Wrestling / Bayley

The Role Model.

Pamela Rose Martinez (born June 15, 1989) is an American professional wrestler.

Having attended Big Time Wrestling's events since she was eleven, she eventually decided to make the transition from fan to worker, then from worker to wrestler, debuting in 2008 as Davina Rose after training from Jason Styles. Under this character, she wrestled in NWA Pro, Vendetta Pro Wrestling, the Empire Wrestling Federation, SHIMMER, SHINE and Canada's ECCW.

She then signed with WWE, who naturally repackaged her as Bayley to perform in its developmental branch, NXT. Under her current ring name, she is one fourth of the company's "Four Horsewomen" (alongside Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch), a cohort of four women who came through NXT and were a major part of the revolution of women's wrestling in WWE through their stellar matches. After winning the NXT Women's Championship from Banks and ultimately losing it to Asuka, on the August 22nd, 2016 episode of RAW, she finally made her main roster debut in a victorious effort against Dana Brooke.

On February 13, 2017, she won her first WWE RAW Women's Championship, defeating Charlotte Flair in the RAW main event, and at Elimination Chamber 2019 she became one of the inaugural Women's Tag Team Champions together with Sasha Banks. At Money in the Bank 2019, she won the women's ladder match, subsequently cashing in to face Charlotte for the SmackDown Women's Championship, which she won. With this victory, she became the only woman who has won the RAW, SmackDown, NXT and Women's Tag Team Championships, thus making her the first women's Triple Crown and Grand Slam Champion in WWE. She further won the women's Royal Rumble match in 2024, entering as the #3 spot, last eliminating Liv Morgan, and also beating Rhea Ripley's record for the longest time spent in a single women's Rumble match by lasting 1 hour, 3 minutes, and 3 seconds.^note Ripley, who won the women's Rumble match in 2023, spent 1 hour, 1 minute, and 8 seconds in the match.

In WWE, Bayley is a two-time WWE (RAW) Women's Champion^note The title was known as the RAW Women's Championship from August 2016 to June 2023. Bayley first won it in February 2017, then the second time in April 2024, a two-time Women's World Champion (formerly named Smackdown Women's Championship), a two-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champion (alongside Sasha Banks), a one-time NXT champion, a one-time Women's Money in the Bank winner (2019), a one-time Women's Royal Rumble (2024) winner, and the first ever WWE Women's Grand Slam Champion. As of October 2020, Bayley holds the record in WWE for longest combined number of days as Women's Champion, 953 days as of this writing. ^note Yes, it's true that The Fabulous Moolah will always truly hold the top spot with her over ten-thousand-day reign, but Moolah had three decades and very little true competition in which to amass her reigns, and most of these days were inflated by the promotion thanks to politicking on Moolah's part, so most will agree Bayley's earned it over her.

The Role Model's Tropes!

• Aborted Arc:
  • Her conflict with Sasha Banks in 2018 was because of Banks taking advantage of their friendship to backstab her during the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber matches. After the latter event, Bayley began to leave Sasha behind during Tag Team matches and eliminated Sasha during the Battle Royal at WrestleMania. For months, both women teased a heel turn with Bayley finally attacking Sasha. In the middle of the summer however, after Sasha told Bayley "I love you", all signs of conflict between them ceased and Bayley returned to being a face. Instead, their feud was transferred to the other two Horsewomen on SmackDown, before being revisited a couple of years later, also on SmackDown.
  • 2021 saw her program with newly-minted champion Bianca Belair cut short a week and a half before a scheduled 'I Quit' match at Money In The Bank, when Bayley tore her ACL in a freak training accident. Said training was part of a mandate by Vince McMahon to "remove ring rust" which Bayley working for years at a steady consistent rate surely had none. As a result she missed the rest of 2021 and almost all of 2022, finally returning at that year's SummerSlam, as The Leader of a heel faction of herself, Dakota Kai (herself returning to WWE) and the formerly named Io Shirai, now IYO SKY.
• The Ace: Completely defying her original innocent Fangirl Cuddle Bug persona, Bayley fits this trope best out of all of the Four Horsewomen. She comes close to Charlotte Flair in strength, to Becky Lynch in willpower, to Sasha Banks in well-timed tactical brilliance, and - despite falling short of the other three in terms of sheer number of championships - she's the first one of them ever to hold every single modern women's title on offer and thus hold the rank of Grand Slam Champion.
• All-Loving Hero: Everyone is Bayley's best friend as a Face. Yes, even the heels. Mirrored somewhat in real life - Bayley seems to be friends with everyone in the locker room.
• Amazonian Beauty: Ever since her return in mid-2015, she's gained some noticeable definition in the abs department.
• Anti-Villain: When she first turned heel, she insisted she was still a hero by refusing to revoke her Undying Loyalty to Sasha Banks, even as she's violently assaulting other wrestlers and putting her It's All About Me attitude on full display. Despite meaning well regardless, this put her in the heel corner for putting loyalty before ethics. Following her loss at Hell in a Cell 2019, she said "screw it" and fully embraced being a villain.
• Ascended Fangirl: A dedicated WWE fan since her youth, she could even be spotted as a ringside audience member during a 2004 edition of Raw. She was fourteen at the time.
• Arch-Enemy: The other Four Horsewomen (Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair) as well as Emma seem to be this to Bayley whenever they're heels. Eva Marie, Alexa Bliss, and Nia Jax count after Bayley won the NXT Women's Championship. Really, for such a nice girl, Bayley seems to make A LOT of enemies. After her heel turn Nikki Cross and especially Bianca Belair, with whom she feuded extensively at various points in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
• Attack the Mouth: At Money in the Bank 2023, Becky Lynch dragged her down the ladder using open handcuffs in her mouth like a hook.
• Audience Surrogate: She acts very much like one would expect a casual young WWE fan to as a Face. Somewhat applies as a Heel for the more bitter and jaded fans of wrestling that beg for wrestling to go back to how they liked it.
