Bayley reflects on surprise AAA debut
The crossover of wrestlers from the WWE main roster to Lucha Libre AAA continued last weekend with Bayley making her surprise AAA debut.
Bayley competed at the March 14 event in Puebla, Mexico, answering Flammer’s challenge for the AAA Reina de Reinas Championship. On Raw Recap this week, Bayley reflected on the moment, calling it an an honor to be chosen to represent WWE and face someone of Flammer’s stature.
“That was the best. I love wrestling in Mexico,” Bayley said. “That’s the thing, you can’t ever be content or comfortable. I just want to do more and I want to meet more people, I want to perform in front of more people. And the fact that I got asked to do that was an honor. For one thing, it’s one of their biggest shows of the year and against one of their, the Women’s Champion who just broke a record and became the longest-reigning Women’s Champion. To me, that’s a huge honor and is a little tip of the cap to me. It’s hard in this business to actually keep it a secret, so I was very excited to be able to hide from everybody and really show up where literally nobody knew I was there.”
Bayley was grateful for how the audience responded and emphasized that the promotion itself doesn’t matter as long as she gets to do what she loves — and that’s wrestling.
“I was personally very overwhelmed by the response, and it just made everything so worth it,” she said. “I could be upset about the loss and those little cheaters [Maravilla and La Hiedra], who I’m not going to let them get away with. I have their numbers. But that is what was most important to me that no matter what, everywhere in the world, people recognize how much and what I feel about this and that I don’t care if I do it here, I don’t care if I do it there, I don’t care if I do it in TNA. I care about this and I will always give my whole heart to them. They will always get the real me.”
When asked about the difference between WWE-dedicated audiences and those who have been exposed to lucha libre, Bayley responded:
“It’s one of those things where I love lucha libre. I’ve always been a fan of AAA. One of my trainers from back home, his name is Jason Styles, is a huge fan, would constantly reference AAA as we were training. He was very, very into lucha. And so when he found out that I was on it, he really freaked out.
“So for my old trainer to freak out about me being able to wrestle for this company and to see how it’s mixed into, now that WWE is a part of it as well. To watch them keep this true spirit of lucha libre and what that company means to Mexico but also bring in the WWE audience and the superstars and the people backstage, and give that little spin on it. I couldn’t talk about it enough. I was in the back, this is just the perfect combination of what I love, you know, the stories, the characters, the physicality, and the crowd. The real thing was them, the audience, getting so excited for every little thing and not overthinking what wrestling should be.”
AAA was acquired by WWE in 2025 and now has a television deal with Fox Latin America. Flammer, who retained against Bayley at Rey de Reyes, has been the company’s Women’s Champion since August 2023.
In her WWE career, Bayley is already a Grand Slam Champion and is seeking to add more accolades to her list of accomplishments. She mentioned on Raw Recap that she would like to win the Women’s Tag Team titles with Lyra Valkyria, along with going after the Women’s Intercontinental and United States titles. She challenge for the IC title on Raw last night but lost to AJ Lee.
Rosanne Raphael is a wrestling writer with over three and a half years of experience covering all things related to the industry. From a kindergarten teacher to PR Associate to turning her lifelong passion for the industry into a career, Rosanne is currently writing for F4W Online where she focuses on wrestling news, analysis, and storytelling.
Rosanne previously contributed to Sportskeeda as an Assistant Content Manager.
When not consumed by wrestling, Rosanne is a musician and an aspiring artist.