If Bayley’s injury is legitimate, what will happen with the RAW Women’s title at SummerSlam?
On the July 31st episode of RAW, Bayley, in a bout with NIa Jax, appeared to injure her right shoulder. Grasping at her arm as she backed her way to the dressing room, “The Huggable One” seemed to be in a great deal of pain. Shortly after the show, reports surfaced that that injury was, in fact, legitimate but the swelling she was experiencing made it impossible for doctors to know the extent of the damage. It’s now been a week since the incident and a report from wrestlinginc.com has surfaced proclaiming that it is highly unlikely that Bayley will make it to SummerSlam to face Alexa Bliss in her quest to become a 2-time RAW Women’s Champion.
So that leaves “Five Feet of Fury” without an opponent for “The Biggest Show of the Summer” and with less than 2 weeks until the annual event, the company will have to scramble. So let’s break down who is on the current red brand roster and eliminate some girls who won’t qualify for the spot. Let’s go ahead and scratch off Alicia Fox and Dana Brooke. They’ve done virtually nothing as of late and aren’t relevant in the title picture. Unfortunately, we can do the same for Emma. The woefully mismanaged Aussie is capable of so much more. But incredibly, the WWE doesn’t see that in her.
And now some potential replacements. First, there’s Mickie James. Having not been on RAW for over a month, the former 6-time Women’s Champion certainly has the resume to get herself into such a match. However, considering her most recent TV exposure was in a loss to Emma on Main Event, it’s highly unlikely she’d get the nod. Then there’s Nia Jax. “The Hybrid Athlete”‘s title shot is long overdue. But her relationship with Bliss may prevent her from being the next in line. And finally, there’s “The Boss”. Banks clearly looks like the logical replacement here and a program with Bliss seems like it could provide fireworks. But is that the best way to get the most out of this opportunity?
What if the WWE went a different route. The night before SummerSlam, NXT will host TakeOver: Brooklyn III and on that card, Asuka will defend her NXT Women’s Championship against Ember Moon. A call up to the main roster is long overdue for “The Empress of Tomorrow”. By the time TakeOver comes around, she’ll have held the NXT title for over 500 days and considering she’s yet to be pinned in the near 2 years that she’s been with the company, it’s time for her to take the next step. A surprise showing at SummerSlam would undoubtedly blow the roof off the Barclays Center in Brooklyn as Asuka is known to most fans as one of best female wrestlers to ever come through the WWE.
Setting up this scenario won’t be easy and considering that Asuka is a heel right now, a program with Bliss seems a bit forced. However, Asuka easily made the transition from face to heel in NXT and there’s no doubt she could do the same on the main roster if that’s the route the WWE writers want to go. If not, it might be nice to have a female superstar who plays both sides, as the happy-go-lucky baby face against the cheating heel is getting a bit stale on RAW.
So, how can the WWE pull this off? Simple. Since Jax and Banks are clearly the top 2 contenders, they can vie for the #1 contender spot on the RAW before SummerSlam. As expected, Bliss blows the whole thing up and neither girl wins setting up the obligatory triple threat match at SummerSlam. But as punishment for Bliss and her antics, GM Kurt Angle adds a fourth to the match as a mystery opponent. Asuka, who successfully defended her NXT belt the night before, debuts and gets the victory. The NXT title is relinquished and put up for grabs in a tournament in what it is suddenly a pretty crowded NXT women’s division.
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Asuka will have plenty of challengers after this, both heel and baby face. She has a history with both Jax and Bayley, the latter having given her two amazing NXT TakeOver matches in the past. This turn of events could breathe new life into a division that frankly, has been pretty anticlimactic for a long time and would immediately make Asuka the top female on the main roster. It’s a bit of gamble, but clearly worth the risk and could make for a major SummerSlam moment.