Vince McMahon announced his abrupt retirement from his role as WWE CEO and Chairman of the Board in July this year. This decision from the 77-year-old caused a massive stir in the sorting circuit. Many were left shocked by the news of one of the oldest promoters of the game taking a sudden exit. Female WWE wrestler Bayley was also among those people who could not decide how to react to this news.
The American wrestler has now revealed how was the mood backstage when McMahon announced his retirement. It’s worth mentioning that McMahon’s sudden exit came following allegations of sexual misconduct and multiple reports from the Wall Street Journal claiming that the 77-year-old paid his former female employees "hush money."
Now, Bayley has shared how she felt when the news broke out. The 33-year-old said that she was taken aback at first and did not know how to react to it.
“It’s still so weird to me, when the news broke that he [Vince McMahon] was retiring, I was just in shock and it felt like we needed to…’do we party or sit around and sit in our feelings and feel weird?’ It was such a strange feeling. It’s still talked about backstage how different things are. Not worse or better, just super different,” said Bayley in an interview with The Five Count.
“Fortunately, for me, I’ve worked with Triple H for years since being in NXT and we have such a great relationship and he understands what I’ve been through and where I want to go and how I view my character and things like that. In that sense, it’s been so awesome. I can see a shift, it’s kinda like a new relationship, is how everybody feels. Everybody has a little extra spunk in them because it’s different.”
She further stated that it felt like they had gone back in time to their NXT days. “I was talking to Finn Balor backstage and Triple H just walked by and was like, ‘Hey guys, what’s up?’ We were like, ‘Isn’t this so weird? It feels like seven years ago again,’ especially with Finn because he and I were champions at the same time in NXT and Hunter was very hands-on and having him there again feels like Twilight Zone,” said Bayley.