2 WWE gimmick match ideas that were rejected and 3 that surprisingly made it to TV

#3 Made it to TV: Kendo stick-on-a-pole

WWE’s women’s divisions revolved around Raw Women’s Champion Bayley and SmackDown Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss in the first few months of 2017, so it was only natural that the company booked a rivalry between the two women following Bliss’ move to Raw in the Superstar Shake-Up.

Bayley had just defeated Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks and Nia Jax at WrestleMania 33 to retain her Raw Women’s Championship, while Bliss lost her SmackDown Women’s Championship to Naomi at the same event in a Six-Pack Challenge match.

Given that “The Hugger” had momentum at the time, it was a surprise when she lost her title against “Little Miss Bliss” in her hometown of San Jose, California at the Payback pay-per-view in April 2017.

Then, following a much-criticised ‘This Is Your Life’ segment the following month on Raw, Bliss defeated Bayley in a Kendo stick-on-a-pole match at Extreme Rules to retain Raw’s top female title.

The match lasted just 5 minutes and 10 seconds, making it the shortest on the show, and Bayley’s promise to unleash her inner Tommy Dreamer and Sandman at Extreme Rules never came to fruition.

In the end, in a strange way, this peculiar match type was a fitting end to what turned out to be one of the most underwhelming feuds of 2017.