Sasha Banks

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

John Cena Heading Back to Hollywood

Cena's quest to win a 17th world championship, which would break a tie with Ric Flair for the most in WWE history, will have to wait.

After his loss to Roman Reigns in the main event of SummerSlam on Saturday night, Cena will return to his acting commitments in Hollywood. WWE officials are under the impression he "will not be available for them for the foreseeable future," according to PWInsider (via Marc Middleton of Wrestling Inc.).

The report noted Cena is still expected to work the Sept. 10 SmackDown event at Madison Square Garden, but that'll be a one-off appearance, potentially in a dark match, and not part of an active storyline.

He later confirmed his departure, but hinted toward another return in the future:

Cena made a surprise comeback to the company at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view in July to set the stage for his SummerSlam feud with Reigns. He provided a significant short-term boost by appearing on Raw, SmackDown and at live events.

While the 44-year-old Massachusetts native once used The Rock's departure for Hollywood as ammo for promos throughout their long-standing feud that covered WrestleManias 28 and 29, he's now mastered the art himself of having a career outside WWE but still coming back to the squared circle on occasion.

Cena forced Reigns to elevate his performances over the past five weeks, especially during their verbal exchanges, and The Head of the Table should benefit from that as his championship run rolls on. Brock Lesnar returned in the final moments of SummerSlam to set the stage for his next marquee feud.

Becky Lynch Will Be Pushed As SmackDown's No. 1 Heel

Lynch made her long-awaited return at SummerSlam by replacing Sasha Banks in a SmackDown Women's Championship match against Bianca Belair, which she won in under a minute.

The squash nature of the match caught a lot of people off guard because Belair had firmly established herself as one of WWE's top talents since her WrestleMania triumph, but now the reason for the quick match may be coming into focus.

PWInsider reported (via Sai Mohan of Wrestling Inc.) Lynch will operate as the "top heel" on SmackDown following her return.

So, while her comeback was always going to generate a positive reaction from the fans, taking care of Belair in the blink of an eye will provide the foundation for a quick heel turn as she makes her return to weekly television. She's done a terrific job in heel roles in the past, so it's a smart creative move.

The feud between Lynch and Belair should be one of WWE's top attractions in the months ahead, and the women's division as a whole has incredible depth, which creates no shortage of storyline options heading toward the end of the year and into next year's key Royal Rumble and WrestleMania events.

Lynch was away from the company after giving birth to her daughter, Roux, in December with husband and fellow WWE Superstar Seth Rollins.

Sasha Banks' Availability Remains Uncertain

Lynch's addition to the SummerSlam card came at the expense of Banks, who's been absent from WWE's travel party since the weekend of Aug. 14 for reasons that have not been made public.

Banks was tentatively scheduled to return for Friday's go-home episode of SmackDown but wasn't available, which forced the creative team to rewrite portions of the show, per PWInsider (via Middleton).

Although the reason for her continued absence is unknown, it's "not an injury issue," according to the PWInsider report.

WWE officials are "hopeful that Banks will be back soon," but so far there's been no confirmed date for her next appearance after being removed from the SummerSlam title match with Belair.

In early 2019, Banks took four months off following WrestleMania to focus on her mental health.

"I've been doing this for seven years straight—no breaks," she said upon her return in September 2019. "So you know, people need to step back and re-evaluate their lives, take care of their souls and their minds."

Banks is one of WWE's most well-rounded performers, so her absence is definitely a hit to the SmackDown roster despite the division's aforementioned depth. She should swiftly return to the main event picture once back in action.

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The Man came back around at SummerSlam—and reclaimed her title.

Becky Lynch returning, let alone winning a title, wasn't something anybody saw coming as WWE entered its second-biggest event of the year, especially for what felt like a throwaway match between Carmella and Bianca Belair for the SmackDown women's title.

But that's exactly what happened Saturday night.

After an odd build for a title match between Belair and Sasha Banks that looked like it was going to be outright canceled because of reasons WWE wasn't being forthright about, it looked like Carmella would serve as the spot-duty challenger.

Until Lynch showed up.

And as fun as it was, the execution was not so great.

Let's recap, because it can be done in a single sentence: Lynch came out, Belair accepted her challenge and Becky decked the champion during a handshake, hit a single move on her and got the pin to win the belt.

Call it shades of Brock Lesnar straight up doing Kofi Kingston dirty when SmackDown debuted on Fox in October 2019. It was clear Kingston's run was up and that it was squash time. Kingston never so much as made a comment about it again, and the big boys got to play in the main event scene again.

That sounds dramatic, but Belair didn't deserve to lose like that. And that should go without saying. Meanwhile, fans can't complain about WWE's inability to build up the next wave of Superstars and then cheer on a 26-second squash when a bigger name comes back.

There is an important silver lining, though: Belair and Lynch can make this work.

If Belair gets the Kingston treatment from here, then there's a big problem. He was blatantly told he wasn't allowed to even mention the fact that he got squashed and couldn't challenge Lesnar again despite everything we know about his character suggesting he would gun for him.

