Bayley assesses her future.
2025 marks 17 years since Bayley first stepped in a professional ring, and 12 since she entered a WWE one. During her time with WWE, “The Role Model” has enjoyed reigns with tag team and singles gold, so much so that she became the first female Grand Slam Champion in WWE history. What is next for her, though? Per Bayley herself, there are still plenty of possibilities.
When does Bayley’s current contract expire?
“I have a year and a half left on this current contract, so we’ll see what happens then,” Bayley told Insight With Chris Van Vliet. “[And then what?] Man, I don’t know. I think I’ve done everything I really want to do, not everything. There’s still a lot I want to get done, but done so much with WWE. I’ve been here for already 12 years and there’s a huge wave of women coming in that I think are ready to take over, ready to be in those spots. Teaming with Lyra [Valkyria] right now has been super eye-opening to what the whole division has to offer. I’ve got to work with Roxanne [Perez]. I got to work with Cora [Jade].
“But even like last night, hanging out with Lyra, we went out to dinner, and we hung out with Michin for her birthday. But being able to hang out with her outside of wrestling, hearing her mindset and why she does this, why she wants to make it better, what she wants to make better, how she wants to help even me. Things that we’re doing going into WrestleMania, how she wants to be better for me makes me so happy that there’s people like that and women like that that want to be better for the division. So when I think about okay, I might be done in a couple of years, who knows? I know that it’s going to be in good hands, so that makes me really happy.”
How much longer does Bayley intend to wrestle?
According to Bayley, her overarching goal is to leave professional wrestling better than she found it. Regarding the time frame on when she might leave it, though, Bayley indicates that it’s still up in the air.
“When I was younger, women didn’t wrestle as long as we’re doing it now. Trish and Lita, if you think about it, they were everyone’s heroes. They were my heroes. They only did it like six, seven years with WWE, and were only on top for three years or something. So to me, that was always in my head,” Bayley said. “But now you look at Nattie, who’s been here forever. I just wrestled her on Friday, and just incredible in the ring. Just one of one, and everything that she brings to it, not just in the ring, but her experience, and we really need that in the locker room. So I always think that even if I’m not wrestling every week, there’s something that I have that can help the locker room just like she does, just like Naomi does, just like Tamina does.”
Bayley’s younger self believed her in-ring career would cap at the age of 35. Now that she has reached that age, she believes she can continue well beyond it, especially with all the progress women’s wrestling has made.
“When I was younger I always said all right, 35 would be my cut off, because, in my opinion, guys can go forever, but it’s not that cute when you’re a woman and you’re 35. But now that I’m 35 I’m just like, oh we’re all way past that, and we’re still main eventing, we’re still doing red carpets, we’re still doing all this stuff. People still care about us,’ Bayley said. “That’s kind of something. They still care about us, so that’s kind of like changed my mindset.”
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