Bayley seems to be off the WrestleMania card. The previous World Champion, Royal Rumble winner and intensely well-liked face of the WWE Girls’s Division was attacked backstage by a thriller assailant forward of her tag staff match with Lyra Valkyria in opposition to Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez. She’s apparently going to get replaced by somebody to be introduced later tonight, who could or is probably not Becky Lynch. Followers aren’t joyful about it, and neither am I.
Regardless of apparent pleasure to perhaps see Becky Lynch, the final response on social media has been extraordinarily unfavourable. Initially, many followers assumed she will need to have been injured in actual life and WWE was explaining that by writing it into the storyline. A number of retailers, nonetheless, are reporting that she’s completely advantageous and this was merely the inventive course WWE needed to go.
That hasn’t sat effectively along with her greatest supporters and even informal followers who see Bayley because the selfless coronary heart of the ladies’s division and may’t perceive why she’d be left off the cardboard. Many supporters have even spent the previous day digging up lots of her previous tweets that may very well be interpreted as unfavourable and/ or retweeting her good good friend Mercedes Moné who appeared to indicate she ought to go away WWE and head to AEW after the slight.
Now, earlier than I get into what I see as the larger story right here, I need to say out loud that I agree with the half about it being nonsense that Bayley isn’t on the WrestleMania card. We’re getting fourteen matches, lots of which contain greater than two individuals. Bayley is a cornerstone of the ladies’s division, and whereas I don’t assume anybody ought to simply be handed a match, I believe it’s beholden on WWE to put in writing storylines for the corporate’s greatest stars that lead into WrestleMania. That didn’t occur for Bayley this 12 months, nonetheless, and it’s symptomatic of a bigger WWE drawback.
I like WWE and am not usually essentially the most crucial fan. I’ll query issues on occasion (like Jey Uso profitable The Royal Rumble), however basically, I’m fairly constructive in regards to the product. I additionally notice accidents occur, stuff arises behind the scenes and plans want to vary. Due to that, I don’t want each single factor to be booked out a 12 months prematurely, however I additionally don’t need to see the whole lot thrown collectively on the final minute. It’s laborious not to take a look at this WrestleMania 41 construct and see quite a lot of apparent final minute modifications and sloppy executions.
Bayley fairly clearly, for example, appeared to be working towards a program with Roxanne Perez at ‘Mania. The latter completed second in The Royal Rumble and appeared able to be put into a giant spot, as we got quite a lot of little moments between the 2… till abruptly we weren’t. Perez principally disappeared from WWE TV with out rationalization, and Bayley abruptly began working with Lyra Valkyria.
I assumed the plan was going to see them wrestle for Lyra’s Intercontinental Championship, besides that match obtained scheduled for a number of weeks forward of ‘Mania. Earlier than it even occurred, Lyra and Bayley have been then scheduled for a tag staff gauntlet match with the winners going through Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez at ‘Mania, even supposing they have been feuding for the IC belt and weren’t a pure match to staff collectively. I might have guessed they’d lose and it could add intrigue to their singles feud, besides it was apparent they have been going to win the match earlier than it began as a result of nobody else within the match had been constructed up sufficient to be a reputable menace to look on the WrestleMania card.
So, yeah, I’m not a contented camper about Bayley being left off the WrestleMania card, however the issues began months in the past. She’s simply disposed of right here as a result of there’s no storyline we care about that makes her essential to the match. She was fairly clearly simply shoved in to look on the ‘Mania card, which makes it much more weirder that she’s not even on the ‘Mania card. It makes me surprise what the purpose of all of this even was?
She’s not the one one with a rushed or complicated storyline both. This whole program with Bianca Belair, Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky has made completely no sense. I do not know why they determined to do a triple menace, and it’s carried out nothing however result in Bianca Belair getting booed each time she needs to speak, regardless of being introduced as a babyface. John Cena and Cody Rhodes have had some good promo battles and constructed a enjoyable story right here, however it additionally doesn’t make any sense when you actually give it some thought. We have been initially advised Cena offered his soul to The Rock, which is why he turned on Cody, however the latter actually hasn’t made any appearances since Elimination Chamber. Actually, he’s barely even been talked about on tv, and Cena has given his causes as if The Rock had nothing to do with any of it.
You may simply maintain taking place the record, and this lack of planning is apparent in nearly each program. The New Day had one of many hottest heel turns of all-time once they kicked Large E out of the group. Then the writers did nothing with them for months. They misplaced all their momentum and didn’t even seem on TV some weeks, till we have been abruptly advised to care about them once more a number of weeks forward of WrestleMania? CM Punk, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins did a incredible job discovering a narrative and making a triple menace main into WrestleMania, however you possibly can’t persuade me these three weren’t thrown collectively as a result of there wasn’t the rest for them to do.
WWE has by no means had extra happening. With two weekly reveals, month-to-month PPVs and now quarterly specials on NBC, there’s this fixed have to construct towards one thing. Sadly, these frequent builds imply it’s so much more durable to inform long-term tales and to time them to get scorching at ‘Mania. Seth Rollins and CM Punk had an ideal feud going, however WWE burned it off through the first episode of Uncooked on Netflix.
Braun Strowman and Jacob Fatu had a incredible feud going, however WWE labored by way of it previous to WrestleMania. Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan had perhaps the most well liked feud in wrestling for a scorching minute, however everybody obtained sick of seeing them work collectively for months— so now each ladies are doing much less thrilling issues in tales we’re much less invested in at at ‘Mania.
WWE must determine this out. Giving followers extra specials and extra programming sounds nice, however an important interval yearly is the street to WrestleMania. That’s when the tales should be the most well liked, and this 12 months, we don’t actually have any scorching tales in any respect. As an alternative, we now have matches that really feel slapped collectively and a few huge stars like Bayley watching from catering.