Details Of WWE's Changes To Payback's Women's Title Match
Was Alexa Bliss originally the intended victor?
Although the two titles have only existed for a grand total of just over eight months, Alexa Bliss 'made history' this past weekend by becoming the first women to have snagged both the Raw and SmackDown women's championships. Perhaps the alacrity with which she bagged both belts is why it's so impressive - you couldn't even bake a baby in that time (figuratively speaking).
But as with so many noteworthy WWE happenings, its occurrence had less to do with carefully mapped long-term planning than a booking team wildly vacillating like a child trying to choose which flavour doughnut to eat.
Word according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is that the finish to Bliss's match opposite Bayley changed no fewer than four times in the day leading up to the show. Original, sensible plans were for the champ to retain in her hometown of San Jose, but officials flip-flopped on this idea three times over the course of Sunday afternoon until they eventually landed on the least logical option.
There's as yet no word on why it was ultimately decided for Bayley to lose the match, other than an unshakable, nasty habit of having wrestlers defeated in their hometown to 'draw heat'. That, and to spite my predictions which suggested they surely wouldn't pull such a trick again. Swines.