E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness Recap w/ Bayley – Thoughts on Turning Heel, Rise of the Women’s Division, Who Does She Want to Work With? More!

Edge and Christian open today’s show by speaking about ‘Woken’ Matt Hardy’s arrival in WWE. Christian calls Hardy’s development of this character “genius”, and points out that this character is unlike any other thing in WWE right now. He also says that the beauty of a character like this is you can basically do anything you want and get away with it because the character is so crazy.

Edge agrees with Christian’s points and adds that like most people, it took him a while to understand fully what was happening when TNA began teasing this character over a year ago. He quickly realized just how incredible Hardy’s imagination is, and he began to see how spectacular this creation was.

Christian mentions that it’s great to see Matt get his time in the sun as a singles competitor, after Jeff seemed to have the more successful singles run in WWE and TNA over the years. Edge points out that Jeff has the “thing” that very few people have. Matt had to adapt and use his incredible imagination to keep himself relevant and he’s done that time and time again over the last two decades.

Edge and Christian welcome Bayley to the show.

Edge says that Bayley’s NXT Takeover match with Sasha Banks is one of the greatest matches he’s ever seen, and he believes that match will go down in history as a difference maker in the business. He thinks little girls around the world will be inspired that match and it will influence the next generation of female Superstars.

Bayley thanks him for those nice words and informs that her and Banks only had a chance to go over that match one time at the Performance Centre several days before the event. As the event drew closer they both had so much to do that they never saw each other until they showed up at the building that day. That was supposed to be Banks’ last NXT match so she wanted it to be a special match to send Banks to the main roster in style, and luckily they were able to accomplish that.

Bayley mentions that WWE’s Women’s Division is incredibly diverse right now. She loves that there has been a new influx of talent as of late which will certainly spice things up, and with the varying styles of women like Nia Jax, Paige, Sasha Banks and more, the Women’s division should be in good shape for years to come.

Bayley mentions that she was captivated by the performance of Piper Niven during the Mae Young Classic. She didn’t know Niven before this event but found herself clued to the monitor during Niven’s match. She hopes that she can establish a friendship with Niven if WWE pursues her as a talent in the future.

Speaking about being called up to the main roster, Bayley admits that in a perfect world she would have been called up with Charlotte, Banks and Lynch. Once that didn’t happen, she changed her mindset and was able to really enjoy her time as the leading woman in NXT. She loved helping the trainees there and head trainer, Matt Bloom even allowed her to produce certain matches on occasion.

Bayley admits that when she first transitioned to the main roster she made the mistake of thinking that everyone knew her. It was only after travelling for a while on WWE’s regular schedule that she realized that not everyone knew her from her time in NXT, and she was going to have to work even harder to get herself over to a brand new audience.

Edge asks Bayley if she’d ever consider turning heel. She admits that there’s a point coming where she’s going to have to change her character a bit because she feels like she’s basically been doing the same thing since beginning her career in NXT. She plans on being in WWE for a long time, so she’s looking forward to developing her character and going through all the twists and turns that a lengthy career brings.

Bayley mentions that she’d love to work with Asuka again, after only having a couple of meetings with her during their time working together in NXT. She also points out that she’s never really worked with Natalya yet, and that’s a program that she’s really looking forward to if it eventually happens. She also mentions that there were several women that she’d love to work with from the Mae Young Classic, including Jazzy Gabert.

That sums up today’s episode of E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!