WWE Superstar Bayley recently appeared as a guest on an episode of the “Steve Austin Show” podcast for an interview. Below are some of the highlights.
On Vince McMahon, not Triple H, being the “go-to-guy” behind-the-scenes in WWE: “Yeah, I don’t know if Hunter’s really, like, the one to go for WWE. Obviously, for NXT, that was his baby, so he ran it all, but I’ve had conversations with him while being here [on the main roster] and it’s kind of more out of his… it’s not so much in his hands up with WWE. If I were to ask [Triple H] something, he was like, ‘you’re better off talking to Vince’ and he said, ‘you need to have that relationship with him anyway,’ so it’s good to have a relationship with him and I was like, ‘okay!'”
On feeling comfortable talking with Vince: “I feel comfortable talking to Vince, which seems so crazy for me to say. For me, I’ve been a fan, I’ve been watching him forever, and I’m like, ‘yeah, I’m comfortable to talk to Vince McMahon.’ Yeah, but if it was something I felt really strongly about, like I had the perfect idea, and I have the direction I want. I want ideas. I want kind of… I’m not going to go in there and be like, ‘hey, I feel weird – maybe I should change a little bit.’ I want to have exactly the idea of what I want to present to him and I’d probably just go to Vince because that’s the only way to go, if it’s something like that. I’ve talked to him a few times to where I’m like, ‘now, I feel fine.’ Like he’s still intimidating as hell when he walks by and you want to make sure you’re on your best behavior, but I feel comfortable enough.”
On feeling like she is starting over again and has to work her way back into title contention: “That was one of those things that I talked to Vince about and I was happy I did. I felt like that was a step back and I’m starting over again. I was the champion. And then, I had my rematch and I was right there until the main spot in the women’s division on RAW. And since I lost Alexa, I’m kind of starting back over again where I’m in line with everybody else, which I’m fine with. I really like the chase and working for it. And honestly, I just want to wrestle! Like, I don’t need to be in these crazy gimmick matches or always be working for the championship. Of course I want to be champion because that means you’re the best, but I just love wrestling and if I can have good matches week in and week out, that would make me happy.”
On if she ever thinks about turning heel: “It breaks my heart even thinking about it! And so, when I do have these ideas, like, I write everything down, ideas, just in case, they want ideas, ‘like, okay, we’re going to do this,’ I have ideas for that. But even just thinking about that, like one day, I was like, ‘yeah, I’m going to pitch this! I’m going to do it! Like, I want to be a heel!’ And then, I went out that night for our match and I saw maybe five or six girls dressed up like me and we had met these girls before the show that were just in tears meeting us. I was like, ‘okay, no, I can’t do it! I can’t turn my back on them. I don’t know what would happen.'”
Check out the complete episode of the “Steve Austin Show” podcast featuring the Bayley interview at PodcastOne.com/Steve-Austin-Show.