WWE NXT exclusive conference interview with Bayley

by Daniel Falconer | 24 May 2016

As one of the most celebrated NXT Women's Champions there has been, Bayley is universally adored by wrestling fans across the globe.

Bayley / Credit: WWE NXT

We got the chance to chat to her in a conference call with other media all about the upcoming NXT UK and Ireland tour, working within WWE and NXT and much more!

You got a great reaction from UK crowds during the last NXT tour - how much of a kick do you and your fellow NXT Superstars get out of the UK and Ireland tour?

It's incredible. I can't even explain. Every night we were just so excited to see what kind of chants everybody came up with, for everybody, not just for me or for Enzo and Cass. Everybody that walked out of the curtain I was so excited to see what the fans would come up with next for them.

I guess you can tell at the NXT tapings here in Orlando, everybody's catching onto the chants and trying to replicate and everything. But I'm so excited to go back and hear the real thing!

What do you think it's going to be like to perform in such a unique environment at Download Festival?

I think that's what I'm most excited for and it's really cool that we're going to be able to start it out like that because, we've done festivals here in the US but this is the first time NXT is going to the UK to do something like this. I can only imagine a mixture of music and wrestling and how insane the fans are gonna be. They've been really successful, the ones that we've done here in the US, so I'm just so excited to get over there and be able to experience something that is just gonna be 10 times bigger and better, I feel.

Female First asks: NXT has really proven itself as its own brand, so what do you think the next logical step with NXT touring will be?

Man, I kinda wanna go everywhere! I would really like to go to Mexico. I'd one day like to go to Japan, one day go to Australia, but I think I really wanna go to Mexico. I kinda started watching wrestling through Lucha Libre because my grandmother was always watching Lucha Libre. I think it'd be so cool to bring NXT over there, I know how crazy and passionate those fans are. I don't know if that's ever been in the talks but I think that'd be really cool.

And, just to have as a whole monthly pay-per-views and be able to take our pay-per-views like we did to London and like we just did to Dallas. I think it would be cool to be able to expand our pay-per-views and be able to do more stuff like we did in London, but everywhere.

There's a few British talents on the tour, are you keen to see how they get on on home soil?

Yeah I'm really curious. I always tell people all the time in interviews that, there's so many people in NXT here working at the performance centre and all around the Florida shows that nobody gets to see yet because they're not on NXT TV yet, or they have one match here or there, so they can't appreciate their abilities or anything about them. Hugo Knox is one of them, he's been here maybe two years, and he's been working really hard and he just has a cool charisma about him that we only get to see here in Florida shows. I'm really excited to see him be able to go home, I'm sure he'll have friends and family there.

I think Nikki Storm also, she'll be around. She said she'll be about three hours away from home and everything so it's gonna be really cool to see.

Would you have liked to have an NXT TakeOver event this time round following London's success?

Yeah, I know we have one in June, so I wish we had one over there. I don't know how hard it is to do or how much money goes into it and all this stuff, I'm just selfish and like, 'Man why don't we do it there?', but I'm just excited we'll be there for a whole week again.

Female First asks: There's a whole new era with the women's division now on Raw and Smackdown with the dropping of the term 'Diva' and such - do you think the women of NXT really paved the way for that?

I think maybe NXT had a huge part in it. I know a lot of the girls in the WWE always wanted to go down that path, but it wasn't really until Stephanie McMahon introduced Becky, Sasha and Charlotte that people started noticing the movement and noticing that these girls want to be not just Divas, they want to take the division to a different level. I don't think the fans really knew how bad everybody else wanted it backstage like Paige and the Bellas, and Nattie especially. They all wanted that for so long so for us to be able to kinda help and for Sasha, Becky and Charlotte to be the ones to kind of push it and for Stephanie to introduce them in such a big way. It's been such a good year and it's really cool to see that NXT kinda had a little help to do with that!

Anything can happen at an NXT live event - are you looking for a rematch against Asuka on this tour?

I am not sure. I'm owed a rematch so I'm hoping there would be no cooler place to do it than on that UK tour, so we're gonna have to see. I honestly don't know what I'm doing on the tour yet but I'm just excited to be there, and I know Asuka will be there so we'll have to see what happens!

Who are you expecting fans to go crazy for in June on the tour?

Well I think Tye Dillinger, I'm pretty sure they're gonna go insane for because, everywhere we've been travelling inside the US and everything, they all go crazy for him. Even in the UK in December they loved him. I'm assuming Nakamura, they'll go pretty insane for!

What would you say the highlight of your NXT Women's Championship run was?

The matches were incredible. The Ironman match with Sasha and everything was really cool, but I think just the fact I was able to carry the title and visit places for the first time being champion, like going to the UK for example, being champion. Not only with NXT but I also got to travel with WWE and, to be the NXT Women's Champion and be on the WWE shows representing the company and the division in such a huge way was really cool for me. Going to places like Chicago and New York as the champion is what was really special for me. It was just being able to be the champion of such a great division and going to these places for the first time ever - it's a huge honour.

