WWE: Bayley heel turn could do more harm than good

Bayley’s heel turn last Monday sent shockwaves across the WWE Universe, but the ramifications could prove to be more negative than positive.

The last episode of Raw saw WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley turn heel alongside Sasha Banks when the duo joined forces to attack the WWE Raw Women’s Champion, Becky Lynch. We are less than a week removed from the moment and needless to say, reactions so far are mixed.

Some remain positive, optimistic and interested (some even excited, judging by that massive YES! chant during her turn) in the prospect of a heel run from Bayley. Others more trepidatious, confused and concerned about how WWE have booked and handled this new heel character so far.

Me personally, I want to wait and see how this heel Bayley character is handled at least for a couple more weeks before I judge it. I need more than two episodes of WWE TV before I can say they’ve flopped the character or hit it out of the park. However, the thing that worries me more than the treatment of the heel turn is the heel turn itself. I don’t think the heel turn should’ve happened and I worry that down the line, turning Bayley heel could produce more problems than positives.

WWE’s main roster women’s division is in a desperate shortage of main event level babyfaces. Raw’s only lady babyface is The Man, while SmackDown has no babyfaces among its women’s roster to speak of now that Bayley’s turned over to the dark side. An argument can be made that Charlotte Flair (and to some extent, maybe even Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross) is leaning on the tweener side of things as of the last SmackDown Live episode, but even so, just one more face doesn’t disregard a shortage of them.

In theory, this would mean that Superstars who are lower on the totem pole (i.e. Dana Brooke, Liv Morgan, Naomi, etc) could take the opportunity to receive a push into the spotlight. Which I’d actually be all in for, but WWE ran a similar experience heading into SummerSlam for both women’s titles and fans rejected it.

Fans dubbed Natalya as a weak challenger for Becky Lynch that posed no threat to her title while Bayley vs. Ember Moon received the most lukewarm reaction of the night from audiences. It’s awesome to see lesser used talents receive a push, but fans need to be invested for the story to be compelling. If this past summer is anything to go off of, fans don’t have it in them to get invested in a challenger receiving a title shot after not even being used on television in months.

This isn’t a diatribe against the fans and if anything else, it highlights how poorly WWE booked these situations, but it still remains a concern regardless. Without any other suitable main eventers outside of the Four Horsewomen and without any potential babyface challengers currently as over as any of these four, I worry that both women’s title pictures (especially that for the SmackDown Women’s Championship, as Bayley is now a heel champion) are going to look awfully bleak.

That is my only concern with Bayley’s heel turn. She was one of WWE’s few babyfaces who was on the same level as Banks, Flair and Lynch. As of this turn, I worry for how the women’s division is going to look just a few months from now.

I could be wrong, at least I hope I am. Maybe I’m overreacting, but the only solution I can think of for this issue is calling up some NXT names, which, given current WWE Draft rumors, may be more than likely. But how well and how soon can WWE mold a rookie call-up into someone on Bayley or Sasha Banks’ level. It’s not impossible, but it’ll take a long shot. Hopefully, this issue works itself out sooner rather than later.