Becky Lynch Beats Bianca Belair for Women's Title in WWE Return at SummerSlam

Becky Lynch returned to WWE programming in emphatic fashion Sunday at SummerSlam.

Carmella thought she would parachute into a SmackDown Women's Championship match against Bianca Belair in place of Sasha Banks, but Lynch had other plans.

The Man attacked Carmella and quickly challenged Belair. The champion accepted, and almost as soon as the bell rang, Lynch connected with the Manhandle Slam to wrest the title away.

Saturday was supposed to be the highly anticipated rematch between two of the best women's wrestlers in the world on the heels of their historic clash in the main event of Night 1 of WrestleMania 37 in April.

Banks entered that match as the SmackDown women's champion, but after getting whipped so hard on her side by Belair's braid that it left a mark, The Boss succumbed to the KOD and dropped the title to The EST of WWE.

The first match between Banks and Belair marked the first time two Black women had ever faced each other in a WrestleMania main event. It was also only the second women's match overall to headline The Show of Shows, joining Ronda Rousey vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair from WrestleMania 35.

Belair scored the biggest win of her career that night and won her first title of any kind in WWE, while Banks proceeded to take a few months off during the aftermath.

While The Boss was away, Belair defended the title on multiple occasions and defeated all comers, including Bayley and Carmella. While occupying the top spot, she became a marked woman on SmackDown and was in the crosshairs of several Superstars.

That was the case on July 30 when she was attacked by Carmella and Zelina Vega, leading to Banks making her return and saving the champion.

A tag team match pitting Belair and Banks against Carmella and Vega was booked for later that night. Banks and Belair won, but during the celebration, The Boss turned on her teammate by hitting her with a Backstabber and then putting her in the Bank Statement.

In subsequent weeks, Banks explained her actions by expressing her belief that Belair was ungrateful and should have thanked her for elevating her to the top of the women's division.

The Boss even went so far as to call herself The EST of WWE, and it wasn't long before Belair accepted Banks' challenge for a SmackDown Women's Championship rematch at SummerSlam.

Unfortunately for Banks and Belair, fate intervened, and the spotlight instead belonged to Lynch. It wasn't an outcome anybody predicted.

Now, The Man reigns supreme over the SmackDown women's division. She'll likely have to deal with an enraged former champion, while Banks can justifiably argue she didn't get the title shot she earned and should thus have a crack at Lynch, too.

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