WWE fans were left disappointed after Tuesday night’s draft, mostly because former NXT Women’s Champion, and longtime crowd favorite Bayley wasn’t selected. However, there were several other NXT women – Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax, and Eva Marie – who were brought up to the main roster via the draft.
Every time one of the general managers teased that they were going to pick a woman from NXT, the live crowd began to buzz, because they thought that Bayley was going to be selected. At one point, WWE was planning on bringing Bayley up to the main roster during the draft show, but they ultimately changed their mind.
According to Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer , Bayley’s main roster call up is being held off until after next month’s SummerSlam , which means that her match with Asuka at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn will be her final match in NXT.
They’ll be on #Raw and #SmackdownLive now…
…but they’ll ALWAYS be @WWENXT . #WeAreNXT #NXTProud pic.twitter.com/fff4bPMNVM
— Triple H (@TripleH) July 20, 2016
“Since everybody is furious about Bayley, I can tell you that there were people in WWE [on Tuesday] who thought for sure she was being drafted, but she wasn’t. The word is that, it’s not like she’ll never be called up, it’s that she’ll most likely be called up after SummerSlam.”
There’s been a rumor going around that Bayley will end up being Sasha Banks ‘ mystery partner at this Sunday’s Battleground pay-per-view, and Alvarez said that could happen, but the more likely possibility is that she’ll debut after SummerSlam . Also, Sasha Banks’ mystery partner will likely end up being Nia Jax , who was drafted to Raw on Tuesday.
While Bayley wasn’t drafted on Tuesday night, Carmella, who is her best friend, was, and Bayley seemed thrilled that her friend was finally being called up to the main roster.
You win some, you lose some. I’m so proud of @CarmellaWWE . Love you sister. Now go moonwalk to #SmackdownLive ? pic.twitter.com/4mfPzySTwA
— Bayley (@itsBayleyWWE) July 20, 2016
As previously mentioned, Bayley is set to take on Asuka at next month’s NXT Takeover: Brooklyn show. The match will be one of the show’s main events, as the NXT Women’s Championship is on the line. Of course, Bayley won the NXT Women’s Championship at last year’s Brooklyn show in a fantastic match with Sasha Banks, and her match with Asuka is expected to be one of the highlights of the show.
It’s been reported that Asuka will turn heel during the Brooklyn show because WWE officials are expecting her to be booed during the match.
WWE didn’t draft anyone with a major ongoing storyline in NXT, which suggests that superstars like Shinsuke Nakamura, Samoa Joe, and Bayley will be brought up once their NXT feuds have concluded. Some are hoping for guys like Austin Aries and Bobby Roode to be brought up as well, but WWE wants to make sure they don’t completely raid NXT of all of its talent, so Roode and Aries will probably be down in NXT for quite a while.
It’s unclear where Bayley will end up when she’s brought up to the main roster, but if she debuts at Battleground as Sasha Banks’ mystery partner, then that clearly means that she’ll be on Raw . But, WWE already has two of the “Four Horsewomen” – Charlotte and Sasha Banks – while they only have one of them – Becky Lynch – on SmackDown . So, it would make more sense to have Bayley be a part of SmackDown .
It’s also unclear if WWE will create a second Women’s Championship for the SmackDown brand. It was reported earlier that WWE isn’t planning on creating a second World Championship for the men, which means that they may not create a second World Championship for the women. But, if they do, and if Bayley ends up on SmackDown , we could see a ton of Bayley vs. Becky Lynch matches throughout the next calendar year.
[Image via WWE ]