• Badass Adorable: A sweet-natured excitable girl who loves everyone. Oh, yeah, and she's also a pro wrestler, and the first ever female Triple Crown and Grand Slam Champions in WWE history at that.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Portrayed an all-loving babyface for years during her entire time since joining NXT, who was always interacting with fans, wore bright colorful attire and had a positive mindset. After she eventually turned to the dark side (quite literally as her Important Haircut and all black attire shows), she only cared about herself, rejected the fans, and used every trick in the book to stay on top and defend her title. Best displayed by how she celebrated her title wins in 2019: After the first one, she joined the fans in the crowd, posed and celebrated extensively with them. After her second one a few months later, she told the fans to go screw themselves.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Attitude-wise, she's sweet and innocent. But once she's been sufficiently pushed around, look out. Skill-wise, compared to the vast majority of women, her move set tends to include moves typically used by power/technical wrestlers. As of 2014, she's essentially been billed/treated as a power wrestler, bringing raw strength to the table against other women. Taken even further in her Iron Woman match, where she got so aggressive she started whacking Sasha's hand off the ring steps — and that was crucial in getting her the win. In the title match against The Dreaded Asuka at NXT TakeOver: Dallas, where it was pretty easy to assume the formula would be the dominant, physical striker Asuka having her way with the plucky champ, but Bayley actually controlled a good portion of the match convincingly, even suplexing Asuka around the ring a bit. And unlike Asuka's other opponents, Bayley passed out rather than tapped out. Don't let the colorful, hugging exterior fool you; she can throw down with the best.
• Big Damn Heroes: At Money in the Bank 2019, Bayley came in to help Becky Lynch when Charlotte Flair and Lacey Evans were beating her up following Lynch's loss against Flair.
• Bilingual Backfire: On the Feburary 2, 2024 episode of Smackdown, after months of the rest of Damage CTRL trash talking Bayley in Japanese, Bayley then revealed to Kairi, Asuka and Iyo that she understood them the entire time as she was picking her WrestleMania opponent after winning the women's rumble match by turning to them and saying "watashi wakaru yo" and revealing that she picked that up by overhearing them speak in Japanese.
• Bling of War: She started wearing mostly golden gear after her 2019 Face–Heel Turn, including a gold headdress.
• Boring, but Practical: Bayley's original finishing move was just a spinning belly-to-belly suplex, which she still uses from time to time. But with Bayley being established as a power-based wrestler, it's absolutely devastating.
• Breaking the Fellowship:
  • Her and Sasha Banks — collectively dubbed "The Boss 'n' Hug Connection" — losing their tag team titles at WrestleMania 35, as Sasha went on hiatus and Bayley was drafted to SmackDown as a singles competitor.
  • After Bayley and Sasha joined forces again later in 2020, Bayley turned on Sasha, splitting the pair up once again
  • Following her Royal Rumble win, she severed ties with Damage CTRL after weeks of dissension within the group.
• Butt-Monkey: Not only was she winless after her first year in SHIMMER, but Serena departed in her second, so she took to hanging around Mia Yim, who hadn't won a match since graduating from SPARKLE over a year ago. They remained in good spirits despite their new pairing seeming to do nothing but contribute to their collective losing streak. Yim scored them a pin fall on volume 48. And Rose would finally get a win she could call her own on volume 51.
• Call-Back: When Kairi Sane returned in November 2023 and offered Bayley a hug, Bayley was VERY reluctant.
  Bayley: I don’t hug anymore though....I don’t do that anymore.
• Catchphrase: She picked up a few during her 2019 heel run.
  • A common one would be her yelling "Ding-dong!", which was like her version of "Duh!" It was sometimes extended to "Ding-dong! Hello?" with her miming answering a phone or opening a door. It even got a T-shirt as well as her own talk show.
  • Took a lot of pleasure out of calling fans "sheep" on social media.
  • As a heel she loves calling everyone “idiots”, including fans, opponents and especially Michael Cole. Surprisingly kept after her 2024 Heel–Face Turn on social media, but in a more affectionate sense, alongside sheep.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • When she was first repackaged, her character was an extremely shy fangirl. This later evolved into the hugging Genki Girl we all knew and loved.
  • She later shed a lot of her naivety in the buildup to her getting the NXT Women's Championship.
  • Following Sasha Banks' 2019 return, Bayley was initially coy regarding her stance on Sasha's heel turn, opting to remain loyal to her friend... which led to her turning heel herself.
  • While her initial heel character was a self-deluded Heroic Wannabe, her loss at Hell in a Cell 2019 proved that taking the nice route wasn't going to get her anywhere, driving her to turn into a complete villain.
  • And after that, Bayley became more of a stoic, ice queen heel before becoming the trash-talking, Laughing Mad troll as she's known today.
• Cluster F-Bomb: She lets out a PG-rated version in her Snickers commercial.
• Composite Character:
  • In the beginning, think Eugene meets GLOW's Tammy Jones, but out of naive fandom instead of any implied intellectual disability.
  • Also started to resemble a female version of Sami Zayn on her road to a NXT championship. Even name-checked him and his success after attacking Charlotte.
• Conflicting Loyalties: When Sasha Banks returned from a long absence in late 2019 and turned heel by attacking an injured Natalya and Becky Lynch, Bayley was reticent to comment on it because anything she said could be taken out of context, but settled for saying that while Sasha was still her best friend, Natalya and Becky were her friends too. On the night of her own heel turn, she had come out to protect Becky from another attack by Sasha, and found herself between a rock and a hard place before ultimately choosing Sasha.
• Consolation Prize: Did not have a match at Wrestlemania 37, but instead got to appear in a few hosting skits. Naturally these ended in her being the Butt-Monkey for the NWO and for the Bella Twins.
• Crowd Song: Audiences have taken to chanting the chorus of the DJ Ötzi cover of Bruce Channel's "Hey Baby" to her at the start of matches, with her name subbed in, beginning at NXT TakeOver: London. The Raw crowd in Glasgow pretty much blanketed a whole Bayley segment with this chant. Even Sasha Banks joined in.
  Heeeeeey, heeyyy Bayley! OOH! AAH! I wanna knooooow... will you be my girl!
• Cuddle Bug: Wanted to hug everyone she met as a Face. When she turned heel, only Sasha remained... for about a year.
