Grade The Reign: Bayley As NXT Women's Champion

[Jack-Hammer]

I figure I'm gonna start doing these little critiques when a WWE title holder drops their championship after having been champ for at least 100 days. During last night's NXT TakeOver special in Dallas, Bayley's NXT Women's Championship reign of 223 days came to an end upon "passing out" after putting up a valiant struggle against Asuka's Asuka Lock. Bayley captured the title in what many hailed as the best match of 2015 against Sasha Banks at the TakeOver event in Brooklyn during SummerSlam weekend.

For me, Bayley was an exemplary babyface champion who was able to do something that's becoming more and more difficult to do: be a babyface that people cheer for. Bayley's sweet, good natured character won over fans across the spectrum from little girls to grown women and little boys to grown men. In this day & age, it feels strange, albeit in a good way, to see grown men wearing a bright blue t-shirt with yellow letters in big, bold print that read "I'm A Hugger" given how jaded so many American fans are. Bayley reminds me a lot of Daniel Bryan in that she's someone who comes across as very genuine and likeable, someone that fans get behind because they sense that, for the most part, what they see and what they hear is what you get and that it's not much, if at all, of a corporate creation. Bayley successfully defended her title against Sasha Banks, Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax, Emma, Dana Brooke, Eva Marie and Carmella in matches that ranged from solid to classic. Bayley can play the scrappy underdog role well, partially because of how sweet and almost childishly innocent her character sometimes comes across, though not to the degree that she seems like some kind of parody, and is just able to rally people around her.

So, how would you grade Bayley's first and, quite probably, only run as NXT Women's Champion?

 

[CyberPunk]

Bayley's championship reign can be definitely considered more than decent. She accomplished something that most babyfaces find very difficult to do these days i.e. keep people interested. She didn't stop at simply winning the title. As JH said, she is definitely a very likeable character without coming off as fake. People genuinely like her. And only that, her title reign was unique in the sense very few people found anything to complain about which is very difficult these days. Her title reign was perfectly booked and I really hope she carries this momentum to the main roster.

 

[Azane]

It was great, she knew how to treat her fans, growing her fanbase by being a genuinely good person behind the scenes, and from watching breaking ground, she also lead the women's locker room by helping the newer girls succeed.

Whenever Bayley was out, you had the entire crowd chanting and cheering for her, and 1/3rd of the audience, 50 year old grown men, and 9 year old little girls, all had Hugger t-shirts on.

They way her reign began with the Sasha matches were legitimate match of the year contenders, which isn't something you can say about Women matches often (Some Trish and Lita bouts?) and she kept going by telling her story in so many different ways. I think my favorite match of hers, even though it was only an above average match, was Nia Jax vs Bayley at London, the way they did the David vs Goliath storytelling was fantastic and it sold me on the idea that Bayley is 100% ready to move up.

I think Asuka ending her reign and the way it ended with the pass-out was really important too, I think Asuka is one of the only woman in NXT (Emma was the only one I think I'd accept) that a lot of us fans could accept beating Bayley, without being upset over it, and the passout finish means Bayley's heart and detemmination stay strong and in tact, making her run NEVER have a low spot for me, with most champions, you think about how this month sucked or that month sucked, I never wanted a different woman's champion in nxt as long as Bayley held the belt.

 

[RatedMKD]

This may seem a little mark-y, but I'd absolutely consider her reign to be as close to perfect as can be. I was more emotionally invested throughout than I have been for almost every other title reign to take place in well over a decade.

Her run as champion had me on the verge of tears on numerous occasions, from her initial victory over Sasha Banks in Brooklyn to successful title defences against the likes of Nia Jax. Even just seeing an image of a disappointed Bayley in the thumbnail for her post-match interview nearly got the well flowing.

It's not entirely unusual for me to feel emotional at certain title victories and replays thereafter, but it's absolutely rare for that level of emotion to remain prevalent throughout the entire reign. It's also rare for such a strong and consistent babyface role to keep me unwaveringly enthralled.

Aside from my personal attachment to the reign, her title defences were well-executed, both in terms of the timeliness and the matches themselves. I believe that she averaged approximately one defence per month, and the match quality ranged from good to fantastic. To have such quality title defences against mostly inexperienced challengers (Eva Maria, Carmella, Jax, etc) is a true testament to her.

Finally, the reign itself is groundbreaking in that her semi-main event title victory truly felt like the main event of the Network Special on which it was featured, and was followed by actually being the main event of the next one, for the first time ever in WWE, in an Iron Man match featuring female competitors (also a first time ever in WWE).

