If it were up to Bayley, there would be even more members of Damage CTRL right now.
Since aligning at SummerSlam 2022, the trio of Bayley, Dakota Kai, and IYO SKY have established themselves as major players in the women’s locker room. Kai and SKY have dominated the women’s tag team division with two title reigns, while Bayley has tackled multiple singles stars, including Becky Lynch and RAW Women’s Champion Bianca Belair. As it turns out, though, Bayley — the leader of the group — wanted some additional figures to join her in the formation of the faction.
In a new interview with BT Sport’s Ariel Helwani, Bayley revealed that she pitched the group concept “a couple years” before it finally panned out.
“[The idea] had a different group of people as the time went on,” she said. “Peyton Royce was someone that I really wanted in there. Tegan Nox was someone that I wanted in there. There were a lot of people that it just kind of changed throughout time and as people left the company and things like that, but Dakota was always — she’s one of the OG’s that I always envisioned in this group.”
Planting The Seeds
Bayley later explained that she brought the idea up to Paul “Triple H” Levesque a few WrestleMania’s ago, but after receiving feedback, she made some tweaks. And after trading “a million” different name ideas with creative, “The Role Model” said they couldn’t get on the same page. One of the stable names she pitched was called “The Now.”
“To me, I didn’t care about the championships I won in the past, I don’t care about what happens next, these girls right here and what we’re about to do, the present is all that matters. So, ‘The Now’ was my first idea.”
Due to legal matters, however, that name didn’t work out, but eventually, they landed on Damage CTRL. “To me, Damage CTRL is just kind of showing the world how much more there is to offer than what you just see on TV every week,” Bayley said.