If WWE is smart, Lynch is the borderline heel in this feud. Live crowds adore her and will probably derail it, so maybe a tweener role is better. Either way, as long as Belair is allowed to air her grievances about how this went down and they make a fun feud of it, the execution of Saturday night's title change for cheap shock value will be forgiven.

Granted, if WWE hadn't done Kingston so dirty in the first place, we wouldn't even need to have this conversation. This is just a good embodiment of arguably the company's biggest problem: valuing a single moment over the long term. Lynch's return was cool and shocking, but it dashes all of the hard work put in by Belair and around Belair for the future of the women's division.

Better yet, it's not exactly fair to Lynch, either. WWE has tried to make her a heel in the past to miserable results. An extended match would have received a much better reaction. And if she wasn't 100 percent ready to have a longer match, why put a belt on her?

It raises the question why the title even needed to change hands or why they even needed to have a match. WWE adores ratings, so why not have Lynch just come out and challenge her on the next SmackDown episode—unless the plan is a long-term feud.

One could argue WWE was in a no-win position too. Hurt Belair's momentum by passing the title to Lynch or have Lynch look like a chump and lose? But this is the company that also loves disqualification non-finishes, so an angry Carmella or someone else could have helped the issue rather than derailing Belair.

It doesn't help that this mystery surrounding Banks hung over the event for the week leading up to it. Maybe Banks was going to win anyway or Belair needs some time off, but that's speculation and trying to rationalize a fun moment that suddenly turned awkward and sad. A potential future face of the company shouldn't be losing in 26 seconds to anybody.

As we get further from this weird sequence of events, it might go down as one of the strangest moments in WWE history. It goes from a near-historic pop for a beloved Superstar to an oh no rapidly, and the longer one thinks on it, the cheaper it feels. Why the company seemingly booked one of the most over Superstars of all time as a villain on the night of her big return is strange and will almost certainly backfire.

Not to dive too much into competitor comparisons, but roughly 24 hours prior to this oddity, CM Punk debuted with All Elite Wrestling, put over Britt Baker in his first wrestling sentence in seven years, talked up the locker room, challenged an up-and-coming star and left.

One would almost suggest this Lynch surprise is a reaction to that. And even if it's not, the contrast is striking.

Again, if there's a saving grace to it all, it's that Belair and Lynch are talented enough to dig out of this hole and make something special of it—if they are permitted to do so.

So while WWE fans should have left SummerSlam having delivered one of the biggest pops in recent memory and being ecstatic that Lynch is back, there's an uneasy feeling that somebody else was done dirty in the process, and we have seen this story before.

It's salvageable, and it's just plain nice to have Lynch back, but any time somebody watches the epic return replay, they might end up shuddering at what they know comes next. And that's not how anybody envisioned Lynch's big return or Belair's journey developing.

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from WWE and All Elite Wrestling.

Sasha, Bianca Could Be Out of SummerSlam 

Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair were unexpectedly pulled from WWE live shows over the weekend after appearing on Friday's SmackDown.

While no information has been given on why they were pulled from events, apparently the situation is serious enough to put their SummerSlam match in jeopardy.

Mike Johnson of PW Insider reported there is "concern" within WWE that the match could be taken off the card Saturday.

Obviously, the main concern here is that Banks and/or Belair is healthy; they can continue the feud whenever they are cleared for return. That said, it would be a major blow to the stacked SummerSlam card. Their WrestleMania match was a show-stopping banger, and this rematch had all the makings of a repeat performance.

Fingers crossed everything is resolved in time for Saturday.

Lashley Wants Brock Lesnar Match

Brock Lesnar hasn't been on WWE programming in well over a year, and it doesn't appear he's coming back anytime soon. When he does, Bobby Lashley wants him one-on-one.

“Everybody talks about the Brock match from the day that I came in. I don’t know if Brock’s gonna come back, but based on some of the things that I’m doing right now, it would be a good opportunity for him to come back and have that big match," Lashley said on the Broken Skull Sessions.

Lashley made his initial debut in WWE in 2005, around a year after Lesnar's initial departure. The similarities between the two were impossible to ignore; Lashley, to many, was seen as a direct replacement for Lesnar.

Both men took circuitous routes to their returns to WWE, with Lesnar going from the NFL to Japan to UFC before returning while Lashley tried his own hand at MMA and wrestled with Impact and other independent promotions. 

The two have never gone head-to-head since Lashley's return in 2018. That said, with the leader of The Hurt Business now at the top of the Raw card, this could be a great time for an old-fashioned hoss fight.

News on Ric Flair's Noncompete

Ric Flair could be coming to AEW sooner than anyone expected.

Raj Giri of Wrestling Inc reported Flair's contract with WWE did not feature a noncompete clause, meaning he's free to make appearances whenever he wants. He made his first major wrestling appearance at AAA TripleMania XXIX on Friday, accompanying Andrade El Idolo to the ring for his match against Kenny Omega.

It's likely Flair will eventually make his way to AEW television at some point, but odds are the company wants to focus on another big debut that's reportedly set to take place this Friday.

AEW has done an excellent job of using its legends, so it'll be fun to see Flair in a more active role than he's had in recent years with WWE. 

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