Nikki Cross has the odds stacked against her

And Bayley wept, for there were no challengers left to conquer.

Or so it seemed, before Nikki Cross won a fatal four-way.

A lack of focus

Granted, Bayley and best friend Sasha Banks have largely been preoccupied with the Women’s Tag Team Championship since winning those titles for the second time back in May, cementing their status as self-proclaimed role models to the WWE Universe.

To win those tag titles, the Boss and Hug Connection had to overwhelm Nikki and her partner Alexa Bliss, so it’s fitting that Cross was the one to beat the pack and earn this title shot last month. A chance for the White Chocolate Cheesecake of Sports Entertainment to not only really establish herself with her first singles gold in WWE, but to hurt Bayley even more than she would by retaking the tag titles.

The record shows

So, we don’t have a story with a lot of twists and turns here. It’s pure simple challenger-and-champion pro wrestling with a little bit of revenge built into the subtext, and that means we keep things simple and we look at the numbers. What do we have when we look at the record?

Bayley and Nikki Cross have met in televised singles action six times, with Bayley having a decisive edge, four wins to Nikki’s one, and one no contest. That’s an 83.3% chance of the champ walking out with the title still around her waist, and as a man from a highly educated university once said, the numbers don’t lie.

And it makes sense! Bayley’s current reign as SmackDown Women’s Champion is over a hundred days longer than any other reign with that title to date. She is every bit the dominant champion she portrays herself as, and Nikki will have to dig deep and find every last ounce of scrap and determination she has if she wants to have a hope in hell of claiming the blue-and-white strap.

Will Bayley continue to Dos Straps or shall Nikki Cross claim the gold?