When Vince McMahon decided to have Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair headline WrestleMania 37, it became a huge moment in WWE history. The two stars became the first Black women to main event WrestleMania.
But years later, former WWE star Reginald, known as Sidney Akeem in the indie scene, has revealed that the match almost ended up looking completely different under McMahon’s original idea.
Former WWE star Reginald recalls a wild Vince McMahon WrestleMania pitch
Speaking on Rewind Recap Relive, Akeem shared that McMahon once pitched an intergender triple threat match involving him, Sasha Banks, and Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 37.
According to Akeem, McMahon had become a big fan of his character and athletic style during his early WWE run. At the time, Reginald etched his involvement in storylines with Banks, Belair, and Carmella on SmackDown.
When asked about stories of McMahon supporting him creatively, he recalled an intriguing pitch. He said, “Brother, I have a million…Just one that’s ridiculous off the bat, I almost main evented WrestleMania… It was an intergender match.”
Bateman admitted he instantly realized fans probably would not have reacted well to the idea. Especially because the Banks vs. Belair match already carried major historical importance.
“It was an intergender match… If I would have been in this match, I would have got so much heat from everyone because this match had such big like, this was a huge match. This was a first,” Akeem said.
“Vince wanted a triple threat between Sasha, Bianca, and myself,” he added.
The former WWE star then described the meeting where McMahon shared the idea with everyone involved. The storyline would have started with him growing closer to Sasha Banks after splitting from Carmella. Ultimately, the plotline would culminate in his addition to the WrestleMania title match.
“I was with Carmella, and Carmella was feuding with Sasha, and then Bianca came into the picture and Vince was saying something like ‘Hey, I want you to play the room, like you are in love with Sasha, so you’re gonna buy her a puppy, and she’s gonna love the puppy’. This is basically me getting away from Carmella because Sasha had beaten Carmella so many times and I just got enamoured with Sasha. So Carmella fired me, and I was supposed to fall in love with Sasha,” Akeem said.
McMahon explained that Reginald and Banks had “great chemistry” and wanted to build the story around that idea.
“So Vince calls all of us in the office- me, Sasha and Bianca. We have some producers and writers there. He says ‘This is what I’m thinking, Reggie buys her a dog, she loves you, and you’re playing every week, you’re playing in the middle, whatever, but the thing is, you have an endgame. You will come out and announce that this is no longer a singles, this is a Triple Threat,’” Akeem explained.
“When he said that, Sasha had a look on her face, and Bianca had the same look on her face, and I’m just like ‘I don’t know what the hell is happening right now, I’m not gonna look at anyone, I’m not gonna say anything’…Vince said ‘Sasha and Reginald, you guys have great chemistry’, and Sasha kept asking Vince ‘But what makes us have this chemistry’. He was like, ‘I don’t know damn it. It’s chemistry. And we just didn’t get an answer,” he added.
In the end, the idea did not come to fruition, which Akeem himself admitted was probably for the best.
“Lo and behold, they came to their sense. That would have been stupid to throw me in that match. So, they went on to have a match that’s gonna live in WWE history for a long time,” Akeem admitted.
WWE instead moved forward with the historic singles match between Banks and Belair, which became one of the most memorable WrestleMania main events ever.
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