WWE Royal Rumble 2020 highlights, takeaways and projections

Bayley def. Lacey Evans to retain SmackDown women’s championship

As I figured might happen, the match I was least looking forward to was the worst match of the night. This whole feud between Bayley and Lacey Evans for the SmackDown Women’s Championship has not been captivating at all, at least to me, and this match just simply followed suit. It was extremely slow to start and really never had a high point. Lacey’s daughter was sitting ringside and was brought into things a little bit when Evans was thrown into the barricade at one point, which brought on a taunt from Bayley that didn’t get the emotional response that I imagine it was supposed to get.

The end of the match wasn’t much better as things ended rather abruptly. Lacey attempted a moonsault from the top rope but Bayley was able to block it, flipped into a pinning combination and grabbed the tights to get the 1-2-3 to retain the title. The dead crowd, who seemed a little exhausted following the Women’s Royal Rumble match, didn’t help matters but this just wasn’t interesting in the least.

What’s next: The cheap win leads me to believe that this feud isn’t over just yet, although it should be. I still don’t know if Bayley goes into WrestleMania as SmackDown Women’s Champion, and Bayley vs. Charlotte doesn’t sound intriguing as we’ve just gotten past that a bit, but I don’t think Lacey is the right call to take the title from her. Sasha Banks has to play into this at some point and I’m still hoping to get a WrestleMania match between those two so perhaps we finally get something there. Just get away from Bayley vs. Lacey and I’m good.