Female First asks: You've got such a diverse mix of fans and many of them are young, so do you feel a pressure to maintain your status as a role model for the younger fans?

I wouldn't say pressure, I think it's really humbling that kids are so involved in my career and just watching kid's faces, when I watch my matches back and see little kids jump around, it's just insane. One of the coolest things is the parents that thank me or the parents of an eight-year-old girl who thank me for being a role model, then I'm like, 'Oh my gosh I better not mess this up!' I guess that's where the pressure comes, it's like, 'Yeah, I'll take care of them!' I know how important wrestling was to me as a kid and how it sculpted the way I went for my dreams and things that I did in life, the way I dressed and the way I acted towards people and, it had a huge influence on me so, I always remember that and know that no matter what, even when I'm out of the ring I always have to present myself in a certain way. It's kind of how I am already so it's not like I have to put on a show for the kids or anything. It's been really cool.

Female First asks: As you mentioned wrestling was a big part of your life growing up, so what was your favourite match from the time before you joined WWE and NXT?

There's a lot that I remember. This wasn't like, the best 'wrestling wrestling' match when I was a kid, but just a highlight of mine that I remember was when Lita won the Women's Championship for the first time against Stephanie in the main event of Raw, and The Rock was the special guest referee. I remember that obviously because I was a huge Lita fan and just to see her win the title and the Hardys holding her up on their shoulders, she was crying, I was like, 'Man that was so cool'. It wasn't like a technical wrestling match but, just the whole story behind it was amazing. I remember that very vividly.

Are there any talents on the main roster you'd like to work with when you move to Raw and Smackdown?

Nattie is one of them. I've had plenty of matches with her but I've only been able to team with her, I've never been able to have a match one-on-one against her. That's one of the matches I've always wanted and she's kind of been saying the same thing for a while since she was in NXT for a little bit. I remember watching one of her matches from the independents when she was like, an ECCW Canadian SuperGirls Champion against Ivory. One day I wanna have at least one match against her.

Nikki Bella as well, when she comes back from her surgery and everything. She's the longest reigning Divas Champion, so I feel like she's someone I can learn from. I know we would have a lot of fun in a match together.

What do you think will happen between Asuka and Nia Jax at TakeOver next month?

I'm really excited to see. They're kind of similar in that you don't know what to expect out of them in their matches, I've been in the ring with both of them and, they're both very intimidating and threatening but in two different ways. Even to see them go eye-to-eye is very cool - it gets me excited as a fan. As another person in the roster who wants to be champion again, I kind of want them to get their stuff over with so I can make my next move, but I think the fans are gonna be really pleased with it.

What do you make of Charlotte's current run as Women's Champion?

I think she's doing an amazing job, it's been really cool to watch her grow because I was in FCW for her first match and NXT TV for her first match with her dad in her corner, so to see what happened last night and how far she's come to be able to be like, 'I don't need you anymore', and knowing she's gonna be on her own now, I'm excited to see what her next move will be. I think she's doing a really great job, she's been put in this position to carry on her legacy and name, I know it's so much pressure but she's doing a great job. If I were to make it up to the main roster sometime soon I think she'd be a perfect person to target!

Female First asks: You tweeted about wanting to be AJ Styles and the fans immediately made pictures! What do you think of this modern-day fan culture?

@itsBayleyWWE @AJStylesOrg now you are 😄 pic.twitter.com/NFbV2oRznl
— Sasha makes me HAPPY (@kimberlyTochima) May 24, 2016

It's so funny. I think social media is a huge part of it, that we're so accessible and everything's so interactive nowadays. I wish I had this when I was younger, being able to see what my favourite Superstars were thinking all the time and what they were doing and hoping to get a tweet from them or anything. Sasha and I throw back and forth arguing all the time and, you can tell they just love it. There's pictures of everything out there, like every scenario, every tweet, every argument we have they make pictures or music videos out of it. I know I get tweet sometimes like, 'I wish Bayley could see this', I just want the fans to know I see every single tweet and they make me laugh all the time. It's really cool to see how behind us they are and how much they care about us. I'm just putting a sentence out there and they care about it, so it's really, really nice.

Female First asks: Finn Balor and Samoa Joe did their contract signing on Facebook Live and I know you've done Facebook Live Q&As - how do you think fans getting WWE and NXT news will continue to evolve?

I think it's just gonna get bigger and bigger, we're starting to do more stuff with Facebook Live. I just got another app on my phone so that I can do live stuff myself on Facebook, which I'm looking forward to doing. We have Periscope, Carmella and I would do Periscope all the time but we've stopped doing it, it was a phase. But I think with this Facebook Live we can do so much more. It's just another way to expand the way and expand yourself. One hour of NXT TV a week, sometimes people want more of that so to be able to go online and go on Facebook and get a little glimpse of what your favourite Superstar is like, or they can answer your question, I think social media is so cool for that.

NXT will be heading to the UK & Ireland this June on the following dates: