Bayley (@itsBayleyWWE) is a professional wrestler currently signed to WWE. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Las Vegas to discuss getting started with WWE and d…
podcast.chrisvanvliet.com
On mixing up the hair colors:
"Since Mania last year, I did purple because IYO and I had both had red hair, and so I was like well we're not a team anymore, so I kind of need to change it up. Then I wanted to do full purple like this, but it was so last minute. We were on Sunday and then I had appearances Saturday, and I was like well, I can't just show off my hair at an appearance. It has to show off at Mania. So, my hair lady came to my Airbnb I had for my friends and stuff at like four in the morning and just fixed all my red hair and put purple in. She's like, I can't do the whole thing. We don't have time for that. It's like, okay, so now I finally got it."
On Michael Cole:
"We'll be putting stuff together before the show and he'll be like, 'Hey Bayley, so I guess I gotta cheer for you tonight because you're wrestling Liv.' I'm like, 'You don't have to cheer for me, Michael, I don't care what you do.' [He goes] 'Oh, well, screw you then', and he just flips me off from the chair and I'm in the ring trying to do my work. He's just so funny, dude. He's for real, like a mentor to me. He's somebody that I can go to, he's been here for so long, and he's always available. You can't always get in Hunter's ear, Michael Hayes is always available, and he has a very different mindset. But Cole is there watching everything, watching every girl's match, watching all the guys' matches, and he's been doing it and calling matches forever. So getting his mindset on things is always super helpful and he's just always rooting for us and he has a different insight on stuff. So as much as I give him crap on TV, he's somebody that even just up until just Monday, I went on Pat's bus with him. As I was getting ready, I was texting him, 'Hey, where you at? I'm wrestling Liv, and I just have some notes to give you.' And he's like, 'Hey, I'm on Pat's bus, come on over.' I'm like, okay. So I went and sat with him, and Pat and just kind of gave him some notes, but he also asked, so what's going on with this, and what's going on with that? How can we make this better? Because he kind of has an idea of the direction I want to go as a character. So he really is the best, and he really wants the best for everybody, but not everyone uses him as an outlet, but he's so knowledgeable, and I've learned a lot from him."
On how long she intends to wrestle for:
"When I was younger, because women didn't wrestle as long as we're doing it now. Trish and Lita, if you think about it, they were everyone's heroes. They were my heroes, and they only did it like, six, seven years with WWE, and were only on top for three years or something. So to me, that was always in my head. But now you look at Nattie, who's been here forever. I just wrestled her on Friday, and just incredible in the ring. Just one of one, and everything that she brings to it, not just in the ring, but her experience, and we really need that in the locker room. So I always think that even if I'm not wrestling every week, there's something that I have that can help the locker room just like she does, just like Naomi does, just like Tamina does. But when I was younger I always said all right, 35 would be my cut off, because, in my opinion, guys can go forever, but it's not that cute when you're a woman and you’re 35. But now that I'm 35 I'm just like, Oh we're all way past that, and we're still, main eventing, we're still, doing red carpets, we're still doing all this stuff. People still care about us. So that's kind of like something, they still care about us. So that's kind of like changed my mindset."
On what’s next:
"I have so many other things I want to make it into. I have a year and a half left on this current contract, so we'll see what happens then. [And then what?] Man, I don't know. I think I've done everything I really want to do, not everything. There's still a lot I want to get done, but done so much with WWE and I've been here for already 12 years and there's a huge wave of women coming in that I think are ready to take over, ready to be in those spots. Teaming with Lyra right now has been super eye-opening to what the whole division has to offer. I've got to work with Roxanne. I got to work with Cora. But even like last night, hanging out with Lyra, we went out to dinner, and we hung out with Michin for her birthday. But being able to hang out with her outside of wrestling, hearing her mindset and why she does this, why she wants to make it better, what she wants to make better, how she wants to help even me. Things that we're doing going into WrestleMania, how she wants to be better for me makes me so happy that there's people like that and women like that that want to be better for the division. So when I think about okay, I might be done in a couple of years, who knows? I know that it's going to be in good hands. So that makes me really happy. Where before John Cena always says he couldn't leave, because who was going to do what he does? Who's going to take his place? Who's going to be the one to freaking put asses in seats? Who's going to be the one that the kids want to see, that the kids idolize to the level that he does? Cody's doing that. I'm not saying I'm John Cena, but that's kind of the same mindset. As long as it's in good hands, the goal was to just leave it in a better place than you found it."
