Becky Lynch and Bayley have been locked in a rivalry for a number of months, and things looked set to come to a head on January 23rd.
Ahead of the special 30th-anniversary edition of Monday Night Raw, it had been announced that Lynch and Bayley would do battle in a Steel Cage Match. The bout was advertised repeatedly across WWE television and was one of the more highly anticipated matches on the card. However, come the big night plans changed significantly.
Becky Lynch Vs. Bayley Didn’t Go As Planned
Bayley was first out and joined by IYO SKY and Dakota Kai as usual. As Lynch made her entrance she was attacked by the trio and dragged into the cage. Damage CTRL swiftly locked the door and continued the beatdown. The segment ended with Bayley standing tall, and Lynch flat out in the ring. More importantly for fans, the advertised match never happened.
It later came to light that the time for the match was cut significantly after the opening segment featuring the ‘Trial of Sami Zayn’ overran. This left Lynch and Bayley with a choice, they could either have a very short match or come up with an angle to fill their now very short time slot. In the end, the two women went with the latter.
It has now been reported by Mike Johnson of PWInsider that Lynch had been scheduled to win the original match. Once she scored the win, only then would she have been beaten down by Damage CTRL.
The decision to cut the match was criticised heavily online, while former WWE writer Vince Russo claimed that Lynch was “buried” by how the situation played out. Russo described the segment as a “swing and a miss.”