Bayley Talks Thinking She Was More Over Than She Was And Turning Heel
As previously noted, WWE legends Edge and Christian were joined by former WWE RAW Women's Champion, it's Bayley! Among other things, Bayley talked about thinking she was more over than she was when she arrived on WWE's Monday Night RAW, whether she would like to stay babyface for the rest of her career as an in-ring performer for WWE, changing up her character, and whether WWE's Four Horsewomen (including Bayley, Becky Lynch, Charlotte, and Sasha Banks) will ever face off against MMA's Four Horsewomen (with Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke, Marina Shafir, and 'Rowdy' Ronda Rousey).
Bayley acknowledged that her first taste of the main roster, at WWE Battleground as Sasha Banks' mystery partner versus Charlotte and Dana Brooke, and the RAW after SummerSlam, gave her the false sense that she was over.
"When I made my debut, I had that weird one-off at Battleground where I was like Sasha's partner," Bayley said. "And that was an amazing night. It felt like everybody in the arena wanted her partner to be me, so I was like, 'oh yeah, everybody knows who I am and I'm going to be fine when I finally get here, like, for good!' Then, I had my official debut. That was the night after NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn. And Brooklyn is just? it was SummerSlam weekend, so it's kind of like a WrestleMania weekend where there [are] fans from all over [the world] and it's just a load of NXT fans from around Europe and all that and I got a great reception there and I was like, 'yep, I'm good. Everybody knows Bayley' blah, blah, blah. But then, it wasn't until I was there a little bit longer and I had to get on the regular schedule doing house shows and going to TVs in different cities where I realized my reception wasn't as good as my first two things that I did because not everybody knew me. And the NXT crowd, although it is amazing, and we do have great fans all over the world, it's not as huge as the audience we have for WWE, so I'm still kind of like at the point where people know who I am and I might not be as cool as I was in little, smaller venues or, like, a smaller audience, but now I'm at that point where I feel like, 'yeah, I'm WWE,' but it did take a while. I think my head got a little too big when I was like, 'yeah, everyone knows me!' to when I'm like, 'wait! No, they don't.'"
Interestingly, Bayley says she would love to evolve her character more and does not envision a Ricky Steamboat type of babyface run for her own pro wrestling odyssey. Additionally, Bayley shared that she would like to bring more fire and intensity to her character to become a female version of 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin.
"I do definitely want to evolve my character, eventually, just because, I mean, since I started in NXT, I've kind of been doing the same thing. Like, I have grown a little bit, but I don't know. I think it is going to be time for a change eventually. I think that would be like the fun of it all and everyone changes. I plan on being here for a long time, and I want to go through all those stages and be a bad guy, and then be a good guy again, then be a bad guy, and, like [Edge and Christian] have been a bunch of different characters and all that stuff. And I just think that's part of the fun being with WWE, so I want to go on that roller coaster and have the fans be like they know they can count on me and, like, care about me, but still hate me at the same time, but know when I'm on the camera for them to cheer or to boo, like, they're going to enjoy it. So I've recently thought about it and just as far as trying to be more aggressive, I think I want to be a girl version of 'Stone Cold', but it's kind of hard to think of my character turning into a badass like Austin."
When Christian asked Bayley with whom she would like to work, 'The Hugger' replied that she would like to work with Asuka and Natalya.
"I mean, I want to have more matches with Asuka eventually because we only had the few in NXT. But I guess I haven't really had anything with Natalya at all. When she first did kind of a live event loop or we did a Europe, that was my first thing with WWE, and I just teamed with her, so I didn't get to wrestler her. Then we did one random live event when I was still with NXT. And I did like a one-minute opening thing with her and that was it. But I would love to have a full-on story with her and have full matches with her just because I think she's so good, and, obviously, she's so knowledgeable and has so much to teach. But also she's hilarious. Every time I'm around her, I have so much fun. She's so good."
During the podcast, Bayley shared that she still hopes WWE's Four Horsewomen will mix it up with MMA's Four Horsewomen in the squared circle.
"I was hoping it was going to be a thing pretty soon, but they were all there at the [Mae Young] Classic and we were there, minus Sasha. And we had our little face off, that thing outside, that [WWE].com thing we had, so I was kind of hoping that would lead to something. Maybe it still will. Ronda just kind of put it out there that they said, 'any time, any place' and I feel like it still can happen. So they know where to find us. That's all I've got to say. They know where to find us. We're here. We're just waiting on them and we've got one of them, I guess. Shayna's already in NXT, so we just need Ronda to hurry it up!"
Check out the show here. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.