If you haven’t seen a lot of discussion of former Raw Women’s champion Bayley around the internet, it may be because the WWE Universe has been shocked into silence by the Hugster’s on-screen story since WrestleMania 33. From titleholder to someone who only lasted a couple minutes against Nia Jax last night, with a feud against Alexa Bliss which did no one any favors in between, her fall from surefire merch moving machine to... wherever she stands now has been remarkable.
Which makes this a perfect time for a trip to 316 Gimmick Street and a chat with Stone Cold on the clean edition of his podcast, The Steve Austin Show. In an episode just released today (June 27), Bayley let’s us in on the face she is also unsure of what to make of her current position in WWE.
Luckily, as a student of the game, B has ideas for the twists and turns Creative might throw at her. In talking about the late great Eddie Guerrero, she tells Stone Cold she knows how she’d play a heel should the need arise:
As far as wrestling and stuff, and him being amazing and being able to do it all, literally one of the guys that can do it all, I remember watching him -- this was like a couple years ago, so I was already here -- and I was watching his old matches in WCW when he was just a heel coming out with his hair soaking wet. He looked miserable!
You don't get that anymore out of heels being like coming out like they're completely miserable and that makes you like... “Gah, dude, if you don't want to be here just don't come then!” That's how I felt watching him. It's like “Why are you even doing this if you don't even want to do it?”
And then he'd get into the ring and be so nasty and just have that look of like disgust and he was too good for it all. I don't know, it was something about that, like, I always told myself too if I were to ever be heel I want to make myself so miserable because that's one of the most hateable things, I think.
As Geno (who did the transcribing of these quotes, btw - thanks boss!), Marc and I were discussing in the Cageside offices, this could be a brilliant route for Bayley and WWE to take. Given that what we know of her in kayfabe and reality is this vibrant, joyful person, if her on-screen struggles make her miserable, that would be great justification for a more villainous character. Plus, since fans would know what drove her to change, most of us would hope for redemption and a return of the bubbly hugger we once knew.
A Bayley heel turn seemed unthinkable a year ago, after she’d been built up and torn down and rebuilt yet still fell short in NXT, all without wavering from her good girl persona. But as she told Austin, she’s learning how different the main roster is from WWE’s developmental/third brand. And it’s those differences as much as anything that have her questioning her place on Raw right now:
With NXT I felt I can do anything. I knew exactly what they wanted and how they were going to react to me and my opponent, no matter who it was. I knew what they can do to get a reaction and what I can do to get sympathy or anything. But with this crowd I'm still kind of figuring them out with WWE.
I think it has a lot to do with, I don't know, in this day and age the crowds are... it's so different than back then and they all want to cheer for the wrong person or they're on their Twitter. That can mess with your head too, just reading tweets and people telling you this and you start to believe it. And you're like 'wait...' I've had to stay off Twitter before for a while because that can definitely mess with your head. I've seen it happen to people and I hear people talk about it. It shouldn't matter because we're doing our job and what we're told to do and what we love.
But I'm still kind of figuring them out. I feel right now I'm kind of in a weird spot with my career. So when I first came I felt like “Alright, I'm still from NXT.” I felt like I knew exactly what I was doing. But now I'm just... you know how we were talking a couple months ago and you were helping me out with matches and stuff and how I need to go about certain things, I'm still figuring it out.
I'm at a weird spot right now.
Now, I’m a giant Bayley mark from way back. So just hearing her struggling with doubt makes her an even bigger babyface in my book.
But maybe something drastic needs to change for her star to shine in the larger WWE Universe. And hearing her thoughts on how a rudo version of her character would work, I’m more open to that possibility than I’ve even been before me.
Listen to the whole podcast here, and let us know... whether you’re a Hugger or not - what do you think?