​WWEBayley is expected to return to Monday Night Raw this week, according to PWInsider. The update follows the outlet’s report last week that creative pitches had been made for her on the Raw brand and that she was expected back on the road within a matter of weeks.She has been off WWE television since July 18. Bayley lost to Lyra Valkyria at Saturday Night’s Main Event in Manhattan, and Valkyria attacked her after the match and drove her into the steel steps, giving WWE a storyline reason to write her off. Her only match since came at a July 26 live event in Bakersfield, California.The absence lined up with reports that her WWE contract is set to expire around the end of the year, which fueled speculation about a move to AEW. Bayley had teased the idea of joining Mercedes Mone there, and Mone had done the same from her side.Dave Meltzer pushed back on that read in the August 24 Wrestling Observer Newsletter, pointing to how often Bayley’s name was still coming up on Raw. He wrote that the frequent mentions would indicate the company expects her back, and that WWE would not keep saying her name if it believed she was leaving. Valkyria referenced their match during a recent Raw promo, saying she dropped dead weight when she ran Bayley out of the company.Neither Bayley nor WWE has announced a new deal, and the PWInsider report does not address her contract status. False Finish reported that she has already re-signed and will take on a role beyond on-screen talent, though that has not been corroborated elsewhere.What Bayley’s WWE Raw return says about her contract situationBooking someone on television is not the same as signing them, and the report is careful not to claim otherwise. But WWE does not usually spend creative capital on a wrestler it expects to lose in a few months. Writing a returning act into Raw storylines means committing to a direction that outlasts the calendar year, and the company has an established habit of quietly shelving talent whose deals are winding down. Doing the opposite here is the most useful signal available.The Valkyria promo is the tell within the tell. WWE kept Bayley’s name alive on commentary and in a heel’s mouth for six weeks while she was nowhere near the building. That is not how a company treats a name it wants the audience to forget. It is how a company keeps a return warm. Meltzer identified the pattern in August and PWInsider’s reporting since has pointed the same way.The AEW angle was always more fan projection than reporting. Bayley and Mone are close and both have been happy to play with the idea in public, which is free content for everyone involved and costs nothing if it never happens. A return to Raw this week does not close that door permanently, since the contract is still the contract. It does suggest the two sides are somewhere better than the speculation assumed. The Valkyria feud has an obvious ending that has not been written yet, and Bayley walking back through the curtain is