WWE Superstar Bayley has sustained an injury during training and will be out of action for nine months.
WWE confirmed Bayley's injury on its website earlier today.
According to WWE, Bayley had been training for her upcoming Money In The Bank match with SmackDown Women's Champion Bianca Belair when she was injured. The company confirmed that Bayley's replacement for that match would be announced on tonight's episode of SmackDown on FOX.
WWE is yet to provide any specifics regarding the nature of Bayley's injury, but the estimated recovery time indicates that is probably pretty serious.
Bayley's WWE tenure has been incredibly successful, and she has managed to build a Hall Of Fame career in her five years on the company's main roster. She signed for WWE in 2012 after a four-year stint on the independent circuit and reported for duty at WWE's developmental territory NXT.
Bayley became one of NXT's most popular wrestlers during her four years in WWE's developmental system. Bayley's crowning moment occurred on August 22 at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, when she defeated her real-life best friend and on-screen rival Sasha Banks to win the NXT Women's Championship for the first time.
After being called up to the main roster in 2016, Bayley replicated her NXT success and defeated Charlotte Flair for the Raw Women's Championship in 2017 to capture her first main roster title.
When Bayley's affable, bubbly character started to get a little stale, she switched things up and turned heel. At first, people didn't really know what to make of the new Bayley, but as the weeks rolled on she proved that she was just as good at portraying an entertaining villain as she was at playing the happy-go-lucky good guy.
The 32-year-old currently holds the record for the longest-reigning SmackDown Women's Champion and has been one of the MVPs of the pandemic era. Her presence will be missed.
We here at TheSportster would like to wish Bayley a speedy recovery.
This is a developing story.