Bayley made her surprise return on the go-home Raw before No Mercy. Her return would mean an immediate place in the Raw Women’s Title match in Los Angeles.
With the match being a fatal five-way it certainly changes the dynamic of the scheduled contest. However, when Bayley made her return in her hometown of San Jose the reaction she received from the crowd was less-than-stellar.
Dave Meltzer broke down Bayley’s lack of reaction on Wrestling Observer Radio. His point was WWE had already done too much damage to Bayley’s character for the audience to get behind her at all, even in her hometown.
“This about the reaction she received tonight versus the reaction before her match with Alexa. To say it’s night and day isn’t doing it justice. I could see scripting the show going ‘ah this is gonna get a great pop’ and it’s they killed her so dead and you know, it’s done.”
“I’m not saying it’s irrevocable because nothing is irrevocable in wrestling but man, they damaged the hell outta [Bayley]. I can imagine aside from San Jose or anywhere else. I’ll bet people saw that and didn’t care and plus if you really want to get her over go and have her knock Nia Jax — she was so busy protecting Nia Jax that they made Sasha Banks and Bayley look like complete non-babyfaces.”
“It’s three-on-one on Nia Jax, how does that get the babyfaces over? So the four-way is now a five-way cause Bayley’s back. Her shoulder’s healthy and that’s good — her shoulder’s healthy. The bad is she’s back with no direction and just so not over.”
Meltzer also commented how “it’s really quite sad” how WWE was able to drop the ball for Bayley so much. Do you think it’s too late for The Hugger to turn it around?
If you use the quotes in this article please credit Wrestling Observer Radio with a H/T to Still Real To Us for the transcription
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