Bayley had no problem putting her pursuit of individual accolades and championships on hold for a shot at a special form of history in WWE.
Now that she’s achieved it, it’s time to circle back to putting some singles gold back round her waist as she hopes to win the 2023 women’s Royal Rumble for the primary time at Tropicana Field on Jan. 27 (8 p.m. ET, Peacock).
Winning the Rumble and getting a main-event level singles match at WrestleMania can be for her the last two major things to finish her already extensive WWE résumé.
Bayley has never even had a singles match on the Grandest Stage of Them All.
She’s been in two multi-person singles matches, a tag team fatal four-way, a battle royal and last 12 months a six-woman tag that pitted Damage CTRL against Becky Lynch, Trish Straus and Lita.
“Winning the Rumble, especially with the short lineage that it has right away, so to be considered one of the primary 10 [people] in history [to win] since it’s gonna go on endlessly can be very, very, very cool and I might get my first singles WrestleMania match ever,” Bayley told The Post. “I’ve had so many various WrestleMania matches and last 12 months was a dream come true, obviously. But getting a singles match for a championship is every wrestler’s dream at WrestleMania, so I’ve gotta do it. That is my 12 months.”
You’ll be able to say the last two years have belonged to Bayley differently.
When she returned to WWE at SummerSlam 2022 after a 12 months away due to an ACL injury, she was flanked by Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai to form Damage CTRL.
Since then, with Bayley because the trio’s on-screen leader, they became a dominant and seemingly ever-present force and a part of the WWE women’s division’s biggest storylines.
“At the moment in my profession, that was my goal [to start a faction] and that to me seemed more unattainable than going after a championship,” Bayley said. “It’s like, OK, I could get back right into a championship story or I could go after a title and be a champion for nevertheless long. Not been there, done that, but to me that comes a little bit more natural and a little bit easier than being, ‘Hey boss, Mr. McMahon or Mr. Levesque, I would like to bring these girls in and I would like to start out something brand recent.’ That’s harder and that was something that was harder to beat.”
There had been women’s groups of that size before in the corporate and Bayley at all times dreamed of more.
The group went to a special level when Asuka turned heel and Kairi Sane returned at Crown Jewel in November to hitch Damage CTRL and form WWE’s first all-women’s faction larger than three people.
It’s amongst the perfect collections of girls’s talent ever in a single group and the completion of a goal Bayley thought before 2022 is perhaps unattainable.
“There’s been women’s trios, but there was never a faction like this of all women, at the least with WWE,” she said. “So, this has been mind-blowing.”
Bayley originally believed WWE would give her two more up-and-coming stars to bring along along with her, not those with the pedigree of Asuka and Sane.
“In my mind, I might have Jacy Jayne or Cora Jade [from NXT] and like, let’s groom these girls, and it will be something like that to grow the group,” Bayley said. “The proven fact that we got Kairi Sane and Asuka where it’s like, I don’t even should do anything. There isn’t a starting over. There isn’t a grooming. This just lit it on fire and I can’t even begin to clarify how honored I feel to have those girls by our side. We‘re very dangerous now.”
The forming of the faction led to what turned out to be a rare treat for fans as Bayley, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch – three of the 4 Horsewomen of wrestling – were in matches for the primary time since 2019 during their program that culminated in a WarGames match at Survivor Series.
Bayley said it didn’t register for her immediately – since she had worked with each women plenty individually on and off TV during that point – until she saw fans beginning to point it out.
“I didnt really take into consideration that just cause [one of] the last times were were all together was them versus me and Sasha [Banks],” Bayley said. “When I believe of us together it’s at all times all 4 of us. Because one was missing, I don’t think it really hit me like that. But people were tweeting about it.”
She saw the WarGames match itself as a terrific way for her, Charlotte and Lynch to make use of the “equity” they’ve with the audience to assist the subsequent crop of girls to “get on that level with us” and knows it’ll take time.
Bayley spent many of the match saving her Damage CTRL teammates from losing, though the babyfaces did eventually get the win.
“In a conceited way, I would like to indicate these girls in order that they’ll remember Bayley helped,” she said. “Yeah, Bayley did all the pieces she could to win the WarGames match for those recent girls against Becky and Charlotte. Just couldn’t get it done. I would like to be remembered too, leading the brand new pack.”
It appeared coming out of WarGame that she and Flair could possibly be headed for a program together, this time with The Queen as a full-fledged babyface appealing to Bayley’s higher nature.
But Flair suffered a serious knee injury during a match with Asuka and is anticipated to miss an estimated nine months.
Bayley is considering picking up their story every time Flair returns — just possibly not immediately.
