Bayley and Lyra Valkyria were scheduled to face Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 41. However, WWE booked Bayley to get attacked on the WrestleMania pre-show and she got replaced by the returning Becky Lynch in the match.
Later on, it was revealed that Becky attacked Bayley and then took her spot.
During her appearance on The Undertaker’s Six Feet Under podcast, Bayley explained how she felt after being pulled from WrestleMania at the last moment:
“That was interesting. It’s a test. I feel like every time I get thrown stuff, I’m just being tested. Not by the company. The universe and world is just trying to test me. It was rough. It was a little bittersweet.
I became really close with Lyra in real life, and I was super excited for her to have her first WrestleMania, but it was also…I was told this is where we were going, and I’m going to be in this storyline and tag team with this girl that I don’t even know.
I remember first telling her, ‘This is what we’re doing.’ I’m just talking about going to WrestleMania as a tag team. ‘Don’t you think that’s strange? You’re the Intercontinental Champion, and we don’t even know each other.’ I felt weird about it, but throughout the time, we had a few matches and we had good chemistry.
Then, we had this tag team gauntlet match to get to WrestleMania, it was like an hour of wrestling, and I was like, ‘Holy sh*t. We’re a good team.’ I felt genuinely connected with her.
When I was told what was happening, I was bummed. For one, I’m not on WrestleMania. Two, we put all this work in, and I really tried to make us look like a team so that it was believable. It becoming part of a storyline and what it is now made it a little bit nicer. I don’t know how to say it without…it was rough.
It’s definitely one of those times where…I had a long conversation with (CM) Punk about it. A lot of people were reaching out. Everybody has been in these positions. I don’t know.
My love and passion for it is what saves me in those moments. Thank God I love it so much. I don’t know how people who don’t love it go through with all of it. Watching Lyra win the tag team championships is beautiful. Rhea, Bianca, and IYO having that match was beautiful.
I do have those moments, but I need to have that piece of me that is pi$$ed about it. ‘I got a lot more work to do it.’ I love that and need to have that.”
