I gave this a few weeks to make sure WWE wasn’t going to pivot in another, more interesting direction, but this week, I can sadly say I hate where Bayley’s new, split-personality character is going. Because, honestly, it’s not going anywhere and her storyline centers entirely around friend, or sometimes friend, sometimes frenemy, Lyra Valkyria. And on “Raw,” where there is a much better fractured friendship storyline going on with IYO SKY, the Kabuki Warriors, and Rhea Ripley, this is just not landing for me. I didn’t want a fresh Bayley character to be all about her friendship with Valkyria again, but yet here we are, a place we’ve been since April at this point.

It’s so disappointing to me, because her vignettes teasing this new character, or a combination of all her old characters, were so interesting, and none of them centered around Valkyria. I also feel like Bayley’s split-personalities, or one of them, at least, should still be angry she was left out of WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and now, Wrestlepalooza if they’re still trying to make that one out to be a big, meaningful show, while still keeping that topic relevant for Bayley. The other personality or character could just be happy to be here and getting matches, despite taking a loss like she did to Raquel Rodriguez tonight. She doesn’t need to be hanging on to Valkyria and needing her approval or anything. 

This all might boil down to me hating when WWE does too many similar storylines for its women’s division, and that’s partially how it feels here. It’s all about friendship rather than the fact Bayley seems to be losing her marbles. Valkyria and Bayley were great together at the beginning of the year, but I feel like this storyline should have wrapped in the weeks at a few months, at most, after WrestleMania when it was revealed Lynch took her out. At this point, her character refresh feels really pointless.

I like Valkyria a lot, as well, and her character also really needs to move on from this. That easily could have happened tonight, a clean break with Bayley wearing her merchandise then being all sad about their negative interaction backstage before her match against Rodriguez. Then, Bayley could have been beaten down by Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez after her loss, causing her to become even more unhinged. I feel like Valkyria at this point could have been shown backstage a little shaken by the fact she didn’t let herself run out to make the save, but then shaking it off and moving on to the next opportunity. While I don’t want to see her versus Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch again either, that’s always a possibility, or Valkyria could step up to challenge Stephanie Vaquer after Crown Jewel.

I hope WWE pivots on this soon, because Bayley and Valkyria deserve more. I personally want to see a lot more from Bayley’s new/old character, and I feel like they’ve dropped the ball on it already.

Written by Daisy Ruth