One week WWE held their annual SummerSlam pay per view from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, which featured the surprise return of Becky Lynch, who defeated Bianca Belair to become the new SmackDown women’s champion in just 26 seconds.
According to Fightful Select, Belair and Carmella were both informed of Lynch appearing ahead of time as they were the ones who got involved with The Man during the show. However, the report states that most others backstage did not know about the surprise as WWE did their best to keep it a secret, even keeping Lynch’s name off of internal run sheets. WWE even added segments to adjust for the time missed for the Banks and Belair matchup that didn’t end up happening.
It is also noted that Lynch’s baby was backstage during the show, and Lynch excitedly greeted her as soon as her quick match with Belair ended.