Matt D Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 They will never get nearly as much relative value out of her on the main roster. She matters so much more now and they need someone that matters in NXT with all the callups. It's a different crowd, one that is so in tune with her and an environment where she can be protected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beast Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 And there's plenty of examples of older male wrestlers who did the "childlike" gimmick at older ages; Eugene and Festus were only in their early 30s when they did those gimmicks, but their hairlines made them look middle-aged at the very least. The audience still bought it just fine, those guys were over. Hell, you could argue that Hacksaw Jim Duggan has been playing that kind of character for the past three decades. He pointed out that Eugene and Festus had super short shelf lives. Eugene was basically done being effectively over within 6-12 months. Also Bayley's not "childlike" in that sense. Dave is saying she has a "big sister" connection with younger fans that won't be the same when she's in her mid-30's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 Dave is overreacting then. Bayley likely gets called up by SummerSlam or Survivor Series - the day after WrestleMania 33 at the latest - because she's currently going nowhere in NXT right now. She and Finn Balor (who I'm not even all that enamored of) desperately need call-ups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 Balor is likely putting over Nak and then joining the main roster, perhaps even for the draft show. Just because Bayley hasn't been featured on TV much since Dallas doesn't mean she's going nowhere. She was just in the background so they could do a match between Asuka and Jax. To me it's obvious that she will face Asuka at the Summerslam weekend show and may even regain the strap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckScumm Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 Hell, there's a good chance that Vince could make Bayley the female Eugene/Festus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 Enzo is tailor made for current WWE, with his ability to be entertaining with the usual crap writing he's given to work with, yet still you get the impression Vince still just sees him as the guy paired up with the tall guy he really wants to push. Enzo writes his own material. And there's a shelf life on "big sister?" Seriously? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beast Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 Dave compared it as "big sister" vs. aging into "one of mom's friends". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 That's amazingly stupid. Now, if Bayley gets called up when she's 35..ok. And this whole "Bayley can only be inspirational to little girls" thing is so amazingly misogynistic and short sighted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerva Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 It sounds like this stereotypical view that kids look at something in the 30's as senior citizens who remember the ice age. All you have to do is look at the fan base of NXT to see how wrong this is. She is probably more popular younger people now then ever before. Now whether that translates to the main roster it all depends on Vince's processing. Assuming she ends up on RAW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted June 25, 2016 Report Share Posted June 25, 2016 That's amazingly stupid. Now, if Bayley gets called up when she's 35..ok. And this whole "Bayley can only be inspirational to little girls" thing is so amazingly misogynistic and short sighted. Has anyone actually said that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WingedEagle Posted June 25, 2016 Report Share Posted June 25, 2016 That's amazingly stupid. Now, if Bayley gets called up when she's 35..ok. And this whole "Bayley can only be inspirational to little girls" thing is so amazingly misogynistic and short sighted. Has anyone actually said that? No. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted June 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2016 He's not saying anything he hasn't said about men. He's said multiple times the Von Erichs would have never gotten over if they were in their late 20s during the height of World Class. He used to also make the point that when Kidman tried to look more like an adult, he completely lost what got him over in WCW initially. It's not a new point, and it's not unique to Bayley. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted June 25, 2016 Report Share Posted June 25, 2016 This is obviously anecdotal but I do think there has been a shift in the last decade or so of who or what an audience will find attractive. I've mentioned before that I went to a house show in 09 during the second DX reunion run and pretty much every teenage girl was wearing their shirts. Two guys that were in their 40s. Robert Downey and Johnny Depp are in their 50s yet teen girls still seem to lust for them. Maybe it's because I'm getting older and it's wishful thinking but age doesn't seem to be important as it once was Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted June 25, 2016 Report Share Posted June 25, 2016 AJW had a mandatory retirement age for a reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted June 25, 2016 Report Share Posted June 25, 2016 Maybe it's because I'm getting