“I just think we are only at such different levels than we were the last time we were in something one-on-one,” Bayley said. “I’m anxious to see how she comes back because she might be essentially the most intense performer and athlete I’ve ever experienced. So to see her come back with a vengeance is gonna be a scary one. So possibly I’ll let her do her thing and are available back around, but will it definitely be special after we do get to do something big together.”
Damage CTRL could possibly be the height of Bayley’s run as a heel, which began in 2019 and has now run longer than her initial time as a babyface.
She believes it’ll stand out to fans essentially the most due to how many various people she has been capable of help along the best way, from doing a number of the company’s best work throughout the fanless pandemic shows with Sasha Banks, to in some ways being the catalyst for Bianca Belair as considered one of WWE’s top stars and babyfaces.
“We helped one another, but her first sightings on Raw and SmackDown were with me and now she’s already main-evented a WrestleMania,” Bayley said. “She’s already held the championships. I believe it’ll be simply because I’ve been capable of do a variety of various things with a variety of different people irrespective of their level of experience.”
If Bayley does win the Royal Rumble, she has for now stated she would challenge WWE women’s world champion Rhea Ripley.
Ripley, like Belair, has emerged as a megastar for the corporate, leading her own faction in The Judgment Day and redefining the role women can play on WWE television.
Bayley takes note that Ripley has been in “every other segment on TV” for a very long time and was on “each show” and that’s “draining to do.”
“If I’m capable of work along with her at WrestleMania, that may just be a dream match I never even considered before,” Bayley said. “She is clearly untouchable. She is essentially the most talked about woman on TV right away and he or she backs it up. She doesn’t just have the look. She doesn’t just have the body. She doesn’t just have – besides Damage CTRL – a badass group to align with.
“She’s so good and it makes me so mad. ‘I’m like why are you so good, you’re so young.’ I can’t even throw a drop kick and she will be able to do one over my head. Just little things that she does that she’s capable of do and portray on TV could be very hard to do and he or she does it with ease.”
The goal for 2024 is to have every healthy member of Damage CTRL holding gold.
Bayley can be greater than comfortable to take the championship burden from Ripley.
“She carried that title on her back proudly,” Bayley said. “I’m gonna should take it off of her and it’ll be an honor to do. It would be an honor, Rhea.”
Bayley had no problem putting her pursuit of individual accolades and championships on hold for a shot at a special form of history in WWE.
Now that she’s achieved it, it’s time to circle back to putting some singles gold back round her waist as she hopes to win the 2023 women’s Royal Rumble for the primary time at Tropicana Field on Jan. 27 (8 p.m. ET, Peacock).
Winning the Rumble and getting a main-event level singles match at WrestleMania can be for her the last two major things to finish her already extensive WWE résumé.
Bayley has never even had a singles match on the Grandest Stage of Them All.
She’s been in two multi-person singles matches, a tag team fatal four-way, a battle royal and last 12 months a six-woman tag that pitted Damage CTRL against Becky Lynch, Trish Straus and Lita.
“Winning the Rumble, especially with the short lineage that it has right away, so to be considered one of the primary 10 [people] in history [to win] since it’s gonna go on endlessly can be very, very, very cool and I might get my first singles WrestleMania match ever,” Bayley told The Post. “I’ve had so many various WrestleMania matches and last 12 months was a dream come true, obviously. But getting a singles match for a championship is every wrestler’s dream at WrestleMania, so I’ve gotta do it. That is my 12 months.”
You’ll be able to say the last two years have belonged to Bayley differently.
When she returned to WWE at SummerSlam 2022 after a 12 months away due to an ACL injury, she was flanked by Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai to form Damage CTRL.
Since then, with Bayley because the trio’s on-screen leader, they became a dominant and seemingly ever-present force and a part of the WWE women’s division’s biggest storylines.
“At the moment in my profession, that was my goal [to start a faction] and that to me seemed more unattainable than going after a championship,” Bayley said. “It’s like, OK, I could get back right into a championship story or I could go after a title and be a champion for nevertheless long. Not been there, done that, but to me that comes a little bit more natural and a little bit easier than being, ‘Hey boss, Mr. McMahon or Mr. Levesque, I would like to bring these girls in and I would like to start out something brand recent.’ That’s harder and that was something that was harder to beat.”
There had been women’s groups of that size before in the corporate and Bayley at all times dreamed of more.
The group went to a special level when Asuka turned heel and Kairi Sane returned at Crown Jewel in November to hitch Damage CTRL and form WWE’s first all-women’s faction larger than three people.
