Outside of the WWE ring, Bayley and Liv Morgan are buddies.

They've appeared together on Xavier Woods/Austin Creed's UpUpDownDown YouTube channel, goofed around backstage before/during shows, and have shared the ring on 92 occasions, first at a house show for the NXT Women's Championship, and most recently in February of 2021 on SmackDown, just four months before Bayley tore her ACL.

So naturally, when Bayley tweeted out that she wanted to see Morgan win at Money in the Bank over the likes of Asuka, Shotzi, and fellow Four Horsewoman Becky Lynch, it shouldn't have been too surprising, nor should it have been when Bayley celebrated her pal's victory later in the show, when she cashed in on Ronda Rousey to earn her first championship belt regardless of promotion.

And yet, slowly but surely, the appreciation between the two performers started to fade. It started on the Fourth of July, when, after seeing a video of Morgan and Bianca Belair tapping together their belts on RAW following their big tag team win over Natalya and Carmella, Bayley tweeted that she was “already over” the former Riott Squad member's championship run.

But why? What changed over the course of a few days? Did Morgan talk trash? Or maybe Morgan threw some shade Bayley's way? Did some long-buried beef come raging back to life between the two parties?

According to Bayley, it all started with a phone call – or should I say, a phone that didn't ultimately happen.

That's right, with her in-ring return inching closer and closer, Bayley decided to give the old ‘Ding Dong, Hello!' to Morgan via FaceTime to see how things were going, shoot the stuff, and give her pal, born Gionna Daddio, congratulations on winning the belt she held on two separate occasions for 520 combined days.

The results? Crickets; no reply, no text back: Nothing.

Welp, if Liv Morgan wasn't going to be Bayley's first opponent back in WWE, it certainly feels like she might be now.

A propper Liv Morgan-Bayley feud would be money in WWE.

Liv Morgan and Bayley have never had a proper one-on-one feud in WWE.

Sure, they've wrestled almost 100 times, most notably while Morgan was a member of The Riott Squad, but of the 92 occasions where they shared a ring, only three were one-on-one bouts between the two performers, two in 2016 and once in 2021. While things were inching towards something bigger between the two performers, with Morgan and Bayley booked for an I Quit match at Money in the Bank 2021 that ultimately didn't happen due to an ACL injury, anything planned beyond that match was ultimately scrapped.

RECOMMENDED (Article Continues Below)
Rhea Ripley holding the WWE Woman's World Championship with a text bubble reading "I have to vacate the WWE Woman's World Championship" with the RAW logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

Bayley with a text bubble reading "She's once in a lifetime" next to Rhea Ripley with the WrestleMania 40 logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

Bayley next to the blacked-out silhouette of Trish Stratus with the WrestleMania 40 logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

With Bayley out, Morgan was thrust into the Money in The Bank Ladder match, where she ultimately lost to Nikki ASH alongside Alexa Bliss, Asuka, Naomi, Natalya, Tamina, and Zelina Vega, and was used sporadically until the brand split shipped her over to RAW, averaging roughly four matches a month split between television and house shows. Though Morgan remained a steady contributor to the WWE Universe, including a loss in the Queen's Crown tournament, a win in the RAW Women's Title #1 Contendership Fatal Five-Way, a spot on Team RAW at Survivor Series, and a title match at WWE Day 1 that ultimately came up short, she never earned a proper feud unless you count her back-and-forth interactions with Doudrop and her addition to Judgement Day's feud with Finn Balor and A.J. Styles.

Needless to say, if Morgan is going to make this title run matter, she needs a proper feud to fan the flames into an unstoppable fire; a feud with a certified heat magnet like “The Role Model” Bayley.

Since giving up on being a certified babyface in favor of embracing the heelish persona that made her a main eventer on the main roster, going so far as to cut off her trademark ponytail in favor of an angular bob, Bayley has been one of the best bad guys on WWE television. She's money in her talk show segments, a fantastic addition to a commentary team, and even bridges her storylines with her Twitter activities, as she keeps up her persona online as well as in-arena.

Give Bayley a mic with Morgan in her sights, and it's not hard to imagine boos raining down throughout an arena by segment's end.

After a strange first six months of the calendar year, it looks like the WWE has fully embraced the Summer of Liv, a title run fans have been clamoring for since the New Jersey native took up the moniker last decade in NXT. But for it to become a summer to remember, she needs to be booked in a feud with some serious teeth instead of a flash-in-the-pan run where a fan favorite is thrown a bone only to have it cruelly taken away – Zack Ryder, anyone? Fortunately, Bayley's online interactions make for the perfect setup for an in-ring war of friends turned foes, assuming WWE is willing to build on the foundation their performers have already set.