• Cute Bruiser: Despite her original character being a total cutie, she has a noticeably more power-based moveset compared to most women, including picking up an opponent and ramming them into the corner, the Polish Hammer, and her original finisher: a belly-to-belly suplex called the Bayley-to-Belly.
• The Cutie: A lot of the female wrestlers are sexy, but god-damn Bayley is just adorable! Even as a heel, there's traces of this, just in a sexier sense.
• The Cynic: Ultimately evolved into this after her initial Face–Heel Turn saw her try to unsuccessfully justify her turn as noble loyalty to Sasha Banks. When the fans continued to boo her in spite of her best efforts, and when she realized that nobody other than Sasha would ever be there to have her back and be on her side, Bayley finally realized the fans would never understand her motivations and became rather dour and a perfect example of this trope until she evolved into an Evil Is Hammy Troll and averted this trope completely.
• Death Glare: Won the Money In The Bank 2019 by climbing up the ladder and simply staring Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose in the face for several seconds before pushing them down the ladder and retrieving the briefcase.
• Defeat Means Friendship: How she became best friends with Sasha Banks, following her two NXT TakeOver losses to Bayley. Over their rivalry, Sasha came to respect Bayley as both a performer and a person so deeply that it turned her face. They even hugged to celebrate their win after teaming together at Battleground 2016. Also notable in that Sasha was never shown to have this same friendship with Becky when they teamed up on the main roster - despite both being faces, they often clashed!
• Defeating the Undefeatable:
  • Bayley holds the honor of ending Charlotte Flair's undefeated streak in singles matches at PPVs at Fastlane 2017.
  • Bayley ended IYO SKY's 245 days reign as WWE Women's Champion, the third longest in the title's history.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In many ways, Sasha Banks and her countless manipulations and microaggressions were very much Bayley's Start of Darkness. Over the years, Bayley certainly had good reason to distrust and resent her perpetually-conniving "best friend", and Bayley finally having enough, snapping, and turning on Sasha was always less a matter of if and more one of when. But when that detonation finally came, on the 4 September 2020 episode of SmackDown, to the tune of Bayley literally kicking Sasha while she was already down and hurt, brutalizing Sasha's already-injured leg, and finally attempting to break her neck with a chair, even the commentary team were left dead silent and mortified at the utterly one-sided carnage.
• Distaff Counterpart:
  • Bayley's original character drew comparisons to Eugene, due to hugging everyone and having a "just happy to be here" vibe. Later developments lead to comparisons to Sami Zayn and John Cena.
  • Some instance of her ring gear were designed to evoke memories of Randy Savage. She even ended up taking his diving elbow drop as a secondary finisher.
  • Ric Flair has stated that he see Bayley becoming the Shawn Michaels to Charlotte's Ric Flair. This is backed up by her NXT trainers and Triple H, as she's known for her grasp of Wrestling Psychology and being a "ring general" (the experienced wrestler calling the match).
  • Her post-championship reign heel persona (starting in October 2020 until present) is a gender-flip of Seth Rollins and his "Embrace the Vision" persona. Both wear red and black gear, look like they could be fraternal twins, used a heel theme song starting with a choir (to the point where many fans couldn't tell which wrestler's theme was playing without their name on the Tron), go Laughing Mad when they're taunting opponents, wear loud, colorful suits when not wrestling, and pretend to be role models and motivational speakers. Seth's appearance on Ding Dong, Hello? and their teaming in a mixed tag match really kind of drove the similarities home◊.
• The Dog Bites Back: On June 25, 2018, after years of being bullied, ridiculed, and abused within her on/off friendship with Sasha, Bayley saw fit to stand up for herself and release her pent-up anger on Sasha in an epic No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. Sure, it did get them both mandatory counselling, but damn if it didn't feel good (for both her and the audience).
• Double Knockout: During NWA Pro and EWF's crossover with the Alternative Wrestling Show, Davina Rose and Candice LeRae decided to take on MSEERIE, which didn't work out so well for them. Eventually Davina Rose decided to just jump in the ring and put Christina Von Eerie in a cobra clutch while she had LeRae down. This led to all four competitors becoming tangled up and passing out. MsChif and Rose woke up first and the referee decided that was enough for the match to continue (even though neither was legal), and from there, a now indignant MSEERIE picked up right where they left off on their way to victory.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Wrestled a few matches under a mask as "Luchadora".
  • She made several NXT appearances as a heelish Jobber for weeks before becoming the happy powerhouse loved by the kids.
  • Her official main roster Heel run first began with Bayley being The Stoic. Later she ditched that to be an Evil Is Hammy Troll like she's been as since.
• Even Evil Has Standards: On the 2/7/23 episode of NXT she was visibly shocked when Jacy Jayne brutally assaulted her Toxic Attraction partner, Gigi Dolin while they were guests on Bayley's talk show, Ding Dong, Hello!
• Evil Costume Switch: Ditched her trademark ponytail for a bob along with a new rock/metal theme.
• Eviler than Thou: During her and Sasha Banks' collective Face–Heel Turn late in 2019. Of the two, Sasha was the one who turned first and was the one who goaded Bayley to turn as well. Over time, Bayley proved to be the more ruthless and scheming of the two, eventually turning on Sasha on September 4 2020 (and sending the entire Baysha fandom into depression in the process!).
• Evil Is Hammy: As her main roster Heel run went on, Bayley became increasingly fond of over-the-top gloating and trolling.
• Expy:
  • Her original wrestling persona was fairly straightforward.
    • Bayley was a kid-friendly babyface whose offence is based around power moves. She also wore colorful ring gear, had a fairly light-hearted attitude and a knack for great in-ring storytelling. She was kind and friendly to fans but could be merciless to those who crossed her or her friends. She was effectively a female John Cena.
    • Her colourful appearance and energetic personality during this peroid was also somewhat reminiscent of early-era Sting or "Surfer Sting". She also was not the brightest apple in the barrel either, although this was averted after a while.
  • Her heel persona has quite a few possible inspirations.
    • Her initial personality was that of a self-deluding villain convinced that she's still an inspirational face and that the audience still unconditionally loves her. In other words, a female Bo Dallas. The sheer shock factor of seeing a long-standing babyface turn heel is also comparable to Hulk Hogan's infamous turn at WCW and joining the New World Order.
