The drama from Monday Night’s walkout by Naomi and Sasha Banks rages on, with a reported update on what may have been behind Naomi’s decision.

The WWE Women’s Tag Team champions refused to compete on this past Monday’s Raw show, handing their belts to John Laurinaitis and walking out, after allegedly being unhappy with their creative direction.

More information has since come to light, and it now seems that another reason behind Naomi’s walkout could be an attempt to gain some leverage on her contract negotiations. 

According to Dave Meltzer on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, the former SmackDown Women’s Champion’s contract is expiring in the near future, and it could have been a factor in her actions this week. 

The deal is, and this was brought up to me as well, is that her [Naomi’s] contract, I guess it’s expiring soon but she’s been in negotiations for a new deal.  It’s possible that they might go with the idea that she’s not leaving no matter what, her family’s here, and so they don’t feel the leverage that they might have felt with Kevin Owens or Sami Zayn or someone where if we lowball them, they’re gonna leave, so we have to give them a pretty big offer.In her case, maybe they wouldn’t do it, but most people that are getting new deals are getting substantial raises, major raises right now because there’s a wrestling war going on. The salary structure of WWE talent has increased greatly because of this, and this is a great time for her to make more money, maybe not a lot more money but certainly more money, this probably won’t help her cause in the negotiation.

Naomi and Sasha were set to compete in a number one contender six-way match in Raw’s main event, however, plans had to change when the pair refused to take part. Instead, Becky Lynch took on Asuka in a match that saw The Empress of Tomorrow get the win and will now face Bianca Belair at Hell in a Cell for the Raw Women’s Championship. 

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