Raw Is Bayley Booed in Bizarroland - 8/7/2017

[Victator]

American Alpha would have done well with some old fashioned introductory vignettes. Show how the dynamic Chad Gable works with a block of wood. 

[NikoBaltimore]

The last few posts are spot-on regarding Bayley.  I love NXT but am under no presumption that most people watching Raw know much of anything about it.  And I'm spoilering the following because A. It's fairly long for my liking and B. Because it's got a football comparison that I'm hoping makes sense.  If not then oh well.

 

To focus on the sports part of sports-entertainment NXT is a lot like college football.  You work you way up in the four years there and if you're any good the crowd will love you for being on the home team.  If you're the best player on the team then congrats, you're the big man on campus.    Then comes the scouting combine, draft day and team practice.  In that time the hardcores will speculate over how well a star player will fare in the NFL and there's a lot of high hopes and expectations.  But once the season starts you're playing to ideally a huge crowd every Sunday and it's not safe to assume most people attending know much about the new guy.  They might appreciate new talent but don't know much about how on did in his college days.  It's up the rookie to adapt and make a killer first impression, then he'll be set for quite awhile.  But if that guy can't adapt to the team's playbook or has issues performing like he did then he's considered a bust.  We've seen that way too many times in NFL's history and to various degrees it's happened in many other sports as well.  Sure, there's a chance for improvement as the seasons go on but he'll have a wonky first impression to get past and that takes time.

With Bayley and other NXT callups they were the big people on campus.  But while some have no problem transitioning to Raw/SD for someone like Bayley she's still figuring out the playbook.  And not just any playbook ,but it's the Super Bowl-winning team's playbook.  The fans were on board for new talent, but either the plays need to better suited to fit her talents (booking) or she needs to up her game to make the big plays (better promos and whatever else needed)  This injury is pretty much her season ending and up return here's hoping they make the needed adjustments so she can be a viable player on their team.