Bayley Stays True To Character Despite Heel Turn

Wrestling heel turns rarely make sense. Usually, there is a babyface hero who turns their back on their morals, without any explanation or reason. With so much television to fill, especially in WWE, heel and babyface turns come far too often to make any significant impression.

But something is different with Bayley’s heel turn, and it’s very good.

Bayley, who is the SmackDown Women’s Champion, opened Tuesday night’s edition of the show cutting a promo to explain why she turned against Becky Lynch on RAW this past Monday. Bayley’s identity as a character didn’t change at all. She smiled in the ring and talked to the crowd like she was a babyface. However, she used heel logic, which made her a heel. It was a thing of beauty.

Bayley said that she was being loyal to Sasha Banks, and that made her a good role model. Banks is her former tag team partner, and the duo even won the first WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship earlier this year.

According to Bayley, she was sticking by her friend, “even in the tough times,” and that conviction meant she was setting a good example for all of the children in the crowd and watching at home.

It would have been easy — and almost expected — for Bayley to suddenly start acting like heel, but that’s what makes little sense most of the time. You have a wrestler who was playing to the crowd and was embracing being a fan favorite a week ago. Now it’s supposed to suddenly be different?

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Bayley’s mannerisms and her character didn’t really change at all. She still came out smiling with the same music blaring through the arena. She’s just using flawed, heel logic to justify her attack on Lynch, which is exactly what a good heel should do.

Charlotte, Bayley’s opponent at Clash of the Champions in two weeks, came to the ring to issue a compelling rebuttal. Then, as Sasha Banks walked to the ring, Charlotte speared and attacked Bayley and a brawl ensued. Bayley grabbed a steel chair, as she did on Monday, and attacked Charlotte. The segment ended with Bayley and Banks walking to the back, celebrating what they just did.

Now the next step is what happens at Clash of Champions. Does Bayley retain her title against Charlotte? Does Sasha Banks beat Becky Lynch to win the RAW Women’s Championship? What happens if they’re both carrying belts in two weeks?