Bayley’s defining 2024 is far from over

In the summer of 2022, Bayley returned to WWE. After a yearlong absence , the first Women’s Grand Slam Champion returned with a bang. Alongside Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky, The Role Model announced her presence at WWE SummerSlam in a moment many now consider the launching pad to the company’s current red-hot status.

It’s challenging to succeed in professional wrestling. The best of the best just make it look easy. Things can go wrong, and Bayley knows that all too well. After a successful comeback year, Bayley became poised to enter newfound territory. Despite her legendary status and a 10+ year company, looking ahead to 2024, there were a few things she’d never done. Bayley had never wrestled in a singles match at WrestleMania . She also never wrestled for a championship in a singles match at Mania, nor had the former multi-time champion ever won the Women’s Royal Rumble. Power dynamics in her own faction were about to change after SummerSlam last year. So what could she do for an encore?

As WWE marches into Cleveland for SummerSlam , The Role Model is on top again. Bayley will wrestle a familiar foe at the event. But how we got here became a long, emotional, windy, and incredible ride to the summit.

“The goal was always to grow Damage CTRL.”

Damage CTRL made a lot of waves throughout their first year as a faction. Previous attempts at women’s factions were marred by a lack of mostly ambition and creativity. Meanderings also affected them, which ultimately boils down to a lack of focus. But Bayley, Kai, and Sky weren’t quite like that.

The curtain dropped at Ford Field for SummerSlam 2023 last year, and a new champion emerged. Iyo, who won the coveted Money in the Bank briefcase the previous month, successfully cashed it in following an epic Triple Threat Match. Sky pinned superstar Bianca Belair to claim the WWE Women’s Championship. Kai, who had been injured a few months prior, made a surprise return to reunite with Sky and Bayley amid their celebration.

The season changed, and the power dynamics in Damage CTRL began to shift. And Damage CTRL began to transform. At WWE Crown Jewel in November, a familiar face to WWE fans returned: Kairi Sane.

Sane previously wrestled for WWE from 2017 to 2020. The first-ever Mae Young Classic winner became a sensation in NXT after wrestling and making a name for herself in her home country of Japan. But in 2020, Sane departed the company. There wasn’t reported animosity between either side, so a return always made sense in the future. But the timing was right, and Sane joined Damage CTRL following her stunning return.

While the dynamics shifted, the leader always saw this coming. Even if it wasn’t specifically Sane.

“Not Kairi specifically, but we definitely wanted to grow Damage CTRL,” Bayley said. “If it were up to me when we first started, there would have been five of us, to begin with. They would have been all NXT girls.”

But they kept their eye on the ball, and they pretty much had to. Sky, formerly Io Shirai, spent nearly four years in WWE’s developmental system and was one of NXT’s best. So was Dakota, but WWE released her in the Spring of 2021. She wasn’t even an active talent when she made her stunning appearance at SummerSlam. They were entirely new characters to a broader audience. They needed to put the work in, and they did.

Then, a year later, the opportunity was too good.

“The goal was always to grow Damage CTRL, but we needed to get Iyo and Dakota going first,” Bayley said. And when the opportunity came up with Kairi coming in, I just thought that was incredible. Because I’ve had a lot of history with her, and she had just come back from doing two or three years on her own.”

Bayley did have a history with Sane. In fact, she was involved in her final match with the company, a match Kairi won amid Bayley’s record-setting title reign in 2020. And in Sane’s final appearance with WWE, she viciously attacked her backstage against a garage door.

That animosity was played on a little bit, but the Women’s Champion was complimentary of her anyway.

“She accomplished so many things and got to do so many cool matches. I think it was cool because of the history; she is a legend already. She has so much experience, and it was nice to bring somebody in.” She considers Sane and Sky, formerly The Sky Pirates, a “lethal combination.”

“It actually makes you feel like what you’re doing matters.”

And they weren’t done either. Asuka, a longtime respected nemesis of the champion, also joined Damage CTRL that ensuing Friday. The moment that Asuka joined DC, turning them into a superteam of sorts, was a hit with the audience. That might even sell it short because the angle helped peak viewership on that episode of Smackdown.

And if you’re wondering if that feeling of success was felt? Rest assured, because it was.

