10 Exact Moments Wrestlers Died Inside

9. Bayley

CM Punk Inside
WWE

The WWE system has a way of defeating its talent offscreen while they go 50/50 on it.

In a Peak of this development, the system battered the spirit of Bayley in 2017, and it was particularly depressing. An undying spirit is what got Bayley so over two years prior.

Bayley was booked to lose to Alexa Bliss in a Kendo Stick On A Pole match at Extreme Rules. This was a disaster in which the Bayley character, a WWE super-fan - this incidentally is as unfathomable a gimmick now as Kevin Nash's Oz - would not use a weapon to win. Did that fandom skip past literally one in every three matches, or...?

She had to know she had to use one eventually, but she didn't, thus depicting her as a wallflower unworthy of support. She explained her actions in a storyline interview with Corey Graves shortly afterwards, but she didn't seem to be acting. She was asked in reality to justify atrocious booking, and you could see the dread and total lack of confidence surface to morph her browbeaten facial expression.

She said a lot, in a struggle of a promo, but all those words amounted to "The f*ck do you want me to say?"

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and surefire Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!