Alexa Bliss has had a wild 2021 compared to other wrestlers, and her story has been all over the place. She went from betraying her comrade Bray Wyatt to taking on what seemed to be potential title opportunities, and now in the aftermath of WWE's Extreme Rules pay-per-view, we're at the point where Bliss will reportedly take time away from TV soon. The move would be a surprising one, and if it turns out to be legit, I have to ask why that's the case.
The superstar’s latest match against Charlotte Flair could be a clue, as their feud centered around Flair’s allegation that Alexa Bliss had lost her way in the midst of a promising rise. Some WWE fans thought the match with Flair was Bliss getting a long-awaited shot at the Raw Women’s Championship, but the match's result and subsequent report from WrestlingInc.com could suggest the opposite. Flair destroyed Bliss’ creepy doll Lilly to punctuate the victory, leaving Bliss to weep over Lilly's remains before exiting the ring with them.
At first, the loss didn’t seem like anything too terrible, since beloved wrestlers lose all the time, and Charlotte Flair’s destruction of Lilly was completely on-brand for a heel. But with the as-yet-unconfirmed rumor that Bliss will be away from television for a while, one has to wonder if this means that WWE is now officially laying Alexa’s “creepy girl” gimmick to rest in order to revert her back to the sassy and less disturbed wrestler she was prior to it.
It’s worth noting that once Bray Wyatt was officially out of WWE, not very much about Alexa Bliss’ gimmick made sense contextually, considering Bliss tied her latest persona to the Sister Abigail gimmick first mentioned during the Wyatt Family stable’s run. Alexa has struggled to shake Wyatt’s gimmick from her persona and was jeered by crowds with “We Want Wyatt” chants in the weeks following his release from WWE. But it's not like everybody hated Bliss' efforts in recent months.
Alexa Bliss was a successful and popular wrestler before she got tied up in her current gimmick, so it’s not hard to believe she’ll be just fine without it. At the same time, the WWE and Bliss have made a point to mention Lilly dolls have sold well, and destroying the gimmick so soon would likely mean destroying revenue to be made with Lilly-esque merch ahead of the holiday shopping season. This is what has me back and forth on whether Alexa will shed her gimmick entirely, or if this supposed time away from television would be more to get audiences excited about her again.
WWE wrestlers take mini-hiatuses away from television all the time, so it’s also possible that Alexa Bliss may have been planning for a little vacation for a while now. Extreme Rules did take place in Bliss’ billed hometown of Columbus, Ohio, so it would be an excellent spot for her to hop off the tour and spend some well-deserved time off. But as we wait to see if and how the organization addresses this rumor, I also won't be surprised if Bliss pops up on Raw and the impending draft, with or without Lilly 2.0 at her side.
Monday Night Raw airs on USA Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Continue to stick with CinemaBlend for more happening in the wrestling world, including why it seemed obvious that Roman Reigns wasn’t going to drop his title at the latest pay-per-view.
