The biggest news from Friday was that Bayley will be on the shelf for the rest of 2021 and into 2022-see how fans react. Plus, find out how WWE replaces her at Money In The Bank.
Bayley On The Shelf
Yes, it’s true: Bayley is on the shelf.
source: custom, Bleacher Report Twitter screenshot
The SmackDown Superstar was confirmed to be injured via Friday’s SmackDown, among other sources.
Per the reports, the Superstar suffered a torn ACL while training for her title shot at next Sunday’s Money In The Bank.
BREAKING NEWS: @itsBayleyWWE has suffered an injury while training and will be out approximately nine months.
A replacement for her match against @BiancaBelairWWE at #MITB will be announced tonight on #SmackDown.https://t.co/qLsf8KTHNp
— WWE (@WWE) July 9, 2021
It is an unfortunate development, considering how strong Bayley has been over the past year.
Bayley carried WWE last Summer.
Put respect on her name pic.twitter.com/UUbPC5ohl7
— Wrestle Critic (@WrestleCritic) July 9, 2021
Either way, Bayley is on the shelf. She is just the latest top female Superstar to be sidelined.
The upside (if there is one) to Bayley being on the shelf? WWE is anticipating the returns of Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks soon.
Social media response to the news had some trolls, but was mostly supportive, with some interesting suggestions.
WWE very much needs to introduce Bayley as Pat McAfee and MICHAEL COLE’s third.
I want Pat and Bayley trolling Cole for two hours
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) July 9, 2021
Guess I’m not watching WWE for approximately 9 month
— liz a bayley, logan paul, taylor and dana fan (@freedompimp2012) July 9, 2021
How WWE Replaces Her In Title Match
The big question following news of Bayley being out of Money In The Bank? How WWE replaces her in the title match.
Considering the Money In The Bank PPV is just barely a week away, WWE did not have a lot of time to work with.
As it turns out, they decided to not even wait until Money In The Bank.
Per Sonya Deville on Friday’s show, the SmackDown Women’s Championship match has been moved.
Instead of the Sunday PPV, the match is now a part of the return of live fans at SmackDown next Friday.
So, how did WWE replace Bayley?
source: custom, Carmella Twitter screenshot
By bumping Carmella from the Money In The Bank match, and inserting her as the number one contender instead.
Considering WWE has talents incoming, both returning from injury and graduating from NXT, the move was somewhat surprising.
For one thing, it presumably takes the SmackDown Women’s Championship out of play, at least during the MITB PPV. Not a huge deal, but still notable.
Looking at it another way, this is probably a safe play. WWE is likely saving their bigger moves for SummerSlam.
Honestly, it would not completely shock me to see a return on next week’s first fan-attended SmackDown since early 2020. After all, the end goal is to set up things for SummerSlam.
So, would it be that hard to imagine Sasha Banks showing up next week? Or, worst case, in the not too distant future?
Probably not.
For now, it will be Carmella taking on Bianca Belair next Friday. Carmella is now out of the ladder match, replaced with Liv Morgan.