Bayley bails and Carmella steps up

October 7th, 2019 - Bakersfield California - Monday Night Raw

Raw comes back from the commercial break and the match is already underway. Becky Lynch and Nikki Cross are going at it in the ring. The black carpet from Miz TV has been removed and the ring is back to its traditional white mat. Lynch has Cross back in the corner and hoists herself up onto the middle rope then jumps off and hits Nikki with her signature springboard side kick. Nikki drops down in the corner and Becky backs away and plays up to the fans now that she’s seemingly aware that the show is back from commercial break.

Cross uses the pause in Lynch’s attack to slip out of the ring. Becky turns and sees Nikki making a break for it. She sprints to the ropes and drops down under the bottom one for a baseball slide - looking to go feet-first into Cross. But Nikki sees the attack coming and side steps it then pulls a Fit Finlay move and pulls out the ring skirt. Becky slides out of the ring and finds herself trapped in the skirt. Cross takes advantage of her trapped opponent and lays into her with a series of European-style strikes. Becky, to her credit, valiantly tries to fight her off and even gets in a couple licks of her own but there’s only so much she can do when she can’t move. Cross eventually catches Becky’s wrist, pulls her forward and clubs her hard on the back.

The referee comes over and admonishes Cross for her questionable usage of the ring skirt. Nikki raises her arms and steps back from Becky then goes around her and climbs up onto the ring apron and gets back in the ring under the watchful eye of the official. But while the referee is focused on Cross, Bliss runs along the ring apron and delivers a running dropkick right to the trapped Lynch’s face which is enough to rock the Raw Women’s Champion and leave her slumped against the ring ropes. Alexa drops down into a crouch on the floor so the referee doesn’t see her when he turns around. Cross comes over and ‘helps’ Becky out of the ring skirt and pulls her up onto the ring apron and through the ropes. Nikki leaves Lynch hanging there in the ropes as she runs to the corner where Bliss has popped back up, bounces off the ropes, and then delivers a big running knee to Becky’s face. Lynch does limp in the ropes and Cross drags her out of them and onto the mat then covers her for a pin.

“ONE!”

“TW--” Becky kicks out!

Bliss and Cross have each landed some hard hits but it takes a whole hell of a lot more than that to put the Man away. Cross goes to the corner and tags in her partner. Bliss comes into the ring and together the Women’s Tag Team Champions double team the Raw Women’s Champion nail her with a double suplex. Nikki leaves the ring while Alexa steps back and then follows up with her signature jumping double knee drop then springs back up and executes standing knee drop moonsault for the second part of her Insult to Injury combo. Bliss rolls off of Lynch and reaches out to try and pin her but the Man realizes that she’s in a bad spot and is already rolling away so Alexa can’t capitalize on the damage she just inflicted. Alexa gets up and jumps off the mat and hits a basement dropkick which sends Becky rolling over to the ropes. Bliss goes after her and plants her foot on Becky’s back then grabs the top rope and climbs fully onto Becky’s back and begins to stomp on the back of her head and repeatedly drives Lynch’s face into the mat. The referee admonishes Bliss for her illegal use of the ropes and Alexa eventually steps off of Becky’s back and tags in Nikki.

Cross doesn’t actually get in the ring and instead climbs down onto the floor. She grabs Becky and pulls her out under the bottom rope but leaves her hanging with her feet on the ring apron while holding her in a side headlock. Naughty Nikki twists to the side and slams Lynch down to the floor with her signature hanging whiplash neckbreaker. The referee comes over to the ropes and looks down at Becky with clear concern. Cross saves him the trouble of getting out of the ring to check on the Raw Women’s Champion and drags a mostly limp Lynch up off of the floor and rolls her back into the ring. The referee shakes Becky’s shoulder but gets no response before Nikki slides into the ring and rolls Lynch away from the ropes and onto her back so she can cover her for a pin.

“ONE!”

“TWO!”

“THR--” THE MAN MANAGES TO KICK OUT!

Becky stares up at the rafters after exerting a ton of energy to kick out of Cross’s pin attempt. She doesn’t like to make excuses, but she fully admitted on Miz TV that she was more banged up than she’s ever been following her Hell in a Cell Match with Sasha Banks. She wasn’t one hundred percent going into this match and even though it hasn’t been going on for very long Bliss and Cross have already hit her with a number of devastating and painful maneuvers. While Becky’s **** to trust Bayley, especially after their last tag team match against Alexa and Nikki, she knows that continuing to be double teamed by the Women’s Tag Team Champions isn’t going to be doing her any favors. She needs to tag out of the match if she wants to have any hope of recovering.

