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Bayley is no longer “bored.”
The SmackDown women’s champion had wrestled under the WWE umbrella since 2012 as the lovable, huggable and happy character that made her a breakout star with the Four Horsewomen in NXT and the company’s first grand slam women’s champion. She felt that character accomplished all it could, capped by a year that saw her win the first women’s tag team titles, Money in the Bank and the SmackDown women’s championship.
It was time for a change. Time for something new.
“I need to be able to do everything and test the waters everywhere and ride the waves and challenge myself,” Bayley told The Post in a phone interview ahead of “SmackDown on Fox” coming to Barclays Center on Dec. 20.
“I can’t get stale and bored and do the same thing over and over. In order to excel in this business, you have to constantly evolve.”
In October, after a loss to Charlotte Flair at Hell in a Cell, Bayley fully turned heel for the first time, unveiling a complete makeover — new hair, new ring gear, new music and a new attitude. She made it official by hacking down the wacky waving inflatable tubemen that were a symbol of her old self.
She says that projecting her character’s disgust and anger to the audience is just as “exhausting” as being happy and energetic. Bayley said it’s going well so far but she still has work to do. Both personas are rooted in real emotions that make it relatable to the audience.
“I think honestly it’s real frustration,” Bayley said. “I’ve been wrestling for over 10 years. I’ve been with WWE for seven years, so not all of it has been colorful and castle-like and wacky wavy inflatable tubemen and happy and fun. It’s been a struggle. It’s really, really difficult to kind of stay on top for a period of time, so it’s pretty easy to find frustration believe it or not.”
She’s getting to do it alongside close friend and frequent on-screen partner Sasha Banks — one of the top heels in WWE. Bayley said it will be difficult for the company to ever break them up because what they have is “real and it’s genuine, so there is no way to put us against each other” or “even pretend to break that up.” She credits Banks with helping her every step of the way in WWE, maybe now more than ever.
“I would say this time is the [one] I need the most help in I guess,” Bayley said.
Bayley’s turn could let them enter a new phase — forming a heel tag team. It’s something she and Banks — who were already the babyface Boss and Hug Connection — have talked about doing, but never expected they’d get the chance to in WWE.
“It’s like a dream come true because we have always talked about being a team that was just such jerks,” Bayley said. “And we were like, man, it’s never gonna happen. There’s no way they’ll make this possible. And just recently we have been able to tag on live events and dark matches and all that stuff where we are able to try a few things out, and it’s just amazing.”
Bayley said she’s comfortable in her new role even if she does miss her old persona, but said it is “more of a challenge for the fans to accept than me.”
She believes her diehard supporters, including the young girls, will stay with her because she remembers her time as a WWE fan sticking with her favorites no matter their motives.
“If I proclaimed someone as my favorite wrestler or favorite WWE superstar, I was going to be loyal no matter what.” she said.
The former NXT women’s champion got to reconnect with a familiar audience during the build to Survivor Series when she attacked Shayna Baszler, the brand’s current title-holder, at Full Sail University. Returning was surreal in some ways with NXT now live Wednesdays on USA. Bayley remembers the show being on Hulu, not even WWE Network, when she was there, calling it “super insane” to see everything that goes into it now.
Her few seconds of screen time came with hours and hours of travel. Bayley was on tour with WWE in Europe when she was told a day or two prior she was going to have to fly from France to Orlando for the show.
“It was ridiculous,” she said. “I literally landed at 3 p.m. in Orlando and I left France at like 6 a.m. so it was like a 13-hour travel day. It was terrible. I got in at 3, landing at my hotel, frickin’ showered, dropped my bags, came right to Full Sail and got to work.”
Bayley eventually ended up being pinned by Baszler in the match, which main evented Survivor Series. There were reports WWE chairman Vince McMahon was not happy with the match. Bayley said she didn’t see him afterward and didn’t know how he felt about it. She would, however, like another match with Baszler, calling it something that would be “very different for the audience.”
With the craziness of the Survivor Series crossovers complete, Bayley can see SmackDown and Raw hitting their stride now that the hard brand-split is finally in place. She said it will become clearer for the audience who is on which brand because after the draft, it didn’t feel like one because the superstars were still all on both shows. For her, the hard split means a potential feud with Lacey Evans, who is in the process of becoming a babyface.
“She’s a very different type of performer,” Bayley said. “She’s super talented. She does things I wish I was able to do a little bit. She has a very different work ethic coming from the Marines. It’s pretty interesting to see. I think it’s going to be very fun.”
Another show Bayley would like to appear on is Fox Sports 1’s “WWE Backstage” on Tuesday nights. She, Banks, Kairi Sane, Asuka and Rhea Ripley were people commentator CM Punk tweeted he wants to see on the show. Bayley has some conditions, however.
“Yeah, only if Punk is there and I get to hang out and talk with him,” she said. “If Sasha and I go together and they fly us on a private jet and when we get there they have some fine coffee ready for us, then yes I will hang out with CM Punk and Renee Young and Paige and Booker T.”
Last week on SmackDown she got to interact with Elias — her former Mixed Match Challenge partner — backstage before a match with Dana Brooke. Bayley, who learned how to play the guitar in high school after unexpectedly getting one as a gift from her dad, still remembers one song — Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” She played it to open a concert by Neck Deep, Lil’ Wayne and Blink 182 in August and still likes to have fun with the instrument.
“I’ll pick up like Elias’ guitar and mess around with it,” Bayley said.
On Friday, she gets to return to Barclays Center — a place she has made some of the best music in her wrestling career, including her NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn match with Banks and her Raw debut. The building will always hold a special place for her.
“There’s so many memories just in the hallways, in the locker room, remembering feelings,” Bayley said. “It hits me every time I walk in.”
When she walks through the curtain this time, she will be presenting a very different Bayley, one she had to look inward to find.
“I think it takes a lot of soul searching to do something like that,” Bayley said. “And I have to be very honest with myself, and I don’t feel like a lot of the women are.”
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