WWE Women’s Champion Bayley was thrilled to turn heel in 2019 as she felt at the time that her career in the company had hit a serious stand-still.
Speaking on Cody Rhodes’ new show ‘What Do You Wanna Talk About?’ Bayley reflected on her heel turn, and why she was more than ready at the time.
“I was nervous because I thought what if it didn’t work, but I was also in the spot where that character, the bubbly babyface, wasn’t working either. So I was at a crossroads of ‘If I never try this I’ll never know’… So turning to a bad guy was my decision because I felt that I was going nowhere and the fact that they [WWE] wanted to go with it, it was perfect timing.”
Bayley’s Heel Turn
After years as a bubbly, lovable babyface, Bayley turned heel by helping Sasha Banks attack Becky Lynch with a steel chair. While Bayley justified her role as simply helping a friend, her villainous role was confirmed in the weeks that followed.
In her first pay-per-view match post-aiding Lynch, Bayley retained the SmackDown Women’s Title thanks to the use of an exposed turnbuckle. Again, Bayley played innocent and chalked the use of the turnbuckle on sheer coincidence and not intentional. After losing the title to Charlotte Flair at Hell in a Cell, Bayley regained the gold on the following SmackDown. A new look and theme song made Bayley’s heel turn apparent, as did her butchering of the ‘Bayley Buddies.’
Bayley’s heel turn would work out for the former Hugger who became a highlight of WWE TV, especially during the crowd-less days of the Pandemic. Ironically, Bayley’s work as a heel would become so popular with fans, that it has turned the WWE Women’s Champion into a face, albeit a much different one than before.
Bayley Comments On Her Face Turn After WWE Royal Rumble Win
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