Heel Bayley: Gambling With Fire Or A Moment of Genius?

[Wildcat66]

So uh, it's been a crazy day for the wrestling community hasn't it? Styles became a champ on a house show, Dixie Carter's going to have an interview in WWE and Austin Aries is no longer in WWE.

So I guess I might as well enter in my 'pigs flying over a frozen hell' contribution for the day.

During the second part of Steve Austin's podcast in which he interviews Bayley, she mentioned how Undertaker and Seth Rollins changed up their personas to stay relevant in WWE. One of the things brought up was the ways she could changing her look. She also mentioned being the most comfortable talking to Vince McMahon about any changes to her character. Seems all well and good, right?

Well then she mentioned about wanting to pitch turning heel recently, but backed out at the last moment after realizing the effect that would have on her fans that had stayed loyal to her up to this point.

My Opinion: I think we've made it pretty clear that Bayley hasn't had the absolute best of luck recently when it comes to booking, to the point where I made an article on the subject. To put it shortly; I believe Bayley is in a crossroads where she needs to either evolve her character or she risks winding up being forgotten. And I think Bayley herself realizes this as well, so I can see why she would want to consider a heel turn.

However heel turns do need to be handled with care. You can't just go out there and say, "Person X is a heel now because I said so!" that doesn't work. You have to built it up until you reach a crescendo, take the Cass and Enzo storyline for example; Cass and Enzo were friends, they got called up to WWE, they started getting attacked a lot, then Cass started accusing other people of attacking him until it was revealed that; shocker, it was Cass who attacked Enzo. That is how you make a good heel turn.

Another concern I have is this; Can Bayley perform as a heel? Up to this point, Bayley has been pretty much the most pure babyface in all of WWE. If you end up turning her heel and she turns out to be terrible at the role; you risk doing irreversible damage to her career, and I'm not sure you want to do that now do you?

On the other hand, what if it turns out she's actually good as a heel or maybe even BETTER at that than she ever was a face? Then not only does Bayley survive, but she actually finds new light in her career. It would be a win/win situation.

So now we get to the point where she backs out of pitching the heel turn. After reading that, I finally realized what the underlying problem with Bayley is...she's way too nice. Like, Ricky Steamboat nice. Which is fine, if you're going to be one of the nicest people in the business; good for you, go for it. But another part of me is shouting in front of the TV asking you why you're chickening out a potentially career altering move, be it good or bad. Sometimes, you have to take risks if you want to move your career to the next level, that's not me saying Bayley should turn heel or become a royal pain to everyone; that's me saying that if you want to have a successful career, you have to realize that sometimes you have to do something from left field to make something right. Hugger section be damned.

In conclusion: Bayley is a good hand in the ring and she's easily one of the nicest people in the business. If she wants to go heel, then have at it; run to the dark side, see what happens. And who knows? In a few years, you can be a face again and go back to hugging people. But it all depends on two things.

1. Timing: Is this the right time for Bayley to move to the dark side?
And 2. Performance: Does Bayley have it in her to play a villainous character?

If both these things end up propelling her to new heights, then that's wonderful; but if they end up working against her, then we may wind up looking at the biggest NXT bust since Paige. (And before you ask, yes, I know; Bo Dallas was NXT champion, but come on. Did anyone really think he'd be a main eventer in WWE?)

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The problem isn't with Bayley, it's with WWE's way of marketing their babyfaces.

They wanted a female John Cena, who will sell merch by the bucket load and encourage fans to buy tickets. They chose Bayley because on paper, she has all the attributes, a "wholesome" persona, the "dream to be a WWE Star" and without being negative, she isn't ever going to be the "hottest" girl on the roster. She's hot in a different way... those made her the obvious choice for this role, long before she truly found any success and she would have been steered that way by the NXT trainers at Vince and Trips' behest.

Some girls are just "meant to be bad" like Alexa and Charlotte... others seem "meant for goodness" like Becky and Bayley.

IF Bayley was going to turn, it needs to be Punk style... with a pipebomb type rant against how she was forced into being someone she isn't... She's not a hugger, she never was... how Charlotte gets praised for "doing what it takes" but how Bayley had do sell out every principle to the machine as she didn't have a name or daddy to grease the wheels. That she is as much a bitch as Alexa but was put into the worst box possible... a good girl and a role model...

