WWE Royal Rumble: Bayley vs. Charlotte

Bayley is up first to attempt an almost impossible task: to cost Charlotte her first pay-per-view loss. She is also challenging for the WWE Women’s Title in the process. Bayley is so over and Charlotte’s music was met with a very loud heel reaction. Michael Cole reminded fans that Charlotte is 15-0 in pay-per-view title matches to add to the drama of the match.

JoJo gave the two women the typical title match introductions, something that was lacking from the Tag-Team Title match during the kick-off show.

Even though Charlotte is a total heel, she can still get the whole Alamodome to “woo” after her. Charlotte and Bayley started off slow and Bayley ended up being tossed outside the ring. The Hugger of Huggers immediately came back in and performed a stunner looking move through the middle rope.

Bayley ended up on the second rope of the turnbuckle and took Charlotte out on the outside. Bayley went to retrieve Charlotte but she drove Bayley’s head into the ring apron and threw her into the ring steps.

Once in the ring, Charlotte continued her attack by slamming Bayley’s head into the mat, she then hit a suplex on Bayley, and she got a one-count. Charlotte took Bayley down with a rear chinlock and held the move for a minute and tried a pin, but Bayley kicked out. She then drove a knee into Bayley’s sternum and got another close count.

Bayley took even more abuse until she was able to roll Charlotte up for a close two-count. Charlotte took control back with a big boot, but Bayley wouldn’t stay on her back for a three-count. Charlotte latched her legs around Bayley’s head and began to apply pressure on her adversary.

Charlotte began to taunt Bayley and begged her to get up and fight her. Charlotte compared her to an average fan and Bayley fought back, but they took each other out with a double clothesline.

Bayley and Charlotte traded chops, but the champion took over until Bayley took her down with some punches to the forehead. Bayley hit Charlotte with an unorthodox springboard cross body and sent Charlotte’s face to the mat. Bayley scaled the turnbuckle but jumped down to attempt a pin instead. Bayley then went back up and performed an elbow drop while receiving comparisons to the Macho Man from the announce team.

Charlotte then locked in a Figure 8 submission hold. Bayley was able to reverse the pressure by flipping her over (I’ve never understood the physics of that). Charlotte turned Bayley back over and reapplied the hold, she used the ropes for leverage, but the ref caught her and broke up the hold.

With Bayley prone on the canvas, Charlotte went for a top-rope moonsault, but Bayley got her knees up and pulled off a close two-count on the champ. Bayley then began to strike Charlotte with some stiff forearms and perched Charlotte on the top rope. Bayley climbed up to grab Charlotte but was shoved to the floor.

Charlotte then performed Natural Selection on the apron as Bayley was getting back in the ring. She rolled Bayley back in the ring and got the three-count.

Charlotte retains her title.