Bayley enters WrestleMania Backlash realizing ‘how far I’ve come’ | New York Post

Bayley, the longest-reigning SmackDown women’s champion in history, will try to get her championship back when she faces current titleholder Bianca Belair at the WrestleMania Backlash pay-per-view on May 16 (7 p.m., Peacock). Before stepping into the ring, WWE’s resident role model took time for time Q&A with The Post’s Joseph Staszewski. (Edited for clarity and length) Q: When you do a 180-degree character turn as you have, that’s not always something that works out for people. What has it meant to you as a professional and performer to have the success you have and to have gotten the fan reaction with it and now you are just adding layers on top of it? A: It feels really rewarding, you know, it’s kind of like I love rubbing it in everyone’s face that I was able to pull this off. But I have to thank WWE and Vince [McMahon] really for giving me the go-ahead and his blessing to do this. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for years and, no, I didn’t think it was going to work out this way. I had a totally different vision, but with the pandemic and us being in front of no fans and just an empty arena different things just kind of flooded into my idea brain and different feelings came in and out and it was just was a really good combination of like, OK this is a totally different part of my character that I can put into this character that I’ve been thinking about for years. I like to think for me it all worked out for a reason and it’s just been really fun to be something different. I want to be able to be someone who did everything in the WWE and didn’t just kind of have a straight-through story. #WWE #Bayley The New York Post is your source for breaking news, news about New York, sports, business, entertainment, opinion, real estate, culture, fashion, and more. Catch the latest news here: https://nypost.com/ Follow The New York Post on: Twitter -   / nypost   Facebook -   / nypost