On getting to WWE:
"I didn't know how to explain it. I didn't know how I was gonna get here, it's a little different nowadays. You see NXT, or you see WWE ID, you see different avenues and routes that you can take to get here. But I never saw how to get here, and I didn't even know when I ended up training at my wrestling school, I didn't know they had a school, and I didn't know what I was going to do, but there was just something that I believed in. Something I felt that was just pulling me like okay, you're gonna be there one day. So I wasn't ever worried that I wasn't gonna make it. I was just like how will I get there? But I always knew I was and it's just a weird feeling, and not like a cocky thing, I have no business just being here. I'm not athletic, I'm not a model, I don't have anything that stands [out]. I just had that feeling. I tell people that all the time. What advice would you give to anyone who has a dream, or anyone who wants to be a wrestler? And it sounds like such the lamest answer, but it's so true. You can do literally anything you want. People think that it's too out of reach, like whatever they want."
On developing her hugger persona:
"The fans made that happen. So when I came up with the character, my character came from Molly Shannon from
Superstar, the movie, that's where it stemmed from. I was like, okay, I can have all the nervous antics like her, and then I could just be a super fan, and Dusty loved it. When we started doing promo class, everybody was looking forward to who I was going to be a fan of that day, or what I was going to do and I just had so much fun. Then when we finally did it on TV, I wrestled Alicia Fox, it wasn't even that match. It was actually my match with AJ [Lee]. We were doing something where I literally went to hug and I was just gonna hug her as a fan. Then just me hugging her got a crazy reaction at Full Sail. Then I was like, All right, I'm just gonna run you into the corner. So I ran her to the corner so it came off like an offensive move, and they went freaking crazy. Then she told me do it again, so then I grabbed her and ran her to the corner. She's like, one more time, and I did, and they were getting louder and louder each time. Then I think the next match they just started chanting, ‘Bayley’s gonna hug you’, and that was never my thought of being like I'm gonna be a hugger. Never had merch ideas, nothing. But it was from that match and her just saying do it again. All right, one more time. Just her hearing that reaction, it'd be hilarious."
On the Bayley Buddies:
"I think that was supposed to be Adam Rose's. I don't know what exactly happened or why it didn't work for him, maybe he didn't want it. But I literally showed up at TV that day and they're like, hey, we want to go through your entrance real quick. I was like, okay. At that point, I was like, they never do that to me. I'm just freaking loser, I just walk out and I wave to people. I already had the character, but I think that I was maybe a month into the character, then they surprised me with it, came out and they popped up. It's like, this is awesome. Everybody watching, talent and stuff were like, Dude, that looks so cool and, yeah, it became a thing. I think it was supposed to be for Adam Rose though, because he had a whole, crazy character stuff. But I was so happy even having that. I remember sometimes at entrances for big matches, whenever they would pop up it would get a second pop. I would get a good reaction. But then the tube men got a big pop. It was like oh sh*t, they're here."
On whether the Bayley Buddies will return:
"I cut them up and then they sold them. They sold the cut ones. They sliced them into pieces, and then they sold them. I think it's like a picture of me slicing them, or something like that. I don't know."
On her pandemic injury:
"This will be a story for another day, because I'm not ready to share it yet, but my injury ended up being more than what everybody knows. It was a bigger injury than anybody knows. There's a few people that are aware of it, and obviously the office and stuff. But that's the reason, wasn't just an ACL thing, it was a bigger injury, and that's the reason why it kept me out longer. It still bugs me to this day, I can't do certain things, it's hard for me to run, it's hard for me to do leg curls. There's a lot of things that I can't do because of that injury. So there was a time, maybe in PT doing stuff where I was like I can't even walk, I can't jump. How am I supposed to wrestle in like three months or something? So there was that little doubt which I'm sure everybody goes through with injuries, but I always knew that I was going to come back. Because, I mean, it wasn't that crazy of an injury. It was just like where am I going to fit in kind of thing. My whole idea behind Damage CTRL was like alright, I've won my championships. I've had my Mania moments. Now as a character and as a bad guy, I could be like I don't even want anything for myself, I want it for them. They're gonna reap all the benefits of my experience, and they're gonna get all the championships, and they're gonna get everything. Then when the time is right, I'm gonna steal it right from them, I'm gonna take the spotlight right back when I'm ready. But while I'm still recovering and finding my ways, they're gonna do all the work for me. That was my idea behind it."
On her original pitch for Damage CTRL:
"I had a whole [plan], there's five of us, my pitch for Damage CTRL. I also had Raquel in it. I also had Alba Fyre in it. I had so many other girls in mind too. I had Toni Storm. I wanted Toni Storm in it. But when I actually sat at the PC and shot stuff, it was with Raquel and Alba, and all five of us. I had reasons why I wanted them. Raquel was obviously our muscle, but she was teaming with Dakota at the time, I believe. So they worked out perfectly. Alba and IYO I think we're teaming a little bit there, so they worked out perfectly. But in my mind, it was there's two tag teams, and then IYO was my champion; she was going to be the champion. I just want to do everything in wrestling. That's how I always thought. I want to be a bad guy. I want to be a good guy. I want to be in a faction. I want to be in a tag team. I want to be a singles wrestler. I want to be in a romantic love angle someday. I want to be able to do everything, because there's so many different things that we could do in this crazy world to not try different avenues and work with as many people as possible. I just want to do it."
