411’s Broken Skull Sessions Report: Bayley on Being Last Horsewoman to Leave NXT, Her Heel Turn, More

411’s Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions Report: Bayley

-Original Air Date: 01.10.21
-Run Time: 1:21:43

-Steve Austin welcomes Bayley to the show and she is doing great because Austin just called her his friend. They talk about the haircut and she says it has taken time to get used to, but she loves it because it is low maintenance. She was in shock when she first cut it and everyone on the roster couldn’t believe she was doing it.

-Austin brings up that Bayley was named #1 in PWI’s countdown for women in 2020. She talks about reading the magazine as a kid because she would see Rock or Austin on the cover. When she opened the magazine she was introduced to wrestlers she had never heard of or seen. She says it is a bigger deal that she thought it would be and Austin agrees. Austin then puts up the PWI cover where he was voted in the top spot and Bayley jokes he got the cover to himself while she had to share it. Austin breaks out some of his IPA beers and they have a toast.

-Video from SmackDown Sept 11, 2020 as Bayley gives a promo on why she turned on Sasha Banks. Austin laughs as he says that Bayley changed so much. He says that she looked like she was having a blast and she points out she messed up and called herself, “Two Belts Banks.” Huh, I just caught that now.

-Next photo on the screen is Bayley meeting John Cena at a meet and greet in San Fran. She mentions she met Rey Mysterio 2 hours earlier at a meet and greet in Oakland. Her parents were used to driving her around to meet wrestlers.

-Austin asks her when she knew she wanted to be a pro-wrestler and she says it was when she was 12 years old. She started watching at 10, but knew she wanted to do it when she saw Lita, Trish, and that group. Austin calls Lita cool while also being sexy and a bad ass. It was when she went to Indy shows and realized they were just normal people doing these things. They were people just like her and she figured this was something she could do.

-At 17 years old she went to a Fan Fest and got a flyer from Big Time Wrestling for their training camp. She knew she could start in a year as he mom couldn’t tell her no once she was eighteen. She trained for 6 months before her first match and was the only girl in the school for years. She doesn’t remember the bumps hurting but running the ropes killed her as they had cable wires with tape around them. She tells a funny story of how her boyfriend was getting made as he couldn’t hug her because her back was messed up from the ropes.

-Austin brings up Serena and how important she was as a mentor. Bayley gives context by telling is Serena was in the WWE with CM Punk and then became a trainer at the PC. She was also her tag partner and saw something in her. Serena put her in touch with higher ups in SHIMMER and Bayley says she can’t thank her enough.

-Bayley mentions she watched Tough Enough growing up and Austin laughs that he doesn’t know how much that helped. They flash up another pic of a young Bayley doing a pose that she jokingly says looks like something Alexa Bliss stole from her. She talks about getting the call from WWE as she was working a Tag match with Candice Larae and ELIAS saw her and sent out a tape that got her a call to work out for the WWE. She was signed off that try-out.

-Austin shows footage from FCW where Bayley is trying to work on her promos. She was so bad she was put in the extra sessions and all she could do was cut a promo about how much she loved wrestling. That wasn’t enough though as that was seen as boring and she started crying. All she knew she loved was pro-wrestling and she didn’t know who she was outside of that.

-Dusty Rhodes was trying anything with her to find something more than someone that could just wrestle. He put her in front of a camera with Summer Rae and all she could do was compliment her. Dusty and the producer loved it as they felt there was something there and to go home and work on it.

-That leads to Bayley as the Super Fan who gives out hugs in NXT. She could never be Trish and look like her, but she could wear baggy, cool pants like Lita. She got the tassels from her love of Macho Man. She says even the hair was lucky as all she knew how to do was put her hair in a pony tail and that worked for that character.

-The 4 Horsewomen are mentioned and Bayley says Ric Flair gave them that name and they were the first with that name. She mentions that may piss off Shayna or Ronda, but whatever. Flair pegged them as The 4 Horsewomen and it stuck.

-Austin asks about the dynamic with the group and Bayley says she was the outcast as first as Charlotte and Sasha were close and then Sasha and Becky became close. It wasn’t until the time of NXT Brooklyn when she and Sasha became close friends. She always felt was different and says Charlotte made her mad because of how athletic she was. In her mind she had to keep believing she was the best of the group.