    • Post-Villainous Breakdown, Bayley became a cynical, bitter Deadpan Snarker who turned her back on the fans and the kids who loved her in favor of her Only Friend despite said friend's history of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, like a female version of Sami Zayn with Sasha standing in for Kevin Owens. She even incorporated checkered patterns into her gear, which have been a principal motif in Zayn's gear in the past. Her Twitter also began to feature hateful and disrespectful tweets towards other people and foreign places, akin to Neville.
    • Bayley's ever-increasing viciousness plunged her to a level of villainy occupied by only one other wrestler: the resurgent Legend Killer himself, Randy Orton. From around late 2020, the two of them more or less served as the respective Big Bads of their divisions, and both of them (on multiple occasions, in Orton's case) have attempted to literally end careers or worse by attempting to break the necks of other wrestlers with chairs.
• Face: An All-Loving Hero who wants to hug everyone she meets, frequently gave hugs to audience members on her way down to the ring, and was (and still is behind the scenes) one of the nicest people in the entire WWE, up until her Face–Heel Turn in 2019.
• Face–Heel Turn: On the 2 September 2019 episode of Raw, Bayley teamed up with Becky Lynch to face off against Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross in a tag team match, which they won by disqualification after Sasha Banks attacked Lynch from behind and hit her with a steel chair. Bayley stopped Banks at that point, then hit Lynch with the chair herself, thus turning heel for the first time in WWE. She fully turned heel on the 11 October 2019 Smackdown after going though a look change and destroying her wacky waving inflatable arm tube men.
• Facial Markings: Starting in late 2018 until her heel transformation, Bayley wore painted stars above her left eye. Much later, after her 2022 return, she took to dramatically winged red eyeliner to suit with the color scheme of her new group, Damage CTRL.
• False Friendship: What Damage CTRL eventually turned into, despite starting as True Companions.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: During her face run, she wore her hair in an off-center ponytail towards the right side of her head, and it became an iconic part of her look in NXT and WWE.
• Finishing Move: Used a belly-to-belly suplex (aptly called the Hug-Plex early on before being renamed the Bayley-to-Belly) for most of her career, but demoted it to a signature move in 2018 in favor of an avalanche elbow drop in honor of her hero Randy Savage. After her heel turn, she went back to using her indie finisher, an arm-trap headlock driver called the Rose Plant.
• Flower Motif: As Davina Rose, her tights often depicted some combination of a golden rose and a black dagger.
• Former Friend of Alpha Bitch: When Charlotte turned on her in NXT. After fighting a couple title matches against each other, they reconciled. On the main roster, this returned with Charlotte being an arrogant heel.
• A Friend in Need:
  • Davina Rose was helped along in her early years by Serena Deeb, thus when contacted by SHIMMER, she decided to confront the Canadian Ninjas who had been giving Deeb trouble. (Though her first match was with Mercedes Martinez, around the time Martinez was getting really belligerent). Rose wasn't very useful against them, but the thought has to count for something.
  • She teamed with rival Sasha Banks against Charlotte and Dana Brooke at Battleground 2016. Bayley was a lot more useful this time around, and she and Sasha won the match.
  • At WrestleMania 33, during the fatal four way for the women's championship, Bayley, Sasha Banks, and Charlotte Flair (who, unlike the other two Horsewomen, had turned heel) all worked together to take out Nia Jax. The same happened three years later in the fatal five way at Wrestlemania 36 with Tamina.
  • Despite being a heel faction, she was always very helpful towards her Damage CTRL team members, making their eventual turn on her even more heartbreaking.
• Friendly Rivalry: With Ember Moon, after giving her a title shot at SummerSlam 2019. While they waffled back and forth during the build-up, a backstage segment towards the end of August indicated that they still considered each other friends and that Ember still wanted to beat her. Ember was flatly disappointed with Bayley after her Face–Heel Turn.
• Friend to All Children: Part of her face persona. Like Rey Mysterio, she spent a decent amount of time interacting with young fans during her entrance.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Initially on NXT, and to an extent even going back to her indie days as Davina Rose, Bayley was a character that lived on the intersection of "hopeful and positive role model" and "naive fangirl", who often got beat up whenever she approached a heel or anti-hero and more often than not would get beaten decisively in matches. However, through her time in NXT, she developed and adapted to the treachery of her peers, becoming a competent and even dangerous foe who would go on to capture every available women's championship in the company, all while maintaining her optimistic approach. However, as the drama of competition on the main roster threatened to throw her back into the shadows, 2019 saw her take on an increasingly edgier attitude, first declaring that she was done hugging, then allowing her morals to be distorted to help her best friend, before finally completely breaking into a self-justified loner.
• Gag Haircut: Likes to shave messages into the back of her head for fun, like a birthday cake for her 31st birthday, or Michael Cole's last name to mess with him at the 2021 Royal Rumble (which turned into an Epic Fail as he wasn't even calling the match). Also posted this after her 2024 Royal Rumble win and followed up with this for her Egyptian themed entrance at Wrestlemania 40. Even Rhea Ripley approves.
• Game-Breaking Injury: Tore her ACL early in July 2021 putting her out of action for over a year and cancelling a planned I Quit match with Bianca Belair for the Smackdown Women's Championship at that month's Money In The Bank.
• Genki Girl: Always high energy, rarely ever in a bad mood, and never one to turn down a friendly hug. Then 2019 happened.
• The Glomp: As a face, her hugs tended to become this if the person she did it to wasn't receptive of it (generally because that person happened to be a Heel). She then adopted the belly-to-belly suplex (a move that looks a lot like a hug) as her finisher, dubbing it the "Bayley-to-Belly". In essence, she weaponized the Glomp.
• Good Is Dumb:
  • Bayley was the most unambiguously good female on the NXT roster, and at the same time, she was never the brightest bulb on the marquee.
