Last night, Bayley surprised the WWE Universe by not only coming back but by getting physical. Conventional wisdom had her out for several more weeks, but this is wrestling. Injury timelines are over-estimated so WWE can cash-in on returns just like Bayley’s. However, despite the early comeback and the benefit of doing so in front of her hometown of San Jose, does anyone really care that Bayley is back?
According to Wrestling Observer’s, Dave Meltzer, Bayley’s character has endured too much damage in 2017 for fans to get behind her.
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“This about the reaction she received tonight versus the reaction before her match with Alexa. To say it’s night and day isn’t doing it justice. I could see scripting the show going ‘ah this is gonna get a great pop’ and it’s they killed her so dead and you know, it’s done,” he said.
Even further, Meltzer asserts that by Bayley, Alexa Bliss and Sasha Banks ganging up on Nia Jax, they actually created unwanted sympathy for Nia.
“I’m not saying it’s irrevocable because nothing is irrevocable in wrestling but man, they damaged the hell outta [Bayley]. I can imagine aside from San Jose or anywhere else. I’ll bet people saw that and didn’t care and plus if you really want to get her over go and have her knock Nia Jax — she was so busy protecting Nia Jax that they made Sasha Banks and Bayley look like complete non-babyfaces,” explained Meltzer
While Bayley’s early return is good from a physical standpoint, creatively speaking she may benefit more if she had a longer absence.
“It’s three-on-one on Nia Jax, how does that get the babyfaces over?” Meltzer questioned. “So the four-way is now a five-way cause Bayley’s back. Her shoulder’s healthy and that’s good — her shoulder’s healthy. The bad is she’s back with no direction and just so not over.”
Bayley’s WWE character has had a rough go this year. Enduring injuries, bad promos and uncompetitive matches, Bayley went from pure babyface to pure apathy. things got the rose as the crowd has begun to actually turn on her. Aside from last night’s warm hometown reaction, Bayley has been booed that last 2 times she’s appeared on WWE’s camera. It’s a peculiar situation, but one thing is clear: Bayley has an uphill battle.
[H/T to Still Real To Us for the transcription]
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