5 Biggest WWE Winners & Losers In 2021
1. Loser: Bayley
For the first six months of the pandemic, Bayley was indisputably the MVP. The first to figure out the need to fill the silence, her matches were more watchable than anyone’s due to her insistence on berating all around her, she could cut a consistently brilliant promo, and in her slow-burning feud with Sasha Banks, she had the best story in the company.
When WrestleMania returned in front of a live crowd, Bayley’s big reward was to be sidelined in favour of the unpopular Hulk Hogan, the sleepwalking NWO, and the not-Becky-Lynch-so–not-interested Bella Twins. She did the best with the material she was given, but was essentially sent out there to play the fool in front of legacy acts.
Her subsequent feud with Bianca Belair had moments of greatness, though it was stymied by the fact no one ever believed Bayley would come out on top. Before it could be blown off, she was on the injury bench, out for nine months with a torn ACL.
While injuries do of course happen, the usage of Bayley in 2021 beggars belief. Her 2020 title run was one of the finest in the division’s history: after that, it’s like the office forgot she even existed.