Kemo
11-26-2015, 08:10 PM
NXT Women’s Champion Bayley recently sat down for an in-depth interview on the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast to talk about a number of topics related to her career. Below are some of the highlights.
On being separated from the rest of the Four Horsewomen and becoming the focal point of the NXT Women’s division:
“It’s kind of bittersweet. It’s really weird and hard to [explain] because I grew up with them. We started in NXT together and Full Sail [University] together. To watch them go off [to the main roster], like, it’s amazing and I’m so proud [of them], but it’s kind of like, ‘man, I miss having them around!’ I miss having matches with them, but at the same time, it’s all eyes on me [now] and I’m like the front end of this new era of women coming up in NXT. And it’s like, man, there are so many amazing performers coming up and I’m so happy that I’m the [NXT Women’s] Champion and get to be a part of it and get to work with them.”
On becoming a locker room leader in NXT:
“It’s really cool because now I’m literally the one who has been here the longest out of the women who we train with. And, so, I try to be the best leader in the locker room that I can.” Bayley continued, “I really enjoy helping and teaching and stuff. And when we’re training with Sara Del Rey, if she misses something, she asks me if there’s something that I saw that maybe she didn’t catch. And, so, it feels really cool. I’m kind of like a little assistant [coach] sometimes. It’s a whole new level of learning when I’m able to help someone else out.”
On avoiding getting a big ego:
“At the [WWE] Performance Center, we’re all at the same level. We’re all at NXT. We’re all wanting to get to the main roster. That’s the way I see it. That’s the way Coach [Matt] Bloom always says it. We’re all right here. Whether we’re the champions or not, we all need to treat each other equal.”
On her feelings that WWE would try and change her character:
“It was really, really weird. I felt like they were going to try to change me and if I didn’t change, I wasn’t going to succeed. That’s how I felt coming in, but I knew I was going to try no matter what. Like, ‘I’m going to give this a shot. This is where I want to be, so I’ve got to try to fit into wherever they want me to be to be this huge Diva.'” Bayley added, “I didn’t think I was this amazing wrestler. It’s just wrestling is all I knew and I kind of felt like, ‘I don’t have the look for that anyways. They probably wouldn’t want to use me for those type of things,’ so I didn’t even expect them to want to put me on these bikini posters and stuff like that, so it wasn’t really something that I was too worried about.”
On how the Divas Revolution came about:
“It was kind of like a combination of everyone’s work because, obviously, Sasha and Charlotte, and when Becky came, we were all just wrestlers. And I think we were listening and kind of taking everybody’s [advice], the coaches opinions, and we were learning and stuff. We weren’t ignoring what they wanted. We were still [saying], ‘okay, that’s what you want me to do? I’ll do that.’ But we were still having these matches and the crowd was getting into it. I really think it was the fans that helped the Revolution. They loved watching us wrestle! It kind of seemed like it turned everybody’s heads, and especially Triple H.”
On how the inflatable tube men became part of her entrance:
“So the tube men, they kind of like surprised me with that one day, where they were like, ‘we have something really cool for your entrance. We think it will match you perfectly.'” Bayley continued, “so they were just like, ‘we want to do this rehearsal with you, so we’ll surprise you. Just do the rehearsal.’ It was before the show, so I come out, I’m doing my entrance, and then they pop up and I’m like, ‘oh my God! This is perfect!’ It was such a legit surprise and the colors [matched] with my [ring] gear and all that. It just seemed like so perfect.”
On “Macho Man” Randy Savage influencing some of her ring gear:
“‘Macho Man’ was who drew me to wrestling. The first time I saw him, I was like ‘oh my gosh! He is so cool!’, so that’s just something I wanted to kind of carry on and nobody does it. It’s different, so that was going to stand out on it’s own and it’s my own little ‘Macho Man’ thing.”
On being separated from the rest of the Four Horsewomen and becoming the focal point of the NXT Women’s division:
“It’s kind of bittersweet. It’s really weird and hard to [explain] because I grew up with them. We started in NXT together and Full Sail [University] together. To watch them go off [to the main roster], like, it’s amazing and I’m so proud [of them], but it’s kind of like, ‘man, I miss having them around!’ I miss having matches with them, but at the same time, it’s all eyes on me [now] and I’m like the front end of this new era of women coming up in NXT. And it’s like, man, there are so many amazing performers coming up and I’m so happy that I’m the [NXT Women’s] Champion and get to be a part of it and get to work with them.”
On becoming a locker room leader in NXT:
“It’s really cool because now I’m literally the one who has been here the longest out of the women who we train with. And, so, I try to be the best leader in the locker room that I can.” Bayley continued, “I really enjoy helping and teaching and stuff. And when we’re training with Sara Del Rey, if she misses something, she asks me if there’s something that I saw that maybe she didn’t catch. And, so, it feels really cool. I’m kind of like a little assistant [coach] sometimes. It’s a whole new level of learning when I’m able to help someone else out.”
On avoiding getting a big ego:
“At the [WWE] Performance Center, we’re all at the same level. We’re all at NXT. We’re all wanting to get to the main roster. That’s the way I see it. That’s the way Coach [Matt] Bloom always says it. We’re all right here. Whether we’re the champions or not, we all need to treat each other equal.”
On her feelings that WWE would try and change her character:
“It was really, really weird. I felt like they were going to try to change me and if I didn’t change, I wasn’t going to succeed. That’s how I felt coming in, but I knew I was going to try no matter what. Like, ‘I’m going to give this a shot. This is where I want to be, so I’ve got to try to fit into wherever they want me to be to be this huge Diva.'” Bayley added, “I didn’t think I was this amazing wrestler. It’s just wrestling is all I knew and I kind of felt like, ‘I don’t have the look for that anyways. They probably wouldn’t want to use me for those type of things,’ so I didn’t even expect them to want to put me on these bikini posters and stuff like that, so it wasn’t really something that I was too worried about.”
On how the Divas Revolution came about:
“It was kind of like a combination of everyone’s work because, obviously, Sasha and Charlotte, and when Becky came, we were all just wrestlers. And I think we were listening and kind of taking everybody’s [advice], the coaches opinions, and we were learning and stuff. We weren’t ignoring what they wanted. We were still [saying], ‘okay, that’s what you want me to do? I’ll do that.’ But we were still having these matches and the crowd was getting into it. I really think it was the fans that helped the Revolution. They loved watching us wrestle! It kind of seemed like it turned everybody’s heads, and especially Triple H.”
On how the inflatable tube men became part of her entrance:
“So the tube men, they kind of like surprised me with that one day, where they were like, ‘we have something really cool for your entrance. We think it will match you perfectly.'” Bayley continued, “so they were just like, ‘we want to do this rehearsal with you, so we’ll surprise you. Just do the rehearsal.’ It was before the show, so I come out, I’m doing my entrance, and then they pop up and I’m like, ‘oh my God! This is perfect!’ It was such a legit surprise and the colors [matched] with my [ring] gear and all that. It just seemed like so perfect.”
On “Macho Man” Randy Savage influencing some of her ring gear:
“‘Macho Man’ was who drew me to wrestling. The first time I saw him, I was like ‘oh my gosh! He is so cool!’, so that’s just something I wanted to kind of carry on and nobody does it. It’s different, so that was going to stand out on it’s own and it’s my own little ‘Macho Man’ thing.”