Bayley Discusses NXT’s Popularity, Being a Role Model, Sasha Banks

Former NXT Champion Bayley recently sat down with The Nashville Scene, to promote NXT’s upcoming event this Friday evening, June 3, at 7:30 PM, at the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. In the interview, she discusses a number of topics, including the popularity of NXT, being a role model to young girls, her matches with Sasha Banks, and more.

Below are some highlights from the interview:

What made NXT so popular?

Everybody is so unique and it is a whole different kind roster (from WWE). There is nobody like Finn Balor or Shinsuke Nakamura on WWE (Ed.: At least not yet). The women’s division keeps getting stronger. Everybody is so hungry to get to that WrestleMania stage at some point. We are a huge family and we motivate each other and compete to have the best match on the card. The tag teams, like The Revival and American Alpha, going 110 percent every night. … Triple H has given us this huge opportunity and the best coaching staff at the performance center.

You are so popular with kids, especially with young girls. When you make your entrance, they go crazy. There are pictures of little girls crying after you lost the title to Asuka at Takeover. Do you feel a special responsibility to them?

It’s cool because that is what I wanted to do. I wanted kids to feel like I felt when I attended wrestling shows. I wanted them to be involved and be excited and look forward to not just John Cena. It’s the big kid in me. I am just acting like myself when I was 10 years old. It’s so cute how passionate kids can be. And there is also a responsibility to the parents, who thank me for being a role model. I have to make sure I keep my head on.

When you wrestled Sasha Banks at TakeOver in Brooklyn in 2015 in the first Ironwoman match ever, did you feel the gravity in the run up? Did you appreciate it in the moment? Did it sink in later when it was on all these Match of the Year lists?

After Brooklyn, we were like, “Whoa.” We wanted to go out on a great match because it was going to be our last match for awhile and steal the show. Man, that was really special that women’s wrestling was such a huge part of the show. And it took a while for it to set in. It was only the 10th Ironman match (in WWE history) and nobody can ever take that away. It was crazy, but we don’t wanna stop ever. We want to have that match on a WWE pay-per-view.  

You can read the entire interview at this link.

Follow @Dericho06