On having more fun as a heel:
"I'm still having a hard time finding myself as a babyface right now. I feel like I'm just so much of me as a person, like me, Pam, and it doesn't translate well in wrestling. So I'm trying to find how that works. In my mind, when I was like I'm gonna turn, me and Damage CTRL are breaking up, win the title, I thought I'm gonna have the most fun. Now I have the experience of a good guy and a bad guy I'm gonna be like Stone Cold Steve Austin, I'm gonna have the most fun ever, and it just wasn't that. It just wasn't fun, it was just kind of like more I wasn't having fun, and I felt like the reign wasn't what I thought it was going to be. So that obviously translated in the ring, and it just nothing was there. So I feel like I'm still trying to find where that is. But as a heel, it's so fun. I can just turn up my annoying sh*t easily, like how I am with my friends, or how I am with my family or my mom. I'm so annoying to my mom, I can just turn all that up and people can relate to that, I think, because they all know somebody like that, there's just like too much, and that's really fun. I feel like Liv is in that spot right now where she's the sweetest ever, but she also has this side of her of she's super talkative and social and loud, and now she can bring all that into a character and turn it up a million and do it with Dom, who everyone loves to hate right now, so I think it's more fun. I know everybody says that, but not everybody can do it, I think."
On changing her finisher:
"Everyone hates my finish, huh? Sorry guys. It was a finish that I did on the indies. [Why do they hate it?] I don't know. The setup is really hard. Sometimes I'm like trying to figure out where to put it, or how to get into it. I'm like, Man, this is annoying. This move sucks. But I think it's hard to get into sometimes, but when I get smooth ways to do it, it comes out really good. But that is why I changed it, and because I thought the Bayley to belly was very gimmicky."
On some fans still not giving her the respect she deserves:
"And that sucks, because like I said, I don't let things get to me and I stopped reading tweets or comments and all that stuff a long time ago. But I do feel that, and I see that, and I'm just like, What am I missing? So that's the one thing that still gets to me, and maybe that's ego or pride or whatever. But I'm just like, What am I missing that you don't understand what I've done for this industry? It's hard to explain, especially now, because I feel like, okay, I've been wrestling for like 16 years altogether. So I'm like, Okay, well obviously I'm gonna slow down at some point, but now when I see sh*t like that, ‘She's not this or not this…’ Now I gotta prove them wrong. But there's also a part of me that feels and agrees with them. I was just telling Lyra this the other day. We've been doing a lot of bonding. I don't feel that I'm at a level of Charlotte or a Becky. We came up together and I wrestled Charlotte in her first match ever, I was signed to WWE before Becky. So to me, they're up here, and I'm just not there yet. Maybe that's kind of where people base it off, or where they judge it, or whatever. But I keep saying I get my feedback and opinions from the right people. To me, someone like Tyler Breeze, who taught me so many things. I still talk to him about all my matches, he still gives me feedback, he still gives me ideas to this day and if he enjoys something that I do, then I believe it, and I respect it. But if he tells me you need to do this better, I'll do it. Someone like TJ, whatever he says, I respect it, and I believe him. So as many people think that I'm not at this level, or whatever, part of me agrees with them, because I don't think I'm there yet."
On not being at the WrestleMania 40 press conference:
"I don't get on the press conference. I don't get on the posters. I don't get to do the talk shows. I don't know what else to do, and it's not like [there’s an issue], there's no heat backstage or anything like that. Hunter and I have a really good relationship. Bruce and I have a really good relationship, all the TR, I have such a good relationship with them, and I've always been professional. Even when I've gone to other shows to support my friends, we've had those conversations of like, the do's and the don'ts, and that was a little too much. We've had those conversations, so I think we're at a real respect level. Hunter has gone on a press conference being like, Bayley’s this, Bayley’s this, she's everything that you could possibly want out of a superstar, which I appreciate. But it's like alright, well what do I need to do to get me there?"
On the Hey Bayley chant:
"I think it was in London, the tour we did. Because I did a tour when I was NXT Champion with WWE before our Brooklyn match. But I think it was the tour that we did with NXT before my London match with Nia. So we did a few shows before the London match, and I think the UK crowd started it then, and I didn't really get it until maybe the second or third show. Because it was our first time there. But they were chanting for everybody. And then when they came up with that, I was like, that's really cool. But then when we did it in London, that was the first time I felt that the crowd really brought me to life. I wish everybody could feel that feeling. I say that all the time, but it was like she was killing me in the match and I was just like, dead, how am I going to survive kind of thing, dead on the floor. When they started singing, I felt such a crazy energy like they're really bringing me back to life. It was so, so wild. I just love that it's come this far and that they still do it. I feel like that's something I always have when I go over there and I love it."
What is Bayley grateful for?
"My family, my health and that I get to travel."