  • After averting the trope since her call-up to Raw, she fell back into it after winning the Raw Women's Championship in 2017. First she won the championship from Charlotte Flair and then retained it against her due to blatant cheating on the part of Sasha Banks, who was obviously using her friend to get back in title contention. Though Bayley still walked out of WrestleMania with the title against Sasha, Charlotte, and Nia Jax, and Sasha didn't turn heel, Bayley never exactly smartened up to the situation. Then in her very next feud, new Raw acquisition Alexa Bliss, actively called Bayley a child anytime a microphone was available and then repeatedly and routinely humiliated and outsmarted her; thanks to Bayley being indecisive and overly-innocent to points beyond anything resembling common sense.
• Good Is Not Dumb: Her journey to becoming NXT Women's Champion involved her shedding a lot of the naivety that prevented her from overcoming savvier wrestlers and she primarily did this by learning from her longstanding rivals and opponents: Charlotte, Becky and Sasha. As champion, Bayley demonstrated intelligence, experience and skill as crucial elements to her victories, such as turning Sasha Banks' own tactics against her in their rematch and outsmarting the inexperienced but powerful Nia Jax by learning new submission offence in order to beat her.
• Good Is Not Soft: After winning the SmackDown Women's Championship for the first time, Bayley developed a slight bit of edge — she was still cheerful, friendly and outgoing, but she was also much more wary of being betrayed or backstabbed, and refused to be victimized by heels; she was fully willing to show up and humiliate the likes of Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair if provoked or pushed too far.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: As part of her kid-friendly persona, Bayley was pretty much always against swearing, with a famous example being a Snickers ad she did where she had a meltdown over being bumped for a talk show. Said meltdown included a Cluster F-Bomb with the titular bomb being replaced with "hug(ging)". However, she has been known to subvert this; see Precision F-Strike below.
• Graceful Loser: She doesn't seem to mind losing the Money in the Bank briefcase to her stablemate IYO SKY that much, particularly considering part of how IYO won the match involved handcuffing Bayley to a ladder. She even helps her cash it on Bianca Belair the following month at SummerSlam!
• Heel–Face Turn: The 2/2/24 episode of SmackDown saw Bayley getting attacked by Women's Champion, IYO SKY and The Kabuki Warriors, only to retaliate and announce that she was challenging SKY for her title. As a result, she severed ties with Damage CTRL, turning face for the first time since September 2019.
• Heroic Wannabe:
  • The main component of her original heel character, as she still saw herself as a hero. The very SmackDown after she beat up Becky, she told the crowd she still wants to be a role model and give them a champion to be proud of. You'd swear she couldn't remember the fact she'd just turned on Becky the night before — mostly because she was too busy extolling the fact that she stayed loyal to Sasha.
  • Averted following the loss of her SmackDown Women's Championship at Hell in a Cell 2019. Bayley's had enough of even PRETENDING to be nice.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Sasha Banks has been Bayley's constant partner ever since she arrived on the main roster. This even stuck after their respective Face–Heel Turn, which happened not long after the other. However, in late 2020, Bayley turned on her former friend.
• Hidden Depths: Although treated as a power wrestler, she's capable of pulling off some impressive lucha style moves.
• History Repeats: Bayley won her first Raw and SmackDown Women's Championships by pinning Charlotte Flair. She would beat Flair again for her 2nd SmackDown Women's Championship reign.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: At Hell in A Cell 2020 she brought her own steel chair into the cell to intimidate Sasha Banks, which later caused her defeat when Sasha made her tap out to the Banks Statement with the chair wrapped around her neck.
• Hypocrite: When Becky Lynch beat Sasha Banks fair and square to retain her Raw title at Clash of Champions 2019, Bayley accused her of cheating on Twitter... even though she had actually cheated that same night in order to retain her SmackDown title.
• Important Haircut: When she came out for her SmackDown Women's Championship rematch on October 11, 2019, Bayle wore a hood she wore over her head which she took off revealing she'd cut her hair to shoulder length. This was the first sign that something had gone terribly wrong.
• The Ingenue: Though the "virginal" aspects are most likely played up more as an effect of WWE's company wide shift to PG-rated programming.
• Innocent Means Naïve: Zigzagged. She played this straight on her debut in NXT, being a naive Fangirl who seemed more interested in making friends than actually winning matches, and as a result was generally mocked and defeated easily by her opponents. She then went through Character Development to become a more serious competitor while retaining her Nice Girl and All-Loving Hero traits, becoming a shining example of Good Is Not Soft as NXT champion. However, upon her promotion to the main roster, she regressed to her previous naive characterisation, being totally oblivious to her best friend Sasha Banks having Chronic Backstabbing Disorder and being too soft to use a kendo stick as a weapon in a kendo stick on a pole match against Alexa Bliss, resulting in a Curb-Stomp Battle when Bliss gleefully took advantage of her mercy. She finally wisened up again after winning the Smackdown Women's Championship for the first time, and has completely averted this post Face–Heel Turn, being neither innocent nor naïve.
• Insane Troll Logic: When Ember Moon called her out for attacking Becky Lynch unprovoked after she turned heel, Bayley's response was that everything she did was to elevate the SmackDown Women's Division. Ember pointed out this made no sense and suggested the real reason she did it was because she felt jealous of Becky overshadowing her (which Bayley herself stated she wouldn't let happen literally the same night she turned on Becky), and in general it only serves to demonstrate her self-delusion.
• Irony: She first turned heel as a result of Sasha Banks' Toxic Friend Influence. A year later, Bayley gave Sasha a vicious No-Holds-Barred Beatdown after they failed to win back the Women's Tag Team belts, turning Sasha face.
• Kid-Appeal Character: While not one other younger, smaller female wrestlers, as a face Bayley ticked the bright colors, wisecracks, and "gutsy" boxes. This trope is likely the reason NXT drew attention to Izzy — a young fan of Bayley's who showed up to every taping.
• Knight Templar: Her original 2019 heel character refused to acknowledge her hurtful actions as villainous, instead seeing herself as a good role model because of how loyal she was to her friend Sasha. This eventually ended on the Oct. 11, 2019 episode of SmackDown, when she completed her full heel turn.
