The Real Reason WWE Cancelled This SummerSlam Match
Singles feud between major star, Hall-of-Famer was bumped without warning this week.
Getting bumped from one of the biggest premium live events of the year is obviously a huge gut shot, but sometimes finding out the reason why can be a bigger kick in the teeth.
The final chapter of Becky Lynch versus Trish Stratus was seemingly on-course for a WWE SummerSlam showdown when it was suddenly announced Monday night that the match between the Hall-of-Famer and one of the company's biggest stars had been punted to a random episode of Raw in two weeks' time.
Fightful Select has revealed the reason, and it's not something that's going to give anyone a warm, fuzzy feeling. The site previously had noted that WWE sources claimed there was a "good reason" the Stratus/Lynch match was delayed, but it's been determined that it was not physically related, as originally believed. In fact, both women were healthy and available for SummerSlam.
Instead, Fightful has learned that the reason the singles match got bumped was due to WWE being "adamant" about limiting the number of matches and runtime for their PLEs. That edict has led to some matches being built for SummerSlam to get moved. Sources told Fightful that had the Trish/Becky match moved forward for Saturday, it would have been "severely limited" by time.
Consideration was also given to moving the match to the next WWE PLE, Payback. Instead, the bout was announced on Monday as taking place on the 14 August Raw in Winnipeg. Fightful has been told that neither woman was happy with the change in plans, which is far from a surprise.
We've seen recently WWE restricting its PLEs, limiting or even nixing altogether kickoff show matches, when it was common to have at least one or even two or three, and keeping the shows from running over by an excessive amount. Still, that has to be small comfort for two major stars to see a program set in motion the week after WrestleMania 39 getting bumped for time considerations.