Bayley kept talking herself out of the possibility of CM Punk actually returning to WWE at Survivor Series.
Surely her good friend AJ Lee, Punk’s wife, would have said something to her if he was.
Right?
“I didn’t text her [before],” said Bayley, who will compete in the women’s Royal Rumble on Jan. 27. (8 p.m., Peacock). “Everybody reads online, but I was like there’s no way. This is crazy. Then there was like a moment where we weren’t allowed to walk a certain way [backstage]. And I was like, wait, no, it’s not gonna happen. He would have said something. She would have said something.”
When Punk’s music did hit to close the show at Allstate Arena as he made his return to WWE after nearly a decade, Bayley was as stunned as anyone and was one of the first people to greet him as he came back through the curtain.
“Someone has it on film somewhere, I’m watching the monitor and his music hit, I frick’n went crazy. I’m like, no way did they actually do this. I ran into Gorilla [position] to go say hi to him and he was so happy.”
Despite her longtime friendship with Lee, she’s never really had a chance to interact with Punk often and really pick his brain about wrestling.
“In the beginning, I was like, ‘He just likes me because she likes me and she doesn’t like many people I guess. It was cool,” Bayley said of the early days of her friendship with Lee. “When we would go out once in a while or we’d be texting and she’d be like. ‘Oh yeah, Phil said this or he says hi’ or he’d show up when we’re having coffee. I’m like, ‘Woah, that’s cool. He thinks I’m cool.”
There still may be limited opportunities with the Damage CTRL leader and Punk to interact at work with Bayley on “Friday Night SmackDown” and Punk on “Monday Night Raw.”
Still, knowing he’s in WWE makes her want Lee around – just to be around that much more.
“To have him backstage is so crazy, to see him walking around,” Bayley said. “But he has the biggest smile on his face. He looks so happy. He gives me the best hugs. He’s like, ‘This one’s from me. This one’s from April.’ It’s nice to have him there but it makes me want her around. So I’m like, ‘Hey what’s up? What are you doing? Are you gonna hang out with us?’ ‘Sorry, I’m watching [our dog] Larry’”
Video of Lee training in a ring with Punk surfaced just before the New Year, raising fans’ hope for a possible return to the ring for the Royal Rumble or down the round in WWE.
A neck injury ended Lee’s career in 2015, and she has always dismissed the idea of a comeback.
Bayley got a short match with Lee for the Divas championship on NXT in 2013 and would love a chance to do something more with her in the future.
“I think the fans just want to keep putting it out in the universe,” Bayley said of a potential Lee return. “She’s so sweet. She won’t get their hopes up, either. She says never say never, but that goes for everything. She still looks so good in the ring. I got to have a little five-minute match with her back in the day and she is so smooth and she’s so crisp.
“So having her back there as a professional would be really cool to see how our characters would work nowadays. But as an athlete, just to be in there with someone like her would be so much fun, especially at the level I’m at now [compared] to 2013 Bayley. She was just a deer learning how to walk.”
Bayley got herself trending on X in early December after taking — and eventually ripping — a sign from a young male fan at a live event in Allentown, Penn. that read “Bayley is Hot.”
She said it’s part of the fun she can have at house shows by reacting more naturally to what she sees.
“I think once people see me rip a sign online then they want to interact in that way,” Bayley said. “Every time I see a sign if it’s favoring you or if it’s asking me to rip it. I have to figure out, ‘OK, how do I work this with my character but also give them a great experience to know that I appreciate them?
“I was just going, making my rounds just ripping stuff then I see that one and ‘I can’t rip that because then am I saying I’m not hot.’ So you know I flaunt it a little bit. Yeah, guys see there is one smart person in here. That’s what I’m thinking. I get up to the apron and people are going crazy. Then it’s in my mind, ‘Wait, I don’t need you people to think I’m hot. I know I’m hot.” It’s that type of thing.
“It’s just the fact that online you never know what’s gonna catch and work on TV and get put on a T-shirt because of what’s on Twitter. So, let me play with it a little bit. People just have fun with it.”