• Laughing Mad: Her entire feud with Bianca Belair with the latter as Smackdown Women's Champion. She essentially got a rematch for the title at Hell in a Cell just by laughing her head off at her. Fans have taken to this new twist to Bayley's character and started calling her The Joker of Smackdown! Really makes you wonder how fragile Bayley's mind is in-character without the title. Scary stuff. This trope was exemplified to a T when the entire Thunderdome screens were filled with Bayley's cackling face on the June 4, 2021 episode of Smackdown.
• The Leader: Of Damage CTRL, until she got kicked out of the group on February 2, 2024.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: When a face, if Bayley isn't smiling or wanting a hug, you should probably prepare yourself for a world of hurt. Doubly so if she tightens her ponytail.
• Light Is Not Good: After doing a full heel turn in late 2019, while retaining the colorful attires, her new entrance was accompanied by golden flickering lights, and her new rock/metal theme song started with an angelic chorus.
• Mama Bear: Is very protective of her Damage CTRL teammates. At the Jan. 30, 2023 episode of RAW she accepted a cage match with Becky Lynch in order to save Dakota Kai from a beatdown.
  • Also see Taking the Bullet below.
• Meaningful Name: Of a sort. She said she chose to spell her name with a Y because she's from the Bay Area (billed from San Jose, California).
• Mentor Archetype: Jason Styles, Shoot 2 Thrill (Kimo Kanaloa and Mike Silva), and Serena Deeb (which is where the Belly To Belly suplex comes from) in Big Time Wrestling.
• Mistaken for Foreigner: Davina Rose was warned by April Hunter that her "Lucha Crap" wasn't tolerated in USA, which implieed Hunter thought Rose was Mexican. (By the way, this is the same April Hunter who used a block buster variant as a finishing move.) Understandable mistake though, since Rose was teaming with Shazza McKenzie, who is a foreigner.
• Morality Pet: Became one for Charlotte after the latter finally realized Bayley's skill and heart through a feud with her, which effectively turned the rather heelish Flair face for a time.
• Ms. Fanservice: Downplayed. Despite Bayley often wearing very conservative gear (only ever showing off her arms and midriff), she's exceptionally gifted in the hips and butt department, which makes her figure quite noticeable no matter what she wears, even dwarfing most of her peers. This has drawn the attention of many fans, especially after her heel turn.
• Multinational Team: Her stable Damage CTRL, consisting of herself from the U.S., Dakota Kai from New Zealand, and IYO SKY, Kairi Sane and Asuka from Japan.
• Nice Girl: In and out of the ring, Bayley may be the sweetest human beings ever to set foot in a wrestling ring as a face. Since her heel turn, she's completely savage to everyone, with only Sasha seeing the old Bayley on-camera until September 2020 and of course off-camera, Pamela Martinez is a complete sweetheart even if her character since October 2019 is a self-justified anti-social jerk.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: You really didn't have to tell AJ "I don't know why people call you crazy". Honestly, though, pretty much all her feuds in NXT seemed to boil down to "Squee! I'm so happy to meet you!" at a heel to which the response is to beat Bayley up and break her things.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Violently attacking Sasha Banks and breaking up her friendship after many years only lead to Sasha becoming extremely motivated to return the favor, ultimately ending Bayley's reign as Smackdown Champion after 380 days.
• The Not-Love Interest: Finn Bálor whenever they end up together. They make such a cute couple... but they're never actually presented as anything other than really good friends, even when they're reenacting the epic lift from Dirty Dancing.
• Odd Friendship:
  • Carmella. They traveled together when they were both in NXT and frequently tag Instagram videos with "Bay-Mella".
  • Seth Rollins, believe it or not. They share a love of video games and Crossfit, and Seth was ringside in Manly Tears for her NXT Women's Title win at TakeOver: Brooklyn as well as backstage congratulating her.
  • Shinsuke Nakamura.
  • Surprisingly CM Punk. They share many backstage photos and videos, and Punk often speaks highly of her.
• Only One Name: As Bayley.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: This putdown to Charlotte:
  Bayley: And you know what, Charlotte? I don't even want a hug! (Cue massive crowd GASP)
• Phrase Catcher: As a face:
  • When she walked down the ramp, the ring announcers would say, "It's Bayley!"
  • "Bayley's gonna hug you," in the vein of "(Insert name here)'s gonna kill you!"
  • "Ayyyyyyy, we want some Bayley!"
  • "Heeyyyyyy, heyyyyy Bayley - OOH AHH! - I wanna knooooooooow if you'll be my girl!"
• Plucky Girl: As soon as she started getting some wins over the BFFs.
• The Pollyanna: Didn't seem too fazed by the fact that the BFFs tried to make things very difficult for her.
• Power Stable: Damage CTRL, originally a Power Trio with Dakota Kai and IYO SKY since Bayley's return from injury at SummerSlam 2022 until Kairi Sane and Asuka joined the following year.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • Although her face character is usually against swearing, she has exhibited more colorful language on several occasions.
    • After winning the Raw Women's Championship, she was approached by Charlotte Flair, who informed her that due to the circumstances of her win^note it was mainly based on an intervention from Sasha Banks it was illegitimate, and advised her to rescind the title. After interference from Sasha, who advised Bayley to keep the title, she finally reached a decision: "Hell no, I'm not giving up this Raw Women's Championship!"
    • After viciously beating Sasha Banks in what many consider her first heel turn, Bayley shouted in her face about how Sasha had abused her for so many years, eventually ending with "You ain't shit, Sasha." This remark is censored in the American broadcast, but the Spanish airing slips up on the censor.
  • As for her heel character...
    • She notably shouted "God damn!" after Charlotte Flair kicked out of her near-fall pin.
    • See Wham Line below.
• Punny Name: Her First WWE Finishing Move was a spinning belly-to-belly suplex called the Hug-plex, later renamed to the Bayley-to-Belly.
• Purple Is Powerful: She's color-coded with a purple T-shirt and has purple on some of her ring gear. Notably, she's presented as a power wrestler.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Dyes her hair half black & half red, often wears red and black clothes, also reflected in the Damage CTRL theme.
• Renamed the Same: Her Finishing Move is a spinning belly-to-belly suplex dubbed the Hug-plex, later renamed to the Bayley-to-Belly.
