When you hear the world “revolution,” you don’t necessarily think of the huggable, endlessly cheery Bayley, and yet, the current NXT Women’s Champion finds herself at the forefront of the women’s wrestling upheaval currently gripping WWE. In a way, the fact that such a positive female figure can now rise to the top in WWE is/should be what the Divas Revolution is all about. Bayley marches to her own beat, while also being a living embodiment of the changing role of female performers in WWE, which makes for a fascinating subject to talk to.
With her big 30-minute Iron Man match with Sasha Banks at NXT TakeOver: Respect looming, Bayley sat down for an extensive interview with Rolling Stone, covering everything from the future of the NXT Women’s Division, to her thoughts on the term “diva” and everything in between. On the burdens of being NXT Women’s Champion…
“I feel like this is a very important part of my career. With the top three girls gone, and me being the champion, I’ve never been the person in the locker room who’s been here the longest – it was always Sasha and Charlotte. And now that I’m literally the leader in the locker room, and the champion, it’s a huge opportunity for me to help girls while I have the chance. It’s really important; you can be the best wrestler in the world, and make the most money, but if you’re not a good person in the back, that says a lot about you. I’ve never wanted to be that person, because I’ve had so much help along the way and I want to continue that. I want everyone to be comfortable in the locker room and the ring, and be hungry to make this division even bigger than it already is.”
Where does Bayley see the NXT Women’s Division going now that many of its top stars have been called up?
“I see that it has a million possibilities to get so much better. When Paige and Emma went onto the main roster, everyone was like, ‘Well, what’s going to happen to NXT now?’ And then Charlotte happened, and Sasha and Becky and myself. We took it to a different level, and everybody took notice. Now that they’re gone, people expect a drop-off, like ‘Man, now there’s just Bayley down there.’ But there’s so many people that they have no idea about, because I get to train with these girls every day. You see Carmella or Dana Brooke or Alexa Bliss on TV, and they’re working so hard, they know that it’s time for them to step it up. And then Peyton Royce and Billie Kay, they’re going to blow up because they’re so passionate and great wrestlers. And I don’t even have to say anything about Asuka, because she’s amazing. It’s a really exciting time for the division, and it’s just going to keep getting better.”
Speaking of the future, who does Bayley want to face next, assuming she makes it past Sasha?
“There’s so many. Nia Jax, I’ve worked house shows with her, and she always gets such a great reaction. She’s so unique, and she’s going to be a good thing for NXT as a whole. It would be exciting to be able to do something with her, and Asuka as well. I was on Shimmer with her. I never got to have a match with her, but watching her matches with Sara Del Rey, or working with a few Japanese girls, to get a little taste of that style, I’d like to get into that to grow as a wrestler. And this might sound bad, but I really want to work with Eva Marie, just because it seems like that’s what people want. My fans don’t like her, so I don’t want them to be like, ‘Oh, why do you want to work with her?’ But the reason is because she’s a different competitor and I think we’d have an interesting dynamic. I get a lot of tweets about Eva, and I can’t blame the fans, because all they really know is what they see on Total Divas, and they base their cheers on that, I guess.”
Finally, while on subject of Total Divas, what does Bayley think of the main roster women being called “Divas?”
“Well, I’m obviously part of the Divas thing now, working here. I don’t really see the difference. Sometimes when someone uses the term ‘Diva,’ or you see it on TV or in a movie, it’s like, ‘Oh, she’s just being a Diva,’ which sounds really bad and really prissy. But I think that’s just a title here. So I think it gets a bad rap from TV and movies, but I just use ‘Women’s Wrestling’ because that’s what I grew up on, that’s what drove me to get to this point and that’s what I want to push. And, technically, I am the NXT Women’s Champion, so until I’m the Divas Champion, I’m going to keep using that.
But hey, all that said, what if they were to rename the main roster belt the WWE Women’s Championship?
“I would love that.”
Rolling Stone‘s interview with Bayley is huge, and all sorts of other subjects are breached, including her thoughts on not being called up with the rest of the Four Horsewomen, her childhood heroes and a ton more. I definitely recommend you check out the whole thing by clicking the link below.
via Rolling Stone
