Bayley On Dusty Rhodes Inspiring Her Character, Watching WrestleMania 35 Main Event With Sasha Banks

Bayley was recently a guest at Ace Comic Con where she also took part in an interview with Charlotte Flair for Lilian Garcia's podcast. Among the topics discussed was Dusty Rhodes inspiring her character while in NXT and Bayley spoke more about The American Dream's vision.

"It's crazy. We try to hide our true self because we don't think that is good enough for our fans," admitted Bayley. "We're like, no, they're not really going to like me, but Dusty Rhodes would be like, no, that is what makes you special. You are athletic; Charlotte is wrestling royalty, Bayley, you're a fan, make it larger than life. We really are who we are and he made us confident in ourselves and that is when everything blew up. That is when NXT blew up and it was because Dusty Rhodes made us. He believed in all of us, and believed in who we were and who we were afraid to show who we were."

Bayley, along with Charlotte, are part of the Four Horsewomen of Wrestling as are Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch. Bayley talked about being part of that revolutionary group.

"We always say that we got so lucky to be there at that time together. I always think that if I got hired a year later or six months later it wouldn't have happened the way that it did. We just wanted to have the best matches that we possibly could. Now, she [Charlotte] just main evented WrestleMania with Becky," said Bayley.

Two of those Four Horsewomen main evented WrestleMania 35 alongside Ronda Rousey. Bayley revealed her reaction when she heard that Charlotte, Lynch and Rousey would be main eventing WrestleMania.

"In NXT and throughout our time with WWE it's taken not just the women on this roster or NXT, but it's taken everyone else that believed in us from Dusty Rhodes, Sara Del Ray, and Triple H. It took Vince McMahon to be like, 'okay let's see if these women can do what they say they can do.' It started with that hashtag, #GiveDivasAChance, all of that stuff. It took our fans believing in us. You can do so much together and put so much pressure on yourself, but if it wasn't for all the fans and everybody truly believing in us we wouldn't have been there," stated Bayley.

"Going into WrestleMania, Sasha Banks and I were the first ever Women's Tag Team Champions. Charlotte and Becky were in the main event of WrestleMania. I don't think there could have been a more special night for all four of us, the fact that we all started together and were all in that position heading into WrestleMania. Sasha Banks and I sat in the crowd during the main event. I have videos of the crowd chanting all of their names and all that stuff, I'm trying not to cry right now but it was very special."

While Bayley made her main roster debut in July 2016, the other three Four Horsewomen debuted a year earlier. Bayley talked about what was going through her mind when her friends joined the main roster but she was still in NXT.

"I heard rumblings of them going and I was not, and I was like, oh no, what did I do wrong? I had just broken my hand so I was like is this holding me back? But I was still able to wrestle with my cast on so I know that wasn't it," said Bayley. "I thought of every possible thing that I could have done wrong but I remember the night of them all texting me separately. They felt so bad and I hated that. They didn't like that I wasn't there and I didn't want them to feel that way in their debut. I know that they didn't, but we just had a connection."

Even though she was disappointed in not getting called up, Bayley knew that Charlotte, Lynch and Banks preceding her would only make things easier for Bayley once she was promoted. She also looks back fondly at that year without the others as she got to experience several firsts in NXT.

"But now definitely looking back I think that year in NXT by myself without them I had nobody to run to, nobody to rely on. I had a brand-new roster and I became the NXT Women's Champion so that was the biggest year of my career. I learned so much about myself in the ring. I was able to take on more of a leadership role. I was able to travel the world. That was when NXT traveled to the UK and started traveling everywhere for the first time and was doing so as the NXT Women's Champion so that was amazing," said Bayley.

"I had so many of the girls first matches there. I taught Lacey Evans to do a headlock takeover and now look at her. Things like that I was part of everybody's first little thing. I definitely missed them and it was so hard, but I don't think I would be the person that I am now if I didn't have that year by myself because I had nobody to rely on other than myself and then when I got there Sasha Banks was like, here, let me show you everything and I was like, okay. They took care of me and I was very grateful."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Peter Bahi contributed to this article.