• Rogues Gallery: The BFFs (moreso Charlotte and Sasha than Summer), Becky Lynch, and Emma have all been notable enemies of Bayley's at one time or another.
• Running Gag: On the “Ding Dong, Hello!” show, she insists on her guests entering the ring through the prop door.
• Sci-Fi Bob Haircut: The result of her Evil Makeover in late 2019.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The moment she successfully pinned Charlotte Flair to retain her SmackDown Women's Championship at Clash of Champions 2019, she immediately slid out of the ring, grabbed the title, and ran like hell out of the arena.
• She's Back:
  • After losing the Raw Women's Championship midway through 2017, she spent the remainder of that year and the entire 2018 languishing in the card. Come 2019, things started to get back on the right track for her, first when she became one half of the first ever WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, then moving to SmackDown and winning that year's Money in the Bank ladder match and becoming the SmackDown Women's Champion in the same night.
  • Returned from injury after more than one year at Summerslam 2022, bringing Dakota Kai and IYO SKY with her.
• Shout-Out: Her tasselled jacket invoked Randy Savage, as well as her top-rope elbow drop.
• Slasher Smile: Rarely, but it has happened when she was trying to be nice but also taking jabs at heels. She sported this during her Face–Heel Turn on Sept. 2nd, 2019. After utterly brutalizing Sasha Banks on the September 4th 2020 episode of Smackdown, she gave one that would make The Viper Randy Orton nod and smile in approval at, it was absolutely chilling to see how far into villainy someone that used to be as beloved as Bayley had sunk to in just a year!
• Slipknot Ponytail: It's surprising how little this actually happened to her. Despite having many grueling matches, her hair remained just as tight as it was when the match began. The exception was the Iron Woman match where her hair was barely together by the end. She intentionally tightened it when going to the top rope, so that might explain it somewhat. She did once take her ponytail out during a match to prevent this but was scolded after the match by the late Dusty Rhodes, who said that she should never take her ponytail out whenever she's in character as it visually identifies her. She has never took it out again, until she cut her hair for her Evil Costume Switch.
• Slowly Slipping Into Evil: Fell prey to this after the Boss 'n' Hug Connection was broken up and she returned to singles competition. At first, she was still a kind, compassionate face but with a bigger competitive streak than before, culminating in her winning the women's Money in the Bank ladder match and cashing in on Charlotte to win the SmackDown Women's Championship that same night. After she got the belt, she began showing more of an edge, saying that she had "moved past the hugs" and showing a much greater willingness to confront heels who antagonized her and call them out on their crap, not to mention a greater vigilance against being backstabbed by her erstwhile allies that bordered on paranoia. Then, when Sasha marked her return by heeling on Natalya and Becky Lynch Bayley noticeably declined to pick a side, simply saying that she considered all three of them her friends. Then, when she was finally forced to pick a side between her now-evil best friend and another, less close but heroic friend, the other shoe dropped and she finally turned heel for real.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Following her climactic decision to let herself be an outright villain, Bayley adopted this in backstage interviews, to massively unsettling effect.
  Bayley: Did you hear me out there today? Right now? Five seconds ago? To the fans, I said... screw all of you. And that... includes... you.
• Squash Match: Following the violent breakup of the Knight Dynasty, Davina Rose was on the "squashed" end of such a match with "Sweet" Saraya. Upon getting her developmental deal, she was again on the "squashed" end against Paige — Saraya's daughter.
• Squee: As a face.
  • Her reaction to meeting Ric Flair and him Wooing at her. And pretty much everyone she meets.
  • The New Day did this to her, resulting in a mutual squee moment that was just plain adorable.
• Stalker without a Crush: Her early character was an extreme fangirl, to the point where she'd gladly follow wrestlers she admired from the locker room and from their cars if it meant she got to hear their voice.
• Student–Master Team: Besides Jason Styles and Serena Deeb, she got further training from Sara Del Rey and tagged with her at Big Time's 2011 Wrestlefest.
• Sympathy for the Hero: Despite being promoted fairly heavily, fans at SHIMMER tapings weren't really impressed, gravitating more towards Yim even before she started winning and stopped caring about Rose almost completely by volume 51, cheering Cherry Bomb of all people against her. However, they started feeling sorry for Rose as the match went on and also cheered when Cherry Bomb was defeated.
• Tag Team:
  • in NXT: With Charlotte Flair whilst Charlotte was face and Becky Lynch before she betrayed her.
  • In WWE: With Sasha Banks.
• Taking the Bullet: In their Wargames match at Survivor Series 2023, she saved each of her Damage CTRL teammates from getting pinned, including jumping in front of Kairi Sane to take a spear from Charlotte, only resulting in herself losing the match instead.
• Talk Show with Fists: Starting in 2021, Bayley started her own talk show called "Ding Dong, Hello!"
• That Man Is Dead: Signified her fully turning heel by tearing apart her Bayley Buddies, officially disassociating from her face persona.
• Token Minority Couple: Of the Four Horsewomen, she and fellow non-Caucasian Sasha Banks have teamed up the most. Hell, they were even the inaugural Women's Tag Team Champions (the revived versions)!
• Token Wholesome: Provides little to no Fanservice at all.
