While Bayley really should probably be focusing her time on her forthcoming match Dakota Kai and IYO SKY against Becky Lynch, Lita, and Trish Stratus, while discussing WrestleMania 39 on the Ring Wrestling Show, the leader of Damage CTRL just couldn't help herself from bringing up her former best friend in WWE, Sasha Banks, and how this will be her first WrestleMania match without both women being signed to the company.
“I was just texting her today or yesterday and was like, ‘Man, I miss having you here.' I miss her in this environment. I miss her for the biggest show of the year. She's who I feed off of for inspiration or ideas or (someone) to vent to. I know I can trust her the most,” Bayley said. “At the same time, what she's doing, she's carving a new path, she's following her craziest dreams, she's doing it literally on her own. You don't have the WWE banner behind you. She's doing everything she ever wanted, so successfully. To me, that's inspiring. If she can do that on her own, I can be here without her, and I'll be okay. You start to feel sorry for yourself. ‘I need her, I have ideas and I don't know who to talk to.' I wouldn't be in this position if it wasn't for her. Seeing her do all that and seeing her so happy, and she's so happy for me. In a weird way, I wish she was in this match because her dream match has been Trish Stratus, and she may get it someday. I'm like, ‘Man, I want you here.' She's like, ‘This is the coolest thing ever. It's one of the biggest matches in your career, if not the biggest.' She is there for me and I'm there for her and it's the best.
“I always hope she'll come back. If she does or doesn't, that's fine. Whatever makes her happy. I think she's definitely showing people there is more and there are other ways. If you get released, there is so much more you can do. You can go other avenues and be successful and be all over wrestling, globally, and show people that don't get hired off their tryouts, ‘you can go over there and still be successful and have amazing matches.' If WWE isn't your thing, you can go over there and do that. She's showing them that it's okay and you don't have to be in one place to feel like you succeeded. She's doing so much.”
Will the day eventually come when Bayley and Banks are reunited, either in WWE or on the indies? Only time will tell, but at this point, it's at least nice to know that the two have remained fans of one another, even if they don't work for the same company.
Bayley notes her plans for Damage CTRL in WWE.
Elsewhere in her interview with the Ringer Wrestling Show, Bayley was asked about the concept behind Damage CTRL and what she hoped to accomplish with the group. Despite being a fixture of the WWE Univers for over a decade and a member of the greatest female group in WWE history in The Four Horsewomen, even if their affiliation is loose at best, Bayley was ready to have her own group, especially if it helped to elevate some of the younger talents around her.
“That is something that I've thought about for a couple years before it actually happened,” Bayley said. “And I know Dakota has talked about this in her interviews, in the past, it had a different group of people as the time went on. Peyton Royce was someone that I really wanted in there, and Tegan Knox was someone that I wanted in there. There was a lot of people that, it just kind of changed throughout time and as people left the company and things like that. But Dakota was always — she's one of the OGs that I always envisioned in this group.
“I just thought like, there's no women's factions. Like, there's been trios — and to me, if it were up to me right now there would be more of us. But we'll see, you know? There's been trios but there's never been like a big faction, whether it's four or five of us, and that's what I wanted. I talked to Hunter about this a couple WrestleManias ago, and he told me like, ‘Well, you need to know, why are you guys together? Like yeah, you guys are cool together, but find the reason why. Me and DX were this, me and Evolution were this. And explain those things.' Then I was like, ‘Maybe I need to think about it more.'
“So when I was injured, I thought about it more, and shot stuff at the Performance Center while I was there with a group of girls that I really wanted. Because at that time I said, ‘I want girls from NXT that I believe are ready for the next step, and that I believe are ready for WrestleMania, and SummerSlam, and Royal Rumble.' So I had a group of girls, we did a couple videos and a couple pictures. Sent it all out until it you know, could see what everybody thought about it. And then people get called up, then people got released and it just all kind of fell apart. And I'm like, ‘You know what, maybe it's not a good idea.' So up until SummerSlam time, I gave a last-ditch effort to Triple H, And that was how this all happened.”
Even if the jury's still out on what Damage CTRL's legacy will be within WWE history, as the groups has been kind of stuck in place for the past few months, it's safe to say Bayley's female faction has at least been a featured part of WWE TV, which is a pretty big accomplishment considering that's the goal she set out to accomplish starting at SummerSlam 2022.
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