Bayley has recalled her original pitch for Damage CTRL, which would have featured one wrestler who has since gone on to join AEW.
Suffering a major injury during the pandemic and just a few days before fans were allowed back at WWE events, the former Women’s Champion was out of action for over a year. Making her return at SummerSlam 2022, Bayley also introduced her newest allies IYO SKY and Dakota Kai. The following year, the group added Asuka and Kairi Sane, which eventually led to Bayley being kicked out of Damage CTRL shortly after winning the Royal Rumble, setting up her WrestleMania showdown with SKY.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Bayley spoke about her original plans for the group that would have seen a different line-up, most notably current AEW Women’s Champion Toni Storm:
“I had a whole [plan], there’s five of us, my pitch for Damage CTRL. I also had Raquel [Rodriguez] in it. I also had Alba Fyre in it. I had so many other girls in mind too. I had Toni Storm. I wanted Toni Storm in it. But when I actually sat at the PC and shot stuff, it was with Raquel and Alba, and all five of us I had reasons why I wanted them.Raquel was obviously our muscle, but she was teaming with Dakota at the time, I believe, so they worked out perfectly. Alba and IYO I think were teaming a little bit there, so they worked out perfectly. But in my mind, it was there’s two tag teams and then IYO was my champion; she was going to be the champion.I just want to do everything in wrestling. That’s how I always thought. I want to be a bad guy. I want to be a good guy. I want to be in a faction. I want to be in a tag team. I want to be a singles wrestler. I want to be in a romantic love angle someday. I want to be able to do everything, because there’s so many different things that we could do in this crazy world to not try different avenues and work with as many people as possible. I just want to do it all.”