If she did that, it's POSSIBLE it could kickstart her career and create a compelling character just as it did for Punk... but...

Sadly, I think Bayley's biggest problem is once the E decided on this direction, they stopped her developing skills that would be useful as anything else... you can imagine her wanting to work promos but Dusty saying "You'll never need them honey... you'll be a thtar babyface without them..." so she doesn't have the tools to actually be a heel or to make that promo work as they trained her to be uber-babyface only.

It's very sad to see Bayley right now, she had so much potential, even more so than Paige, Charlotte or Sasha... but a decision made probably 5 or 6 years ago by Vince or Trips has led her to this point...

The best thing they could do if they are gonna let her go heel, is let her enter this Tournament... have her "get hurt" and disappear to the PC for 6 months... let her work on her promos away from crowds and build her up to be that heel character. Maybe even bring Molly Holly in to work with her on her character on how to make a "good girl" heelish...maybe even let her manage Bayley on her return.

By then, whoever wins the Tourney is likely to be main roster and Bayley can make her shocking return attacking them...


The other option is if Aries types are getting released, then Bayley could also do worse than ask for hers if they're gonna keep her face... the way WWE is raiding talent from Japan, there's a gap there she could fill and improve away from the WWE system... While the E screwed up Tensai... the idea of Matt Bloom going to Japan was smart. Could would well for Bayley to leave for 3 years, become big there and then come back...

 

[Navi]

What Bayley said on the Austin podcast was that she was toying with a heel turn, but then went out and saw girls that she had meet before the show and decided that she couldn't let them down.

There is nothing wrong with being a face on this roster, I have no idea why every fan in the IWC wants everyone to turn heel, some just aren't made that way. Bayley works as a face and I just don't think she would make a good heel, it's just not in her.

What has screwed her over is the booking. She should never have won the women's title so early, let her chase it for awhile. Once she won the title the WWE dropped the ball. That kendo stick match was abysmal and should never have happened, as neither should the "This is Your Life" segment. Both should be deleted and never seen again.

Fans are desperate to cheer someone. Roman Reigns isn't working out as the babyface they thought, Rollins face turn again not working, Ambrose is getting decent pops but Bayley if booked properly would get the biggest pop of them all. She would bring a lot of new fans to the sport, young girls who like to spend a lot of their parents money just to look like her. The young boys have Cena, the girls haven't had anyone ever. Bayley is a money making machine, too bad the WWE can't see that. No one will ever move the amount of merchandise that Cena does, but she could come close.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Hard to see Bayley's near future. I've been pushing the HEEL turn idea for awhile. Sasha and Bayley is the most likely feud either going in to or coming out of SummerSlam. The world assumed Sasha would play the heel role. Alexa taking the title from Bayley threw everyone off the scent. Sasha has been a good face for a long time. I don't think WWE wants to change that. I think we are going to see Bayley screw over Sasha at GBoF either intentionally or unintentionally. Then we may see them one on one at SummerSlam or in a multi-woman match at SummerSlam where heel Bayley is fully established.

Again, hard to say though. Bayley's appeal is hard for me to judge. I have pubic hairs. I want her to turn heel and I feel like her booking and creative direction are pushing her to be a heel but I've been wrong before and don't have the inside information to know for certain if Bayley is as much of a failure to WWE as it is to me.

 

[Greg4WWE]

I am not a fan that think faces need to turn heels and heels faces to refresh character. Bayley can have an edge and still be face. She can come out and say that she appreciates all the support, she wants the fans to keep supporter her, but she now has to do things she normally wouldn't do, then go do them.

They have repackaged Rusev 3 times as heel now haha.

 

[Loveless]

Given how difficult it is to create faces the crowd actually likes, turning Bayley would be an absolute disaster that she would likely never recover from. The best thing possible her at this stage is for her to take time off and come back in 6 months when whoever has been responsible for her push has been sacked. The WWE have fucked her over royally, even more astonishing when NXT laid out exactly how to do it.

 

[Wildcat66]

The problem isn't with Bayley, it's with WWE's way of marketing their babyfaces.