-Footage from NXT Brooklyn and Bayley calls it the best crowd. They both note that Sasha has put on muscle mass since this match. Bayley mentions she nearly broke her hand on the steps during the match. Austin loves Sasha as a heel and puts over Bayley as a great babyface. Bayley says they felt like Austin and Rock and wanted to like them out there. They both marvel over the crowd and say how there is nothing like a hot crowd. Bayley says she will take any crowd at this point. Man, I can see how seeing footage of this match would make anyone miss having crowds. Many call this the greatest women’s match in WWE history and I wouldn’t argue too hard against it. Austin asks if the match brought them close and Bayley says it was magic in the air that connected them. They will be married for life because of that match.

-Next was the Iron (Wo)Man match and Bayley mentions that neither got much sleep because they didn’t know how there were going to fill 30 minutes. She mentions some people like this match more than the Brooklyn one and Austin says they were different matches and he loved both.

-We jump to Women’s Wrestling and Austin says it has caught fire and it’s thanks to Bayley and those around her. Bayley says when she won the NXT Title she was by herself with a roster full of new girls that she had to help. She got in a groove carrying things as a champion and helped her become a better worker. She wanted everyone to get along and have fun and became a leader. Austin asks her how it felt being the last of the 4 left in NXT. She eventually realized it was good for as she could get more seasoned and work with the younger girls.

-Eventually she gets the call up to the main roster and she mentions they set her up so nice. She was shocked how excited the crowd was for her. Six months later she beats Charlotte Flair for her first WWE Title and then gets to defend the Title at Mania 33. It was a 4 Way Elimination Match and she put a ton of pressure on herself. She was so thankful she was in there with Sasha as she helped calm her down. She always thought WrestleMania happened on a different planet when she watched as a kid because of how big it was. To be there in front of her family it made her an emotional wreck. She explains it to non wrestling fans that it is The Super Bowl.

-The year before Bayley sat in the crowd to watch WrestleMania 32 because she is a nerd and she wanted to see Sasha vs. Charlotte vs. Becky. She was crying as she watched each make their entrance. They all helped each other get to where they were and in a weird way they paved the way for her. Part of her knew she should be there as she felt she was done with all she could do in NXT.

-Austin brings up that after Mania 33 things started to flat line for her and throws to a promo from RAW where Bayley gives an update on her injured arm as the crowd boos her. She says that sucked and she doesn’t know why Toronto doesn’t like her. They weren’t buying a word she said. She had a separated shoulder and was taken out of her SummerSlam match. Sasha came out and hugged her and whispered “screw these people.” Bayley says she was hurt by it and she didn’t know what she was doing wrong to get that reaction. Part of her felt the character may have been running it’s course.

-She thinks her character hurt her as far as management because they didn’t buy her in Last Man Standing Matches, Hell in a Cell Matches, or Ladder Matches. She was going backwards as she was having Main Events and Iron Man Matches in NXT.

-Elimination Chamber: Sasha and Bayley win the Tag Titles and Bayley says it was one of her proudest moments because they fought to get that division. She loves tag wrestling, but never learned the psychology of tag wrestling until they got serious with the team. Austin compares tag wrestling to chess as there are more moving pieces. Bayley puts the division over as a way to get more girls on the card and in a match.

-WrestleMania 35: Bayley and Sasha lose the Tag Titles while Charlotte and Becky were in the Main Event with Ronda. Bayley says defending the Tag Titles for the first time at a Mania was a great moment and she loved being in there with Beth and Nattie and being there for the IIconics. She then went out and watched the Main Event. Oh, man I was hoping Steve would touch on the rumor that Bayley and Sasha threw a fit about losing the tag titles after the match.

-Bayley then becomes the first Grand Slam Champion as she notched the NXT, Tag, RAW and SmackDown Titles. She felt great as Sasha was out for a bit and she realized she could do this with out her.

-Bayley mentions there were times she was frustrated. She talks about the match with Ember at SummerSlam not being what it should have been. She wasn’t being a help to the division as much as she wanted to be. Austin asks her what wasn’t clicking. She says that character felt real to her in NXT but she started to lose the feeling of the character. Something felt like it was missing and it was almost like she lost her way. Austin mentions he talked to Flair and Taker and both talked about losing their confidence. Bayley lost her confidence, but also thought the company was forgetting about her. Austin asks if she ever met with Vince and she says all the time. He told her she was doing everything they wanted.

-She loses the SmackDown Title to Charlotte and all her energy went into changing her character. She lost her title and cried and needed something new. That leads to her destroying the Bayley Buddies with an ax. The crowd actually pops for the inflatable tube slaughtering. She says he felt sad in a way and then scared as she didn’t know if she was ruining her career. Slashing them and cutting her hair felt like shedding snakeskin. She needed that change and was just happy they approved it in such a short span. For here this was the last ditch effort to save her career.

