WWE Superstar Bayley was the most recent guest on the ‘Steve Austin Show’ podcast. You can listen to the entire interview and podcast at this link, and below are some highlights:
On Working in the Japanese Culture and Her Battles with Asuka:
I know how the crowds are. That is why I am kind of nervous; I know Asuka is going to be on our team so she can kind of help us with that. She is an awesome person. I always mess around with her because she speaks a little english to us so when she won the title, everyday I would just take the title from her and she would start hitting me. She is so funny. I miss being in the ring with her because she always made me up my game because her style is so different but you have to be quick minded and quick on your feet. I miss wrestling her.
She can be snug. Her kicks can be, but it was actually easier than I thought. I actually worked with Japanese women before I got to WWE and I was with SHIMMER, but I didn’t really know how to approach them either. I know it’s some Lucha-style pro wrestling; I guess I can incorporate with them but I didn’t know what to expect from Asuka because she’s been wrestling for a long time, but I think we mesh pretty well, we only had a few TakeOver matches and her kicks were a little stiff but it’s okay. With all the adrenaline, you don’t feel it until afterwards.
On the Pros and Cons of Being Called Up from NXT:
Me and Sasha [Banks] talk about that all the time, just like being backstage with all the politics and all those things behind it, and even coming up from NXT; it can either be a smooth ride and easy depending on what the company is looking for, or who you are or whatever, or it can be where you are in NXT for a long time and finally get there and have a big debut and then have a rough start too; it’s so different but I guess it has its pros and cons from back then until now.
On Who She Travels with on the Road:
In NXT, it was always Carmella; she is one of my best friends. It was so much fun, but now she is on SmackDown, which is fine, but I travel with Sasha Banks now. Everyone just travels with their friends because it’s easier since you are all on the same schedule as your friends, but I don’t know how other cars are, I have traveled with some of the guys when I was in NXT and they are always constantly talking about wrestling; constantly trying to book stuff, always wrestling, but with Sasha Banks and I, it’s still new to us being together all the time, but we talk about friends and family but we also like to complain to each other and vent to each other about everything, but she’s one of those people that you can do that with but I can just let it all out, same with her. Or, we can just be huge freaking marks together and talk about how this is the coolest thing ever being able to do this.
On the Importance of Playing Yourself as a Character:
It’s so important. It makes it all easier and makes it make a lot more sense where you can just have fun and not think as hard. All you have to do is go out there and be you. Backstage I’m more laid back and even shy around people and not in the groups being loud or anything. With my friends I am talkative, but once I go out there I can go out there and express myself that you can’t do anywhere else. It’s so much fun, but it’s just me turned up 100. Even after I found myself, it made the wrestling psychology easier because you think of what makes sense to me doing this, or you can put your character things here. It made everything better. It wasn’t until I got to NXT until everything clicked for me. I loved where I trained with a guy named Jason Styles in Newark, California. He taught me the basic fundamentals perfectly. I couldn’t thank him enough, and I kind of knew how to tell a simple story in a match. I can put on a basic and simple match. When I got to NXT is when I figured everything out where I was training everyday and having these matches on the fly with whoever and rewatching my stuff. I watch matches; I know people that don’t like to because it pisses them off seeing themselves, but seeing yourself making mistakes is annoying but you have to do it. Girls that are coming up, they’ll ask me to watch their matches with them on NXT and I always tell them to watch it like 3-4 times. I always watch different things so I’ll watch one to watch myself and then watch it again for my opponent; then I will watch it again with no sound, and then watch it again to the commentators so I can see what they are saying and what I was doing and why they made a big deal for what I was doing at that time, or watch my body language, or if I sold wrong, or whatever.
