When 2024 Women's Royal Rumble winner Bayley announced on RAW that she was undecided regarding her WrestleMania opponent, it turned more than a few heads around the professional wrestling world.
Afforded a chance to challenge for any title she'd like in a main event spot at the “Showcase of the Immortals,” the choice really shouldn't be particularly tough, as three of WWE's four-man roster women's titles currently reside with her faction Damage CTRL, with only Rhea Ripley‘s World Heavyweight Championship theoretically up for grabs. And yet, after being backed down by Nia Jax, Bayley let it be known that she remains undecided and would make her announcement on SmackDown.
Discussing her, shall we say, unusual segment from RAW in a special appearance on The Bump, Bayley expressed that fans are severely overestimating how her interactions with Ripley and Jax went down, as she still holds all of the cards as the Royal Rumble winner.
“First of all, what would you do if Nia Jax was walking towards you? You would run for your life, okay? Damage CTRL saw that I can handle myself against 29 other women at the Royal Rumble, so they weren’t worried about me. I’ve dealt with Nia so many times,” Bayley told The Bump via Fightful. “I’ve beaten her in the past, okay. I knew she wasn’t there for me, she was there for Rhea Ripley. To me, my goal stays the same. Like I said on Monday, you’ve never seen anything like Damage CTRL before, you’ve never seen a lineage of all these champions in the ring at once, a Royal Rumble winner in the ring at once. This handful of talent, it’s never been done before. That’s gonna continue. When I make my decision on Friday, it’s gonna continue at WrestleMania when we’re all champions, when we’re all holding gold, and nobody can deny us because we’re on top of the world.”
On paper, Bayley's statement is technically correct, Damage CTRL is arguably the most successful female faction in WWE history, which has more to do with the lack of the promotion's successful female factions than the group having held the tag titles three times and the Women's Championship once. Still, if Bayley can add Ripley's belt to Damage CTRL's coffers, then hey, maybe the only people laughing in the end will be IYO SKY, Dakota Kai, Asuka, Kairi Sane, and Mrs. Ding Dong, Hello, as they'd truly be in a class of their own.
Bayley: Damage CTRL is in a different league from Judgment Day.
Continuing her conversation with The Bump, Bayley added more context to her WrestleMania 40 plans, which, at least right now, all but certainly features a match against Rhea Ripley, as why would she challenge IYO SKY if they are still in the same faction?
While some may be afraid to get into it with someone like the “Eradicator of the Judgment Day,” as she's been one of the most dominant performers in all of professional wrestling over the last year, Bayley believes Damage CTRL has a decided advantage against Judgment Day when they are placed face-to-face, namely herself.
“I don’t know why everybody’s like, ‘So, what’s gonna be your decision? Can we have the scoop?’ You guys had the scoop weeks ago,” Bayley noted. “I said it from the beginning that I was going to win the Royal Rumble. I said it even before they won the tag yeah titles, I said I want all these things, that I can beat Rhea. Look, props to Rhea, she’s younger than me, she’s stronger than me, she’s faster than me, she sells more merch than me. I haven’t had a freaking shirt in a year. But she’s not Damage CTRL. Yeah, Judgment Day won faction of the year. Good for them, they have worked their butts off. They are on every single show, they’re all over the place, and I would have done the same thing to R-Truth, so props to them. But they’re not Damage CTRL, and Rhea Ripley is not Bayley. She doesn’t have my experience, she doesn’t have my vision, she doesn’t have my girls. But yeah, there’s no decision to be made. The vision is clear.”
You know, you have to give it up to Bayley, she is nothing if not supremely confident. Whether Damage CTRL has been on top of the WWE Universe, holding (almost) all of the belts, or they've been teetering towards a total collapse after falling time and time against to achieve what they want, Bayley has been preaching patience, as she's always claimed to have a plan that will get them where they want to be. If Judgment Day ever finds themselves in a similar situation, holding no belts with a negative win-loss record, will they stay as resilient?
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