• Too Dumb to Live: The general tune of the Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss feud, particularly after Alexa defeated Bayley for the Raw Women's Championship at Payback 2017 and heading into Extreme Rules 2017. Alexa would disrespect Bayley and make her out to be a helpless little kid who's way out of her league. Bayley would come out, be slightly timid, and try to fight Alexa. Unfortunately, Bliss would have a plan while Bayley would have an Honor Before Reason-induced moment of indecision, allowing Bliss to beat her fellow NXT alumnus down. The sterling example of this was on the go-home show before Extreme Rules, where Bliss came out and escalated her verbal attacks on Bayley painting her as a child with an absolutely dreadful This is Your Life "tribute" in which three people who were purported to be her fourth-grade teacher, her former best friend, and her ex-boyfriend, all came out and painted Bayley as an overly-nice girl who was so attached to her father he had to shadow her both on dates and in school, and whose wrestling fandom came between any friendships she ever had. Despite the fact that Bayley's character history actually defies much of what these people were saying, she made no effort to either interrupt and verbally shred the entire segment, come out to play along and bait Alexa into an attack, or even furiously rush the ring to attack Alexa and take her by surprise; instead, she waited for the whole thing to proceed, had her music played, walked down the ramp with a pouting face, stood at the bottom for a second, then ran into the ring to attack Bliss. Predictably, whatever edge Bayley had didn't last long and Alexa, who was more than ready for her, stood tall after whacking her with a kendo stick. Speaking of kendo sticks, Bayley had requested an extreme-style stipulation for her championship rematch and got Kendo Stick on a Pole from General Manager Kurt Angle, yet kendo sticks featured on Raw would have an unfortunate habit of first being held by Bayley only to be swung at Bayley by Alexa. This even wound up happening in the match itself, meaning Bayley, through her own indecision, got herself dropped in about five minutes flat by the same okay-but-inferior wrestler who'd been calling her a child for weeks and ultimately squandered her chance to reclaim the championship of her dreams. It's to the point that the term "buried", both in the commonly-overused "booked below or fed to another wrestler" sense AND in the traditional extreme "actively booked into the ground" sense, has been applied to Bayley's character as a result of that feud. She'd flounder until about 2018 when Sasha and her teamed up.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • During the lead-up to the fatal-four-way at NXT TakeOver: Rival. Again at TakeOver: Respect, where she got just as vicious as Sasha, and methodically began exploiting Sasha's hand injury in the course of their Iron Woman Match.
  • Took another upon being drafted to SmackDown in the 2019 Superstar Shake-up. She beelined for SmackDown Women's Champion Becky Lynch and said she was done with hugging. She proved it by cashing in on Charlotte Flair (who had weaseled her way to beating Becky) and becoming the new champion.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: To Sting-levels during Charlotte and Sasha's feud for the NXT Women's Championship. Then again on the main roster after becoming Raw Women's Champion, especially during her feud with Alexa Bliss.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: On the October 11, 2019 episode of SmackDown, she came out with her usual cheerful attitude at first but then her music got cut off, she revealed her new haircut and ring attire, then grabbed a stick and proceeded to completely tear her Bayley Buddies apart. Even announcers and her opponent Charlotte couldn't tell what the hell was wrong with her. Furthermore, after she won the Smackdown Women's Championship against Charlotte and celebrated for a while, she took a microphone and called her fans "bitches".
• Tragic Villain: An element of this can be seen in the heel Bayley ultimately became, especially given the leadup to her turn. When one takes into account a seven-year WWE career that saw Bayley almost perpetually on the receiving end of hurt and betrayal, her slow shift from a loving hero to a cynical, sincerely bitter villain suddenly seems more like a sad inevitability.
• Trash Talk: Pretty much her entire shtick as a heel, especially with crowd members during her entrance.
• Two First Names: As Davina Rose.
• Undying Loyalty: She will never turn her back on Sasha Banks, no matter what. As it turns out, Bayley values loyalty as the absolute greatest value someone can possess, enough so that when Sasha goes Heel upon her return, Bayley follows suit not long after, all the while still claiming she's a good role model despite what her loyalty to Sasha has driven her to do. Then September 2020 happened and COMPLETELY defied this trope.
• Ur-Example: She is the first ever female Triple Crown and Grand Slam Champion in WWE history. She also competed in the first woman's Iron Man match (against Sasha Banks).
• Villainous Breakdown: Started gradually after her Face–Heel Turn as more and more people began calling her status as a face and a self-proclaimed role model into question, then intensified as she and Sasha began losing to Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair (who had joined forces against them), finally culminating in a major meltdown at Hell in a Cell 2019 as losing the SmackDown Women's Championship to Charlotte reduced her to a weepy, emotional mess. The very next SmackDown, she capped it off by pulling a literal hatchet job on her inflatable tube buddies — the last remnant of her old face persona — to the astonishment of Michael Cole and Corey Graves. After she won the title back from Charlotte, she put to rest any remaining doubts that she had well and truly snapped by swearing at the fans, contradicting her long-standing rhetoric that nothing had changed since her heel turn.
• We Used to Be Friends:
  • With Charlotte, for all of about a month. Charlotte then turned face and they became friends again. After Charlotte became a heel on the main roster, it came full circle.
  • With Becky Lynch, who also turned on Bayley to join Sasha. Ditto for the face turn and reconciliation.
  • With Sasha. Initially she and Bayley considered themselves sisters, but their bond got more and more strained until it officially broke in early summer 2018. In the midst of ample social media bickering, multiple tag-team losses due to lack of teamwork, and Bayley straight-up assaulting Sasha at one point, Kurt Angle booked the two of them for mandatory friendship counselling, which didn't really reap any substantial results after two weeks. They then had another unsuccessful tag-team match, after which Bayley confronted Sasha in the locker room, where Sasha admitted to still loving Bayley. They officially squashed their beef a week later. Then in September 2020, Bayley turned on Sasha with a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
  • Her 2024 Heel–Face Turn is fueled by her Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal from Damage CTRL, a stable she founded and lead.
• Wham Line:
  • After winning back the SmackDown Women’s Championship and deciding to stop pretending to be nice:
    Bayley: Hey, bitches...screw all of you!
  • When revealing to Damage CTRL that they couldn't hide behind the language barrier anymore:
    Bayley: Watashi wakaru yo.^translation:I understand.
• Wrestling Psychology: It's often been said that of the Four Horsewomen, Bayley is the best in-ring storyteller. Much like Shawn Michaels, her psychology is so good that she can carry much more inexperienced/inferior workers such as Eva Marie to a decent match. This is probably one of the main reasons why she was the one left behind in the Women's Division in NXT when the company called up the other three to the main roster to inject life back into the Womens' Division — for stability, until new talents signed or were called up from the Performance Center and, without her carrying them, meet the standard that the Horsewomen established.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: The inaugural Women's WrestleMania battle royal at WrestleMania 34. She eliminated Sasha Banks, thinking that she won. Bayley was rather concerned and confused when the bell didn't ring to signal her victory. Then all of a sudden, Naomi, who wasn't eliminated, returned to the ring and eliminated Bayley to win the battle royal.

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Ding-dong! HELLO?