After being advertised to wrestle in a cage match against Becky Lynch at RAW XXX, Bayley shocked the professional wrestling world by marching down to the ring with her Damage CTRL pals, Dakota Kai and IYO SKY, to put a beatdown on the former WWE champ. Fans gasped, Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick were shocked, and in the end, Adam Pearce had to come down to the ring with a set of bolt cutters to free Lynch from her captors and move the show along.

Asked why she decided to attack Lynch instead of wrestle her at RAW XXX by Byron Saxton after the show, Bayley talked him down, telling the veteran broadcaster that she doesn't have to do whatever “The Man” asks her to.

“Whoa, first, before we get to that part, I was supposed to be in a cage match because that was what Becky wanted?” Bayley asked. “Am I supposed to do whatever Becky wants? No, I have a mind of my own, Dakota has a mind of her own, IYO has a mind of her own (and) we don’t have to listen to anybody, we’re called Damage CTRL, which means we are in control, okay? Becky doesn’t tell me what to do, or when to do it, or where to be, or when I’m going to put my body on the line for this kind of match, okay? Have you ever been in a cage match?”

Byron shook his head no.

“Would you be scared? Would you be afraid, Bayley asked. Because I’ll tell you right now I was smart. I’m smarter than Becky, I’m quicker than Becky, I’m more consistent than Becky, I’m a bigger star than Becky. I am the ultra, superstar.”

“And it’s RAW XXX, so why go out there and hurt ourselves when we could enjoy the show, am I right?”

Bayley proposed her question to Kai, who awkwardly tried to get in on the run.

“Yeah, exactly, it’s RAW XXX,” Kai added. “Do you want to, like grab some drinks, like a cup of tea or something like that? Enjoy the show?”

When asked how IYO feels, she responded, “Yeah, I feel so good,” before declaring that Saxton is “so stupid.”

“And we’re gonna end it on that, right? Bayley asked. Thank you so much, it was great to see you, Byron.”

Welp, there you go; Bayley didn't wrestle because she didn't want to, instead opting to put in some physical punishment on Lynch to limit her effectiveness in The Royal Rumble. There totally isn't another reason why the match was canned, like, say, because the preceding segments took too long, and Paul “Triple H” Levesque had to make a decision on the fly…

Fightful details the REAL reason WWE scrapped the RAW XXX cage match.

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Becky Lynch with a text bubble reading "He has a vision" next to Triple H with the WWE logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

Rhea Ripley next to Becky Lynch with the WrestleMania 40 log as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

Bayley with a text bubble reading "She's once in a lifetime" next to Rhea Ripley with the WrestleMania 40 logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

Alright, so what actually happened to shut down the cage match? Well, would you believe it was a classic case of poor time management? Because according to Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp – via Wrestling Inc. – that was the case.

According to Fightful Select, WWE called an audible on the Bayley vs. Lynch bout due to the earlier “Tribal Court” segment featuring The Bloodline going longer than planned, which meant that “several segments needed to be trimmed” through the rest of the show.

Fightful added that the original plan was for “the match and entrances to get two segments,” which would have typically meant a 10-14 minute match at the least. Once the opening Bloodline segment ran too long, WWE felt it made sense to “work an angle to set up to a full on match” at a later date, rather than having a short cage match lasting barely a few minutes. WWE obviously had a ton of segments already planned for the rest of its 30-year anniversary edition of RAW.

Did Levesque and company really mess this one up to such a remarkable degree? It's impossible to know, but considering just how long the “Tribal Court” went on, with Paul Heyman and Jey Uso both presenting their cases with video evidence – not to mention the very long tag match that saw Sami Zayn replace Jimmy Uso on the spot – it's safe to assume that SRS's reporting is spot on.

While fans in South Philly probably felt at least a little cheated that they didn't see Lynch and Bayley throw down in a steel cage; hopefully, Levesque finds a way to incorporate it into The Royal Rumble and make good on a bad situation. Remember Trips, booking is hard, so folding in real-world opportunities of this degree is like a “Premium Live Event” coupon.