10 Times WWE Treated Home Town Talent Like Garbage
8. Bayley
Poor Bayley. In years to come, wrestling historians will see her as the exemplar for how modern WWE has lost the plot when it comes to booking babyfaces
Arguably the most over wrestler in the company during her championship run at NXT, Bayley neverthelss endured a spotty start to her career on the main roster. Unfortunately, Bayley's feud with Alexa Bliss would transform the former's patchy run into a two-year free-fall down the ladder, one that only halted with a total reinvention of her character.
It all started at the Payback PPV in Bayley's home town of San Jose, California.
With Bliss having had the upper hand in the run-up to the match, the stage seemed set for Bayley to exact her revenge in front of her home crowd. Instead, Bliss beat Bayley 1-2-3, clean as a whistle. Not content with that particular humiliation, WWE booked an 8 women tag match in the follow up RAW, again in California in front of a pro-Bayley crowd. The result?
Bliss DDT'd Bayley and
pinned her for the second night in a row. Again, there were eight wrestlers in the match and WWE booked the home state babyface to be
pinned by her nemesis.
Bayley's character assassination was complete in a god-awful kendo stick on a pole match wherein Bayley refused to use the titular weapon because she was 'too nice', but the WWE had already made their inexplicable contempt for her character clear that night in San Jose.