WWE Hall Of Famer Alundra Blayze Discusses Working With Members Of Class Of 2024
This year's WWE Hall of Fame ceremony will see Paul Heyman, Bull Nakano, the U.S. Express (Mike Rotunda and Barry Windham), the late Muhammad Ali, and Thunderbolt Patterson receive inductions. While discussing the Class of 2024 on "Busted Open Radio," Alundra Blayze, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015, opened up about working with former ECW boss Heyman and former WWE Women's Champion Nakano.
"They [Heyman and Nakano] were the start of my careers in so many ways and helped hone my craft and solidify a lot of things for me," Blayze said. "If it wasn't for Japan and working with Chigusa [Nagayo], and Asuka, and Bull Nakano, and Manami Toyota ... I wouldn't have really been able to nurture who I was and to continue what I wanted to do in the wrestling world. Because I knew that way back in the day that, I felt, that if I wanted to become something and [be] respected in this business that it was to go to Japan."
Blayze added that Nakano was the "catalyst" for her going to Japan in the '90s. The former WWE Women's Champion pointed out that she and Nakano had some "unbelievable matches" in Japan that were "bookmarked forever." Years after Blayze's run in the "Land of the Rising Sun," Nakano traveled to the United States, and the pair would collide numerous times in WWE and WCW. While Blayze supports Nakano's induction this year, she believes the Jumping Bomb Angels (Noriyo Tateno and Itzuki Yamazaki) deserve to be honored. She feels the former WWE Women's Tag Team Champions paved the way for Nakano.
Alundra Blayze opens up about Paul Heyman
Moving onto Heyman, Blayze said she owed Roman Reigns' "Wiseman" a lot. Blayze was part of Heyman's Dangerous Alliance faction in WCW, until she was kicked out of the group in October 1992. Blayze ended up facing Heyman, then known as Paul E. Dangerously, in a match the following month at Clash of the Champions 21.
"With Paul, I never had much controversy," Blayze explained. "Unless I just didn't, you know, 'Hey, I think this is great.' 'No, I don't, Paul.' 'Yes, you're going to do it anyway.' But if it [weren't] for him keeping his foot down on a lot of incidences, and him putting himself in that position for me to beat the crap out of him, you know, in matches and continuously, again, I never would have [risen] to what I, and my potential, that I did in WCW."
Blayze said she and Heyman became close friends, noting the former ECW boss invited her to his children's Bar Mitzvahs. She went on to say she learned "the fight," "the non-hesitation," and "the will to put yourself in it and do it" from Heyman. He also provided Blayze with the opportunity to speak on the microphone, and it was something he would never take away from her, even if she struggled with it. When asked who helped her more between Heyman and Nakano, Blayze said it wasn't a legitimate question because the dynamics were different, with Heyman in management and Nakano as a wrestler.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.