It’s amongst the perfect collections of girls’s talent ever in a single group and the completion of a goal Bayley thought before 2022 is perhaps unattainable.
“There’s been women’s trios, but there was never a faction like this of all women, at the least with WWE,” she said. “So, this has been mind-blowing.”
Bayley originally believed WWE would give her two more up-and-coming stars to bring along along with her, not those with the pedigree of Asuka and Sane.
“In my mind, I might have Jacy Jayne or Cora Jade [from NXT] and like, let’s groom these girls, and it will be something like that to grow the group,” Bayley said. “The proven fact that we got Kairi Sane and Asuka where it’s like, I don’t even should do anything. There isn’t a starting over. There isn’t a grooming. This just lit it on fire and I can’t even begin to clarify how honored I feel to have those girls by our side. We‘re very dangerous now.”
The forming of the faction led to what turned out to be a rare treat for fans as Bayley, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch – three of the 4 Horsewomen of wrestling – were in matches for the primary time since 2019 during their program that culminated in a WarGames match at Survivor Series.
Bayley said it didn’t register for her immediately – since she had worked with each women plenty individually on and off TV during that point – until she saw fans beginning to point it out.
“I didnt really take into consideration that just cause [one of] the last times were were all together was them versus me and Sasha [Banks],” Bayley said. “When I believe of us together it’s at all times all 4 of us. Because one was missing, I don’t think it really hit me like that. But people were tweeting about it.”
She saw the WarGames match itself as a terrific way for her, Charlotte and Lynch to make use of the “equity” they’ve with the audience to assist the subsequent crop of girls to “get on that level with us” and knows it’ll take time.
Bayley spent many of the match saving her Damage CTRL teammates from losing, though the babyfaces did eventually get the win.
“In a conceited way, I would like to indicate these girls in order that they’ll remember Bayley helped,” she said. “Yeah, Bayley did all the pieces she could to win the WarGames match for those recent girls against Becky and Charlotte. Just couldn’t get it done. I would like to be remembered too, leading the brand new pack.”
It appeared coming out of WarGame that she and Flair could possibly be headed for a program together, this time with The Queen as a full-fledged babyface appealing to Bayley’s higher nature.
But Flair suffered a serious knee injury during a match with Asuka and is anticipated to miss an estimated nine months.
Bayley is considering picking up their story every time Flair returns — just possibly not immediately.
“I just think we are only at such different levels than we were the last time we were in something one-on-one,” Bayley said. “I’m anxious to see how she comes back because she might be essentially the most intense performer and athlete I’ve ever experienced. So to see her come back with a vengeance is gonna be a scary one. So possibly I’ll let her do her thing and are available back around, but will it definitely be special after we do get to do something big together.”
Damage CTRL could possibly be the height of Bayley’s run as a heel, which began in 2019 and has now run longer than her initial time as a babyface.
She believes it’ll stand out to fans essentially the most due to how many various people she has been capable of help along the best way, from doing a number of the company’s best work throughout the fanless pandemic shows with Sasha Banks, to in some ways being the catalyst for Bianca Belair as considered one of WWE’s top stars and babyfaces.
“We helped one another, but her first sightings on Raw and SmackDown were with me and now she’s already main-evented a WrestleMania,” Bayley said. “She’s already held the championships. I believe it’ll be simply because I’ve been capable of do a variety of various things with a variety of different people irrespective of their level of experience.”
If Bayley does win the Royal Rumble, she has for now stated she would challenge WWE women’s world champion Rhea Ripley.
Ripley, like Belair, has emerged as a megastar for the corporate, leading her own faction in The Judgment Day and redefining the role women can play on WWE television.
Bayley takes note that Ripley has been in “every other segment on TV” for a very long time and was on “each show” and that’s “draining to do.”
“If I’m capable of work along with her at WrestleMania, that may just be a dream match I never even considered before,” Bayley said. “She is clearly untouchable. She is essentially the most talked about woman on TV right away and he or she backs it up. She doesn’t just have the look. She doesn’t just have the body. She doesn’t just have – besides Damage CTRL – a badass group to align with.
“She’s so good and it makes me so mad. ‘I’m like why are you so good, you’re so young.’ I can’t even throw a drop kick and she will be able to do one over my head. Just little things that she does that she’s capable of do and portray on TV could be very hard to do and he or she does it with ease.”
The goal for 2024 is to have every healthy member of Damage CTRL holding gold.
Bayley can be greater than comfortable to take the championship burden from Ripley.
“She carried that title on her back proudly,” Bayley said. “I’m gonna should take it off of her and it’ll be an honor to do. It would be an honor, Rhea.”
