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At WWE Extreme Rules, Nikki Cross faced Bayley in a match where she finally had the opportunity that she had been waiting for. The match at WWE's The Horror Show at Extreme Rules was for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship and Cross was doing an incredible job controlling Bayley throughout the match. However, when the time came Bayley was helped by Sasha Banks to retain her title. Sasha Banks passed her 'Boss' brass knuckles to Bayley while distracting the referee.
This allowed Bayley to hit Nikki Cross across the ribs with the brass knuckles, slip them off while the referee was not looking, and hit a facebuster on the discombobulated SmackDown Women's Championship challenger. This finally led to Bayley getting the win while Cross was left writhing in pain due to her injured ribs.
Nikki Cross on her WWE Extreme Rules loss to Bayley
Heading into her match against Bayley, Cross was justifiably nervous as she talked to Alexa Bliss about what she was afraid of. She was afraid that she would let the opportunity slip her by at WWE Extreme Rules, but her partner and friend Bliss assured her that would not be the case. Cross would then attack and take out Bayley who was standing around with Banks backstage. The two had to be separated by Banks and Bliss, with her Bliss having to drag her away kicking and screaming in the end.
While she headed into the match with a level of confidence, Cross did not do anything wrong, as she was able to counter everything that the SmackDown Women's Champion brought to the match. Eventually, this frustrated Bayley so much that she had to sink to illegal tactics to get the win in the match.
Commenting on how she was going to handle the loss, Cross posted an encouraging message on Twitter.
"Feeling the loss, and the pain. I didn’t win but I re-gained something in the process. I won something else. Self belief and the confidence to push forward. Ability to look in the mirror at night. you just gotta pick yourself up and keep going."
Given the illegal tactics used by Bayley, Cross could easily demand a rematch, but it remains to be seen what will happen on WWE SmackDown.
