WWE Rumors - Change made to Friday Night SmackDown in the last minute
The SmackDown Women's Championship match was made official for WrestleMania this past week as part of the show, but WWE decided to do it in a strange way. Paige was originally scheduled to be part of the show last week, but her travel issues forced the segment to be moved to this week's show instead.
Paige was seen via satellite where she announced that Bayley would be defending her SmackDown Women's Championship against Lacey Evans, Naomi, Tamina, Dana Brooke and her best friend Sasha Banks in a six-pack challenge at WrestleMania.
This was reportedly not the original plan for Friday Night's show, according to a report from PWInsider, Paige was originally supposed to fly in and be part of the show at the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida in person, but this idea was later scrapped and instead, her segment was shot in California and then edited into the show.
Bayley and Sasha Banks look to be heading down a collision course that could see Banks challenge Bayley for the SmackDown Women's Championship as early as SummerSlam, or even Bayley challenge Banks if the title changes hands at WrestleMania.
It's unknown why Paige was brought back for the segment since there is no real reason why the former Divas Champion had to be the one to announce Bayley's title defense, but WWE wanted it to be Paige since she was re-booked the following week just to ensure that she was part of the show.
Travel issues are causing WWE's plans for WrestleMania to change by the day, so it appears that the former NXT Women's Champion will not be the only star hindered by the current global COVID-19 pandemic in the coming weeks.