Don’t call it a heel turn.

Bayley’s attacks on Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair last week didn’t make Bayley a villain. It just caught her character up to the rest of the Four Horsewomen.

The Hugger is no longer just that, no longer one-dimensional. Now she is a complex character playing both sides of the fence: Bayley was heel-ish on “Raw” and a babyface on “SmackDown.”

Bayley got booed on “Raw” last week when she took a chair to the popular Lynch. The boos were there again when she opened “SmackDown Live” the next night to explain her actions.

As she laid out her reasoning — being loyal to her best friend Sasha Banks and wanting to be the best SmackDown women’s champion she can be for the fans — the boos started to turn to cheers.

They grew even louder as Bayley unloaded chair shots on the unpopular and “selfish” Flair, her opponent in a SmackDown women’s championship match at Clash of Champions. Flair cut a heel promo and hit Bayley first. There also is video of Flair attacking Bayley from behind at a recent house show.

On Raw this week at Madison Square Garden, Bayley teamed with Banks to face Flair and Lynch in a tag team match. Bayley and Banks fought like the heel team, cutting off the ring in an excellent match that had the physicality and athleticism that made these four women the linchpins of WWE’s women’s evolution. But having Bayley take the pin there is the babyface treatment, supplying doubt she can defeat the superior Flair on Sunday. Micheal Cole on commentary talked about Bayley looking to get retribution and proving she belongs against Flair; Renee Young called her “scrappy.” That’s a babyface storyline.

Commentator Corey Graves underlined WWE’s shades-of-gray approach: “There is something to be said, to display loyalty like Bayley has,” Graves said. “You don’t have to agree with it, but you can understand it. Bayley is nothing short of an incredible best friend to Sasha Banks. I think Bayley could choose better, but it is what it is.”

Bayley’s recent actions were not shocking. The change has played out slowly since WrestleMania. We started seeing her feistier side during her feud with Bliss and Nikki Cross. Bliss even warned the audience that Bayley is not what she seems. Bayley was far from playing nice with her “friend” Ember Moon leading up to SummerSlam. And all of it fits into her doing whatever it takes to hold onto the belt.

Now, some portion of the audience may loathe her for what she did to Lynch and for joining forces with the devilish Banks. They may resent her reluctance to admit she is a heel, instead trying to hide behind friendship and platitudes about stepping out of Lynch’s and Flair’s shadows. The other portion could embrace her close bond with Banks, happy to see Bayley standing up for herself and finally doing whatever it takes to win against the arrogant Lynch and Flair. Bayley is still being treated like a hero, if a flawed one.

WWE clearly is not all-in on the Bayley heel turn. Having Bayley go full heel could alienate the young girls who love her and buy her merchandise. Her packaging, her music and her look have not changed (outside of wearing the NWO version of Macho Man’s jacket on Raw) from the goody-two-shoes Bayley who once refused to use a kendo stick on Alexa Bliss at Extreme Rules in 2017.

Bayley’s new attitude was something her character certainly needed, and could make for more compelling television because now you don’t know how she will react to things. Still, there needs to be more heel elements for some of the audience to break their love affair with Bayley, and we haven’t gotten that yet. And the crowds are confused. It’s worrisome that Bayley got little or no reaction at the Garden when her music hit.

WWE didn’t help Bayley’s development by having her get pinned by Flair in Monday’s tag match. Her new persona should position her as more of a threat to beat wrestlers on the level of Flair and Lynch. WWE has let Bayley down before with bad creative. Let’s hope Monday night wasn’t another trip down that road.

It’s something that can be fixed during the Clash of Champions match on Sunday. Maybe a loss to Flair will draw Bayley further to the dark side. Or maybe the some-bad-some-good storytelling gets easier once the feud with Flair is over. There is still plenty of work to be done.

The Four Horsewomen will make up at some point for a major TV moment, likely when Ronda Rousey is ready to return and WWE can finally unleash the Four Horsewomen vs. Four Horsewomen feud. They even can move the talent across all three television shows if Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir are not moved from NXT.

Until then, this version of Bayley may end up being compelling and polarizing, but we need to see more of her new side to accomplish that. Her actions can’t be dismissed; they need to be treated as a big deal and expanded upon. That didn’t happen Monday. It needs to soon.