They wanted a female John Cena, who will sell merch by the bucket load and encourage fans to buy tickets. They chose Bayley because on paper, she has all the attributes, a "wholesome" persona, the "dream to be a WWE Star" and without being negative, she isn't ever going to be the "hottest" girl on the roster. She's hot in a different way... those made her the obvious choice for this role, long before she truly found any success and she would have been steered that way by the NXT trainers at Vince and Trips' behest.

Some girls are just "meant to be bad" like Alexa and Charlotte... others seem "meant for goodness" like Becky and Bayley.

IF Bayley was going to turn, it needs to be Punk style... with a pipebomb type rant against how she was forced into being someone she isn't... She's not a hugger, she never was... how Charlotte gets praised for "doing what it takes" but how Bayley had do sell out every principle to the machine as she didn't have a name or daddy to grease the wheels. That she is as much a bitch as Alexa but was put into the worst box possible... a good girl and a role model...

If she did that, it's POSSIBLE it could kickstart her career and create a compelling character just as it did for Punk... but...

Sadly, I think Bayley's biggest problem is once the E decided on this direction, they stopped her developing skills that would be useful as anything else... you can imagine her wanting to work promos but Dusty saying "You'll never need them honey... you'll be a thtar babyface without them..." so she doesn't have the tools to actually be a heel or to make that promo work as they trained her to be uber-babyface only.

It's very sad to see Bayley right now, she had so much potential, even more so than Paige, Charlotte or Sasha... but a decision made probably 5 or 6 years ago by Vince or Trips has led her to this point...

The best thing they could do if they are gonna let her go heel, is let her enter this Tournament... have her "get hurt" and disappear to the PC for 6 months... let her work on her promos away from crowds and build her up to be that heel character. Maybe even bring Molly Holly in to work with her on her character on how to make a "good girl" heelish...maybe even let her manage Bayley on her return.

By then, whoever wins the Tourney is likely to be main roster and Bayley can make her shocking return attacking them...


The other option is if Aries types are getting released, then Bayley could also do worse than ask for hers if they're gonna keep her face... the way WWE is raiding talent from Japan, there's a gap there she could fill and improve away from the WWE system... While the E screwed up Tensai... the idea of Matt Bloom going to Japan was smart. Could would well for Bayley to leave for 3 years, become big there and then come back...

In all honesty, the Tensai character probably would have flopped even if Matt wasn't the character. The idea of a Japanese samurai character was dead in the water by 2012.

I don't know what goes on in the PC, so if it turns out that either Vince or Triples suggested Bayley stay as a uber-face early on in her career; well maybe I can see the point, again; she is one the nicest people in the business right now. On the other hand, if the day ever came that she got stale; she would risk fading into obscurity.

I'm still holding out the idea of her going on hiatus and then having a road to redemption storyline, but it's becoming increasingly less likely with each passing week.

My idea for turning Bayley heel? Do what Mick Foley did in 2006. Have her become cynical and hate her career. But instead of ECW, have her grow weary of WWE and the fans who she claims 'turned her back' on her. Or maybe you have her turn on Sasha Banks. Makes the most sense.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

Mercy. The state of this poll, bro. 10 choices when it can be done in 3. Neutral and Jury's Out are relatively the same thing.

I am thankful that internet fans aren't in charge of today's product. Turning Bayley heel is just plain lazy. She hasn't even been on Raw for a year and since she's not the biggest deal in the division, we should throw a Hail Mary and scrap her character altogether? There goes kids buying her merchandise. All that potential of the plucky huggable underdog gone. At least when people argue Cena becoming a villain it's due to his more than a decade-old run as a face. People like Bayley. In the same world that a majority love cheering on the heels because of how interesting they are, they still root for the white bread do-gooder Bayley. That in itself is a miracle.

Sure, she's damaged. So was Sasha and so is every female wrestler on the losing end of a feud. That's the way it is, because for some reason writers can't focus on anything in that division but the champion and the contender. If anything that is what needs to change.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

As usual, WWE is pretty much damned if they do and damned if they don't in the minds of internet fans. For instance, I think it's fair to say that many of us in these forums would have preferred to see Bayley get a slow push that culminated in a big title win, which is what we saw in NXT. However, you also have the other side in which people would claim WWE missed the boat with Bayley or they didn't strike while the iron is hot. Among internet fans, WWE fucks up if they don't do exactly what they want and how they want it, if they don't immediately push the latest internet darling that they happen to like or if they don't give them what they want in general almost immediately.

