Bayley's History Of Hating Michael Cole, Explained
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Michael Cole and Bayley have a very special relationship. They hate each other. Ever since the pandemic era of WWE, Bayley has taken every opportunity to run down WWE’s veteran commentator. RELATED: 5 Wrestlers Bayley Loves (& 4 She Doesn't)
“He’s So Annoying, Just Look At Him!”
In the pandemic era of WWE, WWE superstars were forced to wrestle in an arena of nobody. With no members of the WWE universe to bounce off, a lot of superstars struggled with how to orient their matches when there was no crowd in the arena to play off. Bayley however, the Smackdown Women’s Champion at the time, found a way to do it perfectly. If you look around, the arena wasn’t really empty, Michael Cole was sitting just a few feet away. She could bounce off of him!
Consequently, Bayley started insulting Michael Cole out loud during all of her matches, these shots were said to be very popular backstage which inspired Bayley to do it more and more to the point where even Michael Cole started getting involved in the segments. This has led to Bayley making fun of the veteran commentator on and off camera for the past few years. Bayley has been berating him during matches, insulting him behind his back, leaking his private texts, roasting his skills and abilities on commentary and it has surprisingly gotten very over on social media, with fans begging for a match between the unorthodox foes.
Speaking on Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette, Bayley spoke about how much she hated Michael Cole. “He’s so annoying, just look at him [laughs]. No, you just look at his face. It was just from the whole pandemic era, where we had no crowd. Nobody to play off of. The only type of reaction or any words or anything I heard was [Corey] Graves and Michael Cole to my right. Every time I’m in the ring, every time I’m doing a promo I can hear them frickin’ breathing. You know, that’s how quiet it was.
“So I just started picking on him or talking back and people seemed to like it. I was like alright we’ve gotta do something here because it’s so hard to watch without fan interaction. So I had to give them something and they’re the only ones out there and it just became so fun.
“The fact that he’s really into it too and he’ll like, jab me back. I love when he makes fun of me and makes me look stupid. It’s so fun so I may as well keep it going. I’m trying to get a WrestleMania match with him since he’s undefeated."
RELATED:An Honest Look At Michael Cole's Time As WWE's Lead Announcer
While the feud may get to WrestleMania one day, a hilarious bump in the road happened at Royal Rumble 2021. Thinking Michael Cole was going to commentate on the Women's Royal Rumble that night, Bayley got Michael Cole’s name shaved into the back of her head for the match. There was just one small problem with that however, Michael Cole wasn’t calling the Women’s Royal Rumble that year. Cory Graves spoke about it on WWE’s After The Bell Podcast, “I might have played the best unintentional rib in wrestling history. We were in the barbershop at the ThunderDome earlier in the day and Bayley walks in and starts asking about what she should put in the back of her hair, she actually suggested the name Cole. I go ‘ya, that’s a great idea, I think it’s going to be funny and downright hysterical I can’t wait to see his face when he realizes what you did.’ About 3 hours later I get a text from Cole and it’s a photo of Bayley and a reminder that Cole was not calling the Women’s Royal Rumble match.
I did know that, but I didn’t realize it at the time. We had a full-blown conversation about how hilarious it would be and even I forgot Cole was going to be ringside. I encouraged Bayley to shave Michael Cole's name in the back of her head basically for no one’s entertainment but my own. Bayley was none too thrilled with that, but that was my highlight.”
Bayley Isn’t The Only Person Who Hates The “Horrible Human Being”
Of course, Bayley isn’t the only person who hates Michael Cole, during his first interview in 15 years on the Pat McAfee Show, Vince McMahon said that Cole is a “horrible human being”, which Bayley responded to on Twitter with, “I’VE BEEN TELLING Y’ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
In July 2021, Bayley suffered a torn ACL during training at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, side-lining her for at least 9 months. Bayley is yet to return to WWE and fans are still waiting on the hyped Bayley vs. Michael Cole dream match at next year’s WrestleMania.
