Sasha Banks

Mercedes Justine Kaestner-Varnado (born January 26, 1992) is an American professional wrestler and actress. As of 2023, she wrestled for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) using the ring name Mercedes Moné. In February 2023, she won the IWGP Women's Championship . Varnado also wrestles for NJPW's sister promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom. She is best known for her time in WWE from 2012 to 2022. In the WWE, she performed under the ring name Sasha Banks.

Sasha Banks
Banks in April 2018
Born	Mercedes Justine Kaestner-Varnado (1992-01-26) January 26, 1992 Fairfield, California, U.S.
Occupation	Professional wrestler actress
Spouse(s)	Sarath Ton (m. 2016)
Relatives	Snoop Dogg (cousin) Brandy Norwood (cousin) Ray J (cousin) Daz Dillinger (cousin)
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Mercedes KV[1] Mercedes Moné[1] Miss Mercedes[1] Sasha Banks[1]
Billed height	5 ft 5 in (165 cm)[2]
Billed from	Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.[2] Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.[3]
Trained by	Brian Fury[4] Brian Milonas[1] Sara Del Rey[1] WWE Performance Center[1]
Debut	August 8, 2010[1]

Varnado began her wrestling career in 2010 on the independent circuit. She has won the Chaotic Wrestling Women's Championship. She signed with WWE in 2012. She wrestled under the ring name Sasha Banks in NXT. She is a former NXT Women's Champion. Her match against Bayley at NXT TakeOver: Respect in October 2015 was the first women's match to ever headline an NXT TakeOver. It was also the first iron woman match in WWE history and the longest women's match in WWE history at the time. The match lasted 30 minutes.[5] Their match was voted by Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) as Match of the Year. Varnado was voted as Woman of the Year.

In 2015, Varnado was promoted to WWE's main roster. On the main roster, she won the Raw Women's Championship five times. In 2016, she and Charlotte Flair became the first women to headline a WWE pay-per-view event. They are the first women to wrestle in a Hell in a Cell match. It was also the first time that the PWI award for Feud of the Year was won by women.[6] In 2019, she won the first WWE Women's Tag Team Championship with tag team partner, Bayley. In 2020, she won the SmackDown Women's Championship. This made her the third-ever WWE Women's Grand Slam Champion and the fourth WWE Women's Triple Crown Champion. That year, she was named Wrestler of the Year by Sports Illustrated.[7] At WrestleMania 37, Varnado and Bianca Belair became the first black women to headline at WrestleMania.[8][9] She was the third most tweeted about female athlete in 2021.[10] In 2022, Varnado walked out of WWE. She then made her debut for NJPW/Stardom at Wrestle Kingdom 17 in January 2023 under the ring name Mercedes Moné.

Outside of wrestling, Varnado began an acting career in 2020. Her first role was the character Koska Reeves in the second season of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian.