Sasha Banks

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

WWE Considering Unique Locations for SummerSlam

With WWE no longer able to hold next month's SummerSlam pay-per-view in Boston as originally planned, the company is reportedly thinking outside the box.

According to PWInsider (h/t WrestlingInc.com's Marc Middleton), WWE is planning to potentially hold one of SummerSlam's top matches or perhaps even the entire event at an outdoor location.

Among the options that are reportedly being considered are a beach or a boat.

Per Wrestling Observer Live (h/t Middleton), WWE Chairman Vince McMahon wants to do something "wacky" for the August 23 card and doesn't want it to feel like "just another event" inside the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

Every WWE event since March has been held at the Performance Center with no fans in attendance because of the coronavirus pandemic, although WWE has gotten creative in certain situations.

The Boneyard Match at WrestleMania 36, the men's and women's Money in the Bank ladder matches, the Wyatt Swamp Fight at Extreme Rules and the Bar Fight between Sheamus and Jeff Hardy on last week's SmackDown were all held at locations outside the Performance Center.

Although the current situation isn't ideal, WWE has made the most of it at times and viewed it as an opportunity to do things it otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to explore.

WCW used to hold its Bash at the Beach pay-per-views on beaches, and earlier this year, All Elite Wrestling aired an episode of Dynamite from Chris Jericho's cruise ship.

On-location events have proved to work in certain situations, and if WWE is ever going to give it a try, now is undoubtedly the time.

Reason for Change to McIntyre vs. Ziggler Match

WWE's desire to begin the build for the WWE Championship match between Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton at SummerSlam reportedly contributed to a big change on Monday's Raw.

According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t WrestlingInc.com's Joshua Gagnon), WWE changed Monday's match between McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler from a championship match to a non-title bout so it could start the rivalry between Orton and McIntyre.

Orton cut a promo to open the show and challenged McIntyre to a title match at SummerSlam. McIntyre accepted the challenge later in the episode before his Extreme Rules match against Ziggler.

After McIntyre won the match by virtue of hitting Ziggler with a Claymore through a table, Orton hit McIntyre with an RKO out of nowhere and stood tall to close Raw.

The Viper has been on a roll recently with a win over Edge in the Greatest Wrestling Match Ever at Backlash that was followed by unsanctioned match wins over Christian and Big Show.

Orton was clearly the most viable option to face McIntyre at SummerSlam, and now that the match is official, the anticipation is building for their eventual clash.

McIntyre hasn't been in imminent danger since beating Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania, but given how good Orton has been lately, there is reason to believe he could knock off the Scottish Superstar.

When WWE Decided to Put Raw Women's Title on Banks

WWE reportedly decided last week that it would have Sasha Banks beat Asuka for the Raw Women's Championship.

According to Meltzer (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News), the decision was made either last Sunday night after Extreme Rules or prior to the Raw and SmackDown tapings the following day.

The match between Asuka and Banks ended in controversy at Extreme Rules, as Asuka accidentally misted the referee and Bayley then counted the pin in favor of Sasha. Banks left with the Raw Women's Championship in tow, but WWE didn't recognize the win.

Stephanie McMahon announced that Asuka and Banks would face each other on Raw and that the title could be won by pinfall, submission, disqualification or count-out, which Sasha and Bayley used to their advantage.

When Asuka saw Bayley brutally attacking her best friend, Kairi Sane, backstage, she ran to Kairi's aid. That led to Asuka getting counted out and Sasha winning the title.

Now, Sasha and Bayley hold all the gold, as they are the Raw and SmackDown women's champions, respectively, and co-holders of the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.

Given the way things went down Monday, it seems likely that Sasha and Asuka will have a rematch soon, perhaps at SummerSlam.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).

Sasha Banks beat Asuka by count-out on Monday night's episode of Raw to win the Raw Women's Championship in a rematch of their bout at Extreme Rules.

Asuka had Banks in position for the Asuka Lock but was suddenly faced with a dilemma. She watched on the video screen as Bayley attacked Kairi Sane backstage, so she could either save her friend or save her title.

Asuka chose the latter as she ran up the entrance ramp and tended to Sane.

The referee counted to 10, which meant Banks was not only the victor but also the new champion.

The Extreme Rules match between Asuka and Banks ended in controversy, as Asuka accidentally misted the referee, which resulted in Bayley stealing the referee's shirt, counting the pin in Banks' favor and allowing her to leave with the Raw women's title in her possession.

On Raw the following night, Stephanie McMahon announced that Banks' win was not official, and in an effort to determine once and for all who the real Raw women's champion is, The Boss and Asuka would have another match on the show's next episode.

McMahon also announced that if either Superstar were to get disqualified or counted out, the other combatant would be crowned Raw women's champion.

That stipulation was clearly meant as a deterrent to SmackDown women's champion Bayley, who has been heavily involved in Banks' matches and essentially helped her steal the championship at Extreme Rules.

Aside from the convoluted finish to the match at Extreme Rules, Asuka and Sasha put on an excellent bout that arguably stole the show. For those who have followed their careers closely, it came as little surprise.

