December will mark a decade in WWE for Bayley, who signed her first NXT contract in 2012. Originally starting off as ‘The Hugger’, Bayley’s character became one of the most acclaimed in the early days of developmental-era NXT. However, it was in October 2019 that she ditched this persona, instead developing a cocky ‘Role Model’ character.
This character, again, has become synonymous with the Triple Crown Champion, earning her the 2020 Women’s Wrestling MVP award from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. It has only flourished since Bayley added Dakota Kai and IYO SKY by her side at SummerSlam 2022, forming Damage CTRL.
Bayley Feels More Powerful In Her Current Role
Discussing her change in character in a new interview with Sportskeeda Wrestling’s Riju Dasgupta, Bayley explained how her original character came when she was still young and trying to figure out who she was as a performer:
“I honestly think that what I’ve been doing throughout my career has kind of just aligned with who I am as a person. What I was doing, probably when you interviewed me, I was very young in my career and still new to WWE and just kind of trying to make it still in my mind.”
Elaborating, the four-time WWE Women’s Champion explained how she feels “pretty awesome” in her current stint, admitting to having now “proved herself”:
“Once I kind of got over this hump and woke up one day and realized like, ‘I’m pretty awesome. I don’t have to be this humble kid anymore. I’ve been here long enough. I’ve proved myself. I’ve had memorable matches,’ and that’s how my mind started thinking, and where I’m at now just kept growing and growing.”
Bayley returned from injury at WWE SummerSlam, moving to the Raw roster and rekindling her feud with Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair. She’s scheduled to again challenge ‘The EST of WWE’ for the title at Crown Jewel in a Last Woman Standing match.