Bayley says Damage CTRL would not exist if not for the shift in WWE creative in 2022.
The former SmackDown Women's Champion tore her ACL in July 2021 and missed the next year-plus. She made her return at WWE SummerSlam 2022, where she introduced Dakota Kai and IYO SKY as the trio confronted Raw Women's Champion Bianca Belair and Becky Lynch. Their arrival was seen as one of the first major moments of the Triple H era; Triple H took over as the head of WWE creative on July 25 after former CEO Vince McMahon retired on July 22. Kai had been released by the previous regime, but she and SKY (then known as Io Shirai) had been featured in Triple H's NXT.
In an interview with Ariel Helwani for BT Sport, Bayley looked back on the debut of the group, which was later named Damage CTRL. She stated that she would not be a part of Damage CTRL if Triple H wasn't in charge of WWE creative. Bayley noted that she didn't know of any ideas the company had for her before Triple H took over because the creative team wanted to make sure they were fully cleared.
"No, no," she responded when asked if there would even be a Damage CTRL faction without the shift in creative. "I would be... To be honest, I don't know. I didn't know any ideas that they had for me. I didn't even if I asked like creative, they weren't really sure, because they were waiting to [get] us 100% cleared."
Bayley went on to describe how she felt like she would have fallen back to the same place where she was prior to her injury. She made it clear that her run with Damage CTRL is what she wanted and needed in her career. The former SmackDown Women's Champion emphasized that she wants to help Kai, SKY, and the women's division as a whole.
"I had no idea what I was doing. To me, it's like, I feel like I would have just fallen back into the same place that I was. Not that that's a bad thing, because I didn't get to do anything with the fans, you know. So it'd still all be new to me. I would have turned it up a million. But this, to me is what I wanted and what I needed in, even in my career, not just to help IYO and Dakota and the division. But like, to me, it just adds another layer and another evolution, another piece of evolution to my character, to show a different side of me. There is just more to it than just being me and being worried about me and me and me, and me and me. Now, I got these girls to worry about and I love it is what I wanted," Bayley said.
Vince McMahon returned to WWE on January 6, and he was voted the Executive Chairman of the Board on January 10. Fightful Select reported that Triple H, Kevin Dunn and Executive Vice President of Talent for WWE Dan Ventrelle held a talent meeting for the Raw roster on January 16 and emphasized that Triple H was still in control of creative.
Damage CTRL has been featured on WWE TV since it's debut. Kai and SKY won the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships for the second time at WWE Crown Jewel 2022. They lost the titles to Lita and Becky Lynch on the February 27 episode of WWE Raw. More information is available here.
Click here for Bayley's comments about Mercedes Mone (Sasha Banks) potentially returning to WWE.
Bayley recently named her perfect scenarios for WrestleMania. Check out her comments here.
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