Sasha Banks' Lawyers Working To Get Her Released From WWE: Report

Sasha Banks' lawyers are reportedly working on getting her released from WWE, Wrestling Observer reports.

On Thursday (June 16), Andrew Zarian, host of Wrestling Observer's Mat Men podcast, said, “I cannot confirm she’s been released. But, I did hear late last week that her attorneys were working on getting this done.”

Zarian's update came hours after Wrestling Inc's Raj Giri tweeted that he was "hearing Sasha Banks has been released" late Wednesday (June 15) night

WWE has yet to address reports of Banks' status as of Thursday afternoon.

Banks and her tag-team partner, Naomi, left during the live broadcast of RAW prior to their scheduled main event match on May 16 following what the company claimed was a creative disagreement and not part of an on-screen angle.

Four days later, SmackDown play-by-play man Michael Cole announced the then-Women's Tag Team Champions were suspended indefinitely by WWE following their exit from RAW and the titles has since been vacated.

Prior to their suspension, Wrestling Observer Newsletter's Dave Meltzer reported WWE wasn't expected to Banks and Naomi in fear of them both signing with AEW, the company's top competitor.

The reports of Banks' potential release came hours after an exclusive report by the Wall Street Journal revealing that WWE's board was investigating a $3 million hush-money settlement paid by McMahon to a woman over an alleged affair.

According to the Journal, McMahon's hush-money agreement was made in January to prevent the woman, a former WWE paralegal, from discussing her relationship with McMahon or making critical statements about him publicly.

A spokesperson for WWE confirmed to the Journal that the company is cooperating with the board's investigation -- which was launched in April -- and that the relationship between the 76-year-old and the former employee was consensual.

McMahon has been married to his wife, Linda -- who served as WWE's president and later CEO from 1980 to 2009 and later as Small Business Administration chief as part of former President Donald Trump's administration from 2017 to 2019 -- since 1966.

The Journal also reports that the board's investigation revealed other nondisclosure pacts stemming from misconduct claims involving other women who had previously worked for WWE, which involved McMahon and John Laurinaitis, WWE's general manager of talent relations.

The news comes less than a month after McMahon's daughter, Stephanie, announced her decision to take "a leave of absence" from the company effective on May 20.

WWE president and chief revenue officer Nick Khan took over "most of Stephanie McMahon's duties in her absence," Wrestlenomics' Brandon Thurston reported at the time of the announcement, citing multiple sources "at WWE."

Banks and Naomi won the women's tag-team during Night Two of WrestleMania 38 last month, which is Banks' third reign, having previously served as an inaugural champion in February 2019 and again in May 2020, both alongside Bayley.

The 30-year-old has consistently been one of WWE's top female stars since debuting on its main roster in 2015, having won both the RAW and SmackDown Women's Championships a combined six times, as well as headlining Night One WrestleMania 37 with Bianca Belair, becoming the first Black women to jointly headline WWE's biggest annual event in history.