Sackhoff Congratulates Varnado on Wrestling Return

From one proud warrior to another, The Mandalorian star Katee Sackhoff, who plays Bo-Katan Kryze, congratulated her co-star Mercedes Varnado, who played Koska Reeves, on her latest venture at New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Varnado, formerly known as Sasha Banks, was with WWE when filming season two of the Disney+ series. Sackhoff, who originally voiced Bo-Katan since Star Wars: The Clone Wars, reprised her role in the live-action series, and joining her were other Mandalorians Koska and Axe Woves (Simon Kassianides) to help main character Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal). The actress took to social media as Varnado introduced her new ring persona Mercedes Moné quote tweeting NJPW’s post while tagging her, “Now THIS is 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥” for Wrestle Kingdom 17.

Sadly, Varnado is not returning for season three of The Mandalorian, but that doesn’t mean she won’t provide there is a season four or another Star Wars project. As with most WWE superstars who take on Hollywood projects, she opted to be credited by her real name than her wrestling persona. With Paul “Triple H” Levesque taking over creatively, there was speculation concerning Varnado and Trinity “Naomi” Fatu’s WWE futures since their creative issues lead to their suspension from the company during the Vince McMahon era and subsequent vacating of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship in May 2022. The future, at least with Varnado, was settled when she changed her Twitter handle from Sasha Banks to her real name as her WWE contract expired recently and appeared at NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 17.

Varnado made her wrestling debut in August 2010 for New England Championship Wrestling while training in the Massachusetts-based Chaotic Wrestling before making her official debut for the promotion in October of that year. She also wrestled for the National Wrestling Alliance the same year. Her personas before joining WWE in 2012 were Mercedes KV and Miss Mercedes (for NWA). During her 10-year run with WWE, she became the fourth WWE Women’s Triple Crown Champion and its third Women’s Grand Slam Champion winning the NXT Women’s Championship, Raw Women’s Championship (5-time), SmackDown Women’s Championship, and Women’s Tag Team Championship (3-time).