Bayley On Her Greatest Memory In Wrestling, Reaction To Not Being Called Up With Other Horsewomen
Recently on E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness, pro wrestling legends Edge and Christian were joined by current WWE Superstar, it's Bayley! The former NXT Women's Champion discussed her groundbreaking NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn match versus Sasha Banks, how she felt about not being called up to WWE's so-called main roster with the rest of the Four Horsewomen, and producing matches in NXT.
According to Bayley, her acclaimed NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn match remains her "greatest memory".
"That's definitely a milestone in both of our [pro wrestling] careers. That's one that people do ask us about it a lot and I don't ever get tired of it. And for some reason, it still gets me emotional. Like, I can still remember every single detail about it, and every second leading up to it, and just every emotion that went into it still. That's my greatest memory."
Bayley divulged that she and Banks did not have much time to put the match together, as Banks being called up to RAW meant 'The Boss' would be on the road as opposed to being in the WWE Performance Center with 'The Hugger'.
"I don't think we had very much time, to be honest, because Sasha had just gotten onto the main roster, so we hadn't really been seeing each other much and I was kind of just working at the [WWE Performance Center] and doing the NXT shows and she was, like, on tour. I believe she was on tour right before the match because the match was in August and WWE goes to Europe in November, so, like, she was gone. It was kind of hard to communicate and stuff. I think we may have talked over it once at the PC and then the day of. Like, we didn't see each other till the day of because she also had a SummerSlam match the next night, so she was preparing for all that and she had appearances leading up to it, I had appearances leading up to it, and we didn't really talk-talk until, like, the night of. But we both had our own ideas and we both went over stuff that one time we did get to meet."
Given how extensively the two have worked together, they were not nervous going into the match. With that said, there was a lot of pressure on the pair to put on a strong showing.
"Because we worked together so many times before, it's not like we were nervous that we weren't going to? I mean, we already knew each other so well, so it wasn't like nerve-racking or anything like that. It was just a big moment and we both knew how important the night was to Triple H and to NXT. And for us, we wanted the match to just be as big as it can be, especially [because] it was supposed to be [Banks'] last NXT match, so I wanted to make sure she went out and felt proud about it, so I put pressure on myself. I wanted her to be happy going out." Bayley added, "It was just one of those nights we knew we had to nail it."
Bayley admitted that she was "bummed out" about being left in NXT when the other Horsewomen, Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, and Sasha Banks, were called up to RAW and SmackDown Live, as she hoped the women would have formed a cool faction on the main roster.
"Well, at first, I was a little bummed out because I always thought that myself, Becky, Charlotte, and Sasha would have gone up together and kind of be, in a perfect world, we were going to be this cool faction and then takeover and whatever, change things and stuff like that, but [WWE officials] had a different plan."
Although Bayley was admittedly disappointed about being left off the main roster when the other Horsewomen were called up, she was kept in NXT to help along the new recruits and took to her newfound role as locker room leader.
"At first I was like, 'oh, this kind of sucks. This is bad and I'm going to miss them.' They were the ones I was working with all the time, so it was a little hard at first, but once I was like, 'okay, I'm the champion now, and all these girls are either brand new or they've just started, just got signed. Asuka was just getting started, so I took it as, they told me, like, I'm there to kind of help out the younger talent and just kind of lead the women's division for a bit, which I was so excited to do because, as I was there, I was there just as long as the other girls, a little bit shorter than, like, Charlotte and Sasha, but, like, they were always the leaders, or, like, Paige, was the locker room leader and I never really had my chance to be the one, so after a while, I started taking a huge liking to it and I just enjoyed teaching people and helping the girls."
While Bayley always wanted to be a trainer, assisting new talents at the WWE PC provider her with some practical experience in the field.
"I've always wanted to be a trainer and that was kind of like my first taste of it. I thought it was awesome to just be a part of that and kind of help NXT also and continue the growing of it all."
Bayley acknowledged that she saw herself as the weak link of the Horsewomen and that she enjoyed having the opportunity to work other talents in NXT and lead the NXT women's division to show she could succeed on her own.
"I was like, 'I'm going to prove I don't need Sasha or Becky or Charlotte to have good matches or we don't need them to carry the division anymore.' Like, I wanted to prove that I can do it on my own because in my eyes, I was always kind of seen as the weaker link of the four, so I always wanted to prove to everybody, like, 'I can do this too and I can help people, lead people, and carry the division,' so it was a huge honor and I was so happy to be able to, like, carry the championship for that amount of time and then to pass it on to Asuka when it was time and all that. So it was a great [time]. I still think that was probably my most valuable time of my career. I just learned so much in that time."
Also during the interview, Bayley said she had the opportunity to produce a little bit in NXT, though that line of work may not be her preference.
"That was cool, yeah. Matt Bloom, I think it was nights I wasn't working or it was nights where I had a match, but there was also a second women's match where the girls were brand new, so he would either let me sit on headset or he's like, 'hey, do you want to produce this one?' I'm like, 'yeah.' And it was so cool. It's kind of scary, but I don't know if it's a job for me, but it was definitely a lot to learn."
TOMMMAY! If you use any of the quotations from this article, please credit E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness