California’s World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) star Sasha Banks is trending online on Saturday after “likin”g a post supporting people’s decision not to be vaccinated.
The former WWE SmackDown women’s champion, nicknamed “The Boss,” was put in the hot seat by Twitter user@tayredacted.
Alongside screenshots of anti-vaccination Eugenicist John Bell giving his take on why people should avoid the vaccine, Banks appeared to be one of the users who “liked” the video.
The user then took several jabs at Banks fans, reeling off several excuses they are likely to make in defense of the wrestler.
There have been more than 33 million recorded COVID-19 cases and over 600,000 deaths in the United States alone. According to data from the CDC, more than 150 million Americans had been fully vaccinated, or 45.6 percent of the country’s population.
Banks has not addressed the issue.
The rapper is currently on hiatus from the league after suffering a huge loss from Bianca Belair at the latest WrestleMania but is expected to return in time for SummerSlam 2021.
This is not the first time Banks has taken a break from the WWE. In 2019, she disappeared from the spotlight for four months.
“It was from everything. From that grueling schedule and never getting to take in those wins and understanding those victories, taking my losses really, really hard and just being a baby,” she said on the “Just Women’s Sports” podcast with Kelly O’Hara.
“I started wrestling when I was 18, got signed when I was 20, straight on the road when I was 23. Just had that nonstop career of being Sasha Banks when I was 20 years old, and having my hair color change and not seeing my real hair for so long. And just losing, kind of myself and I lost my name. Not even my mom called me Mercedes. My friends didn’t call me Mercedes. They called me either ‘The Boss’ or ‘Sasha Banks’.”
She added that her obsession with fame began to take over her life.
“When I was at home I was really lost and confused. I looked at myself in the mirror and I just was not happy. This girl who was so obsessed with being a WWE superstar, it felt like her dream was coming to an end and it was everything I ever dreamt of as a kid anymore,” she shared.
“I didn’t want to hate something that I’d loved my whole life, so I told myself I needed to take a break and walk away from it to find myself. To find out who Mercedes was. Cause at that point, all I knew was Sasha Banks.”
