. It was a statement of how highly WWE regards Banks. 

To keep her momentum going and to keep the women's division in the spotlight, WWE has to shift Banks from the hunter to the hunted. The title she claimed on Monday night has to feel like a coveted prize.

Every woman on the Raw roster needs to lay out her desire to claim it. The focus of each woman's story moving forward has to be about earning a crack at it. 

Nia Jax should go on a winning streak as the announcers talk her up as a contender. Paige and Summer Rae should battle it out to move into position for a title shot. Alicia Fox has to figure into all of this, too.

WWE too often lets its women's division devolve into a battle between two wrestlers. Everyone else is forgotten.

What has Fox been up to over the last five months? Where has Paige been? Why did WWE leave Banks on the bench so long after WrestleMania?

Banks and the division as a whole will be better off if no one has to ask these kinds of questions in the coming weeks.

She needs to be defending the title often. Her rivals need to be scrambling to claim the No. 1 contender's spot. It's a simple strategy that WWE has too often failed to follow.

And it's not yet time to move away from Charlotte and Banks' rivalry. They showed on Monday that they can bring the house down together. WWE has to let them do that again.

Miami Herald columnist Scott Fishman believes their chemistry compares to that of two Hall of Famers:

It is a feud that has potential to make history. The company needs to give the archenemies the kind of specialty matches WWE's male Superstars get. The next go-round of Banks vs. Charlotte should be a 2-out-of-3 Falls match or a battle inside a steel cage.

There is history to be made in terms of position on the card, too.

Placing Banks in the main event of Raw makes a major statement. Having her and Charlotte tear each other apart at the close of a pay-per-view does as well.

The message that Banks is a star and that the women's division is as important to Raw's success as the rest of its components needs to continue.

2. Red-Hot Ambrose 

The days when Dean Ambrose fell short again and again on pay-per-views are over. The WWE world champ is on a roll, and 2016 is proving to be his most successful year as a singles star by a mile.

Event	Opponent(s)	Result
Royal Rumble	Kevin Owens	Win
Royal Rumble	Battle Royal field	Loss
Fastlane	Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar	Loss
Roadblock	Triple H	Loss
WrestleMania	Brock Lesnar	Loss
Payback	Chris Jericho	Win
Extreme Rules	Chris Jericho	Win
Money in the Bank	Cesaro, Alberto Del Rio, Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn	Win
Money in the Bank	Seth Rollins	Win
Battleground	Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins	Win

Keep in mind, too, that the loss at the Royal Rumble was more of a moral victory. Ambrose made it to the final two of that bout, even though he had collided with Kevin Owens earlier in the night.

The Lunatic Fringe is now undefeated on PPVs since WrestleMania.

It's surprising to see such an orthodox Superstar get that kind of treatment. Ambrose is earning the spotlight his fans have long demanded. Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come, not a blip.

3. Throwback Video of the Week: Universal Heavyweight Championship

If the new WWE Universal Championship has a familiar ring to it, it's because Puerto Rico has long been the battleground for a title with a mighty similar name. The World Wrestling Council has featured the Universal Heavyweight Championship since 1982, as noted on Wrestling-Titles.com.

WWE Hall of Famer Carlos Colon won that strap a record 26 times.

The WWC universal title has been at the center of many a memorable match, including Colon's 1986 clash with Terry Funk. Spit flew at an announcer. Chairs tumbled over. General chaos erupted at the end.

This was par for the course for both Colon and that championship. The story of WWE's new creation, meanwhile, has yet to be written.

4. Introducing the Draftees

WWE has a lot of stories to tell now that the draft brought up so much talent from NXT. It can't rush the process, though.

On Tuesday's SmackDown, NXT transplants Alexa Bliss and Carmella, as well as Eva Marie (who spent the past year-plus resurrecting her career with NXT), all appeared in the same segment. Each woman got just a brief moment to talk. We learned little about any one of them.

That can't be a pattern that continues. Remember that the Divas Revolution stumbled in its first steps because WWE tried to cram a whole pack of wrestlers into the same space at the same time. 

Fans need to learn who Bliss is, what makes Carmella special and what has changed about Eva Marie. Balancing all of that is hard, but the narratives can't drown each other out.

The audience can't invest in a division as a whole; it has to be drawn to the individuals who populate that division. 

5. We Want Some Bayley

A clip that lasts just one minute and 30 seconds is the perfect example of why pushing female stars is so important. 

