WWE Extreme Rules 2019: Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross

The stakes have been raised as Bayley puts her SmackDown Women’s Championship on the line in a 2-on-1 handicap match against Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross at WWE Extreme Rules.

At first Nikki Cross did very little when she was brought up from NXT to the main roster. Now, she’s been inserted into one of the better storylines in the WWE at present and certainly brings a fresh take for the SmackDown Women’s Championship picture.

This all started when the odd-pairing of Alexa Bliss and Cross began showing up on both Raw and SmackDown each week. It culminated quickly into Bliss receiving a title shot at Bayley’s SmackDown Women’s Championship during WWE Stomping Grounds. Bliss was unable to obtain the title, some would argue because Cross got involved. Now Cross can legally get involved in the match which puts Bayley’s title in significant jeopardy. Or does it?

The Extreme Rules pay-per-view came about as the one time of the year WWE could get a little “hardcore.” This leaves a lot of wiggle room in most of the matches to play fast and loose with the rules. Recently, Cross has been very adamant that she and Bliss are very good friends and Bayley should “go find one of her own.” This has sent speculation into overdrive that Bayley’s best friend will make her long awaited return to WWE and interject herself in the handicap match making it a fair fight. We’re talking about Sasha Banks.

Since she disappeared from TV after WrestleMania 35 everyone’s been wondering what the future holds for Banks. Is she staying or going? A handful of cryptic tweets from Banks herself later and we still are no further towards an answer. Unless you want to decipher recent pictures where Banks’ hair has now returned to its “Boss” purple after going dark for several months. Or the fact that Bayley keeps posting pictures of the two together with her own cryptic messages. But that’s really nothing new and maybe it shouldn’t be the focus of this match.

The focus should be on Bayley’s solid singles title run that she’s been having so far. Her first title reign on SmackDown has been much better than her title run on Raw. And then there’s Cross who is finally getting to show audiences that she can perform in the ring and on the mic. Maybe it’s Cross’ time to get her first taste of gold.

But what about Bliss? In fact, where is Bliss? Cross has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting lately which seems to be a clear set-up for the eventuality of the two splitting and starting a heated rivalry. The only question is will there be gold between them to battle for or will Bayley shut the door on them both and move on to other challengers?

Find out on Sunday July 14 at 4PT/7EST on the WWE Network.