When Bayley joined WWE she quickly rose to popularity with her “Hugger” gimmick that became beloved amongst the fans. The special connection that she had with audiences earned her a spot on the main roster with her other fellow four horsewomen Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch. The four women changed the landscape of women’s wrestling forever. While the other three women had gone through immense character development, Bayley found herself in need of a complete character change. That’s why in 2019 on an episode of SmackDown she slashed the inflatables and officially began her heel turn which shocked fans. She has continued to work heel over the years until this year when Damage CTRL attacked her in the lead up to WrestleMania 40, effectively turning her face.
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Bayley’s Infamous Heel Turn in WWE
On the What Do You Wanna Talk About? podcast, Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and Bayley, now Women’s Champion, discussed several topics about their careers, including Bayley’s unforgettable heel turn. Bayley revealed that the idea to turn was actually her idea, as she believed she was at a crossroads in her career. She wanted to try different things and felt like it was as good of a time as ever to see if it would stick.
“Yes, I was more so nervous because I thought, what if it didn’t work? But, I was also in that spot where that character, the fan favorite bubbly baby face wasn’t working either. So it was kind of like I was at a crossroads of, if I never try this then i’ll never know. I always, as a fan, wanted to do everything. I wanna be a good guy, I wanna be a bad guy, I wanna be in a love story, I wanna do the craziest things cause I want all of that experience. I was a little nervous when I first started because I thought I would get a lot of female Cena comments, which is the best compliment I could ever get in that character, but I also was like, I wanna try different things.
So, turning to a bad guy was my decision because I felt that I was going nowhere and the fact that they actually wanted to go with it, it was perfect timing. I cut my hair off and had to go in to see if it was okay. They cut off my whole gimmick and luckily they approved of it and liked it. I just think that is really when, I mean, I had so much fun with that character but being able to embrace myself and my own personality in a real way — and I always try to connect who I really am with my character and it just felt like I was growing as a person inside. Being able to share that with the audience, it just felt like the right time and it was scary, but I think that’s what made it good” (h/t: Fightful).
Bayley is the current WWE Women’s Champion, having won the Royal Rumble and defeated IYO SKY at WrestleMania. She will face her biggest challenge in this reign — Nia Jax — at SummerSlam in Cleveland in just a few weeks time. Jax won this year’s Queen of the Ring which included a title shot at the event. The only problem is Tiffany Stratton is currently holding the Money in the Bank briefcase, which means she can cash in any time. If she chooses to pull a similar scenario to IYO, she could cash in at SummerSlam and make it a triple threat, though it seems like that’s unlikely and her story will continue for awhile longer. Besides, she hasn’t even gotten a chance to bling out her briefcase!
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