Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Why Bayley will never get over on RAW

After last night's wretched Bayley interview, I thought it was time to answer many of the questions I have been getting about her. First, there is no easy fix for Bayley because there are several reasons why her character doesn't work on the main WWE roster. The other thing is the result was predictable. Her character should have been fixed at NXT. But the character was over there and they didn't think it needed fixing. This has happened with other characters like Adam Rose. So one would think the WWE would learn not to trust the reaction of the Full Sail audience. I guess not. So I remember seeing Bayley when she was Davina Rose in Shimmer. She mostly worked indy feds in Northern California which is where she is from. She's an OK wrestler but not great. She has a non-traditional look and the WWE may have been looking for that when she was signed. The Bayley name and character was created by the late Dusty Rhodes and he would be the first to say that basing a character on a wrestler's real personality is a good thing. But even in NXT, the other wrestlers would make fun of Bayley's goody two shoes character. But Bayley got over at NXT because they tape shows at Full Sail in front of the same fans. We have seen repeatedly that characters go over in NXT but fail on the main roster. It's enough of a pattern that the WWE should be wise to it. What may have hurt Bayley was she had great matches in NXT especially against Sasha Banks and Asuka. When was her last great match on RAW? The answer is she hasn't had a great match on RAW. This is where Bayley is the problem. Bayley has been a wrestler since 2008. She should be good enough to carry a green wrestler to a good match. But she's not. Her technical wrestling skills have not progressed. She's still the same wrestler I saw as Davina Rose in Shimmer in 2011. Asuka is so good that she can carry anyone to a good match. On RAW, Bayley is mostly working with Alexa Bliss. Alexa is a great talker but a green wrestler. It's up to Bayley to carry her to a good match. She's not good enough to do it. She can fix that by improving her ring skills. Bayley's character is a bigger problem since it looks like the WWE won't do anything to fix it. When I watched Bayley at NXT, I never thought her character would do well on RAW. It's a much broader audience. Adjustments like making the Bayley character more confident in promos haven't been made. This is where Dusty Rhodes' death has hurt Bayley. If he was still alive and he saw her on RAW, he would constantly be on her case about her performance. Now there is no one to do that. She seems to need that. Bayley's merchandise sells well and that's why the WWE is reluctant to change her character. They don't want to alienate her core audience of little kids. That's a typical short term WWE viewpoint. For the long term, the WWE needs to take some risks with the Bayley character before she sinks without a trace. Based on last night's interview, I don't think the WWE has the balls to do that. It's sink or swim time for Bayley. And her little kids alone won't help her swim.

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