8 Ups & 13 Downs For WWE In 2021
12. Bayley Misses WrestleMania
WrestleMania 37's theme may have been "Pirate Stuff" for posterity (and because they still had loads of it left from the year prior), but those that lived through the night will always remember its significance for other reasons.
When WWE were finally allowed to let some fans back into the building for a night after that oh-so-neat one year, one month and one day without, everything suddenly had increased gravitas. Performers that had lasted that time without the responses that drew them into the industry in the first place were about to get them, and nobody deserved them more than pandemic era-MVP Bayley.
'The Role Model' used 2020 and early 2021 to joyously experiment, proving herself to be something of a perfect all-rounder in the process. WWE, as thanks, didn't book her at WrestleMania. Later stories emerged that a Becky Lynch bout was sort of there/sort of not for a while, but no Plan B robbed the longest serving SmackDown Women's Champion of the lock-up she'd so desperately deserved.