Sasha Banks blew the roof off a sold out Verizon Center in Washington D.C. tonight at WWE Battleground when she revealed NXT Superstar Bayley as her surprise partner to take on the team of WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte, and Dana Brooke.
In the video above, taken backstage just moments after their match, Bayley revealed that tonight’s appearance was “just a one time thing”, and that her main goal right now is staying focused on reclaiming the NXT Women’s title. While anything can and will happen in WWE, it would appear that the resident “Hugger” of NXT will be staying put in the hybrid developmental program for the time being.
This past Tuesday on the first edition of Smackdown Live, we saw the call-ups of Finn Balor, American Alpha, Mojo Rawley, Nia Jax, Alexa Bliss and Carmella, with several top stars including Bayley, Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode and Shinsuke Nakamura noticeably absent from the draft.
Right now it looks like the company wants to keep all their major stars in place for next month’s NXT Takeover: Back to Brooklyn special, where Bayley will face Asuke for the women’s title, and Joe will defend against Nakamura. The crew will also be doing a big southern tour kicking off this week, and traditionally when NXT leaves the Florida area it’s an “all hands on deck” situation as they need all their major stars to sell tickets, make the promotional rounds and drive merch sales. Several reports have indicated that WWE is looking to do another round of call-ups in September or October after their current schedule dies down.
