Most viewers who watched Bayley’s countout victory over Nia Jax on the July 31 Raw wondered about the shoulder injury the Hugster sold throughout most of it. Our own Geno Mrosko wrote in his review, “Bayley did such a good sell job in this match, I was convinced she legitimately injured her shoulder.”
While it still might be a work, and will almost certainly be turned into part of an angle if it wasn’t designed that way from the outset, WWE is now reporting that the former NXT and Raw Women’s champion did injure her shoulder in Pittsburgh last night.
You can watch an emotional Bayley interviewed after a visit with the doctor in the above video. Here’s what WWE.com has to say about the situation:
The former Raw Women's Champion was evaluated by medical personnel, but the official diagnosis was inconclusive due to the amount of swelling involved. Bayley has been told to rest the shoulder until next week, at which point doctors are hopeful that the swelling will have sufficiently gone down so that she may be reevaluated and a firm verdict can be reached.
"Everything just tensed up around it,” Bayley told WWE.com shortly after her match on Monday night. “I've never had an injury like this before, so I can't really know what it is. I guess we're gonna see."
Dr. Chris Amann told WWE.com, “We’ve determined the injury is shoulder-related, and she will be going under further diagnostic testing later this week to determine the extent of the injury and also establish a timetable for recovery.”
In the video, Bayley mentions getting an x-ray “tomorrow morning”. Seeing as it was filmed last night, that was this morning, and the results are part of what was inconclusive due to swelling.
Or, that’s part of the storyline designed to create more tension between her and Sasha Banks, get The Boss into her spot on the SummerSlam card opposite Alexa Bliss, or both.
The 28 year old Superstar is clearly upset in the interview, but as someone who’s watched her entire WWE career, I can tell you while promos may not be her strong suit, she’s pretty great at displaying emotion and in-ring storytelling, two things she’d need to pull this off... if it is all a work.
For what it’s worth, Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer Radio (subscription required but recommended) was leaning toward it being real even before this report from WWE:
“Maybe Bayley is just like a tremendous worker and she does a great job selling, but I think she separated her shoulder in this match...Nia was just throwing her to the outside and Bayley landed right on her shoulder and went outside and started selling it, or was really hurt. And then later, Nia gets her up in a double chicken wing, and just drops her right on her shoulder, and at that point in a match that already had no heat, that already nobody cared about, Bayley rolled outside and just sat there for like 30, 45 seconds. And the referee's talking to her, he's fiddling with the gimmick on his belt where he sends word to the back...I mean maybe she's just really great and this is a storyline, but I've separated my shoulder by falling down and landing on the side of it in a match, and I bought this, I'll just say that. I don't know if that's what really happened, but I bought it.”
We’ll know more when WWE updates us in a week.
What do you think, Cagesiders?