WWE: More Good News Regarding Bayley's Return

Rumors of Bayley’s incoming return to WWE programming have started popping up again recently. Fightful Select reported over the weekend that Bayley was back in the ring training following the ACL tear she suffered in July 2021, then PWInsider added on Thursday that she had been training at the Performance Center several times over the past week. There’s still no word on what the timetable for her return looks like, though fans are hoping she’ll have some kind of presence at SummerSlam at the end of this month in Nashville. 

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“The Role Model” saw her record-breaking reign as SmackDown Women’s Champion come to an end against Sasha Banks at Hell in a Cell 2020. She began pursuing the title again by challenging Bianca Belair the following year, but had already lost to “The EST” twice on pay-per-view before going down with an injury ahead of the planned “I Quit” Match at Money in the Bank 2021 between the two.

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The former multi-time champion has talked in numerous interviews about her decision to turn heel and completely transform her presentation in 2019. She told Pro Wrestling Illustrated in 2020 (h/t WrestlingNews.co), “I think for one, everybody thought it was going to fail. They thought I made the wrong decision and I couldn’t pull it off. I think I proved everyone wrong, especially with the craziness of what has been going on with the pandemic and not being able to perform in front of fans, which makes everything harder. But, I was still able to pull it off and use it to my advantage.”

“Everyone second-guessed things, especially for me because I was doing that Bayley character for 7 years and it brought me so much success,” she later added. “It brought me championships and brought me to the WWE, but it was not something I wanted to do forever. I want to experience everything in my career. I want to ride the wave and do all sorts of things. I knew I couldn’t do it being that one character. Honestly, once I had the company’s blessing and Vince’s blessing, I knew I had to make it work. I had to make it work because it was my decision. If I failed then I failed myself and I failed the company. I definitely think people not believing in me helps because you love to prove people wrong. It helps on screen as well because then I’m not doing it for them, I’m doing it for me.”

h/t PWInsider