During a recent interview with Newsweek.com, Bayley commented on her heel turn, how much she’s enjoying it, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On the transition for her heel turn: “It’s been difficult, but the past few months have been very very fun. When it first happened, I didn’t know if I made a huge mistake or if I took the wrong turn in my career. As I started working live events and figuring out who I’m going to be from now on, it kind of woke me up a bit and relit a fire inside of me. I wanted to be the best in this character. I think in a weird way, this empty arena stuff has really helped my character as far as me not knowing whether the crowd is going to react to it or not. I just had to focus on me and how I wanted to portray myself.”
On how not having fans affected her in the ring: “At first I felt like it did. Having matches without a crowd and when you’re wrestling you kind of hear crowd reactions and it slows down the pace of a match. Or you’re taking your time in certain parts of the match, but without a crowd you don’t realize how fast you’re going. Putting a match together or actually being in there, I have to tell myself to slow down and try to be a bit more methodical in what I’m doing, and don’t rush things because there is nobody there to react to the things that I’m doing. As far as actual wrestling, I just needed to react in my own head as if there were a crowd there, but promo work and stuff has been awesome, not having to worry about whether the crowd is believing who I am now or if they still like me or hate me or not, and lets me just focus on who I’m trying to be.”
On if the turn was her decision: “A little bit of both. When this first happened I had to, I think it was [WWE’s] Hell in a Cell when I lost the title to Charlotte for like a week or something, and I had to cry and put on this big ol’ scene and cry and blah blah blah. And I knew I couldn’t come back to being the same Bayley. What, am I going to cry and everything is going to be ok? What would be the point of that? I always had this idea of wanting to be a heel whether people believed I could do it or not because I had this John Cena little-kid run where, no, you’re going to be the same forever. Cena can do that—he’s awesome, but I don’t want to do that. I want to try different avenues in wrestling as long as I have my career going. It was kind of my idea, I pitched everything I wanted to do and my look and all this stuff and when it was approved I was like, ‘Oh crap. Well, this better work.’”
