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"The Man" Becky Lynch officially made her return to the ring as a surprise, challenging Smackdown Women's Champion Bianca Belair as a surprise replacement for Sasha Banks, who was not cleared to perform at the PPV. Carmella was originally introduced as a last minute substitute but Lynch came to the ring, dispatched Carmella and took her place as challenger.
As PWInsider.com reported earlier this week, there had been continued talk as WWE made their way closer to Summerslam that Belair vs. Banks would not take place. The two did not appear last week at live events in the Carolinas. WWE sources later claimed both were "cleared" to compete at tonight's event in Las Vegas but as WWE got closer to the show, word began to spread internally that while Belair was indeed cleared, now Banks would likely not be appearing.
Belair returned to the road for WWE at last night's Smackdown taping in Phoenix. Segments of the show that were to include Banks were re-written as Banks was not cleared to appear on the show. There were some reports floating around that Banks was never scheduled to appear on last night's Smackdown, but they are absolutely incorrect.
The Banks situation is not believed to be an injury issue.
Although it was well known Lynch would be at Summerslam (as PWInsider broke she would be at the PPV several weeks ago), she was hidden all day in advance of her ring entrance in an attempt to prevent her return from leaking.
Lynch was at the WWE Performance Center earlier this summer, working out in the ring with Indi Hartwell as part of the process of getting her cleared by WWE to return to the ring after taking time off to have her first daughter. She had been in attendance at a number of WWE PPV events, but until this week, the plan had been for Lynch to return in October. Before tonight, Lynch last wrestled at Wrestlemania 36, defeating Shayna Baszler.
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