Bayley on How much Fun She’s Had Since Turning Heel, Why She Was Conflicted at First, Discusses How She & WWE Pulled the Trigger on It

– Newsweek.com recently interviewed WWE Superstar and two-division champion Bayley, who discussed the transition for her heel turn. Below are some highlights.

Bayley on the transition for her heel turn: “It’s been difficult, but the past few months have been very very fun. When it first happened, I didn’t know if I made a huge mistake or if I took the wrong turn in my career. As I started working live events and figuring out who I’m going to be from now on, it kind of woke me up a bit and relit a fire inside of me. I wanted to be the best in this character. I think in a weird way, this empty arena stuff has really helped my character as far as me not knowing whether the crowd is going to react to it or not. I just had to focus on me and how I wanted to portray myself.”

On how not having fans affected her in the ring: “At first I felt like it did. Having matches without a crowd and when you’re wrestling you kind of hear crowd reactions and it slows down the pace of a match. Or you’re taking your time in certain parts of the match, but without a crowd you don’t realize how fast you’re going. Putting a match together or actually being in there, I have to tell myself to slow down and try to be a bit more methodical in what I’m doing, and don’t rush things because there is nobody there to react to the things that I’m doing. As far as actual wrestling, I just needed to react in my own head as if there were a crowd there, but promo work and stuff has been awesome, not having to worry about whether the crowd is believing who I am now or if they still like me or hate me or not, and lets me just focus on who I’m trying to be.”

Bayley on if the turn was her decision: “A little bit of both. When this first happened I had to, I think it was [WWE’s] Hell in a Cell when I lost the title to Charlotte for like a week or something, and I had to cry and put on this big ol’ scene and cry and blah blah blah. And I knew I couldn’t come back to being the same Bayley. What, am I going to cry and everything is going to be ok? What would be the point of that? I always had this idea of wanting to be a heel whether people believed I could do it or not because I had this John Cena little-kid run where, no, you’re going to be the same forever. Cena can do that—he’s awesome, but I don’t want to do that. I want to try different avenues in wrestling as long as I have my career going. It was kind of my idea, I pitched everything I wanted to do and my look and all this stuff and when it was approved I was like, ‘Oh crap. Well, this better work.'”