Quick Takes on WWE's Misuse of Sasha Banks, AEW-ROH, Pushing Ricochet and More

With more and more matches being announced for WrestleMania 38 each week, it's also becoming increasingly more clear where certain stars fall on the WWE totem pole.

While celebrities such as Johnny Knoxville and Logan Paul are being prioritized this WrestleMania season, Sasha Banks finds herself in one of the most unimportant matches on the entire show. She's essentially been booked as an afterthought lately despite still being as over with the audience as she is.

Ricochet may soon be joining her on the WrestleMania card coming off his Intercontinental Championship victory on SmackDown. Per Mike Johnson of PWInsider, the NXT alum is reportedly slated for a big singles push going forward, though seeing is believing given the company's track record with him thus far.

Ahead of WrestleMania, AEW will hold its highly anticipated Revolution pay-per-view this Sunday with a stacked lineup from top to bottom. One of those matches will see Thunder Rosa challenge Britt Baker for the AEW World Women's Championship, and as awesome of a moment as it would be to see her finally capture the title, it can be argued it's not quite the right time yet.

This installment of Quick Takes will delve into the booking of the Baker vs. Rosa rivalry, AEW's acquisition of Ring of Honor, Edge's masterful heel from Monday's Raw and more.

Sasha Banks Being Deemphasized Drastically En Route to WrestleMania Is Illogical

Despite the rock star reactions every time she makes an entrance, Sasha Banks has never meant less as a character than she does currently. Needless to say, that is entirely the fault of WWE because of how she's been handled since resurfacing on SmackDown at the onset of 2022.

Banks' return ahead of the Royal Rumble was met with universal acclaim from fans, which was what made her short stint in the women's Rumble so puzzling. She was eliminated in anticlimactic fashion by Queen Zelina before subsequently disappearing from WWE TV until after Elimination Chamber was over.

Now, she's been paired with Naomi in the tag team ranks to challenge for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 38. Of course, the two of them have history and chemistry from their time in Team B.A.D. over six years ago, but both and Naomi deserve better than a thrown-together match at 'Mania.

Banks in particular is someone who has transcended WWE by becoming an even bigger star with acting roles and other important gigs. To relegate her to a pointless tag team title affair is an absolute waste of her star power and what she can bring to the table.

One year removed from main-eventing WrestleMania with Bianca Belair, Banks should be involved in something of equal prominence, even if her rumored match with Charlotte Flair prior to Ronda Rousey's return threw those plans into disarray.

Edge's Masterful Heel Turn Adds More Excitement to AJ Styles WrestleMania Match

Almost everyone knew going into Monday's Raw that AJ Styles would be accepting Edge's open challenge for a match at WrestleMania 38. What fans didn't know, however, is that Edge would viciously assault him at the end of the segment.

As a first-time-ever one-on-one encounter, Styles vs. Edge essentially writes itself. The babyface vs. babyface dynamic doesn't work often in AEW, so The Rated-R Superstar going ahead with the heel turn was a smart call.

The angle succeeded on a few different fronts: It generated a lot of buzz, it got the program off to a hot start, and it got Edge back in the heel role where he belongs.

Expect an excellent explanation from Edge come Monday night. He's a master storyteller and should be able to connect all the dots without an issue.

Anyone who has reservations regarding Edge turning heel should be reminded of the magic Edge is capable of in that role. His 'Mania match with Styles was going to be a blockbuster bout no matter what, but that angle was executed so well that the masses will have no choice but to get invested.

Ring of Honor Must Be Used as Another Avenue for AEW to Feature Talent

Tony Khan's heavily hyped announcement ultimately delivered: The AEW president is now the new owner of Ring of Honor.

Many fans were ecstatic with the news and for good reason. ROH's extensive tape library, which dates back two decades and features the early beginnings of countless notable names, was probably the most appealing part of the deal for Khan, but there's so much more that can be done with the promotion itself as well.

Considering Khan already wears many hats between his wrestling and sports ventures and beyond, it would be illogical to think he'd be running the day-to-day operations of ROH going forward. However, hopefully with him keeping it alive, ROH can continue to run shows and be used as a feeder system of sorts for AEW.

It's no secret that AEW currently employs more wrestlers than they likely know what to do with, and while that's manageable, Dark and Elevation have proved to be not enough. ROH, on the other hand, is an established brand and can be another platform for the underutilized talent such as Brian Cage, Miro and even former ROH World champion Jay Lethal to appear, compete and remain relevant on.

There's virtually no negative in Khan acquiring ROH, assuming he intends to keep it running and not only use it for the archival footage. It can be beneficial to everyone, but time will tell as to whether this is what he has in mind.

Thunder Rosa's Big Title Win Shouldn't Come at Revolution

It was almost exactly one year ago that Thunder Rosa bested Britt Baker in AEW's first-ever female Unsanctioned Lights Out match. It also became clear on that night that Rosa must eventually be the one to dethrone Baker for the AEW Women's World Championship, and this was long before either of them were even in contention for the title.

This feud has been long-term storytelling at its finest, and now we've finally arrived at their one-on-one pay-per-view meeting. Ideally, Revolution should have been where Rose took the title from Baker, but unfortunately, the storyline hasn't been heated up enough lately to justify pulling the trigger just yet.

AEW waited too long to rekindle their rivalry. Rosa winning the gold would no doubt be a big moment, but it'd arguably mean more if they held off a little longer and keep Rosa in chase mode for another month or two.

Although Rosa won that aforementioned Unsanctioned match, it didn't count on the official record per the rules of the bout. Rather, Baker beat Rosa at Beach Break the month prior, so AEW's resident dentist is technically undefeated against her.

There is more juice AEW can get out of this storyline, and since Double or Nothing is just two-and-a-half months away, it wouldn't be difficult to drag out Rosa's long-awaited crowning achievement until then.

Ricochet's Newfound Push May Not Be Enough to Salvage His Bad Booking

In an interesting turn of events, Ricochet will reportedly be positioned as the No. 2 babyface on SmackDown going forward. His Intercontinental Championship victory backs those claims up, though that isn't a guarantee this latest push is meant to last.

That's simply the lay of the land on the blue brand at the moment. With Brock Lesnar not being a full-time competitor and the departures of Jeff Hardy and Cesaro, it isn't that far-fetched to think WWE would view Ricochet as their next biggest babyface on the roster behind Drew McIntyre so long as Shinsuke Nakamura is bound to the tag team ranks.

Ricochet as Intercontinental champion undoubtedly has the potential to be a blast. He should be booked to defend the title regularly against a variety of opponents (or really whoever's left on SmackDown at this point), but because the belt is so damaged, it's hard to imagine that will actually be the case.

Worse yet, WWE has shown zero interest in doing anything of note with the amazing aerial artist until now. Vince McMahon has been notorious for being high on certain stars for a brief period of time before either forgetting about their push or pull the plug all together because he deems it isn't working.

This is an opportunity to begin rebuilding Ricochet and make him matter again, but whether it's enough to change the audience's perception of him as a glorified enhancement talent because of years of subpar booking remains to be seen.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, has specialized in sports and entertainment writing since 2010. Visit his website, WrestleRant, and subscribe to his YouTube channel for more wrestling-related content.