Bayley On 'Slipping Through WWE's Fingers' As SmackDown Women's Champion

Bayley was an engaging guest on the most recent episode of Steve Austin's Broken Skull Sessions talk show, which hit the WWE Network on Sunday, as the true extent of her craftswomanship was revealed in a lengthy conversation powered by affability and mutual respect.

One of the show's more enlightening moments came as Bayley discussed her first run as SmackDown Women's Champion in 2019, just before she turned heel.

This came from Austin recalling the former 'Hugger' telling him that she wanted to switch her act up as far back as 2017. "I just wasn't feeling it for a long time," said Bayley (h/t Fightful for the transcriptions). "It was kind of a relationship where you're like, man, this don't feel like it used to and something's missing, and that was kind of what it felt like."

"I think it didn't feel right and I was losing confidence because I felt that I was slipping right through the company's fingers, where I thought I had so much to offer, so much to give," added the now two-time SmackDown Women's Champion. "I can do great things, but I felt like I just wasn't being seen in that light. So I was just going to get left behind. I was just going to be forgotten about. So I was getting really nervous about that."

Slip through the company's fingers Bayley did not. Ultimately, she ended up regaining the SmackDown belt less than a week after dropping it to Charlotte Flair, turning heel in the process. A transformative run followed, as Bayley's new look, attitude, and presentation propelled her to the longest and most successful run in the belt's history.