With Wrestlemania in the rearview, let’s take a look at the current Smackdown Women’s Champion, Bayley… The Role Model
Her current character is breaking records as champion, but has her evolution connected? It doesn’t seem like that long ago Bayley was a huggable, bubbly wrestler. Today she has become the complete opposite. Currently, Bayley is an ego-driven “role model” bully, who believes she can just be a champion forever.
Once upon a time, Bayley was a crowd favourite and now it seems that everything that had made her special is gone. Before coming to the main roster she cared about her fans and that was the most important thing. Now on Smackdown, the Women’s Championship is all she cares about protecting and we are just the “sheep.”
As we have seen the women’s evolution continue to grow, Bayley’s character has always seemed to be left behind. Becoming a heel has given her a much-needed change, but compared to her fellow Four Horsewomen, she is the least talked about. This is where her evolution has failed.
Bayley needed this change in character to put her in line with the others and it hasn’t happened. Becky Lynch has continued to be a bigger star and Charlotte Flair has continued to shine as the golden girl. Then perhaps there is Bayley’s biggest competition, her own best friend Sasha Banks.
The only way Bayley’s evolution could be saved for me, is if she faces Banks one on one. If Bayley can beat the Boss, by any means necessary, I could see her change in character being seen as a success. Currently though? Bayley being the controlling friend doesn’t work for me.
There was so much that could have been done with Bayley when she was first brought up to the main roster, but things fell to the wayside. Her character seems to have never really recovered. Yes her heel turn was shocking, but we’re still talking about what needs to change for her.
The “Role Model” of the WWE continuously gets lost in the shuffle. Her change in attitude and look have only done so much. We’ve looked to Bayley as the innocent hugger and now the bully, but there’s still something missing. We’ve compared her to her fellow horsewomen and her evolution hasn’t measured up.
Bayley has accomplished a lot in her WWE career, but the heel experiment hasn’t worked out as planned. Yes she is champion and yes, she is an important part of the women’s division. If she wasn’t apart of the Four Horsewomen, would we be talking about her evolution?
From being the last one called up to the main roster and struggling to fit in to now being a multi time champion, Bayley has made a name for herself. While she has accomplished things – first Women’s Tag Team champion and all that – accomplishments only mean so much. Having a character to go along with those accomplishments is important.
Has Bayley’s character fit with her career accomplishments? For a while, I’d say yes, especially back when the WWE Universe and her had that special connection. Being the longest reigning Smackdown Women’s Champion is a big deal, but without being told she hit that accomplishment I don’t think I would have noticed. One’s evolution is about so much more than looks and accomplishments and we only see so much. There is still a lot that this new Bayley could show us.
The Women’s Evolution has been an integral part of wrestling for the past few years. We’ve watched Bayley grow, especially in the past year, but I am still waiting for the evolution to pay off. A heel turn only does so much for so long. We could see the pay off in the next few months, by finally getting Sasha versus Bayley on Smackdown, but will it be too late? Time will tell. For now I will stay on the cautiously optimistic side.
Bayley’s evolution has not been a total success, but there may still be time for us to get the full picture. While the world is stuck in limbo, maybe we’ll see the evolution of Bayley be truly successful.
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