WWE: Bayley needs to go full throttle on potential heel turn

The WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion teased a heel turn on Raw, but needs to go all the way to give her character a breath of fresh air.

When it comes to Bayley, there’s always this conversation I have with one of my friends. I take the side of the quote-on-quote “Bayley mark” as I recall her glory days overcoming as an underdog and climbing the ladder in NXT. My friend, meanwhile, she focuses negatively on Bayley’s days on the WWE main roster, which have been filled with underwhelming storylines and the occasional scaredy-cat moments that derail any momentum Bayley has going and creates a staleness with her character.

This argument is usually more of a joke than anything else, but when she starts really getting into her side of it, there’s one thing I begin to realize: she is absolutely right.

Bayley has plenty of positives when it comes to being on the main roster. In the fan-turned-Superstar angle, she has a connection to the fans, which creates a John Cena situation when considering whether to turn her heel. With the amount of merchandise she sells for the younger fans wanting to be like their role model, it might not be a good business decision to turn her against the fans.

But that isn’t the issue here. Ever since coming to the main roster, Bayley has never seemed to have an edge. Where in NXT she was fighting to prove every one of her doubters wrong, she’s been apter to prove them right on the main roster. Think of her first feud with Alexa Bliss, where a Kendo Stick on a Pole Match resulted in her being too scared to bash Alexa’s ribs in.

Ever since that first feud, it always seems like Bayley’s character has been stuck in neutral. Back in the summer of 2018, there appeared to be a glimmer of hope when Bayley pummeled Sasha Banks in a tag match telling her “You ain’t s***,” but that was wiped out with a visit to Dr. Shelby the following week and back into the abyss that has plagued her tenure on the main roster.

On the latest edition of Monday Night Raw, we received another glimmer of hope as Bayley took away a steel chair from a now-heel Banks as she looked to assault Becky Lynch. As she looked her former tag team partner in the eye, she suddenly smiled and began to pummel Lynch and it looked like the long-awaited heel turn (and the breath of fresh air that comes with it) appeared to be on.

But then, Smackdown Live happened and Bayley went back to her normal ways. She said she was doing everything for the kids and wanted to show them how to be loyal to their friends and about five minutes later, we had the makings of a Barney segment.

This is the kind of on-and-off booking that has plagued Bayley during her time on the main roster. Instead of turning her loose and letting her have an edge, she acts more like Banks’ brainwashed dummy who is just along for the ride.

By giving Bayley an edge, she could become a more believable character, which may get fans to finally buy into her character. Until then, she’ll just be another character that is stuck in the web of WWE’s pumping of the brakes.