“Yeah, it actually makes you feel like what you’re doing matters,” Bayley expressed.” There was a long struggle where it was like, ‘Man, they are not getting behind us. They do not get us, and we are not doing a good job of showing who we are.”

She noted discussions the group had and how they made sure to get their chemistry right. “We needed to get to know each other,” she admitted. “All three together. I was already very close with Dakota, but getting to know Iyo on the other side of the camera, getting to know the three of us, and how our dynamic works best was very crucial to our success. I was very grateful that Triple H didn’t give up on the vision that I had because it became such a bigger thing than I expected it to.

“There were rough times, but once it finally clicked, and once we were able to show some dominance, that once we were able to show we were enjoying this, and it wasn’t this awkward first-date stage anymore? The fans were able to enjoy it as well, so that was the best feeling. When we’re going into those big matches when the girls were winning the tag matches. I felt like we were finally a success and that I did them justice.”

Big matches like War Games, for instance. Damage CTRL participated in the first-ever Women’s War Games match on main-roster WWE television in November 2022. Then, in 2023, they were at it again against a band of big-time babyfaces. Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair, and the one and only Becky Lynch were in their path, as was the chaotic Shotzi, a Bay Area native like Bayley. They were contrasting situations but in a positive way.

“I felt a lot of pride that we were in the first two already as a team,” she said. The stories were different in both of them. The first one came in as me and Bianca, our beef against each other. Then she brought Becky in, and then this other version was… it was still me and Bianca. We were still trying to overcome Bianca Belair, but she brought in Becky, Charlotte, and Shotzi. It was nice to have Shotzi in there, be part of her storyline with me, and get that attention.

“But it was also about — you know — what was going on between myself and Damage CTRL. So, it was cool to tell a few different stories in there, and we felt we had more freedom.”

Which one did she enjoy more? “Both of them were crazy. Very nerve-racking. But I definitely enjoyed the second one more.”

“I hate that it still bothers me, but it still does.”

A road to redemption opened up as the calendar turned to 2024. Fittingly, the first stop was a city where she needed to start chasing ghosts.

In May 2019, Bayley won Money in the Bank and won the Smackdown Women’s Championship. The case victory followed by the title-clincher ended a two-year drought she had as a singles champion. After not only setting the wrestling world on fire but also fundamentally changing it forever, her main-roster run was… not quite like that.

She built up equity with the audience by being a consistent presence on TV. But it became shallow. A new hope emerged with that title victory and monumental moment. Things, however, didn’t go according to plan right away. A heel turn, something her diehard fans never would have thought would ever happen, took over her persona in the Fall of 2019.

Flash forward to 2020, and even through drastic changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Bayley stepped up her game. The Role Model’s new evil yet comedic persona became a huge hit. Becky Lynch referred to her as one of the “MVPs” of the somewhat affectionally called “Pandemic Era” of WWE. She also held a championship for 380 days, then the record for most combined days as champion.

In the face of all that, Bayley entered a feud with the newcomer Belair, lost the Royal Rumble (her elimination did not get caught on camera), and spent the first three months of 2021 meandering about. Fans of hers desperately tried to rally behind her, persistently suggesting potential opponents for her at the biggest event of the year. Despite all that marked success and, in some ways, despite holding a title for 380 days, she was left off the WrestleMania card.

So when the Royal Rumble was teed up for Tampa, where WrestleMania 37 emanated from, it was impossible not to think about that. And that decision still eats at her.

“Yeah, that was rough. It really did,” she said when asked if going back to Tampa for the 2024 Royal Rumble motivated her. “I hate that it still bothers me, but it still does. I just think we missed such a big opportunity. I thought I had the best year of my career.”

In one of her only appearances at the event, Brie and Nikki Bella appeared to beat Bayley up and send her rolling down the ramp. That choice, though, caused the wrong reaction, considering that fans at Raymond James Stadium booed it, even though Bayley did not have a fan-favorite alignment anymore.  But after three years of letting it sit, she arrived in Tampa and entered the Rumble. And after being the No. 3 entrant, Bayley made her own history and scored a huge moment of redemption by winning the 2024 Women’s Royal Rumble.

That assured her of her rightful spot on the WrestleMania card and ended her drought in singles matches at the event.

“But I think it was nice to get a little redemption over there and do that in such a big way.”