Cross doesn’t waste much time and pulls Becky off the mat and whips her across the ring into the ropes. Lynch comes off the ropes and Nikki runs at her and jumps up into the air looking for a running crossbody BUT BECKY DROPS UNDER HER! Cross crashes down to the mat while Becky rolls away and is left unscathed by the attempted attack. Lynch crawls for her corner where Bayley is waiting with her hand outstretched. But just as she’s within arm’s reach, Cross recovers and grabs Becky by the ankle and drags her away from her partner and back into the middle of the ring. Lynch pushes up off of the mat and manages to stand up on one leg while Cross is left holding her other one. In a **** maneuver, Becky jumps and swings her leg around AND CONNECTS WITH AN ENZUIGIRI! Nikki is knocked even loopier as she falls back on her ass. Lynch scrambles for her corner and reaches out to finally tag Bayley… BUT BAYLEY PULLS HER ARM BACK!

“BOOOOOOOOO!” The fans let the Smackdown Women’s Champion hear their displeasure as she climbs down off the apron and leaves her tag team partner high and dry.

Lynch grabs the ropes and uses them to pull herself up to her feet. She glares at Bayley as she backs away toward the entrance ramp. “Where the hell are you goin’? Get back here and fight!”

“I don’t have anything to prove to you,” Bayley responds, “I’ve already beaten those two in a handicap match. If you’re really ‘the Man’ then let’s see you do the same.” She turns and calls out to a black clad crew member who is trying desperately to stay out of the shot. “You! Go get my title. I’m out of here.”

Honestly, Becky isn’t completely surprised at Bayley bailing on her. She’s already betrayed her before but that doesn’t make Bayley’s timing any less devastating.

Alexa comes running in off a tag from Nikki and hits Lynch from behind. Becky now knows that she’s in a full on handicap match against the Women’s Tag Team Champions and rallies to try and fight them off before she’s completely overwhelmed. Becky hits Alexa with a European uppercut then follows up with her signature back thrust kick and while that leaves Bliss reeling the Goddess comes back and nails the Man with a hard elbow smash to cut off her momentum. Alexa grabs Becky and sweeps her leg and slams her down to the mat for a big Bliss-TO. Alexa quickly hooks Lynch’s legs and goes for a pin.

“ONE!”

“TWO!”

“TH--” Becky manages to get her shoulder up!

Up on the ramp, Bayley is handed her Smackdown Women’s Championship. “GOOD LUCK, BECKY!” she shouts tauntingly to the tag team partner she’s abandoned before she walks up the ramp and heads to the back.

But in an interesting change of pace for the fans watching at home, the screen is split in half like it’s gone to a mid-match commercial break. The shot of Alexa Bliss stomping on Becky Lynch in the ring shrinks down on one side of the screen while the other half follows Bayley backstage into ‘gorilla position’. For the fans in the arena, the feed of Bayley backstage is shown on the Tron.

The fourth wall cracks a bit as Vince McMahon is shown wearing a headset and sitting at a desk where he is likely feeding lines to the Joseph, Maddin, and Lawler on commentary. Various agents and producers and other behind-the-scenes members of the Raw production crew are sitting nearby as well. Paul Heyman is there too. The fans in the know recognize that he’s not there as Brock Lesnar’s advocate but instead in his backstage roll as the Executive Director of Monday Night Raw.

McMahon pulls off his headset and stands up to intercept Bayley. “Where do you think you’re going? This is an important Women’s Champions Showcase Match. It’s likely your last chance to impress the network executives going into the draft.”

Bayley shakes her head, “You know what? I’m done with all that. I am so tired of playing the good girl and jumping through hoops and trying to impress people. It hasn’t gotten me anywhere.” Bayley looks over at Paul Heyman. “I think I’ll take a page out of Brock Lesnar’s book and only show up when I feel like it. Maybe if you don’t have good old Bayley there to dump on all the time you’ll finally realize what a valuable asset I am. And as for the draft? I don't need to worry about that. I’m the Smackdown Women’s Champion. If those network executives at FOX have half a brain in their skull… they’ll draft me. Otherwise, they won’t have a Women’s Champion on their show. Simple as that.”

“But there’s always a chance that you won’t be the Smackdown Women’s Champion by the time the WWE Draft is over,” Vince counters. “If you walk out on this match then you’re going to find yourself defending your Women’s Championship on Friday’s Smackdown… against Charlotte Flair.”

Bayley rolls her eyes, “Oh, wow, Charlotte getting another title match. There’s a surprise. What’s that? Her third one this week? You sure you don’t want to send your favorite to NXT and give her a shot at Baszler’s title too? That’d make it a nice even four.” Bayley raises her hand and does a mocking Four Horsewoman gesture but then lowers three of her fingers to give an even more insulting gesture that Stone Cold Steven Austin made famous in the WWE.

“Charlotte Flair is given these opportunities because she has proven to be a reliable worker,” McMahon replies as he glares at Bayley, “Charlotte would never walk out on an important match like you’re doing.”

“Fine, I’ll fight your favorite Flair on Friday,” Bayley agrees with a dangerous smirk that never would’ve appeared on the old Bayley’s face. “But just remember… what happens to Charlotte on Smackdown will be on your hands. We'll see how reliable the Queen is when I'm done with her.”