WWE fan Gerald Rubeck took his seven-year-old daughter, Baylee, to see Battleground on Sunday. Dressed in a Bayley T-shirt, the little girl exploded when the NXT star made her main-roster debut.

Rubeck tweeted a video of her over-the-top reaction:

Would she have been as elated had Shinsuke Nakamura debuted instead? Maybe. But she can't see herself in Nakamura or John Cena the way she can in a female wrestler, especially one who shares her name. 

And there are tons of other girls out there ready to follow a female superhero of the squared circle. WWE has to give that to those fans, be it with Bayley, Banks or any of the company's other talented women.

6. From Funkasaurus to Fixer

Brodus Clay, now known as Tyrus in TNA, can't seem to escape goofiness.

A massive, tattooed man who looks like a monster villain in a superhero movie is not someone you would expect to get comedy gimmicks. But that's just the direction WWE took him. The company turned him into a disco-dancing cartoon character known as The Funkasaurus.

He hasn't gotten nearly that ridiculous since moving to TNA and going by Tyrus, but inanity is starting to creep into his new shtick. TNA has the big man going by The Fixer, offering to help folks much in the way that Sheamus did with his 1-800-FELLA skits.

Why isn't he presented as monstrous? Not every wrestler can have a serious gimmick, but when you're 6'7" and nearly 400 pounds, the obvious choice is a fearsome role. 

7. Finn Balor Joins Exclusive Club

WWE wasted no time in treating Balor like a big deal. On his first night on Raw, he won a Fatal 4-Way match, defeated Roman Reigns and earned a shot at the newly created WWE Universal Championship.

That victory over Reigns is special. According to CageMatch.net, only four other men have beaten Reigns (not counting disqualifications) in one-on-one matches: 

• Seth Rollins
• Sheamus
• Bray Wyatt
• Big Show

That's it. Balor is No. 5. That says a lot about how much WWE protects Reigns, but it also shows how much confidence it has in Balor. 

Besting The Big Dog on his first night hints at major things ahead for him.

8. Benjamin's Best

Shelton Benjamin is back! WWE announced on Tuesday night that the former tag team and intercontinental champion is returning to SmackDown:

The high-flyer and technical master will boost SmackDown from the get-go. He's a smart addition to add roster depth and give the show's new stars a veteran to tangle with.

It's been six years since Benjamin competed for WWE. Fans needing a refresher on what he's capable of or who missed out on his WWE tenure should check out the following matches:

• Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas vs. Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio: Vengeance 2003
• Shelton Benjamin vs. Shawn Michaels: Raw, May 2, 2005
• Shelton Benjamin vs. Kurt Angle: Raw, Aug. 22, 2005
• Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas vs. The Hardy Boyz: One Night Stand 2005
• Shelton Benjamin vs. Christian: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2009 (Ladder)

SmackDown rookies Chad Gable and Jason Jordan of American Alpha are so much like The World's Greatest Tag Team (Benjamin and Haas) that WWE has to play with the parallels between the duos. Perhaps Benjamin will act as Gable and Jordan's mentor or challenge them, dismissing them as poor imitations of his old squad.

9. Let's See The Viper's Fangs

Randy Orton doesn't need to dish out zingers; he needs to issue beatdowns.

In his first two appearances since returning from a shoulder injury, though, Orton has been asked to goof around on talking segments. He appeared on Chris Jericho's Highlight Reel at Battleground and Miz TV with The Miz on Tuesday's SmackDown.

He made the crowd chuckle here and there both times, but this is the wrong version of Orton to present.

The Viper has a battle with Brock Lesnar coming up in four weeks. WWE needs to remind us how dangerous and merciless Orton is. It needs to paint Orton as a titan capable of felling The Beast Incarnate.

That process must include more violence and fewer one-liners. The build to Lesnar vs. Orton at SummerSlam has to shift in tone in a hurry or else be a waste of a war.

10. A Dream Realized

Johnny Gargano reminded us to reflect on our journeys and savor our successes.

After nearly a decade of making his name on wrestling's independent circuit, he now has a place on the WWE stage. The indy star had been working as a free agent during NXT tapings beginning last year, and he is now a bona fide, official Superstar.

Gargano tweeted about his final indy match, with an eye on both the past and the future:

He wrote, "From a chubby, little eight-year-old kid that just wanted to be a pro wrestler to now...the most important thing to me was that you guys just thought I was pretty good."

It's easy to forget that the larger-than-life characters we see on-screen were once kids and fans in awe, hoping to follow their heroes into the ring.

If only all of us could be what we dreamed of being at eight years old.