It's obviously going to be a while before the dust settles, but I'm confident that years down the line, I'll look back at her first (and probably only) run with the NXT Women's Title as one of my all-time favourite championship reigns.

 

[Charismatic Enigma]

It's easily an A, maybe not 100% perfect but about as close you can get in the modern smarky era.

People don't give enough credit to a successful face run as champion, it is REALLY hard to accomplish nowadays, people are cynical, the crowds are divisive, and everyone has short attention spans.

What was the last time you can think of any champion male or female, that had a lengthy title run as a face, that was unanimously well received? Hogan…maybe?

Bayley has done the unthinkable in 2016 and stayed a complete white meat baby face and managed to stay totally over, to the point that last night when she dropped the belt, Asuka who is generally well liked, was met with a mix of stunned silence and boos, not so much because of a dislike for her, but because of the dislike of Bayley losing.

I think she has been booked phenomenally, but a large part of that actually started with her journey to the championship, she grew into the role, she had to fight her way to winning it, always feeling like the underdog, and then met with challengers that appear to be above her strength (like Nia Jax) but she battles through adversity to retain, it makes her seem relatable and believable.

I think last night was almost the modern day equivalent to Hogan v Warrior, two very over faces, larger than life colorful characters. If WWE doesn't screw it up with Bayley, her main roster run is going to be really special.

 

[Harthan]

I said A-. I'm of the opinion that Bayley's reign trailed off a little bit, to be totally honest, before coming back at the end, and a lot of that is due to the quality of what she worked with. Obviously she won the title in an all time classic with Sasha and that led to a historic main event against Sasha which was also truly excellent. Bayley then had a series of title matches that really sold me on her as a fighting champion - Alexa, then Eva, then Nia. This sold me from a character perspective on her taking on all comers, but none of those really rate as great matches or even great feuds (I do like her match with Alexa most of all, and I have seen them have a very good live match). The match with Nia was pushed as a huge deal, but Nia was just too green for it to really work as more than an okayish match. The match with Carmella was also just okay, and then she finished off with the very, very good match with Asuka. So, match quality, I essentially think she started off great and ended great, but in the middle, just a lot of okay to good. That's actually a pretty good argument for Bayley being able to carry a match, to her credit.

The thing I would criticize about Bayley's reign if I had to is mostly that she went from underdog to dominant pretty dang fast. By the time she was having her rematch with Sasha, to be honest, it already felt like Bayley was the favorite and she never let up. Even losing to Asuka, she had to pass out, which is a huge layer of protection. I think it's a good character progression - I just think it happened too fast. I think her run of dominant victories over Alexa, Eva, Nia, and Carmella was what did it, and maybe one of those matches could have been a little less dominant. Nia comes to mind as an opportunity where they could have had it just look a little more contested (use something like the way Finn just beat Joe, instead of the chokehold). My other criticism is that after winning the title, I don't think Bayley ever had a match that was truly, truly excellent or a storyline quite as compelling. An amazing start and lots of very good after feels like an A- to me.

 

[NSL]

I can't speak for most people, but her reign is what got me watching WWE for the first time in about 5 years, so I'd say it was a success. The biggest factor in determining success is how much someone is willing to watch you, right? And if they gain viewers with you as champion, then it's fairly easy to say your reign was a resounding success.

 

[Lord_Frish]

In the WWE, I think it is the best babyface women's title reign they have ever had. It was a good length, she had a great defense against Sasha, a match that told a great story with Eva Marie, she was a huge underdog against Nia Jax. She was a pure babayface from start to finish and the audience never wanted her to lose.

Trish and Lita could have had a great reign but they tended to trade the title back and forth over short periods of time. Trish's longest reign was when both her and Lita were injured and they hadn't transitioned from the Attitude Era division into the division with the likes of Mickie James, and Beth Phoenix. She also turned a few times during the reign.

There have been other really good long reigns by female wrestlers in the WWE, but most of the time they turn heel or were just heel the entire time.

 

[Uncle Sam]

To borrow a phrase from Mary Poppins: practically perfect in every way.

For me, the perfect good guy title reign is one that begins in cathartic triumph and ends in cold heartbreak. Sami Zayn's reign with the men's title is this in microcosm: compare his winning the title off Neville to his losing the title to Kevin Owens. There's more of the same DNA in Bayley's reign, and not just because both ended due to the champion being too unconscious to continue.

