With the gimmick of being an overgrown thirteen-year old female, Bayley is a literal walking admission by World Wrestling Entertainment that the "don't be a bully, be a star" campaign will be a part of their corporate profile forever. Entering the arena with giant inflatable pylons with open arms and handing out headbands with bows attached like Bret Hart handed out sunglasses, she's a Pokemon card away from being every nerdy fanboy's dream girl and every pre-teen female wrestling fan's ideal best friend. However, she's a terrific babyface wrestler, and deserves being this high on this list. However, with a WWE main roster product that features mature and oftentimes highly sexual subject matter, does the concept of "Bayley" make sense? Yes, while it could be fun, a WWE TV product where "Bayley's gonna hug you" is mentioned in the same breath as Mark Henry can call Lana a "call girl" feels very uncomfortable. In many ways, Bayley would be great as a "sisterly" type character to play off of Natalya, as opposed to the "mother/daughter" dynamic the two have had on NXT television. The "Belly to Bayley" could one day mirror Magnum TA's Belly to Belly Suplex finisher in the 80s, but when thrown by someone who for all intents and purposes is a child, it feels nonsensical and otherwise dumb(er than say, Santino assaulting grown men with a snake-as-sock puppet).
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
