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In this week's episode of WWE RAW, the promotion finally kick-started its road to SummerSlam. On the show, we saw Asuka and Sasha Banks go one on one for the WWE RAW Women's Championship. Banks walked away with the win when Asuka made her way backstage to help Kairi Sane, who was attacked by Bayley.
Also, on the show, we saw Randy Orton challenge Drew McIntyre for the WWE Title at SummerSlam. The Viper also hit the Scottish Psychopath with the RKO after he accepted the challenge. We will also see the Street Profits defend the WWE RAW Tag Team Championships against the team of Angel Garza and Andrade at SummerSlam.
Kairi Sane's challenge to Asuka
Before WWE Extreme Rules, Kairi Sane told Asuka that she would want to challenge her for the WWE RAW Women's Championship had Asuka retained at the event. At the PPV, due to a lot of confusion, the match ended in no-contest.
In this week's episode of WWE RAW, Asuka lost the Title Match against Sasha Banks when she chose to go fend for Kairi Sane instead of fighting Banks. It now seems that Kairi Sane has departed from the WWE, killing rumors about a match with Asuka at SummerSlam.
Original plans for Asuka at SummerSlam
It was earlier reported that WWE was building to a match between Kairi Sane and Asuka for SummerSlam. With Kairi Sane now out of the WWE, Dave Meltzer has reported what the original plans for the PPV were.
On the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer reported WWE's original plan for SummerSlam. Before Sasha Banks winning the WWE RAW Women's Championship last night, the plan was to have Asuka defend the Title against Shayna Baszler at SummerSlam.
He went on to say that Sasha Banks wasn't the opponent for Asuka after WWE Extreme Rules.
“There were so many changes made including the Asuka and Sasha Banks stuff. That was all changed. Originally Asuka was going to defend the title against whoever injured Kairi and that was as of, at least Sunday night or Monday morning of last week right before the tapings [and] they tore that all up.” (h/t WrestlingNews.co)
