With a week’s worth of talk about how Sasha Banks interference on last Monday’s Raw “tainted” Bayley’s Women’s championship victory over Charlotte Flair, we all knew the issue would be addressed in Los Angeles tonight (Feb. 20).
Not many predicted it would take the form of Stephanie McMahon more or less trying to shame the Hugster into voluntarily relinquishing her title, because a Boss-assisted win wasn’t what she always dreamed about growing up.
Fortunately for Bayley and her fans, Sasha showed up to argue against handing over the belt to the commissioner, and after looking conflicted, the champ delivered a Stone Cold Steve Austin-worthy denial of McMahon.
.@MsCharlotteWWE and @StephMcMahon both requested that @ItsBayleyWWE relinquish the #RAW Women's Title. But would she? @SashaBanksWWE pic.twitter.com/W1efdwODN8
— WWE (@WWE) February 21, 2017
Which was set-up for the Queen of pay-per-view (PPV) to come out and do what many feared she would as soon as Bayley’s hand was raised last week... announce a rematch for Mar. 5’s Fastlane.
"At #WWEFastlane, the QUEEN of pay-per-view is invoking her rematch clause!" - @MsCharlotteWWE to @itsBayleyWWE #RAW pic.twitter.com/nuG6Pql5o5
— WWE (@WWE) February 21, 2017
So, after a week of wondering if they’d do something like strip Bayles of the belt to really turn her into a Daniel Bryan-esque underdog, we got... pretty much what we all knew was coming.
Will they flip the script at Fastlane?
Stay tuned, I guess.