'Female John Cena' cut off all her hair without WWE's permission: "I want to be in a love story;" reveals emotional backstage reaction
A popular WWE Superstar recently discussed cutting her hair for her new gimmick without the Stamford-based promotion's permission. The star being referred to is the current WWE Women's Champion Bayley.
Before turning heel and becoming the leader of Damage CTRL, The Role Model was one of the biggest babyfaces in World Wrestling Entertainment. The 35-year-old changed her gimmick after she felt her character was going nowhere.
During a recent chat with Cody Rhodes on his What do you wanna talk about? podcast, Bayley explained her decision to turn heel. The Role Model said that she was not sure if the gimmick character change would work but she wanted to try everything, including an on-screen love angle.
The WWE Women's Champion also mentioned that she was afraid people would start calling her 'female John Cena' because she was a big babyface just like the 16-time World Champion.
"So it was kind of like I was at a crossroads, if I never try this then I'll never know and I always as a fan wanted to do everything. You know, I want to be a good guy. I want to be a bad guy. I want to be in a love story. I want to do like the craziest things because I want all that experience. And I was a little nervous when I first started cause I thought I would get a lot of female [John] Cena comments, which is the best compliment I could ever get in that character, you know, but I also was like, 'Uhh, I want to try different things,'" she said.
Bayley added that turning heel and cutting her hair short was her decision as she did not get it approved by the creative but the company ultimately liked it.
"So turning to a bad guy was my decision because I felt that it was just I was going nowhere and the fact that they actually wanted to go with it. It was perfect timing I cut my hair off and then had to go in and see if it was okay. It was like, okay we'll go see if they like it like they did not get approved yet. I just cut off all my hair, I cut off my whole gimmick, you know, and luckily they approved of it and liked it," she added. [From 03:07 to 04:04]
Check out the whole podcast below:
Bayley reminisced about her time in the WWE Performance Center
WrestleOps' X (formerly Twitter) recently shared that eleven years ago WWE's Performance Center was opened. This post caught Bayley's attention and she reminisced about helping to build the first rings that went up inside the PC.
"I remember building the first rings that went up inside," she wrote.
Check out her tweet below:
The Role Model is currently enjoying her time as the WWE Women's Champion. It will be interesting to see what the Stamford-based promotion has planned for her future.
Please credit WWE and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling if you use any quotes from the first half of this article.