The main event picture surrounding Roman Reigns, The Rock, and Cody Rhodes has gobbled up a disproportionate amount of the spotlight on the Road to WrestleMania. Nonetheless, one of the best-built stories WWE has cultivated in recent months revolves, instead around Bayley.
Bayley won the women’s Royal Rumble and is on a collision course with Iyo Sky after splintering from the Damage CTRL faction. Bayley reached new heights in these past four-plus years as a heel in WWE, but the timing is right for her to return to her babyface roots. There’s all the potential in the world for this new run to exceed Bayley’s first face campaign at the dawn of her WWE career.
WWE Main Roster Fans Have Been Along For The Ride
When WWE launched NXT as its developmental brand and, all the more so, after the WWE Network came around and made developmental programming more accessible for a wider range of fans, the company faced a conundrum. On one hand, NXT was very good. It featured great matches and creative, which cultivated a loyal fan base. The black and gold brand appealed especially well to fans who appreciated the stronger indie sensibility there over what was happening on the main roster.
On the other hand, there are real questions as to whether NXT was succeeding as a developmental training ground, given the disconnect between its style and that of Raw or SmackDown. That’s not to mention that a series of NXT stars struggled on their transition to the main roster.
Bayley was among stars who shone bright in NXT—working her way up the ranks until she became Women’s Champion and arrived as the face of her division. She carried some of that momentum into her main roster run, including promptly becoming a part of the title picture, but never gathered nearly the same level of momentum on Raw or SmackDown.
Part of the problem was a disconnect in how much fans knew or appreciated her story. While a portion of the audience followed NXT faithfully, there was also a portion that only did so casually, or who did not watch the black and gold brand at all. So, while, Bayley came across as a talented hand, they didn’t have elements like her climbing the ranks or her relationship with Izzy to tap into and fall in love with the character. The result was that she felt like a pretty flat babyface a few months into her run.
In 2024, fans know who Bayley is and what she’s capable, not to mention that they’ve had a over seven years to invest in her character. No longer is she the goody-two-shoes they’re supposed to like. They actually like her.
Bayley Is Enough Of A Veteran WWE Fans Like Her By Default
Ric Flair has more than once posed a classic example of the problems with trying to book a truly great heel veteran. No matter how much better a performer is at playing the bad guy, when fans have invested in a performer for long enough at a high enough level, they tend to respect him. Moreover, they want to cheer him.
This same matter has played out for talents ranging from Triple H to Randy Orton to Stone Cold Steve Austin, and there’s a case to be made that it’s happening now with Bayley. The 2024 Royal Rumble winner has proven herself as a great hand and a likable personality inside the ring and out.
While Bayley has succeeded as a heel, there’s no question she also has an organic groundswell of support behind her from the WWE Universe. Moreover, her heel run stretched long enough that fans were itching to cheer her again, and now they have their chance.
Bayley Has A Compelling Storyline To Kickstart This Babyface Run
A big part of what got Bayley over the hump as one of the franchise players in NXT was her rivalry with Sasha Banks. The Hugger was an underdog who worked her way up to title contention, only to be overmatched against The Boss. As time marched on, though, and a proper feud took shape, Bayley arrived at her crowning moment with show-stealing performance against Banks at the original NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn.
Enough time had passed and few enough eyes—proportionally—were on Bayley when she was working classics against Banks that the good will from that run didn’t really carry over to the main roster. Now Bayley has another shot as a babyface, and has not only a Royal Rumble win, but a long story WWE has told in organic fashion between her and Damage CTRL.
Having her own faction betray her by degrees has set up Bayley as sympathetic. Moreover, her wielding a pipe to fend off an attack she saw coming has set her up not as a victim, but an all-too-rare intelligent babyface who was ready to defend herself against a heel surprise.
The most likely scenario is that Bayley beat Iyo Sky for the title at WrestleMania 40, but even if she doesn’t, she’ll remain a credible part of the title picture as a face, and likely as not win the title shortly thereafter. In either case, Sky is not only a performer Bayley has history and emotional story with, but also an outstanding worker sure to facilitate great matches as Bayley returns to the top.
Only time will tell how Bayley’s new babyface run will play out or how fans will receive it. Regardless, there are plenty of reasons for optimism and plenty of history to play off to make this one of the best runs of her career.
