7 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (Oct 10)

5. Bayley Left Reeling

When Bianca Belair defeated Bayley in their ladder match to retain her Raw Women’s Championship at Extreme Rules, you had to wonder how Bayley would recover from this loss, because the title win was probably baked in for Damage CTRL, but in the storyline and in reality.

Instead, the group leader was forced to regroup after her loss Saturday. On Monday, she sat stone-faced during a backstage interview before he match against Candice Le Rae. Despite injuring LeRae and keeping after the knee injury, Bayley faltered, with Candice countering a Rose Plant with a cradle for the shock win.

Damage CTRL would rush the ring and lay out LeRae and Belair, who tried to save Candice. The result is that Bayley is still lacking confidence after losing two straight matches and being on the defensive, but her group is bailing her out and keeping challengers at bay. It’s not the strongest story, but having Bayley question herself is fine for a plot point, especially before we get to November and WarGames.

In the past, Bayley losing two straight like these would be a huge negative and red flag, but we’re going to exhibit some faith in WWE for a bit to see what comes next.