Alexa Bliss was all set to take part in the Mixed Match Challenge tournament with Braun Strowman, but that all changed when she went down with an injury. The injury forced WWE to pull Bliss from the tournament, and Strowman is teaming up with Ember Moon for the foreseeable future. On Wrestling Observer Radio, it was revealed that bliss has been cleared for “minimal contact” but she is still not ready to return to the ring just yet. Bliss appeared on Raw last night but did not wrestle, and it is believed that she is dealing with some numbness in her left arm at the moment. No word on when Bliss is expected back in the ring, but she is still scheduled to wrestle Trish Stratus at WWE’s Evolution pay-per-view on October 28th.
Much like Alexa Bliss, Sasha Banks also just went down with an injury not too long ago. She has also been pulled from the Mixed Match Challenge and has been replaced by Mickie James for the time being. On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer stated that WWE has refused to release any information on the exact injury that Banks is dealing with or how long she will be gone. Sasha did not appear on Raw at all last night and has also missed a number of live events from this past week. There is no word on whether or not Banks will be able to compete at the all-women’s Evolution pay-per-view next month either, but it hopefully won’t be too much longer for “The Boss” to return to the ring again.
Quite a number of matches and segments are set to take place on SmackDown later tonight. The show is expected to be headlined by a contract signing between AJ Styles and Samoa Joe that will see the two rivals make their match for the WWE Championship official for Super Show-Down event in Melbourne, Australia on October 6th. Just a few hours before tonight’s show, one more match has just been announced by the company for tonight’s show. New SmackDown team Naomi and Asuka will be teaming up during the show to face the team of Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville. It will all be taking place during tonight’s episode of SmackDown, which will be airing live on the USA Network at 8pm ET.
EXCLUSIVE: @WWE_MandyRose & @SonyaDevilleWWE better be ready to #PutTheirHairUpAndSquareUp, because they will face the team of @WWEAsuka & @NaomiWWE TONIGHT on #SDLive! pic.twitter.com/ovGIFIG1pP
— WWE (@WWE) September 25, 2018