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Bayley Out of WWE Money in the Bank Match vs. Bianca Blair After Suffering Injury
July 9, 2021
Bayley has suffered an undisclosed injury and will miss approximately nine months, WWE announced Friday.
She was scheduled to challenge Bianca Belair in an I Quit match for the SmackDown Women's Championship at Money in the Bank on July 18. A new opponent will be revealed during Friday's edition of SmackDown.
Bayley attempted to wrest the title away from Belair at WrestleMania Backlash in May but was unsuccessful. She met the same fate at Hell in a Cell in June.
The 32-year-old has consistently been one of the best parts of SmackDown after making her heel turn in the fall of 2019.
She was the SmackDown women's champion for 379 days from October 2019 to the following year, and she remained engaging after losing the belt to Sasha Banks at Hell in a Cell last fall.
Few WWE stars will be more synonymous with the ThunderDome era for the promotion than Bayley.
A nine-month layoff is especially troublesome because it could rule Bayley out for the 2022 Royal Rumble in January and WrestleMania 38 next April. If she recovers a little earlier than expected, perhaps her comeback could coincide with the Showcase of the Immortals.
Becky Lynch's return feels inevitable after she went on hiatus after giving birth in December. She worked out at WWE's Performance Center in June.
While she's officially a member of the Raw roster, moving Lynch to SmackDown could make up for the loss of Bayley as WWE builds to SummerSlam and beyond.