Charlotte Flair to defend her title against Bayley at the Royal Rumble
With the promise that the build to the Royal Rumble would intensify on the first episode of the year, Monday’s Raw featured the addition of a Women’s Championship match to the upcoming pay-per-view’s card.
As expected, Charlotte Flair will defend her title against Bayley at the Royal Rumble later this month. Bayley defeated Nia Jax in a number one contender’s match on Raw after Sasha Banks made her way out to the stage to distract Jax, which allowed Bayley to hit the Bayley-to-Belly suplex off of the top rope.
The match between Bayley and Jax was set up in a backstage segment with Stephanie McMahon earlier in the night. The storyline in the segment was that Stephanie saw Charlotte as a star and thought Bayley was just ordinary. Bayley said that she belonged on Raw and was still going to accomplish her dreams.
Stephanie was first involved in the feud between Charlotte and Bayley last week when Charlotte was able to get Bayley’s win over her from the Raw prior removed from the record books after she had her shoulder up during the finish.
The Royal Rumble is set to take place on January 29th at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The updated lineup for the show is:
- The 2017 Royal Rumble match
- WWE Champion AJ Styles defending against John Cena
- WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens defending against United States Champion Roman Reigns with Chris Jericho suspended above the ring in a shark cage
- Raw Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair defending against Bayley