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HARTFORD, Conn. — At what point does it stop becoming a surprise when Bayley wins big matches? True, the former Raw Women’s Champion had mostly faded into the background as the Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match drew closer and the odds shifted toward sentimental favorites, veterans or wild cards. However, Bayley never thrives more than when she’s been all but counted out. And while her ascension to the third-ever Ms. Money in the Bank may have clocked as an upset to some who had their money (ahem) on headline-grabbers like Dana Brooke, Nikki Cross and Naomi, for the rest (ahem) it was par for the course. If this was a surprise, you weren’t paying attention.
All of which isn’t to say Bayley wasn’t facing long odds, even setting aside the fact that this was her first foray into the Money in the Bank Ladder Match. Natalya, the veteran, was surgical and deliberate in her use of the ladders; Naomi delivered a factor of unpredictability, bobbing and weaving to avoid damage at every turn. Ember Moon brought the daredevil factor with an Eclipse off a ladder to The Queen of Harts, and while Dana took every wild chance she could to prove she belonged; nobody could argue that she did not. Carmella, meanwhile, brought the grit, coming back from a knee injury at the hands of Mandy Rose to throw hands with God’s Greatest Creation in the waning moments of the battle.
More than anything else, Bayley was always in the right place at the right time, capitalizing on confusion, dishing out damage, and, inevitably, staring Mandy square in the eyes after Sonya Deville stormed out of the locker room area to physically carry her tag team partner up the ladder to the precipice of the briefcase. The Huggable One shoved Mandy and Sonya clean off the ladder without another word, seizing the briefcase in a definitive moment, proving she came to SmackDown LIVE to remind people what she’s capable of on her own. It’s a lesson the rest of the field forgot at their peril: For all the combined talents of the Money in the Bank competitors, they misread the situation entirely. They thought they had Bayley out of the running, yet it turned out she had them right where she wanted them.