It's officially 2023, which means one thing and one thing only: AEW fans will soon find out the identity of Saraya's mystery partner for the January 11th edition of AEW Dynamite. That's right, soon fans will see if Sasha Banks will be back in a professional wrestling ring, learn what moniker she'll be using moving forward, be that her real name Mercedes Varnado, Mercedes Mone', or Mone' Banks, all of which she had trademarked for professional wrestling usage, and just how big of a pop “The Boss” will garner from a receptive Los Angeles crowd.

… now granted, Saraya's partner could be someone other than Banks, as there are literally thousands of other performers who could fill the role, from Willow Nightingale to Kairi (Sane) to even “The Boss'” former WWE Tag Team Championship-winning partner, Naiomi – aka Trinity Fatu – but at this point, that would leave a lot of disappointed fans across the wrestling world – after all of the hype, Tony Khan more or less has to accept that fans expect Banks or bust and he either needs to deliver on that premise, or seriously temper expectations on the next episode of Dynamite.

Fortunately, Saraya has seriously leaned into the prospects of Banks coming to her aid against Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter, as she detailed to Metro in a pre-Dynamite interview.

“I love the fact that she took her career into her own hands, and she knows her worth and she knows she wants to be treated a certain way, and she deserves to be treated that way because she’s done a lot for the wrestling business,” Saraya said via The Wrestling Observer. “She’s one of the girls that puts butts in seats, and you want to see wrestle and you wanna see main event. She deserves all those things. Wherever she ends up, I’m gonna be happy for her, and anyone that gets her is gonna be very, very lucky. I just selfishly hope that I get to wrestle her one day. I don’t know if she’d want to because she’d probably be scared to wrestle me again.”

Even if Banks is potentially scared to wrestle against Saraya, what with her delivering the kick that nearly paralyzed the performer formerly known as Paige back in WWE, working together as a team back on weekly wrestling television might just be what the doctor ordered to get both performers back in the swing of things heading into 2023.

Saraya has commented on tagging with Sasha Banks in AEW in the past.

Speaking with Forbes late last year, Saraya pointed out that from the moment her mystery partner was announced, fans immediately turned to Banks, and for good reason.

“I feel like anytime there’s a mystery, everyone always goes straight for Mercedes (laughs). They’re like—straight away—it’s her!” said Saraya. “There’s plenty of women out there, I’m not going to say yes or no to anybody, but there’s a lot of exciting prospects for a potential tag partner.”

While Saraya did lose five years of her professional wrestling career due to a neck injury suffered at the hands of Banks, the former Divas Champion doesn't hold it against her and has actually remained a massive fan.

“I’ve always said that I would want to work with Sasha again in any capacity, because she’s a pro. In the wrestling side of things, she’s such a fantastic athlete, you can’t deny her talent. She’s fantastic. People can be really tough on people, especially female athletes, which can be super frustrating. Especially female athletes who carry their weight. They can go toe-to-toe with most of the guys. So if someone gets a little bit hurt, especially in the women’s division, the whole internet blows up and they’re just like ‘this person’s unsafe, and this person’s unsafe…’”

“I remember this one time, I think Brie [Bella] hurt somebody, and it really annoyed me because she never hurts anybody. But the fact that people blew up on her like ‘you hurt her, you’re unsafe,’ it’s like it was just one person. In a 15-year career, that’s actually really good. You can’t go into a business without accidentally hurting someone at some point.”

“The people who take it personally, are the people on the internet. People on the internet take it personally for you, but me and Sasha have always been on good terms. It is what it is, but Sasha—mentally—it f—ked with her, and that’s not fair.”

If Banks does, in fact, emerge from the back to work with Saraya, the response will be huge – not quite Wrestle Kingdom 17 huge, but huge nonetheless – what AEW chooses to do with that, if they choose to do something with that, is what really counts.