The stuff in between is icing. Well, it's in between, so it can't be icing. It's like... a delicious... bacon... chicken filling. In this case, definitely a delicious bacon chicken filling. The minifeud with Alexa Bliss, daring to disrepect the champion who'd just set the new standard; surviving the match with Nia Jax in London (during which I was momentarily certain she was going to lose); bucking a crooked system that rewards the beautiful and untalented in her title match with Eva Marie (which is so spectacularly entertaining and should be mentioned more often); and the surprisingly good, Bret Hart-esque defense against her best friend, Carmella.

Bayley's reign was concise without being insignificant, not always obvious that she was going to retain - and not necessarily obvious that she was going to lose it when she did. It began in triumph, ended in heartbreak and kept us guessing in between.

I'm unsure if such a reign could occur on the main roster, due to the amount of exposure the champion gets being increased tenfold, but I can hardly deduct points for that.

 

[AnthonyM4]

I voted A plus. Bayley is one of the best babyface champions of all time. Usually it's more interesting when the heel is a long time champion and is being chased for the title, but Bayley made being a long term babyface champion work. A lot of people are saying she is a female version of Cena. I hope she doesn't eventually get booed like crazy like he has for most of the last 10 years.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

I agree with most here I love Asuka and thing she'll make a great champion but seeing Bayley passed out and lose the title just broke my heart. Like many said to feel that way about a Babyface in this day in age is something really hard to do.

I think what's so amazing is how NXT does a great job getting baby faces over even ones that aren't edgy or kind of vanilla in their portrayal as baby faces. Another example for this is Jason Jordan and Chad Gable their are pretty generic in their gimmick and their attire but the booking allows the two to work on their strengths so well and both have a ton of charisma that having a basic gimmick like "American Alpha" can get over with the crowd.

 

[Kris Benwa]

I gave it a C+. She won it in a great match then had a fairly decent reign up until losing it. I wasn't blown away or anything. Her one defense I particularly enjoyed was against Nia Jax because I like those kinds of matches. Other than that I don't believe her reign was spectacular AND on top of that I still think there was plenty of juice left in it. I thought she should have beaten Asuka even if it was just by a roll up. I thought the Cena vs Umaga esque finish would have worked really well here and set up a badass, bust ass rematch.

I guess they can still do the rematch but I think Bailey's run ended prematurely so that also caused it to lose a letter grade.

 

[ShinChan]

It was an A easily for me.

The way she won the title from Sasha Banks was awesome. Then main eventing a TakeOver while defending her title in an IronWoman match was just amazing.

And then the defense against Nia Jaxx in a kind of David Vs. Goliath was amazing too. I liked how she didn't tap out to Asuka Lock and passing out was the best option.

And the in-between defenses against the likes of Eva Marie, Alexa Bliss, Carmella etc were good enough.

Just Great!

 

[Navi]

I gave it an A Exceptional Quality. Bayley's reign would have received an A+ but it was due to one fact that it didn't, and it wasn't her. It was her opponents more than anything else.

Unfortunately she became champ at a time when Sasha, Charlotte and Becky Lynch all left for the main roster. That pretty much left her with, how do put it, the up and comers to deal with. Just the fact that her matches with them were good is a testament to the fact that she can go in the ring, and her popularity knows no bounds. She is literally the female version of Daniel Bryant, and having that kind of popularity will carry her through to the main roster when she debuts.

Her loss to Asuka was a bummer, but Asuka is probably the only person on the NXT roster, female wise, who could have done it. I can't wait to see her debut on RAW and get back into the thick of things with the other 3 horsewomen. The four of them together should put on some great matches.

 

[thekooljt]

I gave it an A Exceptional Quality. Bayley's reign would have received an A+ but it was due to one fact that it didn't, and it wasn't her. It was her opponents more than anything else.

Unfortunately she became champ at a time when Sasha, Charlotte and Becky Lynch all left for the main roster. That pretty much left her with, how do put it, the up and comers to deal with. Just the fact that her matches with them were good is a testament to the fact that she can go in the ring, and her popularity knows no bounds. She is literally the female version of Daniel Bryant, and having that kind of popularity will carry her through to the main roster when she debuts.

Her loss to Asuka was a bummer, but Asuka is probably the only person on the NXT roster, female wise, who could have done it. I can't wait to see her debut on RAW and get back into the thick of things with the other 3 horsewomen. The four of them together should put on some great matches.

I gave Bayley's reign an A plus (A+). If you've noticed, you will see that Bayley sets the tone in many of her matches. When I say set the tone I mean Bayley paces herself very well in the ring to the point where not only does she look good, but her opponents look good as well. Ric Flair is one of a few wrestlers who had that ability.

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