During an appearance on today’s episode of the “RAW Recap” podcast, former WWE Women’s Champion Bayley spoke about not reaching out to Lyra Valkyria following WrestleMania 41. Bayley had originally been slated to team with Valkyria in a Women’s Tag Team Title match against Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez. However, plans changed when Becky Lynch attacked Bayley backstage, removing her from the match and stepping in as Valkyria’s partner.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On not responding to Lyra Valkyria after WrestleMania: “It’s not personal towards Lyra, but when I was taken out at WrestleMania, like me healing and me going through that injury and me watching WrestleMania from home, like just wasn’t about her. Like everything I was feeling wasn’t about her. As much as I loved the tag team we formed in two weeks, three weeks, and I really feel like we were on a roll and that people were getting behind us. She’s incredible, and I really enjoyed being by her side and being across the ring from her.”
On what happened at WrestleMania and her history with Becky Lynch: “But what happened at Mania goes beyond that, and she doesn’t even know. If she thinks she was betrayed by Becky, she has no idea what the history’s been between Becky and I, and that goes beyond what you’ve seen on TV. Nobody knows how Becky and I are in the back. Lyra doesn’t know. She’s still brand new. So It really just doesn’t have anything to do with her, and I didn’t do it to be mean, but I just had to be alone at that time. I think one day she’ll see it. I don’t know if she’ll understand anytime soon. She’s still very young, like I said, but I think one day she’ll understand.”
In a new video on his YouTube channel, WWE Hall of Famer D-Von Dudley opened up about The Dudley Boyz’s payout for the first-ever TLC match at SummerSlam 2000. The bout featured Edge and Christian defeating The Hardys and The Dudleys in a historic showdown. Despite the match’s significance, D-Von revealed that he and Bubba Ray Dudley (aka Bully Ray) were disappointed with their paycheck and voiced their concerns to then-head of talent relations, Jim Ross.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On The Dudley Boyz’s payout for the first TLC match at SummerSlam 2000: “Never once did we complain, except for that one SummerSlam, the first TLC match, we felt like we deserved more because of what we put our bodies through, everything that we went through, the blood, sweat, and tears. We just deserved more. We did go to JR, at the time, he was head of talent relations, and complained to him. We let him know that we were unhappy.”
On Jim Ross getting a higher payout approved: “Sure enough, he said, ‘Well, I’ll get back to you. Let me go talk to Vince.’ He talked to Vince, came back, and sure enough, he said, ‘Okay, you guys got approved for this amount.’ We were like, ‘Oh, damn, we should do this more often.’ But it actually worked. It really did. So I will say this, keeping your mouth shut when you know that you are in the right is probably never a good thing to do in the wrestling business, but this is why we were the way we were, because of the fact that there was some regrets.”
During a recent interview with Denise Salcedo, former WWE Superstar Shotzi Blackheart lavished praise on Bayley, describing her as not only a leader within the locker room but also a role model in life.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On Bayley being more than just a locker room leader: “She is, but not just a locker room leader, like a life leader. Like she.. it doesn’t just end in the locker room. Like she will call you outside of WWE events, and she… as soon as I got released, she like flew over to Orlando and planned this awesome dinner for a lot of the girls that are in Orlando, and she is just all about her community.”
On Bayley flying out to Orlando just to hang out with the wrestlers: “Like she honestly will like fly to Orlando just to hang out with her girls. Like that is just like, it’s just so wild to me because like her schedule is already so crazy, but she will take the time to add in some travel to hang out with like her favorite people and I really look up to that. Community is just, like, so important, and I feel like a lot of people neglect their community. But she is all about bonding. She’s just so inspiring in that. Like, not just a locker room leader, but a life leader. It’s truly insane.”
On how Bayley treats others: “I’ve watched her, like the way she treats people and the way that she talks to people and the way that she connects with people and the way that she just creates bonds with people is just something that really inspired me. Also just because like, I watched that at a time where like I was, just hiding myself from the world. Like I was just really feeling down about myself. I just hid myself from social media. Like I wasn’t texting back friends. Like I was just, completely detaching myself from the world. Then I was watching Bayley just like be this community leader, and it just inspired me to be like, I needed to like snap out of it because like, community is important and I need to reach out to my community to help me get through like dark times. So yeah, she’s inspired me in so many ways more than the ring.”
(h/t – Fightful)
