Is Bayley’s Separated Shoulder Injury Legit Or A Work?

Bayley is injured and has been pulled from her scheduled SummerSlam match against Alexa Bliss for the Raw Women’s Championship. It was a devastating blow to The Hugger and can’t be a good thing for her career.

Now WWE is forced to pick up the pieces and try to figure out a new #1 contender for Bliss’ title at The Biggest Party Of The Summer.

Taz recently commented saying the Bayley injury is a work because Michael Cole called attention to it when it happened on Raw. But the match kept going and so did the punishment from Nia Jax.

Bryan Alvarez noted this on an episode of Wrestling Observer Live and gave his theory about why this injury isn’t just part of the show.

“Maybe it is [a work], I don’t know. All I know is here’s the thing with these ‘worked injuries’ in these matches. Let’s just say for example this injury was a worked injury — this killed the match. I mean it killed the match.”

“When [Bayley] first went down and grabbed her shoulder I mean the match ground to a halt and then they kept going and they kept going. And then Nia Jax put her in the chicken wing and just threw her so hard down on the mat. Which by the way, if you’re gonna do a worked injury — I mean, to me the idea that you’re gonna throw somebody like Bayley as hard as you can on her shoulder with her arms behind her so she has no way to break her fall — I mean you may as well, you’re practically putting her in danger to really be injured.”

“If it’s fake — if it’s a fake injury. And then when she got thrown on her shoulder after that chicken wing. I mean she rolled outside and she just sat there for 45 seconds. I mean she just sat out there forever in the middle of a match that was already dead. It completely killed the match. So if that’s your goal to have like a terrible match to get over an injury, I mean there are better ways to get over an injury.”

So there you go, if you’re holding out hope Bayley isn’t really injured and will get some kind of physical retribution against Nia Jax, then you might want to keep up that positive thinking. Because Bayley could certainly use all the positive vibes fans can muster right now.

If you use any portion of the quotes in this article please credit Wrestling Observer Live with a H/T to Still Real To Us for the transcription