WWE SmackDown: Bayley’s character growth has been genius
Last Friday’s episode of SmackDown saw Bayley complete her character development during the main event’s WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship match.
The previous Sunday at Hell in a Cell saw Bayley lose her WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship to Charlotte Flair. In the aftermath of the match, Bayley laid sulking on the mat begging the question, “Why does it always have to happen to me?”
Because you were too darn nice, Bayley. Let’s recap …
Let’s wind the clocks back to Sept. 2, 2019 for a second. The night that Bayley turned heel.
The turn itself earned some praise from fans and critics alike, if only for how bold the decision was to turn one of WWE’s most beloved marquee babyfaces. However, the night after is what drew some ire from members of the WWE Universe when we discovered that heel Bayley wasn’t all that different from babyface Bayley.
A lot of fans expected and wanted a drastic character change from Bayley and some were ready to write the heel turn off as a flop early on for not delivering on that. But as we’ve learned in the time since, it wasn’t the appropriate time to introduce such a change. In fact, an argument can be made that the Sept. 2 episode of Raw did not provide a heel turn at all for Bayley. She merely sided with her best friend, Sasha Banks, who just so happened to be on the heel side of the fence.
Admit it, with most of your best friends, you’d always take their side in any beefs whether your friend is wrong or right, right? Bayley fell into that boat. Her mission statement in being a role model for children remained the same. Granted, perhaps due to her heel bestie’s influence, Bayley started to take a bit more of an aggressive approach to ensure her role model status, but again, it came with positive intentions.
To be a role model, Bayley felt like she needed to be a champion to hold the women’s division by its boot straps whilst being an icon little girls could look up to. But when she lost that title at Hell in a Cell, all bets were off.
That’s what makes her real heel turn last Friday all the more genius.
With a haircut and the televised murder of the Wacky Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Men, the visual transformation that so many fans wanted was complete, but this time, it was actually justified and by the end of the match, the character arc was complete.
Her main event title rematch vs. Charlotte Flair was designed to dismantle everything we know about the Bayley character and her in-ring approach. Despite the transformation, Bayley still wrestled like, well, Bayley. Maybe a smidge more aggressive out of last Sunday’s frustrations, but at her core, it was still Bayley.
She hit all of her signature moves (Macho Man Elbow, Bayley to Belly), but Charlotte kept kicking out. She wrestled her usual in-ring style, but it couldn’t beat the 10-time champion. Finally, Bayley does one dastardly deed (pulling Charlotte’s hair into a roll-up), and she’s the new champion. It took her going out of her usual element by cheating to finally get what she wants. Keyword: what she wants.
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Bayley has found a method that works for her and that method is doing whatever she wants and doing whatever it takes to win without regard to being a role model or an inspiration to anyone. She used to be about being friendly and hugging the children, but now, her new mantra is “Screw all of you.”
It may be too early to say, but I absolutely loved the way the match was broken down, character wise, and it makes Bayley’s character development and journey all the more worth it to witness. Yeah, I understand some people may not be happy for such a quick title change so soon after Hell in a Cell, but in terms of progressing character, it was absolutely necessary. It took her asking herself “What am I doing wrong?” or, again, as she said at the close of her HIAC match, “Why does it always have to happen to me?” and now that she’s figured it out, her character change is complete.
It’s easy to criticize WWE when they get things wrong, but in the last month or so of building Bayley to this point, they absolutely nailed it out of the park so far. I cannot wait to see where Bayley’s character goes from here.