Asuka and Banks haven't wrestled each other much during their time in WWE, but it has felt special and important every time they have, and that feeling undoubtedly carried over to Monday's title match.

With Raw struggling in terms of viewership in recent weeks, a big match with important stakes was needed, and WWE went all out by booking both Banks vs. Asuka and Drew McIntyre vs. Dolph Ziggler for the WWE Championship on Monday's show.

Banks and Bayley have dominated the women's division in recent months. They co-hold the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships and Bayley owns the SmackDown Women's Championship, making the Raw women's title the missing piece to the puzzle.

Sasha and Bayley's plan to hold all the gold finally came to fruition Monday, and it begs the question of whether anyone will be able to knock them from their pedestal in the near future.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).

WWE's Extreme Rules pay-per-view event Sunday set the stage for some interesting developments in the weeks to come. 

Despite the event looking like a transitional one in which potentially no titles changed hands, WWE left the fate of at least one championship up in the air heading into Monday's Raw. That sets the tone for the storylines to come, as top Superstars continue feuds or get into new ones just in time for SummerSlam. 

While some of the results from Sunday remain subject to rulings and simple developments, the top storylines heading into the second-biggest event of the year aren't hard to see coming. 

WWE Extreme Rules 2020 Results

• Apollo Crews vs. MVP (WWE United States Championship match)
• Rey Mysterio vs. Seth Rollins (Eye for an Eye match)
• Bayley vs. Nikki Cross (SmackDown Women's Championship match)
• Asuka vs. Sasha Banks (invalid/no-contest) (Raw Women's Championship match)
• Drew McIntyre vs. Dolph Ziggler (WWE Championship match)
• Braun Strowman vs. Bray Wyatt (Wyatt Swamp Fight, non-title match)
• The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) vs. Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura (Smackdown Tag Team Championship match)

Bold denotes winners

The Fiend Returns

One of the most predictable elements of Extreme Rules was the return of Bray Wyatt's The Fiend persona. 

WWE saved this moment for the very end of the show, even teasing the watermark that signifies the end of the broadcast before having the demon-esque character emerge from the depths of a lake that swallowed up both Wyatt and Braun Strowman. 

This show-ending bout without Strowman's universal title at stake was yet another pre-taped cinematic match effort from WWE. Given the Superstars involved and their mystical elements, it had plenty of hype going into things. 

Unfortunately, WWE painted itself into a corner by not putting the title at stake and The Fiend's return as the only logical conclusion. 

But the feud should be nothing but fun from here. 

Fans have no idea where Strowman or Wyatt are at this point, as they never emerged from the water. WWE could go a whole bunch of ways in the weeks to come, including breaking Strowman free or even have him link back up with Wyatt to run roughshod on the entire roster. 

Either way, it's clear WWE will have a Strowman-Fiend match in a prominent spot at SummerSlam, a fitting stage to end a great angle. 

Sasha Banks and Bayley Running Things

It took some classical bad-guy moves for it to happen, but Bayley and Sasha Banks hold the women's tag titles and both brand's solo women's titles coming out of Extreme Rules. 

Sunday, Banks solidified the Raw women's title in a match against Asuka through nefarious means. To keep the complex simple, a referee got incapacitated during the course of the match, Bayley stole the referee attire and cheated, calling a three-count and naming Banks champion. 

The result won't hold, of course. WWE will likely either call it off or have an immediate rematch Monday. 

Banks and Bayley were already one of the best things running in WWE at the moment thanks to the must-see nature of their promos and in-ring work. But what happens Monday? Do Bayley and Banks cheat again to keep Banks champion? Does Bayley goof up and cause a rift to form between the two ahead of SummerSlam?

Impossible to say, though Banks and Bayley could do anything at SummerSlam from tagging together to even feuding against one another, making for arguably the top must-see storyline in the coming weeks. 

Drew McIntyre's Next Challenger

Drew McIntyre has quietly had an incredible title reign since taking the mantle as company top dog after knocking off Brock Lesnar. 

Despite being forced to do the above in an odd audience-loss era, McIntyre's put on superb title match after superb title match. 

And he might've just authored his best yet. 

McIntyre, somewhat like Strowman and Wyatt, was in an impossible situation Sunday. It was painfully obvious he wasn't going to lose to Dolph Ziggler no matter how much the history between the two made the matchup make sense. Yet Ziggler came with a smart stipulation to stack the deck against McIntyre, and to his credit, the champion made it work wonderfully. 

What's next for McIntyre is one of the most interesting storylines to watch now. Ziggler has been cast aside in emphatic fashion, and it doesn't seem like Brock Lesnar is on his way back to do an audience-less SummerSlam. 

The obvious candidate is Randy Orton given the career resurgence he's experiencing as a heel right now, as well as the absence of Edge because of injury. McIntyre-Orton has the big-fight feel necessary to headline a card like SummerSlam, and it's easy to see either walking out of there with the title. 

In the coming weeks, the journey to get that feud rolling, if that's the plan, will be fun to watch.