Bayley snubbed by WWE once again ahead of WrestleMania XL
WWE Superstar Bayley was recently snubbed again by the Stamford-based company ahead of WrestleMania XL.
The 34-year-old created history at the 2024 Royal Rumble Premium Live Event when she entered the Women's Match at number three and went the whole distance. The former Damage CTRL leader spent a record 63 minutes inside the squared circle and eliminated seven other female superstars to secure the first Rumble win of her career.
On the February 2 edition of Friday Night SmackDown, the inaugural Women's Grandslam Champion announced she would challenge Iyo Sky for the WWE Women's Championship at WrestleMania XL, resulting in the much-anticipated breakup of Damage CTRL after multiple teases.
Despite her impressive Royal Rumble win and being scheduled to challenge for the Women's Championship at The Show of Shows, Bayley did not find a spot on a recent WrestleMania XL promotional banner. WWE recently uploaded a poster on X (formerly Twitter) to promote the event happening after 40 days.
The poster features the champions of major titles, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Rhea Ripley, and Iyo Sky. It also featured Men's Royal Rumble winner and The Tribal Chief's 'Mania opponent Cody Rhodes. Interestingly, WWE continued to feature Bianca Belair in the poster instead of the Women's Royal Rumble winner:
Bayley opens up about being left off from promotional banner
Unfortunately, this is not the first instance of the Stamford-based company putting Bianca Belair on the poster for WrestleMania. Earlier this year, WWE released promotional banners for The Show of Shows featuring The EST.
During her appearance on WWE's The Bump following her Royal Rumble win, Bayley expressed her disappointment at being left out of the promotional banner. She further pointed out that the wrestling promotion favored Belair, even though she not only eliminated the latter but went on to win the Rumble match itself:
"Yeah, it really, I hate to say that it gets to me, but it has been happening way too often. They just posted a WrestleMania banner and I'm not on it. They put freaking Bianca (Belair) on it, do you know who eliminated Bianca? Bayley! I set a damn record. What else do I have to do? Those things fuel me to do what I did Saturday, to make history. So if they don't want to put me on a poster until I make it into the freaking Hall of Fame, then fine. I'll wait for it. Because I don't need them, I don't need the sheep. I don't need anybody, I just need my Damage CTRL," she said.
Despite not being promoted enough, The Role Model would look to defeat her former stablemate and win the WWE Women's Championship. Dakota Kai, who is currently on Bayley's side, might turn out to be the decisive factor at The Show of Shows.
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