10 WWE Storylines That Were Only Good For One Moment
4. Bianca Belair Vs Bayley
An interminable 2021 post-WrestleMania series between Bianca Belair and Bayley over 'The EST's newly-won SmackDown Women's Title was only saved by one thing, and it shouldn't really come as a surprise what that was.
Modern day WWE doesn't deserve its best workers, but that's what 'The Role Model' is, and Belair's not that far behind. The two were given approximately 48 hours notice that their Hell In A Cell pay-per-view match was going to take place in the titular structure after the company spaffed out the original main event between Roman Reigns and Rey Mysterio on the go-home SmackDown. This was less than ideal considering the state of the story.
For weeks that felt like months, Bayley had laughed at Belair. That was it. A couple of nightmarish uses of the ThunderDome aside, there hadn't been any attempt to elevate the bad material beyond the bad dialogue, and a match between the two at WrestleMania Backlash had already extinguished most of the heat.
Remarkably, the Cell clash ruled. The Challenger artfully revealed her own weaknesses just so the Champion could directly contrast them with strengths, including-but-not-limited-to all the spots with Bianca's hair and a wicked spot in which Belair launched the ring steps all the way across and out of the ring. Her victory subsequently felt conclusive too.
They were back to the laughing sh*t on the very next SmackDown. The match had been an oasis.