Bayley lost to Lyra Valkyria again on Monday’s Raw in San Antonio, and the Bayley AEW conversation just got louder. She disappeared from TV, came back, and now she is losing to the same opponent twice. Either WWE is setting up a longer feud, or it is running out the clock on a contract.
Johnny North and I don’t agree on which one it is. That is what makes it interesting.
🎯 Key Takeaways
- Lyra Valkyria beat Bayley again, this time with a quick roll-up after sending her into the ropes.
- Reports say Bayley’s WWE deal runs out by the end of 2026, and AEW has been interested for close to a year.
- Penta qualified for Money in the Bank after 946 abducted Solo Sikoa, and LA Knight cut the best promo on the show.
- Raw’s Spanish promos aired live with no subtitles, a small thing that says a lot about who WWE is booking for.
Table of Contents
Bayley vs Lyra Valkyria: One Loss, Two Readings
The finish came out of nowhere. Lyra sent Bayley into the ropes and rolled her up. It was not a beatdown. Lyra barely escaped.
My read is the cynical one. Bayley was gone; people thought she might be leaving, and now she is back on TV. If she had signed a new deal, why come back and lose to Lyra again? It feels like WWE brought her back to serve out her contract instead of sending her home and jobbing her out the door.
Johnny sees it differently. Because Lyra barely won, he thinks the message is that Lyra wins the war but Bayley is still around. He does not buy the Bayley AEW talk, and he makes a fair point: WWE pays well. Why leave?
The Bayley AEW Question
Here is why the Bayley AEW question will not go away. In July, Wrestling Inc, citing Fightful Select, reported that Bayley’s WWE contract is expected to expire by the end of 2026, that she had not signed a new deal, and that talks about her joining AEW had been going on for almost a year.
Then there is Mercedes Moné, the AEW Women’s World Champion and one of Bayley’s closest friends in the business. Both of them have dropped hints on social media. A Bayley AEW run would come with a ready-made main event waiting for her.
📜 Historical Context
Bayley and Mercedes Moné, then Sasha Banks, headlined NXT TakeOver: Respect in October 2015 with a 30-minute Iron Man match, the first women’s main event in TakeOver history. Their rivalry is one of the foundations of the modern women’s division.
The timing lines up too. Thekla faces Willow Nightingale at AEW All Out on Saturday night in Chicago to decide who gets Mercedes at WrestleDream. We went through that card in our AEW All Out 2026 preview. If Bayley is on her way out of WWE, AEW has a champion ready for her.
My prediction on Bayley AEW: WWE makes a real offer, because the AEW interest forces it to. But if she keeps losing to Lyra on the way to the finish line, that tells you who blinked. It’s complicated, and I could be wrong about how much WWE wants to keep her.
Penta Is In, and Solo Is Gone
Solo Sikoa was supposed to be in the Raw main event. 946 abducted him backstage, so Penta took his place and won the triple threat over Dominik Mysterio and Dragon Lee to qualify for Money in the Bank.
I felt like Dominik just got in the way. Johnny noted that a lot of people loved Dom in this match. His character is great. The in-ring work still needs work, and putting him in there with guys like Penta shows it. Johnny thinks it was still better than Solo, Dom, and Dragon Lee would have been. Penta has momentum after his match with Roman Reigns in Mexico.
The rest of the Bloodline material was the weakest part of the show. Jacob Fatu and the Usos did the let-me-run-the-play promos again, and Johnny was not a fan of the fake bruising makeup after the Solo angle either. If it is going to be censored anyway, why bother?
LA Knight’s Best Promo in a While
LA Knight had a very good promo. Johnny said he could believe Knight winning the title if Money in the Bank were this weekend. It isn’t, which is too bad for him. Knight gets Roman Reigns for the World Heavyweight Championship on October 10, which we covered in our Money in the Bank 2026 breakdown.
Johnny’s theory is darker. In the promo, it almost sounded like Knight does not believe he can beat Roman on his own. So he fails at Money in the Bank, decides he needs help, turns heel, and joins 946 by Survivor Series. I am not sold on that, but I am interested in the match.
Je’Von Evans Gets a Win That Isn’t Really a Win
Bron Breakker and Je’Von Evans had an interesting match. Evans won by disqualification when The Vision attacked him, and Oba Femi made the save. Evans looked strong. WWE is elevating him, making him close to Breakker’s level. Not quite, but competitive.
Johnny sees it as a consolation prize. Evans is not winning Money in the Bank, and Breakker probably is, so this gives Evans something without hurting Bron. The Paul Heyman promo afterward made it clear that Bron is still the guy you have to watch out for. That fits the Oba Femi and Bron Breakker story WWE has been building since August.
Spanish Promos, No Subtitles
Penta has been cutting promos in English and Spanish at the top of Raw, and live on Netflix there were no subtitles. Halfway through one of them, I realized he had been speaking Spanish, and I understood all of it. Two semesters of CEGEP Spanish, finally paying off, brother.
Johnny watches on replay, where subtitles do show up. But plenty of people watch live, and not every viewer in the States speaks Spanish. Johnny’s other complaint: when Stephanie Vaquer or Raquel Rodriguez swear in Spanish, the audio just drops out for five seconds, and it clearly was not five seconds of swearing.
Speaking of Vaquer, the live segment with Becky Lynch in the crowd and Stephanie on the ramp did not work. Everybody was talking in different directions, and the energy was off. For more on how Raw and SmackDown stack up, see our Raw vs SmackDown roster breakdown.
Reality Check: Bayley Deserves a Clear Answer
The Reality: Bayley is a Grand Slam Champion and one of the most important women in modern WWE history. Bringing her back just to lose to Lyra Valkyria twice sends a message, intended or not. If WWE wants to keep her away from AEW, it should book her like it.
Bayley AEW Rumors: Frequently Asked Questions
Is Bayley leaving WWE for AEW?
Nothing is official. Reports in July 2026 said Bayley had not signed a new WWE deal and that AEW had been interested for almost a year, which keeps the Bayley AEW rumors alive.
When does Bayley’s WWE contract expire?
Fightful Select reported that her WWE contract is expected to expire by the end of 2026. No official date has been confirmed.
Who won Bayley vs Lyra Valkyria on Raw?
Lyra Valkyria beat Bayley with a quick roll-up on the September 21, 2026 episode of Raw.
Who qualified for Money in the Bank on Raw on September 21?
Penta beat Dragon Lee and Dominik Mysterio, and Roxanne Perez beat Iyo Sky and La Catalina.
What happened to Solo Sikoa on Raw?
Solo Sikoa was abducted backstage by the 946 faction before the men’s Money in the Bank qualifier, and Penta took his place.
