It’s Time for Bayley to Go Back to NXT

Before anyone lights their torch, I want to be clear: I like Bayley. Her sunny disposition and exceptional wrestling skills won me over a few years back. And there’s plenty of others like me. In fact, few wrestlers have graduated from NXT with more goodwill behind them than Bayley.

Despite all of this positive energy, Bayley has failed to launch. Ever since her bombastic debut, Bayley has endured one of the irreversible nose dives to date.

It’s been rough for her fans, but for Bayley the person, this plummet has to be especially torturous. As WWE told us, Bayley is a die hard wrestling fan, a living breathing mark for the business. If only her enthusiasm for work could translate.

Who gets blamed for this? Bayley was supposed to be the female answer to John Cena. How could WWE be so wrong? How could the IWC be so wrong? How could Bayley be so wrong?

The answer is multifaceted. For one, moving from NXT to the main roster is hardly a sure thing anymore. In fact, it actually operates at about a 30% success rate. It came out this week that Triple H was upset with Vince McMahon himself for the way his NXT babies have been hatched. It’s a legitimate gripe, but we need solutions, not critique.

Then we have the actual booking of Bayley. Her women’s title win was great, but flawed in concept. Bayley’s first WWE title win came on RAW (Strike 1). It also came during a time where the title was being volleyed between 3 competitors (Strike 2). And finally, and most damning, there was no story (Strike 3). Bayley’s gimmick isn’t the jovial hugger with a nice belly to belly. Bayley is an underdog. Winning a title for her should have taken a decade, like Dusty Rhodes or Mick Foley. Instead, it was only a blip in WWE history.

If that weren’t enough, Bayley was publicly executed by Alexa Bliss. Upon promotion, Bayley was unconditionally the worst talker of her class. And when you put her in a verbal showdown with an assassin like Bliss, well it’s like Zaza Pachulia playing 1-on-1 with LeBron.

Then the This is Your Life segment aired. It had the same amount of appeal as a rotting corpse on a subway train. It hurt Alexa, but just being associated with such a stink-fest cost Bayley capital that she just didn’t have.

A couple whacks with a kendo stick and another lackluster RAW segment and we can call the coroner; Bayley is dead.

But as stated, we’re here for solutions.

Scientifically speaking, Bayley is Mostly Dead. Without dramatic intervention, she will certainly be All Dead. Before the venom of apathy kills her, she must take the antidote. And trust me, there is only one way to bring Bayley back amongst the living.

She must be sent down to NXT. Emphasis on the “sent down.”

Bayley needs to be called into the center of the ring, not by the amicable Kurt Angle. Not even by a snarling Stephanie McMahon. It must be Triple H.

With misty eyes, Triple H will look onto a solemn Bayley and say “I’m sorry, but we don’t think you’re cut out for this. You’re going back to NXT.”

Cue sadness. WWE could cut to their plant, Izzy (the Bayley super-fan), and she would be hysterically boohooing. Within a minute of carefully designed work, Bayley would have emotionally connected with the WWE audience more than she had in a year.

There’s one thing that needs to be understood about the concept of Bayley: She is designed to lose. Her lifeblood is sympathy. Acknowledging that, all of her storylines should closely resemble emotional masochism. Her wins should be few and far between, that way we remember them. A good parallel for this archetype is Sami Zayn.

Once Bayley is back in NXT she can continue losing or she can immediately start an ultimate comeback. She’d be forced to rely on grit and determination as she is forced to re-climb the ranks. Whether or not she gets involved in the title picture doesn’t really matter, as long as her struggle is televised. Then a few months later, Bayley finds herself on a dominant winning streak. The fans begin to salivate over her potential second promotion to the main roster. WWE draws it out as long as they can, and when the tension reaches its boiling point – hit Bayley’s music on RAW, and boom, Bayley is instantly the most popular female wrestler on the roster.

It’s rumored that Vince has soured on Bayley and that punishment is on the loom. This is great news! It may not earn her an NXT demotion, but she could be removed from anything significant on RAW. Perfect!

Have Bayley job to Dana Brooke every week. Make her Stephanie’s slave. Anything to make us feel awful for our sweet Bayley.

Bayley is a victim of circumstance. Some of that is likely her own doing, but WWE has done her no favors. She faces a pivotal moment as decisions on her future are surely being discussed. At this point, the Bayley character is particularly expendable. However, she does have a natural charisma, but she and WWE need to figure out how to unlock it. The good news, the ones who are supposed to make it in WWE, usually do.