10 Wrestlers WWE Wished They’d Debuted Differently

When WWE debuted Bayley on the main roster in July 2016, they brought her up as her smash hit girl-next-door underdog character from NXT, bubblegum pop theme, dancing balloon-men and all. People said she had the potential to be the female John Cena, a kid-friendly babyface merchandising machine.

People might have been right: but most of the main roster crowd hadn’t been there for the slow-burn two-year zero-to-hero NXT storyline that had gotten Bayley to that point. She didn’t have the level of storytelling on the main roster - even becoming RAW Women’s Champion meant an assist to win the title and interference to retain it, because Bayley couldn’t be seen to go over Charlotte Flair without help.

Not only that, but asked to relinquish the title over the controversy, the squeaky-clean role model chose to keep it. It wasn’t the only time the company wrote an angle for Bayley that was at odds with her character - think about all those sassy anti-authority promos they scripted for her, words that the 'Hugger' would never have said.

By the time Alexa Bliss took the title from her, Bayley was getting equal parts boos and cheers from the crowd. The next two years were a blur of tag team action as a midcard non-entity: a far cry from her glory days at NXT as the top babyface on the show.

Ironically she’s finally started realising that stunted potential in the last year or so… as a heel.