-Bayley cuts a promo on Miz TV to explain the heel turn as she calls out the division for being lazy. She drops the Vince McMahon line “life sucks and then you die.” Bayley laughs at the promo and says it felt good as she needed to be the opposite of what she was. She was nervous because The Miz is a great talker and Sasha was sitting next to her. She became The Role Model because that’s all she saw on twitter from people who tweeted her. Austin likes that she wasn’t afraid to go out on a limb.

-Bayley’s idea was to be like Eddie Guerrero in WCW when he would walk out and look like he hated everyone and everything. Austin calls Eddie a master at what he did, but thinks Bayley did a good job of not taking it as dark as Eddie did.

-Austin asks what her friends thought about the new Bayley. She says everyone was supportive and puts over TJ Wilson as a wrestling genius. He is the one that points out things she would do in matches. He is the one that compliments her the most. Austin asks who else she leans and Bayley mentions Sasha. She goes to Sasha for psychology help, but at this stage she also has to do things herself.

-We jump to 2020 with Sasha and Bayley running as Tag Champions. Bayley says they never got a chance to show off what they could do as a team the first run. They wanted a run as a heel tag team as it was easy for them to feed off each other.

-Austin asks what Sasha means to her on a business and personal level. The Brooklyn match let them put their trust in each other and they have felt safe every since. On a personal level she is her best friend and they go to each other when they feel stuck. She wouldn’t be the person or performer she is today without Sasha. She puts over her mind and how she studies like nobody else.

-Austin brings up how The Rock always brought out the best in him. Bayley mentions that chemistry is different as you can feel you can have a great match with someone, but with Sasha everything clicks and it is different.

-They show footage of them losing the Tag Titles to Shayna and Nia. Bayley puts over Shayna and mentions she likes to drinking beer. Austin: “I’m in.” Ha! After the match Bayley tends to an injured Sasha and then turns on her. Austin is loving every second as he watches and he loves that Bayley always takes time to yell out Michael Cole. Bayley then Pillmanizes Sasha’s neck and Austin mentions he did that to Pillman’s ankle obviously, but this was much more devastating. They toast over the moment!

-That leads to Hell in a Cell as Austin asks about the brutality in the match. She says she always wanted to do a Ladder Match because of Lita and The Hardy Boyz, but she never wanted to be in a Cell match. She didn’t want it to be anything like the previous Cell matches Sasha had been in. They show highlights of the match and Bayley goes back to wishing they had a crowd. Austin loves that Sasha puts The Banks Statement on so well as he mentions some out there leave gaps when applying such a hold. Austin and Bayley both put over how much the kendo sticks hurt and Bayley says for her they are worse than getting hit with a chair. Sasha wins with The Banks Statement assisted by a chair.

-Austin tells her that he loves her more as a heel than a baby and he loved her as a baby. She says she has had no much fun with this role as she can do whatever she wants and gets to dictate the pace. They go back to her yelling at Cole. She got the idea because they had no crowd and she could hear Cole calling the match so she would yell for him to shut-up.

-They discuss the 380 day run and it was over 500 days outside the 5 days Charlotte took the title from her. Austin puts over that getting a title run like that shows what the company thinks of her. She agrees and goes back to that the old Bayley wouldn’t be able to have a Hell in a Cell match like that.

-Austin asks about the one thing that has kept her on track and level headed. She says it is a lot of who she is and that she just wants to be a consistent performer that they can trust. She wants to be looked at as a top talent and performer. She was consistently pushing herself and when she felt she was nearing a breaking point she would ask for a few days off to unwind. Austin mentions that being dependable keeps you in the game and even during the lulls you just have to ride them out. Bayley loves helping the other women and wants to help them have their best match. She does think what helped her grow this year was being a little more selfish and Austin agrees that you have to be a bit selfish.

-Austins predicts Bayley will be in the Hall of Fame down the road and wants to know what is next. Bayley says that winning The Royal Rumble is her next goal as it gets her to Mania where she has never had a singles Title Match. That would give her nearly a complete career.

-Austin throws up a few photos of the two of them together. Bayley says she would be that happy with him even as a heel. They show video from MSG as Austin comes back to Gorilla with his beers and Bayley is waiting along with Sasha and Becky so they can all drink together. That’s fantastic and a great way to wrap this one up. They toast each other one last time and we are done.

-This was solid though it seemed to drag a bit as Bayley is still relatively young in her career and there wasn’t much to discuss when comparing it to other episodes in the series that featured people like Taker, Hart, Flair, Lawler, etc. With that said it is still a good watch as Austin is always good and I enjoy hearing people shoot the breeze about pro-wrestling. Thanks for reading!