And it’s not like Bayley’s never done anything at WrestleMania before. This, though, was new and exciting.

“And not just a championship match, and I’ve said it leading up to WrestleMania. I’ve had championship matches at WrestleMania. I’ve never won a title there, but I’ve retained titles there. I’ve lost titles there, I’ve done the battle royal, so many different things. I hosted it.”

This was different, though, especially because of who she had staring across the ring at her.

“But to be able to not just win a championship there, but have my first singles and for it to be against Iyo, who is, undoubtedly, one of the most talented people we have on the roster. Not just a woman; she’s one of the most talented people, and it makes me so angry,” she joked. “The way she gets into the ring is like she jumps, springboards into the ring. And I just go through the ropes,” she said in amazement at her former ally. “It’s so annoying.”

“And then just to have such a great storyline that was such a baby to us and that the fans were really into, it was something that I can always be proud of,” Bayley said. And I think I really showed at that Mania that I didn’t get used. Like, alright, you guys really missed it. I could have had a big story there, too. It’s just such a missed opportunity, but I’m happy I was able to deliver with Iyo this past WrestleMania and walk out with this bad boy,” she said, referring to her WWE Women’s Championship.

It was a happy ending for her legions of fans. The pro wrestling business is always superstar-centric. It’s a cruel industry as well, because for as successful as you can be, if you drop out of the audience’s sight? It’s “out of sight, out of mind” for many. Few get granted the kind of equity that Bayley and some of her incredible peers have achieved. But few also get a second crack at it, and considering how low it seemed in 2021 and for as bottomed out as it felt in 2017, she was back on top.

Her fans would understand that resentment because they felt it, too. And Bayley sees that bitterness, or in some cases passion, just as well.

“My fans have been so great about that, too. They don’t let the company live it down like me.”

“They can trust I’m telling a story, and if they’re patient with me, and they feel me, and they know the real me and how much I truly care about this.”

It’s been a whale of a time for Bayley as champion. Her worldwide popularity was on full display this past Spring. When WWE brought Backlash to France, hundreds, if not thousands, of fans were ready for her. For good reason, too. Back in 2015, fans in England were treated to a special NXT tour in the winter that led to TakeOver: London in December. The fans, as they do in Europe, were energized and then some. A new chant of singsonging variety was born.

You may be familiar with the song “Hey Baby” by DJ Ötzi. The 2000s smash hit, a former No. 1 song on the UK charts, was changed to fit the beloved superstar.

“Heyyyyy, hey Bayley! Oooh! Ahhh!
I wanna knowwwwww…
If you’ll be my girl!”

When she returned to the UK in 2022, she couldn’t lean into it or acknowledge it how she used to due to her villainous role. But with that out of the way, it allowed her to feed off that insatiable energy again. As far as if there was a weight off her shoulders, it wasn’t quite like that.

“I don’t think it’s a pressure; I think it’s just finding that connection again with the fans,” she said. “Because, as a bad guy, I have to kind of cut all the noise out. If someone is singing for me, I have to figure out how to make it work. And how to turn that around. But I think it has been a little difficult in a way to find what my connection is with the fans again.”

She explained that there are always sections of fans she can rely on—the die-hards and loyalists will always be behind her. But at live events, where you never know how it’ll go, she had to adjust.

“As far as being cheered or booed at shows, I really had to disconnect myself and act as if I didn’t love them. It’s kind of interesting to figure that out again.”

She expressed that she was fortunate that her reign began with those overseas title defenses. Whether or not she played the hero or the villain, her UK fans have always gone up for her anyway. Their passion is always present. And she knows that and knows the intended effect that it has.

“I felt really lucky to start my reign in places like France and Scotland, where they’re going to sing the song, and they’re going to be extra loud, and they’re going to show me love. So that other fans watching can be like, ‘Oh, okay, we can like Bayley again.’ My first two title defenses were overseas, and that definitely helped me personally and helped my character a lot.”

When it all comes down to it, Bayley knows her fans will see what she’s committed to making happen, especially when it comes to the Damage CTRL arc and all the success it brought everyone.