In Bayley's case, she'll be fine. All that's needed with her is 3 or 4 weeks of solid booking against the right opponent, or opponents, and all the proclamations of doom and gloom will disappear. Maybe 7 or so weeks ago, some were claiming that Samoa Joe was lost in the shuffle and that his push was already over, yet here he is in what may be the most anticipated wrestling match of the summer facing Brock Lesnar tomorrow night. The last 3 weeks have seen Joe booked to look like a fearless badass and IF, God willing, he has a strong showing against Lesnar tomorrow night, then he's cemented his spot as a significant player in WWE for at least the next couple of years.

Bayley is an old school babyface that even today's jaded fans like to cheer for, so turning her heel at this point in time is unnecessary and lazy. The surface has barely been scratched with Bayley and it won't take very much effort at all for things to turn around for her, I think we all sometimes make situations like this out to be far more dire than they actually are.

If they wanna change anything about Bayley, change her finisher. It's extremely difficult to suspend disbelief enough to see an old fashioned belly to belly suplex from a 120 lbs. woman has having the needed oomph for a finisher when you've got guys like Big E or Jason Jordon tossing opponents over their heads or delivering a lot of impact with the same move.

 

[Wildcat66]

Mercy. The state of this poll, bro. 10 choices when it can be done in 3. Neutral and Jury's Out are relatively the same thing.

I am thankful that internet fans aren't in charge of today's product. Turning Bayley heel is just plain lazy. She hasn't even been on Raw for a year and since she's not the biggest deal in the division, we should throw a Hail Mary and scrap her character altogether? There goes kids buying her merchandise. All that potential of the plucky huggable underdog gone. At least when people argue Cena becoming a villain it's due to his more than a decade-old run as a face. People like Bayley. In the same world that a majority love cheering on the heels because of how interesting they are, they still root for the white bread do-gooder Bayley. That in itself is a miracle.

Sure, she's damaged. So was Sasha and so is every female wrestler on the losing end of a feud. That's the way it is, because for some reason writers can't focus on anything in that division but the champion and the contender. If anything that is what needs to change.

There's a saying that nine times out of ten WWE shouldn't take the advice of internet fans. And the argument has merit to it, some of the ideas the community has come up with are quite outrageous. Shoot, take a look at the trash section and you'll find ions of terrible threads and ideas for WWE or wrestling in general.

Having watched WWE for five years, I've noticed a little pattern. Unless if your name is Cena, Orton, Lesnar or Reigns or you end up catching a wave of momentum like with Joe, Strowman, Styles, Bliss, Carmella and The New Day, you're going to be in a clinical pattern. One moment you'll be on the top, next moment you're being overshadowed.

I honestly think that if and when Bayley ever does choose to go heel, it has to be at the right place and the right time. And personally, if I was booking; I would say she stays babyface for at least until WrestleMania 35 and then you pull the trigger. But there is the potential that Bayley ends up being the female equivalent to John Cena after all and ends up spending her entire career as the face. Either choice would be good for her.

And you have a point, ten choices is a bit much for a poll. But let's be fair, some people are stronger about their choice than others.

 

[Low_Ki]

It's so weird when you look at Bayley from NXT and her now.

I get it. The fanbase is different. But it isn't massively different. Regardless of where she goes I'm a big fan of Bayley and I truly believe that there is a niche gimmick for her to fill here. What I think is happening is development and creative angles.

She isn't good on the stick. This we know. She's awkward (part of her charm), but she is incredibly technically gifted.

Turning her heel I think would work. I would say it may give her the whole 'Hogan' treatment but she hasn't been on mainstream TV for long enough for that. She mentioned in a podcast with Steve Austin that every time she thinks about pitching the turn something will happen at a live show (she meets fans who love her/cry when they see her etc) and she goes back on the idea.

We are all guilty of getting bored with some gimmicks. Bray Wyatt is a prime example right now and maybe that is because of the amount of TV time week in week out that the guys and girls get.

But in summary, I'm all for Bayley trying something new, the heel turn could work. Would need a completely new ring entrance though.