The much-anticipated champion vs. champion showdown between Raw women's champion Ronda Rousey and SmackDown women's champion Becky Lynch will not be taking place as scheduled this Sunday at Survivor Series. The match has been pulled from the Survivor Series card due to injuries sustained by Lynch in the melee that closed this week's go-home edition of Raw. News of Lynch's injuries and the match cancellation was first reported by Fightful.com and later confirmed by Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer.
This unfortunate news was confirmed immediately as the go-home edition of SmackDown Live got underway on Tuesday. The announce team relived the events of Monday night before announcing that Lynch has been pulled from the Survivor Series matchup for what they described as a "broken face."
Six days prior to their match, Lynch appeared in the main event segment of Raw to first attack Rousey in the locker room area with her Dis-Arm-Her submission before leading a SmackDown women's invasion that took place inside the ring. During the in-ring skirmish, however, Lynch's nose was brutally busted open from what appeared to be an inadvertently firm blow by Nia Jax. Despite the injury, Lynch continued on with the attack, pummeling Rousey in the ring with a steel chair as blood poured from her face and fans chanted her name. Raw closed on Monday night with an iconic image of Lynch standing amid the fans, jawing down at a recovering Rousey in the squared circle.
As of this time, there has been no replacement opponent named for Rousey at Survivor Series -- if there will be one at all with the SmackDown women's champion out of commission for an unknown period of time.
To say the timing of Lynch's unfortunate injury is bad would be a massive understatement. Not only was the reigning SmackDown women's champion rapidly emerging as the biggest female star in the company, but her performances as of late had many calling her the unquestioned best overall performer in WWE -- male or female. Everything encompassing her invasion charge on Monday night had longtime fans comparing the moment to the iconic "Austin 3:16" promo cut by "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in June 1996 at King of the Ring that served as the catalyst to launching him into a completely different stratosphere as far as superstardom goes. The match with a mainstream star the likes of Rousey on Sunday night at Survivor Series was likely to only fuel Lynch's momentum even more, win or lose.
Still, despite the unfortunate nature, there is reason to be optimistic about the future. Lynch can't compete in the ring for an unknown amount of time, no, but a trait that has heavily aided in getting her over as much as she has as of late is her ability to work wonders on the microphone. As she recuperates from the damage inflicted on Monday night, there's little reason to believe the "Irish Lass Kicker" can't still talk her brash talk every Tuesday night until she's ready to return to action.
While we were all more than set to see Lynch and Rousey compete against one another on Sunday night, these two will step into the ring to go head-to-head one day soon down the line when this feud is rightfully revisited. And given the buzz Lynch's actions created on Raw, WWE may have just been gifted the women's WrestleMania main event fans have recently been clamoring for lately.