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Bayley was one of those WWE superstars who fans had a hard time imagining as a heel. When she made her name in NXT, she was arguably the biggest babyface on the brand. While fans also assumed that her success in NXT would translate to success on the main roster, they were certainly unaware of how long it would take and the road that Bayley would have to go through to make the history that she has made.
With only the Women's Royal Rumble left to win, Bayley has achieved virtually every possible accolade for a woman in WWE. Most recently, she completed a full calendar year as SmackDown Women's Champion - a feat that hasn't been accomplished before on the blue brand.
Bayley also became the #1 ranked female on Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI). On The PWI Podcast, Bayley addressed her heel turn, revealing that she wanted to experience various things in her career. While admitting that it was her idea to turn heel, she said that she had the blessing of Vince McMahon (H/T Wrestlingnews.co):
“Yes, for sure. Everyone second-guessed things, especially for me because I was doing that Bayley character for 7 years and it brought me so much success. It brought me championships and brought me to the WWE, but it was not something I wanted to do forever. I want to experience everything in my career. I want to ride the wave and do all sorts of things. I knew I couldn’t do it being that one character. Honestly, once I had the company’s blessing and Vince’s blessing, I knew I had to make it work. I had to make it work because it was my decision. If I failed then I failed myself and I failed the company. I definitely think people not believing in me helps because you love to prove people wrong. It helps on screen as well because then I’m not doing it for them, I’m doing it for me.”
Why Bayley desperately needed a character change
Bayley may have been finding success as a babyface again after two forgettable years from post-WrestleMania 2017 until Money in the Bank 2019. MITB 2019 would be the turning point of her career, where it seemed like all the damage done to her character had been revived.
Even still, nobody anticipated that she would turn heel, and once she did that, she took her career to a whole new level. It would be unlikely that she would have found the same success this past year as the same vanilla babyface character.
It goes to show how much change is needed in WWE and Bayley was smart enough to realize that she wasn't going to get far with the same character. She enters Hell in a Cell for the first time in her career on October 25th when she takes on Sasha Banks for the SmackDown Women's Championship.
It will be the first time in a year when Bayley is expected to lose the title.