“Then in that case… it sounds like you need another champion to step up… tonight.”

Everyone turns to see a woman with frizzy brown hair with a fringe covering her eye in a trenchcoat standing behind Bayley. She pulls off the frizzy brown wig to reveal blonde hair and black eye. It’s Carmella.

“Really?” Bayley scoffs. “A bad wig and a trenchcoat? Do you actually expect that to fool anyone? If anything, you look more suspicious.”

Carmella ignores Bayley's comment about the hasty disguise she picked up in the wardrobe department as she pulls open her trenchcoat to reveal that she’s still wearing her money print singlet and sweatpants from her encounter with Stephanie. The 24/7 Championship is hanging out of the neck of her singlet. The fans know from earlier that Carmella is not wearing a bra under her gear so that means the green strap of the title belt that’s tucked into the top of Carmella’s singlet is in direct contact with her boobs.

“Someone here called my baby a joke,” Carmella says as she fondly strokes her 24/7 Championship. “I thought I proved when I beat Charlotte earlier tonight that I’m not afraid to step up to a challenge. But I’m willing to give everyone a refresher if necessary. Since Bayley’s gonna bail… then I’m more than willing to step up. Drop the 24/7 Rule for the match and I’ll run down there right now and take BAIL-ley’s place. I’m sure Bliss and Cross won’t mind. They seemed really eager to get their hands on me when they were chasing me around earlier." Carmella fully removes her trenchcoat and tosses it aside then pulls her title out of her ring gear to show that she’s ready to go.

“Are you actually going to trust her?” Bayley asks annoyed that her plan to hang Becky Lynch out to dry is falling apart. “That embarrassment is literally wearing your daughter’s panties around her wrist. You let her go out there and your precious Women’s Champions Showcase match will turn into another perverted sideshow.”

Bayley’s comment draws everyone’s attention to the band of black satin fabric wrapped around the wrist of the hand Carmella’s holding her title with.

Carmella shrugs shamelessly, “Stephanie’s a big girl. She can handle herself. She messed with me and I messed back. But the point remains… your so-called ‘respectable’ Smackdown Women’s Champion is running out on you… but I’m right here willing to step up.” Carmella points behind Vince at the monitor that’s showing the match still going on in the ring.

Alexa goes to the corner and tags in Nikki. Cross and Bliss drag Becky back up so they’re both holding her in a side headlock and then they fall back in perfect sync to plant her in the middle of the ring with a big double DDT. Bliss exits the ring while Cross rolls Becky over and pins her.

“ONE!”

“TWO!”

“THRE--” Becky barely manages to kick out of the double team move.

“Better decide fast,” Carmella prods the WWE Chairman. “I was at ringside watching the Hell in a Cell Match last night so I know Becky’s tough as nails. But even she can’t keep that up for long.”

The screen cuts back out to the ring. Cross has Lynch back up and rams her into the corner where Bliss is standing. But suddenly everyone’s attention is drawn to ring announcer Mike Rome as he stands up in the time keeper’s area. He's holding a hand over his ear like he's just received some instructions from someone important backstage.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the following Women’s Champions Showcase Match already in progress has been altered! And the 24/7 Rule has been suspended for the duration.” Bliss and Cross look over at the ring announcer in surprise. They hadn’t been paying attention to what was playing on the Tron and were focused on beating up Becky. It wasn’t their fault that Bayley walked out on her partner but since this showcase match was a chance to impress the network executives they were going to capitalize on the turn of events and use it as an opportunity to get a win over the Raw Women’s Champion. “Smackdown Women’s Champion Bayley has been removed from the match. It will now be the Women’s Tag Team Champions Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross competing against the team of Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch… AND the 24/7 Champion... CAARRMELLLAA!”

“F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S.” Carmella’s music sounds through the arena for the third time that night and the 24/7 Champion comes running out from the back. She’s removed her sweatpants backstage and is now down to her money print singlet. The fans who get a look at her from behind as she runs down the ramp note that she pulled her wedgied singlet out from her ass at some point over the course of the show.

Carmella sets her 24/7 Championship down on the ring steps and gets up on the ring apron. Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss both glare daggers at the newcomer.

“You came to play with Nikki!” Cross exclaims as she turns away from Becky and starts toward Carmella.

“No!” Bliss calls out as she reaches into to the ring and slaps Nikki’s shoulder to tag herself in. Alexa gets in the ring and holds her partner back. “I don’t want all the work we’ve put into beating up Becky to be a waste. She’s part of the match now so she’s not going anywhere. We can beat her down later after we win.”

Meanwhile, there’s a glimmer of relief in Becky’s eyes from where she’s still pinned against the turnbuckles in Bliss and Cross’s corner. She was only partially listening when Mike Rome started speaking and was half expecting the announcement to be that the tag team match had officially become a handicap match. But much to her relief she has a partner again. Yes, it’s Carmella. But beggars can’t be choosers.