older and it's wishful thinking but age doesn't seem to be important as it once was It's wishful thinking from an aging man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcmmnx Posted June 26, 2016 Report Share Posted June 26, 2016 If Bayley were only over with young girls then yeah her big sister character would have a relatively short shelf life. However, she's over with everyone from all demographics in front of the NXT crowds, and she happens to be a really damn good pro wrestler. She's a naturally great underdog, and she doesn't need to have a youthful wide eyed character to pull it off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shakla Posted June 29, 2016 Report Share Posted June 29, 2016 Wish I had seen this earlier. Let me add something. if someone wants to spin it off into another thread, that's fine. Are wrestling characters necessarily the same age as their "shoot/IRL" ages? I think for the most part, they are the same, even though it's rarely explicitly said on broadcasts. But there may be some exceptions. The woman who plays Bayley just turned 27 IRL. But is the Bayley character 27? Maybe not. It happens plenty in movies/TV. Look at the original 90210 with a few 30somethings IRL playing high schoolers. I think the AJ Styles WWE character comes off a bit younger as well. When Abyss started doing promos in TNA, he was late 30s IRL, but came off like someone in their late 20s to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2016 Hahaha, I love the idea of Bayley as WWE's Andrea Zuckerman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveJRogers Posted July 3, 2016 Report Share Posted July 3, 2016 Wish I had seen this earlier. Let me add something. if someone wants to spin it off into another thread, that's fine. Are wrestling characters necessarily the same age as their "shoot/IRL" ages? I think for the most part, they are the same, even though it's rarely explicitly said on broadcasts. But there may be some exceptions. The woman who plays Bayley just turned 27 IRL. But is the Bayley character 27? Maybe not. It happens plenty in movies/TV. Look at the original 90210 with a few 30somethings IRL playing high schoolers. I think the AJ Styles WWE character comes off a bit younger as well. When Abyss started doing promos in TNA, he was late 30s IRL, but came off like someone in their late 20s to me. I'd say look at the DX revival in 2006 where Triple H and Shawn were the dorky Dads trying to act cool and with the "hip" humor that they did some 8-10 years earlier. But then again Judd Apatow and Kevin Smith still pepper their film and podcast projects with the same scatogorical sex and drug humor that they did years ago. Its like Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused. "I get older, they stay the same age!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petey Posted July 4, 2016 Report Share Posted July 4, 2016 While it might help NXT to keep Bailey down there for a while, does it help her as a person? I imagine that even if she doesn't get over on the main roster (and if she doesn't, it probably wouldn't be her fault), she'd still be making way more $$ than she would be headlining NXT shows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted July 4, 2016 Report Share Posted July 4, 2016 A bigger concern to me is WWE's tendency to turn wrestlers into one-note caricatures of their NXT gimmicks when they call them up. If there's nothing to Bayley on the main roster beyond "girl who hugs people," she's going to die horribly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted July 7, 2016 Report Share Posted July 7, 2016 I'm actually really worried about Bayley on that front, as her whole character arc from naive little girl to strong champion happened on a show most of the fanbase don't watch, and I think a lot of that will be lost on an audience who might not get the hugging thing, the tube men, or why she connected with people in the first place.It might be a little strange given that the Horsewomen are already up, but I kind of hope they revert back to her old character just a little bit so they can educate the larger audience on it. There's no reason why she still couldn't be an excited little fangirl when she meets John Cena or whoever, and it wouldn't be hard to have Charlotte claim she "didn't deserve" to be called up because she was "good... for someone in NXT" but not main roster level. A condensed version of that story I think could do wonders for her, otherwise she might end up like a lot of NXT names where their whole persona doesn't translate because the wider audience hasn't lived through it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 7, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2016 Isn't that sort of what happened with Emma? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted July 7, 2016 Report Share Posted July 7, 2016 Bo Dallas is the worst case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricR Posted July 9, 2016 Report Share Posted July 9, 2016 I'm shocked at how polished and in tune with his character Bo Dallas is in the 2014 NXT that I've watched. I was a person who saw him for the first time when he debuted in WWE main brand. Seeing him understand how to work his character in matches in NXT, it's a far cry from someone who from his debut was just a bland worker with a catchphrase that was barely explained. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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