Bayley's WWE Extreme Rules 2017 Loss Is Proof WWE Has Lost Its Way with Raw Star

The way in which Bayley lost at WWE Extreme Rules 2017—meekly, unexceptionally, swiftly—is the latest sign that her character has veered off the rails.

She fell to Alexa Bliss on Sunday's pay-per-view in a Kendo Stick on a Pole match that failed to generate much pathos. This bout was a chance to deepen Bayley's character, to further her connection with the crowd. Instead, a hurried, unmemorable story unfolded, one that left fans wondering how WWE can stitch together the frayed babyface.

The build to the Raw Women's Championship bout centered on Bayley looking to prove her toughness.

Credit: WWE.com

Bliss painted her as soft, a goody two-shoes lacking the killer instinct necessary to be the champ. A kendo stick loomed over the match. The bamboo weapon would be Bayley's means to prove Bliss wrong. 

Whether Bayley wielded it or suffered its sting, the kendo stick should have been a powerful symbol.

WWE, though, offered the women too little time to properly utilize that implement's dramatic power. The Raw women's title match was the shortest of the night at just five minutes and 10 seconds, per the Internet Wrestling Database.

There wasn't enough time for the audience to truly feel for Bayley, for her to undergo a mid-match transformation, or for champion and challenger to make use of the hype leading up to this clash.

Instead, Bliss won a one-sided match that did nothing for Bayley. The babyface didn't once swing the kendo stick. She hesitated to hit Bliss with it before the champ took over and clobbered her with it.

Bayley neither displayed the grit many doubted she had nor suffered enough at Bliss' hands to be much of a sympathetic figure. 

Kate Foray of the Raw Breakdown Project pointed out WWE's missed opportunity here:

Bayley should be a special part of Raw. She resonates with fans like few other wrestlers.

She is Ricky Morton. She's Daniel Bryan. She's Sami Zayn. She's the underdog, the every(wo)man, the purest of babyfaces. 

WWE has yet to fully tap into that.

The disappointment at Extreme Rules followed an abysmal This Is Your Life segment on the Raw preceding it. Bliss spent the scene lambasting Bayley for being too sweet and kind.

It only served to make Bayley look dorky.

This segment didn't add a heroic to her aura. It didn't make her more appealing. It didn't amplify the juxtaposition between Bayley's light and Bliss' darkness.

As ProWrestling.net columnist Will Pruett noted, it missed the point:

Bayley's act has failed to translate from NXT at other times, too.

Her title chase ended too soon when she won the women's championship on Raw in February rather than at year's WrestleMania. The apex of her main-roster run happened only six months after her official Raw debut. Her rise to the top should have been more powerful, more ripe with anticipation.

Rushing through that has thrown her off.

She's the dreamer whose dreams came true right away. She's the underdog who did the impossible before we could fully understand the difficulty of her journey.

Credit: WWE.com

And now, WWE doesn't seem to know what to do with her.

But it has to find a way to get her going. It has to figure out to work around her underwhelming verbal skills. She's too unique, too easy to market to young girls, too magnetic to not take advantage of.

Brandon Howard of Fightful spoke to her value:

WWE has to find ways to maximize that. What unfolded at Extreme Rules was not the answer.

The company would be best off going back to the basics with her, rewatching her NXT run to remember what made her click so well then. It needs to show us her heart and her guts, her passion and struggles.

A friends-turned-foes feud with Sasha Banks would do wonders for her. As would battling her way past Emma.

In the midst of the stories awaiting Bayley, WWE has to rediscover her magic—magic that was absent from Extreme Rules.