Bayley recalls her early days in the WWE with fellow superstar Sasha Banks and how the two eventually became close friends.
There’s just something about real life playing the roles of rivals on screen. Triple H and Shawn Michaels were best friends in real life but had legendary feuds on TV. More recently, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair really made you believe that they hated each other last year.
Also read: Paul Heyman lavishes WWE star with high praise
This year it was Bayley and Sasha Banks who showed the WWE universe why their rivalry in NXT back in 2015 is part of the mythos of NXT. It is an open secret that Banks and Bayley are very close. However, it wasn’t always like this. In Bayley’s own words the two used to be standoffish with each other early on.
Bayley recalls her early days in the WWE with Sasha Banks
“Well actually, as far as our personal friendship, that took longer than anything because we’re such different people,” Bayley said on The New Day’s Feel The Power podcast. “When we first had our match, FCW literally threw us in the ring but they gave us five minutes. It was in front of all the coaches, and luckily, none of my peers were here yet. It was just the empty arena but with coaches.”
“We say this story all the time,” she continued. “It was literally five minutes on the fly to have a match and it was with her. I think that was the best match I ever had, I was on the indies for four-and-a-half years, but I’m pretty sure that was the best match I ever had, and I just couldn’t believe we pulled it off in five minutes. I was like, ‘Man, she’s going to help me get better.’ I can friggin’ wrestle this girl! She was never out of place. A lot of the girls I worked with, not in a bad way, but I felt like I was better than them already. So I’m like, ‘This girl is awesome! She’s someone I can push myself with.’ But in the ring, we always feel like that.
“I think she didn’t want to be my friend”
“We were working matches all the time, whether it was in tag matches or against each other. We had a million dark matches in NXT before we started getting on TV,” Bayley revealed. “It took a while for us to realize that we could be friends. I think we were both standoffish with each other – it was weird. I think she didn’t want to be my friend or she already had friends there, because she was there before me.”
“Once we started learning that we’re both dorks who loved wrestling since we were 10 years old, and the way we grew up together, that’s when it started being, ‘Alright, she’s kind of cool.’ We kind of found our characters at the same time, so that was very helpful. When we had promos, we could use each other. We can be in each other’s promos and help find each other, so, I’m so lucky. I couldn’t have done that whole pandemic without anybody else.”
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