10 Most Disappointing Wrestlers Of 2017
7. Bayley
Bayley started 2017 in sublime fashion, capturing the RAW Women's Title in a spellbinding, if atrociously mistimed, TV match with Charlotte in February. She might as well have won it on the edge of a cliff.
The WrestleMania 33 Fatal 4-Way was, in the end, just a match - and in brain-melting, fatalistic fashion, Bayley was withdrawn from the spotlight almost immediately afterwards, even though WWE somehow managed to remove, like spilled crumbs, a storyline that fell into their lap. With the customary, myopic focus reoriented to Alexa Bliss, most of the other women were sidelined. Bayley suffered a fate worse than that; cast as an irredeemable sap in segments and matches, she must be an empath.
In an all too real and distressing way, Bayley has often resembled the cherub WWE has portrayed her as in their trademark, ham-fisted way; the woman looked browbeaten at times, thoroughly lacking in the spirit required to get audiences back onside. This translated to insipid performances, betraying the joy and hope her act used to symbolise.
It was all really depressing - if this was a test, something to overcome, Bayley didn't quite have it in her to inspire the grassroots support needed, all too often, to wake up a slumbering creative regime.