Bayley On Needing To Change Her Character, Possibly Changing Her Look, What Seth Rollins Told Her
Recently on The Steve Austin Show, WWE Hall Of Famer Steve Austin talked with current WWE Superstar Bayley about her ongoing struggles on WWE Monday Night RAW and the "weird spot" she finds herself in. Austin related his infamous heel turn at WrestleMania 17 to Bayley's present crossroads. Bayley also shared advice she received from fellow RAW talent Seth Rollins and discussed possible changes she could make to her sports entertainment persona.
According to Bayley, she is in a "weird spot" in her WWE career and she needs to find a way to evolve.
"I guess it's time to evolve because I've been doing what I've been doing for the last four years, but you always need to evolve. And I plan on doing this for a really long time, so I know it needs to go just like different directions, maybe a different attitude. I guess I'm coming off of my Extreme Rules match with Alexa Bliss where I didn't use the kendo stick on her, so? and it's time for me to evolve and kind of see where else, different avenues, I can go as my character."
Bayley insinuated that things may be getting stale, says she doesn't want to give up that 'Hug Life' just because "certain people" do not like it.
"I kind of feel like I'm in-between that right now. I'm still trying to stay who I was and what got me to the dance, that's what I was always told." Bayley reflected, "yeah, it might be a little of both [an internal feeling based on crowd response and feeling monotonous], just from the, yeah, crowd response, but I also don't want to completely change who I am just because certain people may not like who I am."
Austin likened Bayley's present situation to his own pro wrestling journey around the time of WrestleMania 17. 'The Toughest S.O.B. in WWE History' divulged that he felt a bit "flat" and pitched the idea of turning heel thus birthing 'The Paranoid Rattlesnake'.
"I started feeling a little flat and I was like, 'man,' Vince always likes to do something big at WrestleMania and so we didn't have anything really planned, so I said, 'man, what about me turning heel?' [McMahon replied] 'Goddang, Steve, I don't know.' Well, I talked him into it."
Given that Austin reached rarified air in the ranks the pro wrestling genre, he assumed his heel turn would have been monster heat, but the angle was rushed. The former Sheriff of RAW claimed, in retrospect, he would have abandoned his plans of aligning with the villainous Mr. McMahon to close out WrestleMania 17.
"I was starting to feel a little flat and I always loved being a heel." Austin recalled, "ended up coming, finally, to the WWF as 'The Ringmaster', turning into 'Stone Cold', and then, that switch with Bret [Hart], and then, it was the babyface thing, but finally after doing the babyface thing for long enough, I thought, 'hey man, let's just change heel to mix it up' and so that's what I felt I needed to do to just switch heel. And I thought because I was so over as a babyface it'd be gangbusters as a heel. Not so much because it wasn't organic. It wasn't time – people didn't want to hate me, so I rushed it. It was my idea. Vince agreed to it. Like I said a million times, if I could go back to [WrestleMania] 17 in the Astrodome and take it back, when I shook Vince's hand, I would've told him, looking at him right in the eyes and said, ' watch the Stunner,' bam, and lit his ass up!"
Also during the podcast, Bayley suggested that she needs to tweak her presentation a tad, perhaps changing her look and ring work around the margins.
"I don't know if it's even just a change of look." Bayley continued, "even if it was as simple as taking my ponytail out and just having hair down, or cutting my hair, or having different gear, just something a little different I think I need. That's just change my look. That's evolve just a little bit and change things in the ring."
Notably, Bayley said she asked Rollins for advice in the wake of his own babyface turn and 'The Dragonslayer' said he just tries to be 'Stone Cold'.
"This is going to sound like a loser too. So one time, I was talking to Seth about, he was a heel for a long time. Then, he turned baby. I was watching his matches, I think, when I first got on the road and I was watching his matches and he was just so good at being a babyface already and he had just been a heel and I asked him, 'how did you, I know you've been at it for a long time already, but how did you just make it seem so easy, the switch, the transition, because it's so different?' And he was like, 'I just try to be like 'Stone Cold”."
Bayley indicated that she would consider changing her look and getting more aggressive in the ring.
"Just kick ass. Just be a bad ass. I think I need a little bit of that in the ring." Bayley added, "so maybe a combination of more aggression and changing my look a little bit could be cool. That's just kind of how I'm feeling."
Click here to check out the show. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit The Steve Austin Show with an H/T to WrestlingINC for the transcription.
Source: The Steve Austin Show