“That definitely has to go to all of Damage CTRL and Hunter and everyone behind the scenes being able to tell that story so well,” Bayley said when asked if fulfilling her redemption arc and getting cheers again brought her a sense of accomplishment. “And giving us the time for that. I’ve been in one or two other storylines where I’ve been given so much time to tell a story like that. And to get the right reactions and emotions from the fans. So yeah, I felt really proud, and I have a lot of equity because I’ve been here for a long time. So I think the fans, we have that rapport with each other, and they can trust I’m telling a story, and if they’re patient with me, and they feel me, and they know the real me and how much I truly care about this.”

“I feel very honored. And I hope I did her justice.”

A unique opportunity fell into the champion’s lap this past week. Bayley wrestled Japanese wrestling legend Meiko Satomura. Satomura, who’s been wrestling for decades and even appeared back in the WCW Monday Nitro days, announced her retirement from wrestling. But before she officially hung up the boots, Satomura wrestled Bayley for the WWE Women’s Championship over the weekend in her home country.

In a thrilling and fun match, Bayley retained her championship but also left the country with a sense of humility and gratitude. After all, there’s a chance that she may have participated in Meiko’s final WWE match.

“I thought about that the next day. Because the way she told me she was retiring felt very personal,” Bayley revealed. “And it felt like, she kind of whispered it. She said it before she made the announcement; we had talked. It felt very personal, and I felt special that I was able to be in the ring with her before she was almost done. I thought that this could be her last match in WWE, and I feel very honored.

“And I hope I did her justice. That’s all,” she said. “There are so many women she could have had that last match with. Iyo was there in Japan, it easily could have been her, and I feel honored it was me and it was a championship match. Kinda crazy to think that. In a way, I hope it is because then I can add a little something to my resume,” she said. “If it’s not, I’d love to see her with any one of our girls out there.”

“And I have a lot more to prove and get done.”

After chasing ghosts in Tampa and Philadelphia, a new ghost is in front of Bayley. Seven years ago, Bayley had been on a quest to regain her Raw Women’s Championship from Alexa Bliss. But during a televised match with Nia Jax, she injured her shoulder. Before her ACL tear in August 2021, that was the only sustained period that she’d ever been hurt.

Seven years later, Bayley and Jax are primed for a title fight at SummerSlam . Jax has been on a run since returning to the company. This year alone, Jax has had memorable matches with Rhea Ripley, Liv Morgan, and Becky Lynch. She won Queen of the Ring and earned a championship match with Bayley at the event this Saturday.

Bayley is ready but noted the differences between her previous clashes with the big, bad Jax.

“This one’s different because we both have so much experience going into this one. We all know she’s dominant and strong, and she was this back in NXT in all of our matches. Our title matches that we’ve had, she’s super dominant. Now, it feels like in this second run, and I’ve seen the fans talk about this too, she’s been on a roll,” she acknowledged. “And she won Queen of the Ring. So, me seeing how much she’s improved in the ring makes me step it up. And makes sure that I haven’t been laying low and complacent here. So I’m really interested and excited to see what I can do against this new and improved Nia Jax.”

But make no mistake about it. Bayley doesn’t feel like her stint at the summit is over yet. Not by a long shot.

“I feel like I just won this title, and this, as far as on TV and PPVs, this is my third or fourth title defense, so I don’t feel I’ve done enough. And I have a lot more to prove and get done. So I wanna walk out of SummerSlam with this title,” she said.

***

On Saturday in Cleveland, Bayley will wrestle in just her third SummerSlam match, and only the second in front of a live crowd. She is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished and most important women’s wrestlers to ever lace up a pair of boots. Still, in some ways, Bayley is someone who still has so much to offer to the world of professional wrestling. Her creativity, her willingness to take risks, and her constant evolutions are hallmarks of their own. Her savvy, the way she’s so tapped into her fans and what they want, and the trust she’s built up with them are remarkable in the unrelentingly critical wrestling fandom.

And that doesn’t touch her selflessness, something that her fans sometimes boast as proudly as she likely does in carrying out her work.

If her first year back offered her fans a new sense of hope, then in Year 2, Bayley simply struck back. She did it her way, and her fans, through every step of the way, were rewarded with a scintillating redemption arc that ended in ways many thought would never happen.

She’s at the summit now, and from the sounds of it, nothing’s going to deter her quite yet. As the old saying goes, it ain’t over ’til it’s over.

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